Rudolph Valentino's ring

A ring once owned by the film star Rudolph Valentino, which The Guardian says became Hollywood legend through a string of deaths blamed on it.

The Guardian told the story in 2017, when a portrait showing the ring came up for sale, and it framed the ring's history as Hollywood legend. In that telling, Valentino bought the ring from a jeweller in San Francisco after being warned that earlier owners had met with disaster. After his death, Negri, as The Guardian's piece names the next owner, chose it from his estate as a keepsake, knowing its reputation.

The Guardian goes on to list the owners the legend blames it for. Negri passed it on to Russ Valentino, an actor known for looking like the star, who died when he was shot by accident. His heir and best friend, the entertainer Joe Casino, spent months deciding whether to wear it and was then hit and killed by a truck. A burglar took it from the home of Casino's brother, and police shot him dead while he had the ring. The excerpted passages give no dates or records for these deaths.

Valentino's own death is documented. Wikipedia says he died in 1926, aged 31, of peritonitis complications after an operation for appendicitis and stomach ulcers, and that his death set off mass public mourning. Wikipedia's list of allegedly cursed objects includes the ring as one said to have caused the early deaths of many owners, Valentino among them.