NF (1998) The Napoleon of Crime
Page 33
Her knowing gaze across the great dining room of Chatsworth, amid the sort of opulence that Adam Worth stole and Pierpont Morgan bought, gives nothing away. But perhaps, behind that painted smile, the greatest impostor of them all is laughing still.
Acknowledgments
I must thank many people in several countries for helping me to track down the elusive Adam Worth: Tony Blair, whose indefatigable sleuthing turned up so many gems; Thelen Blum and Derek Andrade, archivists at Pinkerton’s Detective Agency; David Wright, archivist of The Pierpont Morgan Library; the Duke of Devonshire and Peter Day, archivist at Chatsworth House; Agnew’s art gallery; Margaret Harradine, Port Elizabeth Library, South Africa; William E. Lind, National Archives, Washington, D.C.; staff at the British Library, the New York Public Library, and the National Film Archive, Washington, D.C.; the University of Miami; Andrea Cordani in London and Mark Leonard in Belgium.
I am also grateful for the help and encouragement of the following: my agent Ed Victor; John Glusman at Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Dermot Clinch; Jack Baer; Paul Richard; Blair Worden; Magnus Macintyre; Kate Macintyre; Hugh Belsey; Irving Kamil; Jack Schwartz; Patterson Smith; J. Spencer Beck; Lord Lonsdale; Jean Strouse; William Righter; Susan Bell; Kathy Sanford; Mindy Friedman Horn; Bob Robinson; Marilyn Bender, and my editors and colleagues at The Times.
This book could not have been written without the unwavering support of my mother and the memory of my father—scholar, inspiration, and much-missed friend.
Notes
The following abbreviations denote the principal archives used in this work:
PA = Pinkerton’s Detective Agency Archive, California
AA = Agnew’s Archive, London
CHA = Chatsworth House Archives, Derbyshire
NG = National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
EPIGRAPHS
1 “Adam Worth was the Napoleon” C. McCluer Stevens, Famous Crimes and Criminals (London, 1907), p. 38.
2 “He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Final Problem, in The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Vol. II (New York, 1992), p. 303 (henceforth, Conan Doyle).
3 “I hope you have not been” Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (London, 1895), Act II.
ONE
1 “the amenity and graces” Nathaniel Wraxall, Posthumous Memoirs, Vol. III, p. 342, quoted in Pictures in the Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan (London, privately printed, 1907), Gainsborough section, p. 2.
TWO
1 “his father was a Russian” E.A.B., The Gainsborough Duchess, p. 25, AA. This frustratingly undated 30-page pamphlet is highly informed and appears to have been written shortly after the return of the painting, possibly by a member of Agnew’s staff (henceforth, The Gainsborough Duchess).
2 “Had he continued” Adam Worth, alias “Little Adam”—Theft and Recovery of Gainsborough’s Duchess of Devonshire, pamphlet privately printed by Pinkerton’s Detective Agency and written principally by William Pinkerton (New York, 1904), p. 1 (henceforth, Adam Worth).
3 “born of an excellent” Sophie Lyons, Why Crime Does Not Pay (New York, 1913), p. 38.
4 “entered school when six years” Adam Worth, p. 1.
5 “gave him a most” Max Shinburn, Life of Adam Worth, alias Henry Raymond, unpublished document (c. 1894), p. 1, in PA.
6 “impressing on him” Adam Worth, p. 1.
7 “From that day” ibid.
8 “The Napoleon of” C. McCluer Stevens, p. 38.
9 “never in his life” The Education of Henry Adams (1907; 1995 ed.), introduction by Jean Gooder, p. xiii.
10 “Not a Polish” ibid., p. xxiv.
11 “probably no child” ibid., p. 10.
12 “ambition” Cardinal Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, 8, No. 11, 159 (1836). Quoted in Walter E. Houghton, The Victorian Frame of Mind (Oxford, 1957), p. 183.
13 “Serious poetry” George Santayana, quoted in Lyndall Gordon, Eliot’s Early Years (Oxford, 1977), p. 17.
14 “knelt in self-abasement” Adams, p. 24.
15 “So this is dear” John Collins Bossidy, Toast at Holy Cross Alumni Dinner, 1910.
16 “a nervous, hysterical” Henry James, The Bostonians, cited in Gordon, p. 16.
17 “The Bostonian could” Adams, p. 14.
18 “a vagabond life” Shinburn, p. 1.
19 “in one of the” Adam Worth, p. 1.
20 “bounty of $1,000” ibid., p. 2. This figure appears far too large to believe, and was doubtless inflated by Pinkerton.
21 “He became associated” ibid., p. 1.
22 “mud hole” Jacob Roemer, Reminiscences of the War of the Rebellion (Flushing, 1897), p. 26.
23 “All we wanted” ibid., p. 27.
24 “Shot and shell flew” ibid., p. 58.
25 “Boys, it is no longer” ibid., p. 72.
26 “Bullets, shot and shell” ibid., p. 79.
27 “During this battle” ibid., p. 82.
28 “stationed for a time” Adam Worth, p. 2.
29 “On his third enlistment” Shinburn, p. 1.
30 “About this time” ibid., p. 1.
31 “took advantage” ibid., p. 3.
32 “through the Confederate States” ibid., p. 1.
33 “gained experience” Foreword by John Shuttleworth to Alan Hynd, The Pinkertons meet Jimmy Valentine (New York: Macfadden Publications, 1943).
THREE
1 “elegant storehouses” William Howe and Abraham Hummel, In Danger (1888), quoted in Luc Sante, Low Life (New York, 1991), p. 213.
2 “became required reading” Carl Sifakis, The Encyclopedia of American Crime (New York, 1992), p. 352.
3 “On account of his” Adam Worth, p. 2.
4 “Most of the saloons” Eddie Guerin, I Was a Bandit (New York, 1929), p. 49.
5 “growing from every orifice” Sante, p. 116.
6 “Sadie [the Goat] acquired” Herbert Asbury, Gangs of New York (New York, 1928), p. 64.
7 “the most notorious” ibid., p. 216.
8 “Picking pockets has” Edward Winslow Martin, The Secrets of the Great City—A Work Descriptive of the Virtues and the Vices, the Mysteries, Miseries and Crimes of New York City (Philadelphia, 1868), p. 366.
9 “Like myself” Lyons, p. 39.
10 “it was not” ibid.
11 “the first manifestation” ibid.
12 “The Dodger trod” Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist (1839).
13 “plenty of money” Lyons, p. 39.
14 “I don’t believe” Sifakis, p. 450.
15 “tomb of the living dead” ibid., p. 451.
16 “never had an idea” 16-page letter from William to Robert Pinkerton, Jan. 16, 1899, PA (henceforth, Worth’s Confession), p. 9.
17 “discharged itself” Shinburn, p. 1.
18 “he managed to get” ibid.
19 “had the satisfaction” ibid.
20 “lonely dock” ibid.
21 “He managed” ibid., p. 2.
22 “was law with” Lyons, p. 39.
23 “He furnished” ibid.
24 “restless ambition” ibid.
25 “the state of society” Shinburn, Safe Burglary—Its Beginnings and Progress, unpublished document, c. 1905, PA.
26 “Such operations” Sante, p. 208.
27 “instead of the clumsy” Allan Pinkerton, The Bankers, the Vaults and the Burglars (1873). Cited in Patterson Smith, “The Bank Burglar—Real Life Raffles,” Antiquarian Bookseller, May 8, 1989.
28 “a successful bank” Guerin, p. 301.
29 “It was hard” Lyons, p. 40.
30 “itching to get” ibid.
FOUR
1 “The greatest crime” Lyons, p. 187.
2 “most successful fence” Asbury, p. 214.
3 “first put crime” Sifakis, p. 470.
4 “She was a huge woman” Asbury, p. 214.
5 “without a friend” Lyons, p. 188.
6 “her coarse, heavy features” ibid.
8 “Mrs Mandelbaum” ibid., p. 190.
9 “plunder from” Asbury, p. 215.
10 “handled the loot” ibid.
11 “the law made” ibid., p. 217.
12 “where small boys” ibid.
13 “post-graduate work” ibid.
14 “she was scheming” Sifakis, p. 470.
15 “were furnished with” Asbury, pp. 214–15.
16 “entertained lavishly” ibid., p. 215.
17 “I shall never forget” Lyons, p. 196.
18 “an especial soft spot” Asbury, p. 216.
19 “It just goes” Sifakis, p. 471.
20 “The army of enemies” Lyons, p. 193.
21 “great disgust” ibid., p. 41.
22 “established him” ibid.
23 “a master hand” B. P. Eldridge and Wm. B. Watts, Our Rival, the Rascal (Boston, 1893), p. 85.
24 “Once, after robbing” ibid.
25 “a bank burglar” Asbury, p. 215.
26 “the judicious” ibid.
27 “probably the most expert” Thomas Byrnes, Professional Criminals of America (New York, 1895).
28 “Speaks English with a” Circular from Ed. Mechelynck, Juge d’Instruction, Brussels, March 16, 1893, PA.
29 “small blue penetrating” George Bangs to William Pinkerton, New York, July 6, 1897, PA.
30 “on back of left” ibid.
31 “a ratchet which” Edward J. Gallagher, Robber Baron (Laconia, New Hampshire, privately printed, 1967), p. 58.
32 “his ear was so” Eldridge and Watts, p. 45.
33 “Shinburn revolutionized” Sophie Lyons in Chicago Daily American, July 1913.
34 “for some time” Account of Shinburn’s arrest, June 28, 1896, p. 1, PA.
35 “came into such” Shinburn, Safe Burglary, p. 3, PA.
36 “The safe I can’t open” Lyons, Chicago Daily American, July 1913.
37 “had a good common” Eldridge and Watts, p. 53.
38 “devoted his ability” Bullard, the Burglar Prince, Document #175, PA.
39 “dissipation and a restless” Eldridge and Watts, p. 53.
40 “one of the boldest” Bullard, the Burglar Prince.
41 “Bullard is a man” John Cornish to George Bangs, Boston, Nov. 23, 1886, Document # 197, PA.
42 “delicacy of touch” Eldridge and Watts, p. 53.
43 “An inveterate gamester” Adam Worth, p. 4.
44 “The robbers were” Bullard, the Burglar Prince. “concealed themselves” ibid.
45 “as he was returning” John Cornish to George Bangs, Boston, Nov. 23, 1886.
46 “Shinburn used to take” Lyons, p. 78.
FIVE
1 “made a tour” Lyons, p. 42. some two hundred Boston Post, Nov. 23, 1869.
2 “The bottles served” Adam Worth, p. 3. lining of the vault Boston Post, Nov. 23, 1869.
3 “To cut through this” ibid.
4 “The treasure was” ibid.
5 “The trunks were” ibid.
6 “fairly thunderstruck” ibid.
7 “nearly one million” Adam Worth, p. 3.
8 “a dozen bushels” Boston Post, Nov. 23, 1869.
9 “Everyone continues to talk” Boston Post, Nov. 26, 1869.
10 “he gambled, drank” Adam Worth, p. 3.
11 “an old man, broken down” ibid.
12 “Those damned detectives” Quoted in James D. Horan, The Pinkertons—The Detective Dynasty That Made History (New York, 1967), p. 286. While Horan’s historical method is open to criticism, his chapter on Worth is invaluable. He had access, in the 1950s and 1960s, to a variety of sources either destroyed since (in the case of Scotland Yard) or lost (in the case of the Pinkerton’s archive).
13 “All [the robbers] need do” Boston Sunday Times, Nov. 28, 1869, p. 1.
14 “There must be” ibid.
15 “an attack of apoplexy” New York Times, June 19, 1869.
16 “always the true” ibid.
17 “He was always” Evening Mail, June 18, 1869.
18 “one of the brightest” New York Telegram, June 18, 1869.
19 “he was a gentleman” Evening Post, June 18, 1869.
20 “Contemporary opinion” New York Times, June 20, 1869.
21 “sat with his family” New York Times, June 19, 1869.
22 “paying a visit” Marilyn Bender and Selig Altschul, The Chosen Instrument—Juan Trippe and Pan Am (New York, 1982), p. 19.
23 “She was an unusually” Lyons, p. 44.
24 “Bullard and Raymond” ibid.
25 “inclined to live fast” Adam Worth, p. 4.
26 “The race for her favor” Lyons, p. 44.
27 “to his credit” ibid., p. 45.
28 “He looked around” Adam Worth, p. 4.
SIX
1 “badness of the” Lady Amberly, mother of Bertrand Russell, quoted in Alistair Horne, The Fall of Paris (London, 1965), p. 17.
2 “France is an astonishingly” ibid., p. 420.
3 “bought up part of” ibid., p. 421.
4 “palatial splendor” Adam Worth, p. 4.
5 “which were, at that time” ibid.
6 “Americans were cordially” ibid.
7 “her beauty and” Document #172, PA.
8 “the headquarters of” Address by William A. Pinkerton to the Annual Convention of the International Chiefs of Police, at Jamestown, Virginia, 1907. PA.
9 “Mrs. Wells was a” Adam Worth, p. 4. affable John Cornish to George Bangs, Boston, Document #197, PA.
10 “which the bar-tender” William to Robert Pinkerton, Feb. 12, 1902, p. 3, PA.
11 “made two or three” Adam Worth, p. 4.
12 “astonished by” ibid.
13 “masquerading as a” Eldridge and Watts, p. 46.
14 “a complete workshop” Account of the arrest of Max Shinburn, p. 4, PA.
15 “one of the most” Eldridge and Watts, p. 46.
16 “With the money” Arrest of Shinburn, PA, p. 2.
17 “nobody cared to dispute” Eldridge and Watts, p. 48.
18 “with an open” ibid.
19 “overbearing Dutch pig” Worth’s Confession, p. 3.
20 “I could name a hundred” Guerin, p. 301.
21 “but one vice—forgery” Horan, p. 290.
22 “the ablest professional” William to Robert Pinkerton, Feb. 12, 1902, p. 4, PA.
23 “a great fellow for” Worth’s Confession, p. 7.
24 “swell Americans who” Arrest of Shinburn, p. 2.
25 “but Mr. Sanford” John Cornish to George Bangs, Boston, Document #197, PA.
26 “In the gay French capital” Eldridge and Watts, p. 54.
27 “waged a ceaseless war” Shuttleworth.
28 “It was not unusual” ibid.
29 “When Bill Pinkerton went” Guerin, p. 301.
30 “We were rather troubled” Quoted in Horan, p. 293.
31 “There was no intention” Worth’s Confession, p. 6.
32 “nearly dropped dead” ibid., p. 7.
33 “Old Vinegar went” ibid.
34 “entrances were guarded” ibid.
35 “Joe made the drop” ibid.
36 “two well known American” Shuttleworth.
37 “The respectable people” William to Robert Pinkerton, Feb. 12, 1902, p. 3, PA.
38 “who insisted on the police” Harold M. Lloyd, “Confidences of American Frank,” Boston Sunday Herald, Oct. 7, 1934.
39 “The robbery startled” Adam Worth, p. 5.
40 “The place was finally” ibid.
41 “The bar-tender was” William to Robert Pinkerton, Feb. 12, 1902, p. 3, PA.
42 “Wells [Bullard] and others” Adam Worth, p. 5.
43 “never again be a success” Worth’s Confession, p. 7.
44 “English betting man” William to Robert Pinkerton, Feb. 12, 1902, p. 3, PA.
45 “the ruction which” Worth’
s Confession, p. 7.
46 “Afterwards when we” ibid.
47 “The history of Britain” T. B. Macaulay, Critical essays (1835), 3, 279, cited in Houghton, p. 39.
48 “We remove mountains” Carlyle, “Signs of the Times” (1829), Essays, 2, 60, cited in Houghton, p. 41.
SEVEN
1 “then in the bloom” Allan Cunningham, 1829, chapter on Gainsborough, cited in Pictures in the Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan. “but her dazzling beauty” ibid.
2 “Drawing his wet pencil” ibid.
3 “giving promise even” Mrs. Arthur Bell (N. D’Anvers), Thomas Gainsborough, A Record of His Life (London, 1897), p. 63.
4 “greenish” William T. Whitley, Artists and Their Friends in England, 1700–1799 (London, 1928), Vol. I, p. 199; also Geoffrey Williamson, The Ingenious Mr. Gainsborough (New York, 1972), p. 171.
5 “More portraits exist” Magazine of Art, June 1901, article by W. Roberts, “Portraits of the two Duchesses of Devonshire,” p. 369.
6 “spoke of it as” The Gainsborough Duchess, p. 15.
7 “one of which Lady Spencer” See W. T. Whitley, Thomas Gainsborough (London, 1915).
8 “abandon friends as soon” Letter from Dr. Sjaak Zonneveld to Peter Day, archivist, Aug. 28, 1994, CHA.
9 “effects were dispersed” Ellis Waterhouse, Portraits by Thomas Gainsborough, Walpole Society, Vol. XXXIII, No. 3 (1953), p. 28.
10 “very wooden legs” Henry James, The Old Masters at Burlington House (1877), cited in Rupert Hart-Davis, The Painter’s Eye (Wisconsin, 1989), p. 127.
11 “It was then hanging” Times, April 11, 1901, p. 6.
12 “Sir, I am obliged” The Gainsborough Duchess, p. 13.
13 “never had the slightest” Times, April 11, 1901, p. 6.
14 “The picture remained” ibid.
15 “Mr Bentley was the intimate” ibid.
16 “haberdasher, hosier and mercer” Dictionary of National Biography, p. 716.
17 “had an intense dislike” ibid., p. 717.
18 “the painting which” The Gainsborough Duchess, p. 14.
19 “There was” Robert Kempt, Pencil and Palette (London, 1881), p. 97.
20 “Though a great lover” The Gainsborough Duchess, p. 14.
21 “watercolour drawings, porcelain” Dictionary of National Biography, p. 717.
EIGHT
1 “now delights” John Shore to William Pinkerton, May 21, 1888, PA.