比尔•梅森（Bill Mason），美国有史以来最成功的珠宝大盗。表面上他是一个房地产经理人和投资商，并拥有一个正常的家庭，但他业余时间里的副业也发展得相当不错。目前他住在纽约市。

李•格伦菲尔德（Lee Gruenfeld），畅销书作家，出版过小说《正义大厅》（The Halls of Justice）、《同归于尽》（All Fall Down）。目前他住在加利福尼亚州的南部。

The extraordinarily captivating memoir of the remarkable jewel thief who robbed the rich and the famous while maintaining an outwardly conventional life—an astonishing and completely true story, the like of which has never before been told . . . or lived.

Bill Mason is arguably the greatest jewel thief who ever lived. During a thirty-year career he charmed his way into the inner circles of high society and stole more than $35 million worth of fabulous jewels from such celebrities as Robert Goulet, Armand Hammer, Phyllis Diller, Bob Hope, Truman Capote, Margaux Hemingway and Johnny Weissmuller—he even hit the Mafia. Along the way he seduced a high-profile Midwest socialite into leaving her prominent industrialist husband, nearly died after being shot during a robbery, tricked both Christie’s and Sotheby’s into fencing stolen goods for him and was a fugitive for five years and the object of a nationwide manhunt. Yet despite the best efforts of law enforcement authorities from several states as well as the federal government, he spent less than three years total in prison.

Shadowy, elusive and intensely private, Mason has been the subject of many magazine and newspaper features, but no journalist has ever come close to knowing the facts. Now, in his own words and with no holds barred, he reveals everything, and the real story is far more incredible than any of the reporters, detectives or FBI agents who pursued Mason ever imagined. Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief , expertly co-written by bestselling author Lee Gruenfeld, is a unique true-crime confessional.

From the Hardcover edition.