CARTELS: Back In the Pack

Ever since he quit teaching geology at Canada's McGill University in 1933, John Thorburn Williamson has been a lone wolf. He went to Africa, and for seven years despite jeers at his "crazy" search, grubbed his way around the veldt in search of diamonds. But when he found them, the jeers stopped—especially those from the diamond cartel run by Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, head of the famed De Beers syndicate. Oppenheimer & friends-were scared. Williamson had discovered one of the world's richest mines and could easily crack the cartel wide open. He turned down offers from the cartel, and...

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