Dorris Payne | Rise of a Jewel Thief | 1

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It's the morning of August 9th, 1974 in Monaco.

Situated on the French Riviera and comprising less than a square mile, it's one of the smallest and wealthiest sovereign states in the world.

As the sun rises over the sparkling Mediterranean, 43-year-old Dorris Payne awakens in the beautiful Hôtel de Paris.

Seagulls squawk outside, and early morning light glints in the golden interior.

Doris smiles.

Paradise beckons.

But a lady of her standing wouldn't jump into business without an eggs benedict.

She calls for room service and takes her time with her meal.

Every move she makes drips with practice sophistication, part of a carefully crafted role.

With dark skin like hers, she can't risk anyone, not even a bellhop suspecting that she doesn't belong in high society.

No one can know that she's really from a tiny West Virginia town.

When she's on a job, she leaves the real Doris Payne behind and becomes someone else.

With breakfast done, she hops in the shower then digs through her luggage.

Though she doesn't come from money, Doris has always had an eye for fashion and knows how to turn heads.

She slips into a creme suit jacket and coordinating skirt hand made by her seamstress mother.

She accents the outfit with an emerald teardrop necklace and an eye catching diamond ring.

Matching pumps, a small handbag and oversized shades complete the look.

After one final glance in the mirror, she glides out of her hotel room looking like a movie star with her nose high in the air.

In the lobby, Dorris catches a couple of other patrons gawking at her, their gaze lingering just a little too long.

A middle-aged man with long hair like a hippie and open shirt and jeans catches her eye.

He likely isn't used to seeing a black woman in a swanky place like this.

Doris smirks to herself.

She's sure at least a few of the other patrons think she must be a celebrity that works to her advantage.

Better for people to confuse her with someone else.

She exits the massive double doors and sachets onto the bright street outside.

Duty calls.

Her destination is only a couple of blocks away from the hotel, but Doris is lost in her role.

A woman like her wouldn't walk.

Instead, she hails a cab and tries her best French accent, telling the driver to drop her at the Place du Casino.

A couple of minutes later, the taxi rolls up a circular drive past L'Ache Lawns and an elegant water feature.

Modeled after an English-style villa, the casino towers over its surroundings, the embodiment of wealth that defines the Monte Carlo district.

But Doris ignores the elaborate entrance to the casino and instead approaches the Cartier shop on the corner.

Adorned in wrought-iron tracery, the grand façade marks it as one of the finest jewelry stores in the world.

This could be the biggest score of Dorris' long career, but she knows the greater the reward, the greater the risk.

This won't be easy.

She takes a deep breath.

It's now or never.

From Airship, I'm Jeremy Schwartz, and this is American Criminal.

It takes nerve, cunning, and luck to pull off a heist.

Even before the days of forensic analysis, few career thieves could make a long-term living from their crimes.

And in segregated America, even fewer of those people were black women.

But from a young age, Dorris Payne broke the mold.

A mixture of unshakable confidence, quick thinking, and easy charm made her one of the most feared and renowned thieves in the world.

Over a career that spanned six decades, Diamond Dorris stole millions of dollars worth of jewels and racked up an FBI file a mile long.

And she did it all without ever pointing a gun.

Far from an everyday criminal, her non-violent approach to crime baffled investigators and forced Dorris herself to constantly innovate, to adapt her plans to the circumstances at hand.

Doris had a humble childhood, but she left that behind and crafted a high-class persona that served as her disguise everywhere she went.

From the ski resorts of Zurich to the penthouses of Manhattan, she defied the strict oppressive expectations society placed on black women to create the life she dreamed of, the life she thought she deserved.

But none of it came easy.

The thrill of the steal became a drug, a key part of her identity and her way of life, which came with its own set of problems.

Doris's actions drove a rift between her and her adoring mother as she pulled away from the people she loved in pursuit of bigger scores.

Time and time again, Dorris was forced to pay for her crimes, but she never really learned her lesson.

Stealing was what she was good at, and she kept right on breaking the rules and taking what she wanted well into her 80s.

So, what does it take to become one of the world's most successful thieves?

That's a good question.

Here's a better one.

What does it cost?

This is episode one in our four part series on Dorris Payne, Rise of a Jewel Thief.

It's the summer of 1942, more than 30 years before Dorris Payne wakes up in Monaco.

And the heat hit slab fork West Virginia hard.

In her family's small, bare home, 12-year-old Dorris shuffles a deck of cards.

Though she's surrounded by friends and family, loneliness is in the air.

Lately, the poor mining community has felt more like a ghost town.

Most of the young men in the area have been drafted to fight the Nazis.

Streets that were bustling only a few months ago are now quiet and vacant.

She's young, but Doris knows her parents are grieving.

Her older brothers have been drafted too, and that cuts her mother to the core.

She hates that her boys have gone to fight for a country that treats them as second-class citizens.

Even so, life goes on.

Today, a pair of teenage brothers, too young to be drafted, have come over to play cards with Dorris, her older sister and her mother.

Instead of money or poker chips, they use pinto beans to place their bets.

After a few minutes, the group settles in to relax conversation.

Laughter rolls out of the home and into the dusty street.

After a while, the mood is so high that one of the boys, Bernard, takes a risk.

He's always admired Doris' mother, Clemmie, a beautiful Cherokee woman with long silky hair.

In a small voice, he asks if he might brush it just this once.

Doris' mom thinks this kid's sweet.

Everyone knows Bernard doesn't like women, so she nods.

She takes out the pens that holds her hair in buns and lets it fall gracefully down her back.

Doris smiles in awe.

She rarely sees her mother with her hair down because her father forbids it outside of their bedroom.

Clemmie smiles and continues playing cards as Bernard runs a brush through her hair.

Doris cherishes moments like these with her mother, the times when Clemmie can open up and laugh without fear.

But the fun always ends when her father comes home from the mines.

He's a hard man, possessive and abusive.

Dorris knows he'd have a fit if he ever caught another man brushing his wife's hair.

After a few minutes, Doris' anxiety dies down a bit.

Her dad doesn't do home from work for hours.

She relaxes, enjoys the card game, and sips water to beat the heat.

Then she hears the door slam.

Clemmie hisses at Doris asking for the time.

It isn't five yet, but the heavy footsteps they hear in the kitchen can only be Doris' father David in his heavy mining boots.

Clemmie's face falls as she hurries to tie her hair back up.

Doris snickers and teases Bernard telling him he better run, momentarily tickled at the thought of her friend getting scolded.

She doesn't have to say it twice.

Bernard and his brother sprint for the back door like bats out of hell.

The screen door rattles in its frame as David enters the dining room.

He takes a look at the card table, drops his lunchbox, and glares at Clemmie, takes in her hastily tied up hair.

Doris' laughter dries up in her throat.

All of a sudden, it isn't so funny anymore.

David points at the bedroom and orders his wife to go to bed.

It's the middle of the afternoon, but Clemmie knows better than to argue.

She gets up and leaves without a word.

Doris seethes.

She hates to see her mother treat it that way and despises her father with every bone in her body.

Yet she can't do a thing as David stalks after Clemmie.

Doris doesn't see her mom again until the next morning, when Clemmie emerges from the bedroom with giant black bruises on her cheekbone.

Quietly, she sets a pot of beans on the stove and tells her daughter to watch them, then leaves the kitchen.

The next thing Dorris hears is a thump in the living room.

She peeks around the corner to see her father wearing only jeans, mercilessly kicking her mother in the ribs.

Clemmie gasps and curls up in the fetal position as the air is forced out of her.

Doris sees red, barely stopping to think.

She grabs the piping hot beans from the stove and screams at David to leave her mom alone.

He doesn't even turn around, so Doris does something she's dreamed about for years.

She empties the contents of the pot right onto David's bare back.

David screams in pain and hobbles to the bathroom.

He slams the door and Doris hears him heaping handfuls of cold water onto his scalded skin.

Suddenly realizing what she's done, Dorris freezes in place until her mother staggers to her feet and tells her to put the pot away.

A few minutes later, David comes out of the bathroom with a wet towel pasted to his back.

He looks Doris in the eye for a moment, shakes his head and mutters, I'll be damned.

David never punishes Doris for what she did, but things do change after that day.

Horrified by David's violence, Dorris and her sister Louise know that it can't go on like this.

David might have put Clemmie in the hospital if Doris hadn't intervened.

So they begged their mother to leave.

Even if that means being stuck with their dad alone, they can't bear for Clemmie to live under their father's thumb any longer.

A few days after the incident with the beans, Clemmie takes her daughter's advice.

She leaves, hiding out at a family friend's house.

Dorris spent a few long nights crying herself to sleep.

Even though she was the one who told Clemmie to leave, she can't help feeling abandoned, totally alone without the person she loves the most.

It takes a week or so for her to be able to sleep without weeping.

But aside from Doris' sobs, the house is silent as a grave.

Her father never mentions Clemmie, but he doesn't look for another punching bag either.

All in all, things aren't terrible, just empty.

The days pass slowly.

Away from her abusive husband, Clemmie learns to sew and takes a job as a seamstress at Saks Fifth Avenue.

Dorris cherishes the magazine clippings that her mom sent, snapshots of the finest dresses Saks has to offer.

She tapes the pictures to her walls, where they hang limp next to her paper dolls.

Most afternoons, Dorris spends her time playing make-believe in the backyard.

In the safety of her playhouse, she can escape the tension and grief knotted in the pit of her stomach.

She calls her favorite game Miss Lady.

By this point, Dorris is old enough to recognize that society treats her differently because of the color of her skin and the neighborhood she's from.

When Dorris is out and about, she might as well be invisible.

And plenty of the people who do notice her, treat her like she's a pebble in their shoe.

The women who look like magazine models, on the other hand, the ones decked out in fancy dresses and big hair, they're treated with respect.

The women who talk the right way without Doris's mountain twang are seen as worthy.

When a shopkeeper speaks to a lady covered in jewels, they take the time to say, Yes, ma'am.

No, ma'am.

Thank you, ma'am.

Dorris wants to know what that feels like.

To play Miss Lady properly, she dons one of her mother's old dresses, smears lipstick on as best she can, and prances around the yard.

She pretends she has a closet full of the finest furs and fingers loaded with gleaming rings.

When she's playing Miss Lady, Dorris is untouchable.

Even when the game is over, Dorris is always interested in what's grown up and sophisticated.

And one day, she hears about a new film that fits the bill perfectly, Gone with the Wind.

Adults are talking about it like it's the most fun a person can have at the pictures.

So Dorris makes up her mind to sneak into the theater for a late night showing.

It's easier than she expects, and she watches the title crawl with wide eyes.

She's a little too young to make heads or tails of the plot, but she's enamored with Scarlett O'Hara.

The pretty dresses, bright red lips, and elegant language get her excited.

She eyes Scarlett's palatial home with envy, the cushy bedroom, the plush white pillows, the grand staircases.

That, she decides, is the right way to live.

She imagines herself sinking into the crisp sheets, and soon enough, she's closed her eyes for real.

She drifts off to sleep in the theater before the second act, and when she wakes up, the movie is over and the usher is sweeping the floor.

Dorris missed most of the film, but the feeling, the dream of being Scarlett O'Hara, that stays with her.

The next morning before breakfast, Doris pulls out all the stops.

She slips on one of her mother's old purses, slathers on the lipstick, and cakes cornstarch on her face as makeup.

She comes to the table imitating Scarlett's accent, and her older sister bursts out laughing.

One of her brothers back home on leave reminds Doris, she's not a little kid anymore.

She's too old to be playing Miss Lady.

She's got to grow up and accept her place in the world.

She'll never be rich, she'll never have nice things like the Scarlett O'Haras of the world.

Dorris hits him with her big purse and runs back to her room fighting off tears.

At times like these, Dorris finds release in another of her games, playing house.

Most kids make believe they're grownups at one point or another using what they've learned from their parents as a model for adulthood.

Doris is no exception, but she does twist the traditional roles a bit.

Instead of making pretend cookies or having a pleasant little tea party, Dorris invents an imaginary husband she names Vernon, and it's not a happy marriage.

In her playhouse, Dorris takes leftovers from the kitchen and warms them on her pretend stove.

All of a sudden, she'll imagine that Vernon sachets up with a rude comment.

That's when Doris swings on her heels and backhands the empty air, envisioning Vernon reeling back in pain.

When she's satisfied that he's had enough, she sets the food in front of him, daring him to eat.

If Vernon raises the imaginary fork to his imaginary lips before Doris gives him permission, she erupts in fury.

She reaches for a pile of rocks and pelts him mercilessly.

In her mind, Vernon does nothing but antagonize, just like her father.

To Doris, that's what a husband is.

She beats the snot out of Vernon the way she wishes she could pummel her father.

He serves as her model for men, one that will endure well into adulthood.

The dynamics of her games aren't lost on Dorris' family.

As she gets older, they start to get concerned that she's growing up angry, difficult to handle.

Things reach a breaking point about a year after Clemmie leaves when Doris hits puberty.

Her sister Louise, who's about 16 at the time, tries to help her through it, but Dorris is obstinate.

She won't take the pain powders her sister gets her, gritting her teeth and clutching her abdomen to muscle through the dreadful cramps instead.

She hides in a room for days at a time, too embarrassed to leave the house and absolutely refusing to go to school.

Eventually, Louise manages to get in touch with Clemmie.

Doris needs her mom, so Clemmie walks right back into a nightmare to be there for her.

For a time, the house is peaceful.

Dorris is over the moon to have Clemmie back, and her father holds his tongue.

The truce doesn't last long, though.

Soon enough, David starts getting jealous and returning to his old ways.

So Doris returns to her dreams of another life and comes up with an unexpected way to get it.

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It's late 1943, and the living room of the Payne household is rife with tension.

Dorris' dad won't control his temper any longer.

Today, he's berating his recently returned wife for going to the store too often.

He thinks she's seeing another man behind his back and demands that she stop leaving the house so often.

That way, he can keep an eye on her.

As usual, Doris fumes while listening to David yell from another room.

Her father just doesn't get it.

Since the war started, the Iceman quit visiting their neighborhood, though Doris isn't sure why.

She does know that they can't keep their food cold now, so what else is her mom supposed to do except go to the store every day?

But Doris bites her tongue.

She knows it's a fight she won't win, so despite how ridiculous David's demands are, Clemmie says she'll limit her grocery trips to appease him.

For her part, Doris tags along with her mom as often as she can, wanting to lend a hand.

Plus, she loves going to the general store.

The owner, Mr.

Benjamin, always takes care to treat her family with dignity.

Clemmie tells Dorris that's because Mr.

Benjamin is Jewish, so he knows what it's like to be oppressed.

That alone makes Dorris eager to impress Mr.

Benjamin.

She likes to show up to a store with good news, and now that her mom's back in town, she has more to look forward to than ever.

Since Clemmie's return, Dorris has been behaving better and doing well in school.

Her eighth grade class offers a cash reward to the best student, and she wants it bad.

Clemmie's even sweetened the deal and told her that if she wins the prize, she'll buy Dorris a watch.

Always eager for the finer things in life, Doris can't wait.

The next time she's at the grocery store, she makes sure to stop by Mr.

Benjamin's counter to tell him about the school contest and her mother's offer.

Mr.

Benjamin emerges from the back, dressed in a pressed shirt and tie, with an apron over the top.

He smiles as Doris approaches and adjusts his slick back hair.

She's bursting at the seams to tell him about the watch, but first he slips her the usual, a free gumdrop from the jar behind the counter.

Doris pops the candy in her mouth and starts rambling.

She lets Mr.

Benjamin know how well she's doing in class and about Clemmie's big promise.

Mr.

Benjamin nods and tells Doris that he always knew she was smart.

Then he leads her over to another counter and brings out a selection of watches.

He puts a few on Dorris' thin wrist and beams as she admires how they catch the light.

All the while, he looks her in the eye and talks to her seriously, like he would with another adult.

It makes Dorris feel so grown up, seen and respected, just like in her games.

All of a sudden, she hears a voice from behind her.

A boisterous white man enters the store and greets Mr.

Benjamin.

Just like that, the shopkeeper's manner turns on a dime.

His eager smile disappears, replaced by stern consternation.

He whips the watch off of Dorris' wrist and shoves the case back under the counter.

He locks the cabinet with a click.

As the white man approaches, Mr.

Benjamin glares at Dorris.

His gaze sends a silent but unmistakable message.

Get out.

Now.

For Doris, it's like the temperature has suddenly dropped a dozen degrees.

She's experienced this kind of thing before, but it's the first time it's happened like this.

In here, she understands at that moment that Mr.

Benjamin, a man she thought respected her, is ashamed to treat her with dignity in public.

The white customer has priority, and Doris knows that the system comes before the feelings of a young black girl.

Still, it's a shock when Mr.

Benjamin barks at her, ordering her to run along home.

His tone is meaner than she's ever heard.

Dorris feels a lump in her throat as she turns around.

She shuffles to the door with a slight jingle and realizes she's still wearing one of the watches.

In his rush, Mr.

Benjamin forgot to take them all off.

Spiked surges through Doris.

She decides to take her time leaving, listening to the inane chatter between Mr.

Benjamin and the other customer.

Just as they start chuckling about something, Dorris turns around and uses her biggest voice to interrupt the men, telling Mr.

Benjamin that he forgot one of his watches.

She walks back to the counter, holding out her wrist.

Mr.

Benjamin blushes and takes the watch off.

Doris can tell the other man's eyes are bulging.

To her, it looks like he's surprised Mr.

Benjamin would let a black girl try on the watches, and perhaps is even more shocked that Doris returned it.

Dorris thought that making Mr.

Benjamin look foolish would help her feel better, but the rage blooming in her gut doesn't subside.

She slams the door and runs home, crying.

In her bedroom, she takes her anger out on her belongings, on her childish dreams.

She rips her paper dolls and magazine cuttings off the wall.

The smiling ladies in fancy dresses, the ads for cherry red lipstick, the perfume models, all of them, end up shredded into a million pieces on her floor.

When that isn't enough, she opens up new unsullied issues of Harper's Bazaar and takes the scissors to those ads too.

None of those women, Doris decides, are better than her.

Mr.

Benjamin lording over his glass countertops and locking up his jewels isn't better than her either.

He built her up, made her feel like an adult, only to tear her down and reveal himself as a cynical, patronizing man.

Dorris vows to get her revenge, not just on Mr.

Benjamin, but on everyone who looks down on her.

The men like her father who think they're superior to all women, the society that hoards wealth for the few and exploits the many.

Thoughts like those have been incubating in her mind for years, ever since she poured a pot of hot beans on her father's back.

But the demeaning incident in Mr.

Benjamin's store really changes Doris.

That's the day she decides to become untouchable.

The sting of being demeaned by Mr.

Benjamin sticks with Doris for months.

And as she stews, she starts to wonder what would have happened if she hadn't returned the watch.

Would he even have noticed?

The memory eventually twists in her mind, and the phantom wave of the watch on her wrist gives her a feeling of power.

She replays the scene over and over.

She remembers making small talk, how without meaning to, she got Mr.

Benjamin to take his eyes off the watch and shift his attention somewhere else.

She imagines doing it again, not sharing a story with someone else out of intimacy, but instead deliberately trying to distract them, outsmart them.

If she could do that, no one would be able to act superior around her.

If they did, she could strike back, take from them, while smiling right to their face.

But if she wants to do that for real, she's gonna have to work at it.

So, Doris refines her Miss Lady persona.

Over the next few years, it evolves from a childish act into a more sophisticated character.

She hones in on conversation topics that draw people in, learns about the clothes upper class women wear.

She starts to recognize the look in someone's eye when she's hooked them, the moment when their attention drifts and their blind spots are exposed.

By the age of 16, she's crystallized her act.

She visits local jewelry stores, asks the clerks to let her try on a ring, then asks for another and switches the pieces to different fingers while they're not looking.

She gets them to drone on about their kids or their favorite movie, all while swiping whatever isn't nailed down.

She takes her ill-gotten gains to the door like she did with Mr.

Benjamin, pushing her luck further and further every time.

But she always stops before leaving, pretends she's made a mistake and returns the jewelry.

She does it so many times, it becomes easy.

It becomes natural.

Like any teen coming into her own, Dorris relishes her new power.

Even though she knows she's straying into dangerous territory, she can't keep her secret to herself.

She shares what she's been doing with her best friend, Lil, who obviously doesn't believe her.

She calls Dorris a liar and tells her a white man will put her into jail before she can step a toe out the door.

So around 1946, Dorris puts her money where her mouth is and invites Lil along for one of her adolescent capers.

Dressed in their best church clothes, the two teens take a three hour bus trip to Cleveland, far enough away from home that no one will recognize them.

Both girls are nervous, but Lil starts to panic as they get close to the city.

She fidgets with her dress and bites her lip.

In response, Dorris assumes the role of seasoned thief and orders her friend to calm down, or at least be more subtle about it.

In this game, confidence is key.

Once in Cleveland, the girls hitch a ride on a trolley without paying.

They giggle at each other mischievously.

Breaking the rules makes them feel grown up, and being in the city excites them, overpowering Lil's nerves.

They finally approach a Woolworths, the precursor to the modern department store, and Doris stops Lil outside.

She teaches her friend how to walk like a lady, nose up, shoulders back, with a bit of a hip swing.

The two of them practice on the sidewalk.

Doris is serious about getting into character.

The persona is part of the fun, just like when she was playing Miss Lady in her backyard.

Once her friend has the walk down, the two of them glide into the store, and Lil takes her place at a table.

Today, her role is just to watch from a distance, to marvel at Doris doing her thing.

She sips a mold from the store's cafe and bounces her leg nervously.

From the corner of her eyes, she can see Dorris swaggering up to the jewelry counter.

The clerk asks Dorris what she's interested in, and the 16-year-old starts spinning the yarn.

She's here to buy a watch, she says.

Then she tells him her father's selling some land out of state, implying that she comes from money, and gets him to believe she's a freshman in college.

The clerk brings out a selection of watches, and Doris tries a few on, all the while jabbering away.

She tries out her best, grown up subjects, talking about the recent end of the war and the economy.

Dorris wants the man to believe she's as intelligent as she is rich, the kind of young woman who's too smart and well-off to dream about stealing.

The clerk is more than charmed by Doris, and lathers on the praise for such a nice, well-spoken young woman.

He lets her try on a few watches, and Dorris admires them on both wrists.

Eventually, she catches his eyes glazing over, more absorbed in the pleasant conversation than the pieces he's brought out.

She seizes the moment, returning all the watches but one and slipping her glove over her wrist to conceal her prize.

As it turns out, she tells him she'll have to come back tomorrow to make the purchase after she's spoken to her father.

The clerk smiles, nods, and wishes her a pleasant day.

He's still beaming as she steps out of the store and vanishes from sight.

A few minutes later, Lil catches up with Doris around the corner.

When Dorris gives her a peek at the silver watch hiding under her glove, Lil almost has a heart attack.

Just like that, she's a believer.

And Doris Payne, for the first time, is a thief.

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It's the summer of 1948, and Dorris Payne's smile is electric as she enters her two-bedroom apartment in Cleveland, Ohio.

She's just turned 18, and life is changing fast.

Her mother, Clemmie, has finally left Doris' abusive father for good.

Now she and Doris have just moved in to a new place, along with Clemmie's youngest, 10-year-old Johnny.

As soon as they lock the door for the first time, Dorris feels a sense of relief and safety.

She's never known.

Away from the tyranny of her father, she can breathe easy.

It's euphoric not having to tread on eggshells and cater to the whims of an angry, bitter man.

It's exactly what Doris has yearned for.

Of course, it's far from the life she's dreaming of, but she's got big plans.

After graduating high school, she takes a job at a nursing home, like many of her classmates.

More as a front than a serious career.

Doris knows that nursing isn't how she'll make her fortune.

Since her first real score with Lill, Dorris has been honing her skills.

Regular trips to Cleveland jewelry stores and pawn shops were only the tip of the iceberg.

After her school asked her to sell candy to raise funds, Dorris and her friends stole an extra case without anyone noticing.

They sold the surplus suites for some quick cash.

Whenever her mother struggles to pay the grocery bill, Dorris chats up the cashier and swipes some change that's been left on the counter.

At first, she does it for her friends and family, the loved ones who've never known what it's like to truly have enough.

When she hears that one of her friends can't pay for their mother's medicine, Doris pockets an engagement ring from a jewelry store and pawns it for a whopping $1,500.

That's more than enough for a few months of rent.

She gives her friend a crisp $100 bill.

The rest goes into fancy dresses and other luxuries for herself.

After all, Doris reasons she's the one who's doing all the work.

But all that success makes Dorris a bit overconfident.

The truth is, she's still young.

She's got a lot to learn and is naive about how she's going to support herself in the future.

In her mind, getting married is out of the question.

After a lifetime of watching her father abuse her mother, she can't see a husband as anything more than a ball and chain.

Even so, she's 18 and full of hormones just like anyone else.

One night she meets a boy, a college student from West Virginia.

The two hit it off and sleep together.

Doris really doesn't know what she's doing.

At the time, sex is a major taboo.

So much so that Dorris' parents have never bothered to give her the talk.

So she's more than a little surprised when her new man takes the lead.

She lies there, feeling nothing but nausea while he does his thing.

Before they're finished, she has to stop to throw up.

That one experience is enough to put her off sex for a long time.

But once was enough.

Doris soon finds out she's pregnant.

Unlike most other people would in her position, Dorris doesn't panic.

Even pregnant at 19, she's uninterested in getting married.

She thinks she'll be able to support herself and a child just fine as a jewel thief.

Besides, she's got her mother there to care for.

Her son, Ronald, is born in 1948, and Doris is in for a rude awakening.

Raising a kid is a lot of work.

Clemmie does what she can to help her daughter out while working her own job as a seamstress, but she's also got a pre-teen son to think about.

So as it turns out, Doris barely has time for her new family while working her regular gig at the nursing home.

She definitely doesn't have the bandwidth to pursue her side jobs, as she calls them.

She fills her days working and nurturing her kid.

Ronald's father isn't interested in marriage either, but he stays involved in his son's life.

Over the next few years, he and Doris hook up a few times when she gets lonely.

Each and every time she has to throw up afterward.

It's pathological.

Being intimate with a man is hard for her, even when she yearns for it.

Then, in 1953, she finds out she's pregnant again.

This time, it's a real wake up call for Doris.

She's in her early twenties with one young kid and another on the way, and she's no closer to fulfilling her dreams.

She's not the sophisticated woman of wealth and society she imagined herself as a child.

And her plan of becoming a successful jewel thief seems DOA.

She's pulled off minor thefts here and there, but throughout her second pregnancy, her biggest craving is for a major score.

Something that will make her feel like a real thief.

That can carry her into the next phase of her life.

She returns to her old habit of cutting magazine clippings and hanging them on her wall.

This time, however, it's not with simple adoration or an interest in fashion trends.

Her bedroom becomes her vision board, a representation of her goals and the persona she's committed to realizing.

One day, Dorris hands her mom a series of patterns for a few elegant dresses and a smart suit.

Clemmie laughs out loud and asks Dorris if she's measured the waistlines of the garments.

They aren't exactly maternity clothes.

Dorris just scoffs.

She tells her mom that these are for after she's had her baby.

Her daughter's birth will bookend a major chapter in her life.

Until now, she's lived as a normal adult.

She's clenched her teeth through a boring job, raised a child and earned some maturity, but she hasn't given up on her dreams.

Soon, those fancy dresses will replace the shabby blouses in her closet.

They'll mark her new status and serve as a disguise.

With her mom's help, Doris is going to take the biggest gamble of her life.

She's not just gonna change her own situation.

She intends to elevate her family, to provide for her children and give them what they deserve.

Unfortunately, she has to wait a little longer than she intended.

Once her daughter Rhonda has been delivered safe and happy, the reality of raising a baby gets in the way again.

Doris has to set the beautiful dress as her mother made aside for a few years.

It isn't until Rhonda's three years old that Dorris finally takes the plunge.

At last, the big day arrives.

Dorris won't keep her dreams on the back burner any longer.

It's April of 1956.

26 year old Doris jumps out of bed in her small apartment and turns on the radiator.

She hears the familiar groan of the machinery and shakes her head.

Soon, she promises herself.

Soon, she'll be able to take care of problems like these.

She'll be able to call a repairman to come and fix broken things without scrimping and saving.

Hell, they'll be able to move someplace shiny and new, somewhere that won't need repairs.

She lays out one of the blouses her mom made next to a green skirt and complimentary suit jacket.

She runs her fingers along the fabric and smiles.

Perfect, almost invisible stitching gives the garment an elegant shape that tapers to a snatched waist.

She means to turn heads with her hourglass shape, though that doesn't come easy.

Dorris rubs cornstarch all over her body and holds her breath as she slips into her girdle.

It's so tight that she's got to lay down on the bed to wiggle it around her hips.

After a few minutes of fastening the hooks, she admires herself in the mirror.

Nice.

Last comes the blouse and skirt.

Later, when she walks out to breakfast with her hair and makeup done like a movie star, Doris' family can hardly believe it.

This isn't the nursing home attendant they're used to seeing.

Dorris smiles.

After today, she thinks she'll be a whole new woman.

This is her chance to change the course of her life.

Failure isn't an option.

From Airship, this is Episode 1 in our series on Doris Payne.

On the next episode, Doris takes the ultimate risk to live the life she's always dreamed of, but she pushes her luck a little too far.

If you'd like to learn more about Doris Payne, we recommend Diamond Doris, the true story of the world's most notorious jewel thief by Zelda Lockhart, the documentary, The Life and Crimes of Doris Payne, as well as reporting in the Los Angeles Times.

This episode contains reenactments and dramatized details.

And while in most cases we can't know exactly what was said, all our dramatizations are based on historical research.

American Criminal is hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Jeremy Schwartz.

Audio editing by Mohammed Shazi.

Sound design by Matthew Filler.

Music by Thrum.

This episode is written and researched by Terrell Wells.

Managing producer, Emily Burke.

Executive producers are Joel Callan, William Simpson, and Lindsey Graham for Airship.