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Literary Tag


Jack & Seraffimo Spang (also known as the Spang brothers) are the chief antagonists of the 1957 Ian Fleming novel Diamonds are Forever. Together they run a crime organization called the Spangled Mob, and are involved in diamond smuggling.

Novel biography[]

Twin brothers Jack and Seraffimo Spang are controllers of the “Spangled Mob”; a crime syndicate which operates widely in the United States. Together the brothers establish a diamond smuggling 'pipeline' reaching from Africa to North America. Under the pseudonym "Rufus B. Saye," Jack Spang operates the London branch of the House of Diamonds, a gem importer/exporter purchased by the brothers five years prior to the novel. Casual questioning, however, reveals that "Saye" knows little of the actual stones. Spang also oversees the smuggling operations of the Spangled Mob, giving instructions to smuggler Tiffany Case and the Spangled Mob's chief enforcers, Wint & Kidd, under the identity of "A B C."

Serrafimo Spang operates out of Las Vegas, where the Spangled Mob owns the Tiara Hotel and casino. His criminal activities made him extremely wealthy, and he used some of the proceeds to purchase two ghost towns outside of Las Vegas and a locomotive to run between them.

While James Bond is posing as a diamond smuggler in order to infiltrate the Spangled Mob, his cover is blown and he is captured by Serrafimo's men. Spang orders his chief enforcers, Wint and Kidd, to beat Bond to death, but he escapes with the help of Tiffany Case.

Bond chases Serrafimo on the train and he shoots him in the leg before escaping on a mine cart with Tiffany. Serrafimo's train then derails, due to his now shot leg.

After Seraffimo's death, Jack orders Wint and Kidd to kill James Bond and Case on an ocean voyage from the United States to London, and begins to close down the smuggling operation by killing the operators. Jack Spang is killed at the end of the novel when Bond shoots down his helicopter.

Behind the scenes[]

Jeremy Black criticised the character of Spang as being an unexciting villain compared to many of Fleming's creations: Black calls him "little more than an effective hood" and notes the lack of megalomania or other interesting personality quirks.[1] The Rough Guide to James Bond has similar criticisms, complaining about Spang's infrequent appearances and his mundane motivation of getting rich.[2]

References[]

  1. Black, Jeremy (2005). The Politics of James Bond. University of Nebraska Press, pp.26-7. 
  2. Simpson, Paul (2002). The Rough Guide to James Bond. Rough Guides, pp.36-7. 

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