Sherlock Holmes, art, wealth crime and respectability of the Victorian age 22/4/20
A private detective company the Pinkertons left an archive of their records and the author found one dated 1902 on Adam Worth and his crimes of half a century. His wife never knew of how he was getting money. He moved from pickpocketing "smatter hauler" to safecracking, forgery, jewel theft and highway robbery.
He is portrayed in Sherlock Holmes as Professor Moriarty an art collector,
1844 from eastern Germany his Jewish parents arrived in Cambridge, Mass. and his father set up a tailor shop. Living in this university city in poverty he was able to observes the life style extreme wealth. Henry Adams would have been studying there in 1850s. Henry James described Boston as the most socially divided city, the Anglophile Brahmins.
He went to NY where he worked for a big company as a store clerk and joined the army for the civil war
1862 fought in the Battle of Bull Run and 1864 in the Battle of Wilderness and was buried as dead. He signed up to another regiment and got a bounty again a few times.
Alan Pinkerton a Scot founded the detective agency in Chicago in 1850 and his brother William a contemporary of Worth. Their symbol was an unblinking eye with the motto "The Eye that Never Sleeps" this lead to the term "Private Eye."
1928 Herbert Asbury wrote "The Gangs of New York"
1864 sentenced to three years at Sing Sing for stealing packages from an Adams Express truck. He worked breaking rocks and learned to use nitroglycerine.. Most criminals are not intelligent and big drinkers, not Worth and because he was small he never resorted to violence he never had a pistol. Mam Mandelbaum was the leading fence in NY. thus gender was no barrier to criminal success.
He rented a store next to the Boylston National bank and drilled into the Strong Room and left the country via Philadelphia. The bonds and securities his lawyer returned to via the police for the discount which was the normal method. Worth and Ballard in Liverpool joined up with Kitty. 1876 Adam Worth alias Henry J Raymond. They robbed the largest pawn shop in Liverpool and the 3 fled to Paris where after the Franco Prussian War and siege was an enticing venue for crooks.
1871th Communards were crushed by the government and more than 20000 were killed. They opened the American Bar and had illegal gambling upstairs. It was patronized by Americans and English especially crooks.
Macaulay the history of Britain ( Victorian) is a history of progress. Thomas Gainsborough painted the Duchess of Devonshire in 1763, 1783 and the 1787 painting became an icon of feminity. Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Grey 1891 comes from this idea. Ostrich feathers as fashion also, She also sat for Reynolds, Romney and Rowlandson. Diana Princess of Whales is one of her descendants. She was portrayed in School for Scandal 1777 by Sheridan. Worth stole the painting and 25 years later hegot William Pinterton as the middle man in returning it from a "long dead thief" getting Worth a large reward for it. Pinterton became Worth's protector.Pinkerton died in 1923 at the age of 77 leaving 15 million $.
Robert Anderson a Scotland Yard detective named him the Napoleon of the criminal world. Crimes all over he world were planned in his luxurious home, where he yearned for respectability and was the prototype to Jay Gadsby.
The Victorians were the first to publish pornography on an industrial scale. The indulgent lifestyle of the period was shown by Edward VII as the Crown Prince. Adam Worth was the exception to the rule that no crook ever made money.
1875 Pinkertons posse hunted the James Brothers ending in a fiasco killing the family but not Jesse James. He was also in the Pennsylvania coal strikes.
1870 Roger Tishbourne vanished and an East End butcher came in 1880 and claimed to be him and was recognised by the mother and lived in luxury till she died. R.L.Stevenson novel Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is based on this.
1880 from Port Elizabeth, S.Africa as a highwayman attempted to rob the mail stage coach but it was defended by Boer guards. The next time he cut the river crossing barge delaying the coach by 8 hours and as the ship from already left he then stole the diamonds from the PO safe and returned with them via the East Coast to Italy.
In Liege Belgium where nothing was well protected he robbed a mail coach and ended up in jail for 5 years in that time and released in 1897, Curtin one of his gang became friendly with his young wife and managed to lay his hand on all Worths assets, and his wife ended up in an asylum. Worths 2 children were sent to his brother John in NY,
Marm Mandelbaum was the leading fence in NY and ran a pub and would sell of all thieves stolen goods for years eventually she had to flee Canada with as many millions as she could carry.
JP Morgan the banker was known as the Napoleon of Wall Street and had used the US Civil war to make money. Both he and Worth bought respect with other peoples money, were greedy ,vain and megalomaniacs. Morgan supported moral causes but was a leading philanderer. He now bought up the "Duchess" painting. Henry James in the novel The Outcry describes how weathy American's were buying up British art and culture. Morgan's Hyde Park residence later became Joseph Kennedy and later President Kennedy's home.
Adam Worth died aged 56 of "chronic habit of intemperance" he had believed he could steal respect.
1994 the painting was bought up by the Devonshire family and returned to Chatsworth.
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