Literary Las Vegas: Rudi Kraft and Mary Venable

Local author Rudi Kraft and his wife, Mary Venable, take readers on a tour of the state's oddities in the book "Nevada A Strange State." The alphabetical anecdotes illustrated with Kraft's sketches explore the state's Atomic Age, haunted hotels, alien visitors, legendary residents, historic landmarks and more. Visit lasvegasvisitor.com.

Excerpt:

Vera Krupp, a German actress who married and divorced the German munitions king Krupp, had a ranch in Red Rock Canyon during the 1950s and '60s. One of her prized possessions was a huge diamond ring. She was robbed of the ring by three men at gunpoint, right in her living room. It took a few weeks, but the police found the men and retrieved the disassembled ring. After the death of Vera Krupp the ring was put up for auction and none other than Richard Burton bought it for his wife Elizabeth Taylor in 1968 for $305,000, a large amount of money at the time. The ranch is now state property and is called Spring Mountain Ranch. It welcomes visitors.