The Napoleon of Crime (45 page)

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, unpublished document (c. 1894), p. 1, in PA.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.

  
7
  “afflicted with” 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.