Criminal Masterminds

by Anne Williams

  Blofeld’s career of crime began at the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs in the Polish Government. He began to wheel and deal on the Warsaw stock exchange, using his knowledge of what was going on at government level to make huge amounts of money buying and selling stocks and shares. His treachery reached dangerous proportions when he copied and sold top-secret information gained from the Ministry to the Nazis, prior to World War II.

  Terrorist Organisation

  In 1939, knowing that the Germans were about to invade Poland, Blofeld disappeared, destroying all records of his life there. He went to live in Turkey, where, under the guise of working for Turkey’s national radio station, he set up an intelligence organisation, selling secret information to both the Nazis and the Allies. Ever the pragmatist, when he realised that the Allies were about to win the war, he began to back the Allied war effort, and was rewarded in the post-war period with many medals and honours. After the war, Blofeld moved to South America for a short time, and went on to his terrorist organisation, SPECTRE (the Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence Revenge and Extortion).

  Blofeld makes his first appearance in Thunderball, Ian Fleming’s ninth novel, but is still only a minor character at this period, as his dastardly plans to rule the world and in the process, to kill James Bond and incapacitate MI5, are mainly carried out by underlings. In Fleming’s subsequent novels, Blofeld’s role as an evil genius becomes more central, and we follow his progress as he goes underground, living in Switzerland under the disguise of the Comte de Bleuville, and plotting to destroy the UK’s agricultural economy. When Bond manages to foil Blofeld’s plans, Blofeld gets his revenge by murdering Bond’s new bride, Tracy, thus also ensuring that our hero continues to be an eligible bachelor for his next series of adventures. Blofeld’s many villainous escapades continue, with Bond in hot pursuit, until they are brought to an end in You Only Live Twice. Here, Blofeld makes his appearance living in Japan under the guise of one Dr Guntram Shatterhand. Bond hunts him down and finally strangles him to death, bringing his opponent’s evil reign to a close.

  The evil genius

  The film versions of the James Bond novels contain many different, and sometimes inconsistent, images of Blofeld, and do not always tally with the narratives in the novels. In From Russia With Love, Blofeld is presented as a powerful but shadowy enemy: we only see his hand, wearing a ring, and petting a large white Persian cat, while hearing his voice, which is soft-spoken and menacing. Throughout From Russia With Love, Blofeld is simply referred to as Number One. Later, in Thunderball, Blofeld’s face continues to remain unseen, and this time, to add to the sense of mystery, his name is omitted completely from the credits. In both these films, From Russia With Love, and Thunderball, Number One’s body is played by Anthony Dawson, while his voice is played by Eric Pohlmann.

  It is only when Bond finally meets his nemesis, in You Only Live Twice, that we find out what Blofeld looks like. Blofeld is played by Donald Pleasence, who replaced Slovakian actor Jan Werich in the part. (Werich had afilmed several scenes but had to retire due to illness.) Unlike Fleming’s original hero, Blofeld as played by Pleasence is short and bald, and has a scar over his right eye. The scar was added to give the character a more unusual appearance and to convey a sense of his bitterness and resentment against the world; apparently, other ideas, such as giving Blofeld a hump back, a limp, or a lame hand, were ruled out as excessive. Pleasence’s portrayal of Blofeld as a petulant, childish character with a quick temper was somewhat at odds with the quiet menace of the character in previous films, but proved to be a memorable performance. Since then, the character of Blofeld has been widely parodied, especially in films such as the Austin Powers series.

  Wanted fugitive

  As Bond actors for the films changed, so too did the major characters, including Blofeld. In the film version of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Blofeld is played by American actor Telly Savalas, who brings a tough, hands-on quality to the role he plays as a man obsessed with building a super-human race in the mountains of the Alps. By this time, according to the story, Blofeld has become a wanted fugitive, and Bond has been looking for him all over the world. Bond manages to foil the evil Blofeld’s plans, but as always, Blofeld escapes his clutches and lives to fight another day.

  In the follow-up film, Diamonds Are Forever, Blofeld is played by English actor Charles Gray, and he has now developed a sense of humour and a penchant for cross-dressing. Moreover, Blofeld is no longer bald, but has sprouted a luxurious head of hair. As part of his latest plan to destroy civilisation, Blofeld is stockpiling diamonds so that he can make a laser satellite capable of destroying targets on the earth; Bond’s mission is to stop him before he can do so. In a typical action-packed scene, Bond gains control of a crane that is launching the submersible Blofeld is trying to escape in, and smashes it from side to side in such a way that, by the end of the film, we are not sure whether Blofeld is alive or dead.

  Memorable villain

  In later films, a character similar to Blofeld appeared in For Your Eyes Only, with a body provided by John Hollis and a voice courtesy of Robert Rietti. In Never Say Never Again, Max Von Sydow plays a cool, calm version of Blofeld, now sporting a beard, but still fondling a cat as in previous incarnations.

  Fleming also created other flamboyant villains in his novels, including Dr Julius No, a cold, calculating doctor of half-Chinese, half-German origin, who is plotting to rule the world by launching US space ships from his West Indian retreat. Auric Goldfinger is an eccentric millionaire obsessed by gold, who wants to bomb Fort Knox so that he can destroy the American gold standard and increase the worth of his own hoard. However, the most popular of Fleming’s villains is undoubtedly Blofeld, who has become one of the most memorable criminal masterminds in contemporary popular culture, inspiring many imitators in fiction, on film, and on television around the world today.

  Raffles

  Arthur J. Raffles is the late nineteenth-century creation of E.W. Hornung, brother-in-law to Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Just as Conan Doyle created a gentleman detective, Hornung created a gentleman thief; and just as Holmes’ sidekick was Doctor Watson, Raffles’ partner in crime is Harry ‘Bunny’ Manders. Hornung dedicated his first collection of Raffles stories, entitled The Amateur Cracksman to Conan Doyle, who later wrote: ‘I think I may claim that his famous character Raffles was a kind of inversion of Sherlock Holmes, Bunny playing Watson. He (Hornung) admits as much in his kindly dedication. I think there are few finer examples of short-story writing in our language than these, though I confess I think they are rather dangerous in their sugges­tion. I told him so before he put pen to paper, and the result has, I fear, borne me out. You must not make the criminal a hero.’

  Conan Doyle was worried that having a thief as the central character, indeed hero, of a fictional piece would corrupt the reader. However, the real problem with Raffles was more that he confused the readers, in the sense that the motivation for his actions was not entirely clear. Add to the confusion, Raffles’ cir­cum­stances were constantly changing, to the point that he almost became a different character – in contrast with Sherlock Holmes, who remained virtually the same throughout all the stories.

  The gentleman thief

  Hornung’s gentleman thief, A. J. Raffles lives in Albany, a wealthy area of London, among the wealthy establishment figures of his day. To add to his cachet, he is a well-known cricketer, playing for a team called The Gentlemen of England. Because of this, he has many friends, and is often invited to social functions. However, despite his appearance of wealth in his upper-class milieu, he actually earns his living by carrying out ingenious burglaries, often robbing his friends and acquaintances in high society. He is known by professional criminals from the lower classes as ‘the Amateur Cracksman’, and likes to give the impression of thieving for the fun of it, as a hobby rather than a serious enterprise. At the same time, he earns a substantial amount of money from his ill-gotten
gains, and enjoys duping those around him, especially individuals that he feels are stupid, ignorant and mean.

  Raffles’ partner in crime is Harry ‘Bunny’ Manders. Raffles and Bunny were at a prestigious English public school together. Their partnership goes back to a time when Bunny was in financial trouble and was contemplating suicide because of his massive debts. He had written a number of bad cheques to cover his gambling losses, and knew that he would never have enough money to pay them. Faced with being publicly scorned for his behaviour, he had decided to end it all.

  By chance, just as he was planning his final exit, Bunny ran into his old chum from school, Raffles, who persuaded him that thievery was the way forward. After expressing some reservations, Bunny realised that this was the only way to get out of the jam he was in, and joined his former schoolmate him in a life of crime. Since that time, the pair have been inseparable. They form a close partnership, just as Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson did. Occasionally, Raffles mistreats Bunny, taking advan­tage of his naivety, and being impatient with his slow-wittedness; but at heart, Raffles knows that in Bunny he has found a brave and loyal follower, who will always help him get out of the many scrapes they find themselves in.

  Outcasts from society

  Like Sherlock Holmes, Raffles is a master of disguise. He can speak English with many different accents, and has an apartment where he keeps clothes and other items for dressing up. Together, Raffles and Bunny embark on a series of burglaries, made easier by the fact that Raffles is so well connected, and because of his prowess at cricket, he is a popular figure at social functions. The pair often commit their burglaries wearing immaculate evening dress, which helps them to go undetected as they go about their nefarious business.

  The stories of Raffles and Bunny’s escapades were first published as collections under the name The Amateur Cracksman. After this, the Raffles stories changed, which some critics regard as a weakness in the series. In the second phase of stories, published under the name of The Black Mask, we meet Raffles and Bunny as professional thieves who are now outcasts from polite society. It appears that they were eventually caught stealing from the rich guests on an ocean liner, and that this is the reason for their disgrace. According to the story, Bunny was arrested for robbery on board the ship, while Raffles escaped by jumping into the sea, and was presumed to have drowned.

  However, when Bunny is released from prison after serving his sentence, he receives a call from a rich invalid asking for help. When Bunny visits the house, it turns out that the invalid is Raffles in disguise. The pair are thrilled to be reunited again, and once more resume their life of crime, this time as professional thieves who are no longer trusted as part of high society, and whose must keep their identities secret. They commit a number of auda­cious rob­beries, but eventually, their luck runs out and they volunteer as soldiers in the Boer War, where Bunny is seriously injured, and Raffles dies in battle.

  The psychology of Raffles

  Critics have pointed out that, although the stories are well-written and entertaining, they do not measure up to the standard of Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation, Sherlock Holmes. Partly, this is because the plots are not so satisfying, but it is also because the motivation of the Raffles character is rather unclear. To some degree, Raffles is cynical about society: he remarks at one point, ‘We can’t all be moralists, and the distribu­tion of wealth is all wrong, anyway.’ There is a suggestion in the stories that a trip to ‘the colonies’ changed Raffles’ mind about belonging to the upper classes; he found himself without funds in a foreign country, and had to resort to stealing to survive. When he did, he found that he became addicted to the activity: ‘I’d tasted blood,’ he says, ‘and it was all over with me. Why should I work when I could steal? Why settle down to some humdrum un­cogenial billet when excitement, romance, danger and a decent living were all going begging together.’

  Thus Raffles turns away from the respectable values of society to indulge his taste for danger, rather than because of some basic dis­agree­ment with the social world around him. Indeed, many of his views are contradictory. Although he appears to be critical of the elite, he is a staunch supporter of the monarchy and appears to uphold the values of the status quo; and although in some ways he has a strong sense of loyalty to his friends, he is not above stealing from them.

  Raffles despises the social milieu he is part of on the grounds that people want to befriend him only because he is a famous cricketer. He claims that he himself has lost interest in the game, preferring his occupation as a thief because he finds it mentally stimulating to work out a clever plan for a robbery, and also finds it exciting to go out on the job. However, he does have some scruples: he tries to avoid killing people (although he does so once, and does not rule out such an eventuality in the future), and he will never steal from his host (although he often steals from other guests at the social functions he attends). He is also somewhat ashamed of the way he abuses Bunny’s loyalty to him, and when he finally dies, he speaks of his regret at introducing his innocent friend to a life of crime.

  Although Raffles steals for profit, he also does so as a form of sport. In one case, he steals a gold cup from the British Museum and sends it to the Queen by post, on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee. In another instance, he steals from a former school- mate and makes a donation to the school, shaming the man into making a donation himself. His last adventure is to steal a collection of memorabilia connected to his crimes from Scotland Yard. Yet this motivation seems, at times, strained, and it is never entirely clear why Raffles behaves in the way he does, other than to satisfy a lust for adventure.

  The legacy of the gentleman thief

  The Raffles stories by E. W. Hornung appeared in several collections: The Amateur Cracksman, The Black Mask and A Thief in the Night. In the twentieth century, several authors took up where Hornung left off and wrote stories about Raffles. John Kendrick Bangs’ novel R. Holmes & Co concerned a character called Raffles Holmes, who was related to both the original Raffles and Sherlock Holmes. In the 1960s, author Barry Perowne wrote a series of Raffles stories. The famous literary figure Graham Greene wrote a play called The Return of A. J. Raffles, and author Peter Tremayne also wrote a novel called The Return of Raffles. American writer Philip Jose Farmer included Raffles and Bunny in a science fiction story entitled The Problem of the Sore Bridge and, in more recent times, Raffles made it into the movies. The part was played by several well-known actors, including John Barrymore and David Niven.

  Moriarty

  One of the first criminal masterminds to be depicted in modern fiction is Sherlock Holmes’ adversary, Professor James Moriarty. Moriarty is a genius mathematics professor whose writings are so abstruse that no one is able to understand or criticise them. He is admired for his brainpower but has a ‘diabolical’ nature, making him extremely dangerous. Moriarty is the head of a secret criminal organisation, and Sherlock Holmes’ task is to destroy his evil plans. However, Moriarty remains elusive until Holmes finally comes face to face with him in a story called The Final Problem. In the story, Holmes and Moriarty fight hand to hand on the edge of a great waterfall called the Reichenbach Falls, until they both fall to their deaths, still locked in mortal combat.

  A diabolical nature

  Although Moriarty is often represented as Holmes’ nemesis and his greatest adversary, Moriarty in fact only appears in two of Conan Doyle’s stories (there are sixty Sherlock Holmes stories in all). He is mentioned in five other stories, but only in passing. However, the character of Moriarty so appealed to the reading public that he has become far more central than he actually was in the Sherlock Holmes tales. One of the reasons that Conan Doyle did not make Moriarty a more important character was that he wanted to avoid a situation in which Holmes was constantly outwitted, as this would have detracted from the idea of his hero’s brilliance as a detective. Thus, Moriarty made few appearances in the Holmes literature – but when he did appear, he proved to be unforgettable, and h
e has inspired many writers, film-makers, actors and others since Conan Doyle’s time.

  From the Sherlock Holmes stories, we learn that Moriarty is a man of good birth who had a privileged education. As a student, he showed a ‘phenomenal mathematical faculty’, and aged only twenty-one, he wrote a treatise about the binomial theorem in mathematics that astounded his professors. This treatise earned him a chair at a small British university, and at an early age he seemed set to have a brilliant academic career. As well as mathematics, he wrote on astronomy, and his book The Dynamics of an Asteroid was so brilliant and difficult to understand that no one could be found to review it in the scientific press.

  However, before long it transpired that Moriarty had ‘hereditary tendencies of the most diabolical kind’. As Sherlock Holmes puts it, ‘a criminal strain ran in his blood, which, instead of being modified, was increased and rendered infinitely more dangerous by his extraordinary mental powers’. In the university town where Moriarty lived, ‘dark rumours’ about him began to circulate, until he was forced to leave and live in London, where he sets up his criminal organisation and becomes known to the police as ‘the Napoleon of Crime’. Conan Doyle borrowed this phrase from police inspector Robert Anderson at Scotland Yard, who used it to describe Adam Worth, a German-born gentleman criminal who was the real-life scourge of the London police at the time. Other critics have suggested that aspects of Moriarty’s character were based on another famous London criminal, the celebrated eighteenth-century thief Jonathan Wild. What characterised all these characters, both real and imagined, was that they were all highly intelligent, as well as morally corrupt.