The Napoleon of Crime: The Extraordinary Story of Adam Worth, the World's Greatest Modern Criminal

by Ben Macintyre

Book Overview

From the New York Times bestselling author of Prisoners in the Castle, a dramatic portrait of the master thief of the nineteenth century: Adam Worth "Fascinating . . . a brisk, lively, colorful... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374218994
• ISBN13: 9780374218997
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A magnificent obsession

Evoking all the moral ambiguity of the Victorian Era, Macintyre offers an intriguing portrait of its most accomplished criminal. Adam Worth, alias Henry Raymond (a name appropriated from the recently deceased founder and editor of the "New York Times") masterminded a series of crimes on three continents, rarely participating in them directly and deploring the use of weapons as a failure of the intellect. While his ill-gotten gains allowed him to live unscathed for some years as an English gentleman, the crime central to this biography was one from which he derived no financial benefit for a quarter century. His personal theft of a Gainsborough portrait of Georgiana, Dutchess of Devonshire, began an association which, in the author's estimate, became an obsession. At the time, Worth was involved in an amicable menage a trois with his partner, Piano Charley Bullard, and an ambitious Irish woman, Kitty Flynn. Kitty elected to marry Bullard but both men enjoyed her favors and two daughters born during the marriage were widely viewed to be Worth's. A year before the theft, she had left for New York, divorced Bullard, and become engaged to another man. It was her action which "pushed Worth into matrimony, but of a very different sort: his elopement with the Dutchess was now transformed into a full-fledged marriage..." In addition to the rogues' gallery about Worth, all interesting in their own right, two figures stand out: William Pinkerton and J. Pierpont Morgan. Together, they provide the socially respectable base with Worth at the incongruous apex. Pinkerton's avowed purpose of ferreting out wrong-doers did not preclude his admiration for Worth's achievements and he would ultimately become a trusted friend, serving as intermediary for the return of the portrait to its rightful owners. The robber baron Morgan, who would purchase the painting upon its return, appears as Worth's socially respectable counterpart, his outward veneer of propriety concealing sexual incontinence "to an almost pathological degree." Macintyre has done a fine job in describing the impact of both Worth and the portrait on popular culture: Conan Doyle's Professor Moriarity is the fictional embodiment of the master criminal and successive generations have been fascinated with Georgiana as represented in the painting. This is a thoroughly enjoyable biography, written with wit and considerable compassion for its complex subject.

The REAL father of organized, not to say civilized, crime

A gentleman burglar thumbs his nose at 'impregnable security' in a gallery and steals a priceless portrait of a scandalous woman by literally standing on the shoulders of a giant; then falls in love with the painting and 'elopes' with it for the next twenty years, eventually collecting the award for its return (in disguise) with the help of the detective who first hunted, then befriended, him.This is the stuff of fiction? No, it all actually happened. Adam Worth was an anomaly even by the standards of his own time (he disdained killing) and preferred to organize teams of cracksmen to maintain his highly organized "web of crime" in London.It is not surprising to find that Worth was the original of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Moriarty and that he earned the profound respect of his personal Sherlock Holmes, Alan Pinkerton. Worth was a self-made man in a very literal sense, from a poor immigrant German/Jewish background. He reinvented himself as an English gentleman and trained an Irish barmaid, Kitty Flynn, to improve her speech and deportment to pass as a Lady. Flynn eventually married a real sugar daddy and became a 'great lady' in a very literal sense, thereby making Worth and Flynn the originals of Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle as well as of Professor Moriarty and Kitty Winter.This is a book filled with incredibly colorful characters who specialized in a genteel style of crime. I thank the author for providing information on my favorite New York fence, "Moms" Mandelbaum, and the safecracker "Baron" Max Shinburn (who is immortalized along with his enemy, Worth, in the Sherlock Holmes stories.)By the way, a character very similar to Worth is played magnificently by Sean Connery in THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY.Truth really is stranger than fiction. I enjoyed this book very much and can highly recommend it to others.

Heady mix of art, mystery and human fallibility

Adam Worth, the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional evil mastermind Moriaty, makes a meaty subject for a book under any circumstances. From manager of gaming Hells and forger to diamond and art thief - his criminal career is breath-takingly audacious.But that isn't where it ends, the story of Adam Worth includes a mystery of a famously stolen portrait, a determined Pinkerton detective and a tale which takes you across four continents.Ben McIntyre keeps us in full charge of the facts of the life of Worth, and researching it must have been a trial in itself, for as he acknowledges at the beginning of the book, Worth was notoriously cagey about his life leaving few records apart from some coded letters. The thing that drew me, originally to this book was the story of the portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire. This picture was made for adventure 100 years before Worth stole it. Painted by Gainsborough sometime in 1787 it disappeared shortly afterwards, for reasons unknown, and turned up, a little the worse for wear, over the fireside of some dear old biddy in 1830. Back in the mainstream again it turned up for action in the 1870's bringing in the highest price for a portrait to that date. It was then that Worth saw it, and determined to steal it. And it was here that their two fates, that of the portrait, and that of Adam Worth become inextricably linked. For the next 25 years as Worth travelled the world pursuing his various illegal schemes, the portrait travelled with him. A remarkably audacious act in itself - but then Worth was an audacious and confident man.I never felt overwhelmed by the psychological analysis of Worth in this book. In fact I found Macintyre's style easy to read, and his ability to blend the many disparate facts and vast array of colourful characters that peppered Worth's life, excellent.This is great story and a great book.

Fascinating page-turner!

THE NAPOLEON OF CRIME is a true page-turner and written in the hilarious dry wit of a British journalist. I found myself wanting to meet the characters in this stranger-than-fiction true crime story, and actually liking the master thief himself. This would make an excellent movie, possibly with Anthony Hopkins as Adam Worth?

There Ought to be a Movie

Written with dry British humor, the story of Adam Worth, master criminal, comes to life. And what a life it is! But. apparently, source material was rare and therefore only a few episodes of a criminal nature could be told. In toto, the author just repeats that Worth was a criminal and make sacks of money. To fill the book, he drags the Duchess of Devonshire around a bit too much. A comparison between her and her direct descendant, Lady Di, could be amusing. And I do hope they make the movie soon.