The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief [Paperback]

Ben Macintyre (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 6, 1998

He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson.
He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city.
He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. . . .
--Sherlock Holmes on Professor Moriarty in "The Final Problem"

The Victorian era's most infamous thief, Adam Worth was the original Napoleon of crime.  Suave, cunning Worth learned early that the best way to succeed was to steal.  And steal he did.

Following a strict code of honor, Worth won the respect of Victorian society.  He also aroused its fear by becoming a chilling phantom, mingling undetected with the upper classes, whose valuables he brazenly stole.  His most celebrated heist: Gainsborough's grand portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire--ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales--a painting Worth adored and often slept with for twenty years.

With a brilliant gang that included "Piano" Charley, a jewel thief, train robber, and playboy, and "the Scratch" Becker, master forger, Worth secretly ran operations from New York to London, Paris, and South Africa--until betrayal and a Pinkerton man finally brought him down.

In a decadent age, Worth was an icon.  His biography is a grand, dazzling tour into the gaslit underworld of the last century.  .  .  and into the doomed genius of a criminal mastermind.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Arthur Conan Doyle fictionalized him as the superhuman Professor Moriarty, and the popular press luridly chronicled his daring heists, though the police never managed to convict him of anything major until he was nearly 50. Forgotten since his 19th-century heyday, master thief Adam Worth (1844-1902) gets a contemporary dusting-off in this cheerfully cynical biography by a British journalist, who sees Worth's story as a case study in Victorian hypocrisy. The colorful New York and London underworlds are as meticulously described as Worth's surprisingly attractive personality. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The model for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Moriarty, Adam Worth (1844-1902) was one of the greatest thieves of the Victorian era. Macintyre's (Forgotten Fatherland: The Search for Elizabeth Nietzsche, LJ 10/1/92) entertaining biography traces how the American-born German Jew became the "godfather" of his era, building up a network that stole from banks and the wealthy. His biggest claim to fame was the theft of Thomas Gainsborough's portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire. For a quarter of a century, the obsessed Worth kept the painting. He had such an unusual relationship with the Pinkerton brothers that they acted as intermediaries when Worth returned the painting to its owner, thereby enhancing their detective agency's reputation. Macintyre has done his research well, and his book reads like an exciting detective novel. Providing a rare glimpse of the criminal and social atmosphere during the last part of the 19th century, it is highly recommended.?Michael Sawyer, Clinton P.L., Iowa
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Delta (July 6, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385319932
• ISBN-13: 978-0385319935
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #787,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The REAL father of organized, not to say civilized, crime, January 27, 2002

By 

Nancy Beiman "Northernexpress" (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief (Paperback)

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An ethical master thief admired by his pursuers, March 16, 1999

By 

C. Walters (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief (Paperback)

A very interesting look at two very complex and enigmatic people; Adam Worth and William Pinkerton. One is a life lived in the shadows, the other a life pursuing people with whom he felt a kindred spirit. There seems to be enough light to shed both interest and information on the subject, yet somehow one still feels unsatisfied, as if there was a great deal more to tell. This is probably due in large measure to the intentional obscurity with which Worth lived his double life and the protection Pinkerton gave his. The psychological analysis of Worth is fascinating, but in making the connection between Worth and Moriarity (as well as the Freudian conclusions about Worth and the painting of the Duchess of Devonshire) the author goes a bit far afield after he has already made his point. This somewhat damages the credibility of his objectivity. Even if the outcome remains the same, the author seems to have invested to much of his ego in his conclusions and strains to prove his points. Overall a fascinating look at a man who probably was the best crook of all time, an interesting example of Victorian hypocrisy turned upside down, and one of strangest frienships next to Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. If the book accomplished one surprising result, it was to send me looking for more information on the Pinkerton family, one of the more interesting and unique families in American history. A genuinely fascinating read conducted with style by the author.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Missed his Target, January 18, 2005

By 

Tom L. Huffman (Rockville, MD United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief (Paperback)

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the subject matter is guaranteed to fascinate. Adam Worth was a truly bizarre and unique character who knew and was related to several famous people. The book is also very well-written.

My complaint is that the author often seems not really very interested in his subject, Adam Worth. Large sections of the book--including the beggining and the end--are not about Adam Worth at all. The author seems obsessed with the Gainsborough painting, The Duchess of Devonshire. Admittedly, stealing this painting was perhaps Worth's most famous crime and would certainly have rated a chapter. However, Macintyre drones on and on and on about the painter, the history of the painting, the many people who have owned the painting, wholly unsupported psychological assertions about the painting's affect on Worth. He devotes an entire chapter just to J.P. Morgan, who Worth never met nor stole from. Morgan rates a chapter simply because he was the last owner of the Gainsborough.

This is a basically good book that is fatally flawed by the author's tendency to obsess about what is a peripherial issue. Too bad. If you are an art historian I can recommend this book whole-heartedly. If you are interested in a biography of Adam Worth, I recommend the book only with reservations.