1
00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,840
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from house

2
00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:14,160
Speaker 1: works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm

3
00:00:14,200 --> 00:00:17,080
Speaker 1: Fair Dowdy and I'm Deblina Chuck reboarding. And after our

4
00:00:17,120 --> 00:00:20,159
Speaker 1: episode on the real Sherlock Holmes, we have quite a

5
00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:23,360
Speaker 1: few people right in suggesting that we cover somebody else

6
00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:27,480
Speaker 1: from Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective stories. So it turns

7
00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:31,000
Speaker 1: out that just as Dr Joseph Bell helped inspire the

8
00:00:31,080 --> 00:00:35,320
Speaker 1: character of Sherlock Holmes, a master criminal named Adam Worth

9
00:00:35,479 --> 00:00:39,680
Speaker 1: helped inspire the character of Holmes's arch rival, the criminal

10
00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:44,240
Speaker 1: Professor Moriarty. And although he doesn't appear in that many

11
00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:47,480
Speaker 1: home stories and actually is only mentioned in a few more,

12
00:00:47,960 --> 00:00:51,600
Speaker 1: Professor Moriarty is almost a bye word for evil, genius,

13
00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:55,520
Speaker 1: and fiction. As Holmes himself tells Watson quote, the man

14
00:00:55,680 --> 00:00:58,960
Speaker 1: pervades London and no one has heard of him. He

15
00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:02,840
Speaker 1: is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer

16
00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:05,160
Speaker 1: of half that is evil, and of nearly all that

17
00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:08,520
Speaker 1: is undetected in this great city. He is a genius,

18
00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:12,959
Speaker 1: a philosopher, and abstract thinker. So if you've been watching

19
00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:16,000
Speaker 1: the new Sherlock television series, I think you have haven't

20
00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:17,679
Speaker 1: been well saw the first season. I haven't seen a

21
00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:19,600
Speaker 1: second well that's all I've seen to actually, but it

22
00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:23,440
Speaker 1: does have that dramatic conclusion, and I think it's pretty

23
00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:26,880
Speaker 1: hard to shake the show's version of a very erratic,

24
00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:30,440
Speaker 1: very young professor. But even if you're not familiar with

25
00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:33,039
Speaker 1: that character, you know you haven't read about him in

26
00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:36,840
Speaker 1: home stories, you haven't seen the TV version, the life

27
00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:39,520
Speaker 1: of Adam Worth will still strike a chord I think

28
00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:42,399
Speaker 1: with most of our listeners. He created a web of

29
00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:46,080
Speaker 1: crime that expanned over three continents, and he would dash

30
00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:50,800
Speaker 1: between the countries on his luxury yacht. He robbed banks,

31
00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:55,040
Speaker 1: diamond trucks, and post offices, all while maintaining the front

32
00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:58,720
Speaker 1: of a respectable gentleman. And he never used violence, which

33
00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:02,320
Speaker 1: is interesting. He's stuck to a strict criminals code. But

34
00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:05,560
Speaker 1: perhaps most strangely, he fell in love with a painting,

35
00:02:05,640 --> 00:02:08,480
Speaker 1: which we're gonna get to a little bit later. We will,

36
00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:10,480
Speaker 1: and we'll probably get to that more in the part

37
00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:13,240
Speaker 1: two of this episode. Adam Worth did so much stuff,

38
00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:15,720
Speaker 1: we're gonna stretch this one out a little bit, but

39
00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:19,280
Speaker 1: it's first worth noting here that just as quote No.

40
00:02:19,320 --> 00:02:22,600
Speaker 1: One had heard of Moriarty, the same as largely true

41
00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:25,520
Speaker 1: today of Adam Worth. I mean, you probably haven't heard

42
00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:28,320
Speaker 1: that name before. And most of the information on him

43
00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:31,959
Speaker 1: has been collected in a biography by Ben McIntyre called

44
00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:35,160
Speaker 1: The Napoleon of Crime, The Life and Times of Adam Worth,

45
00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:38,440
Speaker 1: Master Thief. But during his own day, even though he's

46
00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:41,120
Speaker 1: kind of an obscure figure today, during his own day,

47
00:02:41,360 --> 00:02:44,720
Speaker 1: Worth was actually a widely covered figure. And in fact,

48
00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:48,720
Speaker 1: you can still find the Pinkerton's National Detective Agencies pamphlet

49
00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:52,120
Speaker 1: on Worth online through Google scholar. It's one of the

50
00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:55,280
Speaker 1: best sources on his life because it combines his own

51
00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:59,920
Speaker 1: freely given account with the Pinkerton's decades of surveillance and research,

52
00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:03,520
Speaker 1: so it's not exactly autobiography. It's got a little factual

53
00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:06,239
Speaker 1: information in there too. It's funny though in a way,

54
00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:10,799
Speaker 1: Worth's obscurity almost makes him more intriguing. It's as though

55
00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:13,600
Speaker 1: he just kind of made a splash, left his literary

56
00:03:13,680 --> 00:03:17,919
Speaker 1: descendant and then just sort of slipped away, almost undetected

57
00:03:17,960 --> 00:03:22,040
Speaker 1: for the next century. Really, so Worth's first act of

58
00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:24,720
Speaker 1: slipping away like that probably happened when he was only

59
00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:27,720
Speaker 1: about fourteen years old. He was the son of a tailor.

60
00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:32,080
Speaker 1: He had immigrated to Cambridge, Massachusetts from Germany when he

61
00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:35,440
Speaker 1: was about five years old um and he ran away

62
00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:39,360
Speaker 1: when he was fourteen from his home, so he jumped

63
00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:43,320
Speaker 1: from Cambridge to Boston before taking his first and only

64
00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:45,720
Speaker 1: real job in New York City as a clerk. But

65
00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:48,800
Speaker 1: the desk job didn't really last that long because when

66
00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:52,040
Speaker 1: the Civil War started, Little Adam that was his his

67
00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:54,720
Speaker 1: street name, since he was only about five four or

68
00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:58,920
Speaker 1: five five, enlisted in the thirty fourth New York Light Artillery,

69
00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:03,000
Speaker 1: which was convened nunately enough commanded by a fellow German

70
00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:05,840
Speaker 1: who really took a liking to Little Adam and had

71
00:04:05,920 --> 00:04:09,760
Speaker 1: him promoted to sergeant at a remarkably fast pace. But

72
00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:12,560
Speaker 1: during his first major battle, which was the Second Battle

73
00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:16,400
Speaker 1: of bull Run, Sergeant Adam Worth was mortally wounded and

74
00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:21,039
Speaker 1: died weeks later at only age eighteen. Wait a minute, here,

75
00:04:21,200 --> 00:04:25,040
Speaker 1: that's a really short podcast. Is Well, actually it's not,

76
00:04:25,160 --> 00:04:28,360
Speaker 1: because it's unclear what happened, but Worth was likely wounded

77
00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:32,200
Speaker 1: and was sent to Georgetown to recover. After that, either

78
00:04:32,279 --> 00:04:36,120
Speaker 1: he swapped ideas Dick Whitman style or got his paperwork

79
00:04:36,120 --> 00:04:40,440
Speaker 1: in this processed regardless, being a dead man or supposedly

80
00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:44,640
Speaker 1: dead man meant that he could reenlist time and time again,

81
00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:48,800
Speaker 1: each time collecting as signing bounty and then just skidaddling

82
00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:52,560
Speaker 1: before the fighting started. Yeah, he became a professional bounty jumper,

83
00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:55,800
Speaker 1: which was something you could really do during the Civil War. Yeah,

84
00:04:55,880 --> 00:05:00,080
Speaker 1: but it didn't mean that you avoided conflict entirely. It

85
00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:03,200
Speaker 1: didn't always work out that neatly. Worth actually found himself

86
00:05:03,279 --> 00:05:06,159
Speaker 1: participating in the Battle of the Wilderness in May eighteen

87
00:05:06,240 --> 00:05:08,800
Speaker 1: sixty four, which, if you listen to our William Chester

88
00:05:08,920 --> 00:05:13,080
Speaker 1: Minor episode a couple of months ago, was a pretty harrowing,

89
00:05:13,279 --> 00:05:16,000
Speaker 1: scary battle when you probably would have hoped to have

90
00:05:16,200 --> 00:05:19,640
Speaker 1: missed if you were a professional bounty jumper. But Worth

91
00:05:19,720 --> 00:05:23,520
Speaker 1: also had no bones about switching sides. He wasn't just

92
00:05:23,920 --> 00:05:27,680
Speaker 1: sticking to Union only after he had worn out his welcome,

93
00:05:27,720 --> 00:05:29,920
Speaker 1: you know, he started to be recognized after doing this

94
00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:33,640
Speaker 1: a few times. He joined the Confederacy and then gradually

95
00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:36,479
Speaker 1: wound his way back to the Northern States before the

96
00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:39,760
Speaker 1: war's end, of course, going back to New York City,

97
00:05:39,800 --> 00:05:43,479
Speaker 1: and as we've discussed in earlier episodes, Wartime and postpell

98
00:05:43,560 --> 00:05:47,599
Speaker 1: in New York City was a really great time for criminals.

99
00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:51,200
Speaker 1: I mean great kind of being in quotation marks there. Um.

100
00:05:51,279 --> 00:05:54,640
Speaker 1: The area where Worth specifically settled, the Bowery, was a

101
00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:57,280
Speaker 1: very very tough part of town too. It was ruled

102
00:05:57,320 --> 00:06:01,120
Speaker 1: by gangs, filled with bars, people with characters with names

103
00:06:01,160 --> 00:06:04,880
Speaker 1: like Eddie the Plague or Ludwig the blood Sucker. Really,

104
00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:08,600
Speaker 1: my favorite part of McIntyre's book might be his details

105
00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:11,760
Speaker 1: about the gangs in the bars in post war New

106
00:06:11,839 --> 00:06:14,599
Speaker 1: York City. As with any other kind of trade, though,

107
00:06:14,640 --> 00:06:16,680
Speaker 1: Worth had to pretty much start at the bottom of

108
00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:20,520
Speaker 1: the criminal world. He started with pickpocketing. From there he

109
00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:23,400
Speaker 1: got good enough to have his own network of pickpockets

110
00:06:23,640 --> 00:06:26,839
Speaker 1: that were working for him. But he wasn't entirely out

111
00:06:26,839 --> 00:06:30,599
Speaker 1: of that game himself. In eighteen sixty four, he was

112
00:06:30,640 --> 00:06:34,040
Speaker 1: caught stealing a package and then arrested and sentenced to

113
00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:37,159
Speaker 1: three years of hard labor and sing sing and the

114
00:06:37,240 --> 00:06:40,479
Speaker 1: work he was doing was handling nitroglycerin, which was used

115
00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:45,280
Speaker 1: for blasting quarry So pretty hard, dangerous work. Yeah, And

116
00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:48,880
Speaker 1: unsurprisingly that kind of work didn't really appeal to Worth,

117
00:06:48,920 --> 00:06:52,200
Speaker 1: and so after only a few weeks, a very careful

118
00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:56,560
Speaker 1: patient observation where he acted like the model prisoner. He

119
00:06:56,720 --> 00:06:59,680
Speaker 1: disappeared during a guard change. Of course, you can imagine

120
00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:02,920
Speaker 1: these yards were heavily armed, but he just slipped off.

121
00:07:03,200 --> 00:07:05,960
Speaker 1: He hid in a drainage ditch, and then he gradually

122
00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:09,560
Speaker 1: worked his way down river until he could hide at

123
00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:12,080
Speaker 1: a dock among some canal boats, and then a few

124
00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:14,920
Speaker 1: hours later when the boats were tugged into the city,

125
00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:18,360
Speaker 1: where it jumped out swam ashore in the freezing cold,

126
00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:20,960
Speaker 1: and um found some friends so he could change out

127
00:07:20,960 --> 00:07:25,080
Speaker 1: of his prison stripes are really dangerous sounding escape. I mean,

128
00:07:25,240 --> 00:07:28,600
Speaker 1: it sounds kind of like a Shawshank style escape, but

129
00:07:29,080 --> 00:07:31,480
Speaker 1: you have to imagine that he was risking his life

130
00:07:31,480 --> 00:07:34,560
Speaker 1: by doing it for sure. After that he went back

131
00:07:34,600 --> 00:07:38,160
Speaker 1: to his life of crime. Obviously, pickpocketing, no matter how

132
00:07:38,280 --> 00:07:40,280
Speaker 1: a dept you are at it or how many people

133
00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:44,280
Speaker 1: work for you, will always be pretty small time. But

134
00:07:44,400 --> 00:07:47,080
Speaker 1: that's not so, as we've seen before with bank robbery

135
00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:51,160
Speaker 1: and safe breaking, which were Worth's next career goals. The

136
00:07:51,200 --> 00:07:54,760
Speaker 1: only problem was that safebreakers were, according to McIntyre, a

137
00:07:54,840 --> 00:07:59,240
Speaker 1: really elite bunch, so Worth needed some connections to get

138
00:07:59,280 --> 00:08:02,160
Speaker 1: into the safe breaking game, and he found one through

139
00:08:02,240 --> 00:08:05,320
Speaker 1: marm Mandelbaum, who was the ground um of New York

140
00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:08,920
Speaker 1: City crime and also a master fencer of stolen goods.

141
00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:11,920
Speaker 1: She not only took him under her wing, she fenced

142
00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:15,440
Speaker 1: twenty dollars and stolen bonds from Worth's first big heist.

143
00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:20,440
Speaker 1: Mandelbaum also introduced him to some lifelong friends like Charlie Bullard,

144
00:08:20,480 --> 00:08:23,400
Speaker 1: a well born piano player who could break safe and

145
00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:27,480
Speaker 1: also rob trains. And some longtime enemies are soon to

146
00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:30,960
Speaker 1: be longtime enemies, like Max Shinburne, who went as far

147
00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:33,520
Speaker 1: as to work at safe companies to stay on top

148
00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:36,920
Speaker 1: of his profession. So that's dedication. Yeah, Max seemed to

149
00:08:36,920 --> 00:08:40,800
Speaker 1: really be worth equal but also his arrival. So Worth

150
00:08:40,920 --> 00:08:45,240
Speaker 1: became best friends with Bullard or piano Charlie after Worth

151
00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:49,000
Speaker 1: and shin burn broke Piano Charlie out of jail, and

152
00:08:49,040 --> 00:08:50,400
Speaker 1: it seems like that would be the kind of thing

153
00:08:50,400 --> 00:08:52,920
Speaker 1: that would form a good bond of friendship between all

154
00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:55,440
Speaker 1: three of them. But as it turned out, Bullard Worth

155
00:08:55,520 --> 00:08:59,560
Speaker 1: became best friends. They decided they'd go into the crime

156
00:08:59,600 --> 00:09:04,040
Speaker 1: world together as partners. Shinburne was excluded from that arrangement,

157
00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:07,120
Speaker 1: maybe part of the reason why he and Worth ultimately

158
00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:11,360
Speaker 1: became rivals. Maybe Shinburn just didn't really like him. Whatever

159
00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:13,840
Speaker 1: it is, just remember that name Shinburn, because he's going

160
00:09:13,880 --> 00:09:16,800
Speaker 1: to pop up way way later in worst career. So

161
00:09:17,080 --> 00:09:20,520
Speaker 1: according to the Pinkerton's pamphlet, though, one of the quote

162
00:09:20,679 --> 00:09:24,079
Speaker 1: three redeeming features in the life of this lost human

163
00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:27,720
Speaker 1: creature was that quote, he was never guilty of violence.

164
00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:30,880
Speaker 1: Under no circumstances would he have anything to do with

165
00:09:30,920 --> 00:09:34,160
Speaker 1: anyone who was. So it kind of seems like if

166
00:09:34,200 --> 00:09:37,840
Speaker 1: that was your ideology, you're really anti violence, but you

167
00:09:37,880 --> 00:09:40,760
Speaker 1: are also a criminal, you probably wouldn't want to get

168
00:09:40,800 --> 00:09:44,200
Speaker 1: into bank robbery because, you know, as we've seen with

169
00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:48,440
Speaker 1: earlier podcast subjects, bying Clyde John Dillinger tends to be

170
00:09:48,480 --> 00:09:52,199
Speaker 1: a pretty violent business. But Worth had a really different

171
00:09:52,320 --> 00:09:56,000
Speaker 1: strategy of going around robbing banks, and that was as

172
00:09:56,160 --> 00:09:59,520
Speaker 1: we have already seen with his prison break his patients.

173
00:10:00,400 --> 00:10:03,400
Speaker 1: He and piano Charlie set their sites on the Boylston

174
00:10:03,520 --> 00:10:07,640
Speaker 1: National Bank in Boston, a respectable institution that was conveniently

175
00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:10,840
Speaker 1: next door to a barbershop that was for rent. So

176
00:10:10,920 --> 00:10:13,320
Speaker 1: the two men set at a health tonic store in

177
00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:17,320
Speaker 1: that barbershop space. Even stocking it with bottles and bottles

178
00:10:17,360 --> 00:10:20,360
Speaker 1: of Gray's Oriental Tonic to cover up the windows and

179
00:10:20,400 --> 00:10:24,240
Speaker 1: make the place look legit. Gradually they tunneled through the

180
00:10:24,240 --> 00:10:28,319
Speaker 1: wall to the steel safe, robbing it of money and securities,

181
00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:31,559
Speaker 1: and timing the whole thing so that it wasn't discovered

182
00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:34,560
Speaker 1: for the entire weekend. From this, they netted about one

183
00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:38,040
Speaker 1: fifty thousand to two hundred thousand dollars. And this high

184
00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:41,160
Speaker 1: profile robbery made it really dangerous for them to stay

185
00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:45,199
Speaker 1: in Boston or even in New York City. So McEntyre

186
00:10:45,240 --> 00:10:48,120
Speaker 1: presents the interesting option that they could have gone west,

187
00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:51,320
Speaker 1: you know, sort of an alternate take on history. But

188
00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:55,400
Speaker 1: instead they chose to go to Europe, specifically to Liverpool. Yeah.

189
00:10:55,480 --> 00:10:59,920
Speaker 1: He specifically, he mentioned that they probably realized they weren't

190
00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:03,760
Speaker 1: suited to living out with They weren't the cowboy type.

191
00:11:03,840 --> 00:11:06,400
Speaker 1: They liked fine things, and they were going to be

192
00:11:06,440 --> 00:11:10,160
Speaker 1: more comfortable in Europe. But when they moved to Liverpool,

193
00:11:10,200 --> 00:11:12,800
Speaker 1: they also took on new names. And Worth took his

194
00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:16,559
Speaker 1: from the recently deceased co founder of the New York Times,

195
00:11:16,840 --> 00:11:20,760
Speaker 1: whose named Henry Jarvis Raymond. He didn't take the name,

196
00:11:21,160 --> 00:11:25,160
Speaker 1: you know, completely, He changed the middle name Jarvis to Judson,

197
00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:28,640
Speaker 1: but still so strange to me that he would take

198
00:11:28,840 --> 00:11:33,200
Speaker 1: a famous name for his alias, the alias that most

199
00:11:33,200 --> 00:11:35,320
Speaker 1: of his life. You'd think you wouldn't want people to

200
00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:38,839
Speaker 1: You wouldn't want to attract extra attention by picking anything,

201
00:11:38,920 --> 00:11:40,960
Speaker 1: like you wouldn't want anybody ever asking like, oh are

202
00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:44,079
Speaker 1: you related to the New York Times Raymond, or or

203
00:11:44,200 --> 00:11:46,760
Speaker 1: asking you more questions than they needed to. Maybe he

204
00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:50,760
Speaker 1: just wanted to sound really respectable. Who knows. Regardless the

205
00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:53,480
Speaker 1: men that these two men, they lived it up in Liverpool,

206
00:11:53,760 --> 00:11:57,360
Speaker 1: they conducted some robberies. They both courted the same woman.

207
00:11:57,400 --> 00:12:00,960
Speaker 1: They courted, the seventeen year old Irish barmaid working at

208
00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:04,720
Speaker 1: their hotel, whose name was Kittie Flynn. Eventually, Kitty agreed

209
00:12:04,760 --> 00:12:08,880
Speaker 1: to marry Piano Charlie, although he was already married. She

210
00:12:08,920 --> 00:12:11,840
Speaker 1: didn't know that, but she and Worth carried on with

211
00:12:11,880 --> 00:12:14,600
Speaker 1: their relationship at the same time as well, and so

212
00:12:14,679 --> 00:12:19,000
Speaker 1: she became the most important living woman in Adam Worth's life. Yeah.

213
00:12:19,080 --> 00:12:22,480
Speaker 1: So by the end of eighteen seventy though, these three

214
00:12:22,559 --> 00:12:25,439
Speaker 1: who are all hanging out together, Kitty, Bullard and Worth

215
00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:28,680
Speaker 1: decided that they were ready for something new. So they

216
00:12:28,720 --> 00:12:33,160
Speaker 1: packed up and left Liverpool for Paris. Of course, the

217
00:12:33,520 --> 00:12:36,400
Speaker 1: Bloody Paris Commune was going on at the time, so

218
00:12:36,440 --> 00:12:38,880
Speaker 1: they really took their time getting there. But once they

219
00:12:38,920 --> 00:12:42,920
Speaker 1: were situated, they set up the American Bar and catered

220
00:12:42,960 --> 00:12:46,800
Speaker 1: to expatriots and really anybody who wanted to try real

221
00:12:47,040 --> 00:12:50,840
Speaker 1: New York style cocktails mixed by American bartenders. And I know,

222
00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:53,440
Speaker 1: I mentioned that mixology class that I went to recently,

223
00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:58,440
Speaker 1: and apparently cocktails like old fashioned kind of cocktails that

224
00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:03,120
Speaker 1: have a revival today. We're really an American kind of

225
00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:07,000
Speaker 1: original at the time until Prohibition or around that time

226
00:13:07,040 --> 00:13:10,560
Speaker 1: when lots of American bartenders started moving to Europe. So

227
00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:13,760
Speaker 1: this was something unique that Worth and Bullard and Kitty

228
00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:17,880
Speaker 1: were offering a real American style bar. It was a

229
00:13:17,960 --> 00:13:21,760
Speaker 1: luxurious place with a legitimate bar and a club room downstairs,

230
00:13:22,080 --> 00:13:25,960
Speaker 1: and also a ritzy gambling house upstairs. Whenever a raid

231
00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:29,520
Speaker 1: was imminent, the downstairs bartender could ring a buzzer, alerting

232
00:13:29,559 --> 00:13:33,520
Speaker 1: the upstairs and all of the gambling paraphernalia would suddenly disappear.

233
00:13:34,360 --> 00:13:36,840
Speaker 1: I mean, it almost sounds like a movie. It's going

234
00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:39,640
Speaker 1: straight out of a chain spawd movie. I think but

235
00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:43,320
Speaker 1: they seemed to all have their roles in the bar,

236
00:13:43,400 --> 00:13:47,000
Speaker 1: to which I found kind of amusing. Bullard mostly enjoyed

237
00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:48,800
Speaker 1: the drinks. He was turning into a bit of an

238
00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:51,320
Speaker 1: alcoholic by this point. He played the piano, though it

239
00:13:51,400 --> 00:13:53,600
Speaker 1: was kind of what he had wanted to do in life.

240
00:13:53,880 --> 00:13:59,080
Speaker 1: Kitty acted as hostess for the gambling upstairs area and

241
00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:03,640
Speaker 1: was a alliant conversationalist, would attract customers, and then Worth,

242
00:14:03,679 --> 00:14:07,000
Speaker 1: who didn't drink, ran the place kept the business in line.

243
00:14:07,360 --> 00:14:10,080
Speaker 1: After a few years, though, the Paris police began raiding

244
00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:13,960
Speaker 1: the bar enough that it's scared off would be criminal customers,

245
00:14:14,360 --> 00:14:16,560
Speaker 1: and at the same time it made it really unpleasant

246
00:14:16,679 --> 00:14:19,920
Speaker 1: or cd for the respectable people who would come by.

247
00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:22,960
Speaker 1: So Worth pinched some diamonds off of a customer, sold

248
00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:26,200
Speaker 1: the bar and moved to London with Kitty, whom by

249
00:14:26,240 --> 00:14:30,160
Speaker 1: now he fathered one of two daughters with so running

250
00:14:30,200 --> 00:14:33,120
Speaker 1: a popular bar in a club sounds all well and

251
00:14:33,160 --> 00:14:36,000
Speaker 1: good for somebody like Adam Worth, but he really wanted

252
00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:39,840
Speaker 1: something more. He wanted respectability, and his quest for it

253
00:14:40,200 --> 00:14:44,040
Speaker 1: began the Moriarity phase of his career, which was of

254
00:14:44,080 --> 00:14:47,560
Speaker 1: course hands off but everywhere at the same time. You know,

255
00:14:47,640 --> 00:14:51,120
Speaker 1: he learned his lesson from getting put into sinc saying

256
00:14:51,200 --> 00:14:53,840
Speaker 1: about if you actually commit the crime yourself, you might

257
00:14:53,960 --> 00:14:56,360
Speaker 1: end up in jail. But we have to go through

258
00:14:56,400 --> 00:14:59,000
Speaker 1: some points of what it took to build up a

259
00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:02,640
Speaker 1: criminal empire like well, first of all, it took house.

260
00:15:03,480 --> 00:15:07,400
Speaker 1: Worth set himself, Kitty and the increasingly alcoholic Bullard up

261
00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:10,360
Speaker 1: in a comfy mansion south of the Thames, and it

262
00:15:10,440 --> 00:15:14,720
Speaker 1: was the epitome of gentlemanly living. He collected rare books

263
00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:18,680
Speaker 1: and decorated with fine paintings. He bought ten race horses

264
00:15:18,720 --> 00:15:21,920
Speaker 1: he even gave to charity. Secondly, they needed kind of

265
00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:24,840
Speaker 1: a home base. They needed a headquarters for their crime operation.

266
00:15:25,360 --> 00:15:28,400
Speaker 1: So to separate his life as a wealthy gentleman of

267
00:15:28,480 --> 00:15:32,040
Speaker 1: leisure from a busy master criminal, Worth also rented a

268
00:15:32,040 --> 00:15:35,360
Speaker 1: flat in Mayfair to plan his work from. Thirdly, and

269
00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:39,040
Speaker 1: perhaps most importantly, he needed a secret gang. So now

270
00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:41,920
Speaker 1: that he had pretty much determined to keep his own

271
00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:45,400
Speaker 1: hands out of crime, he needed some trusted delegates and

272
00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:48,640
Speaker 1: associates to work with. And even though he would still

273
00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:52,960
Speaker 1: personally plan and commissioned bank robberies, he'd plan railway and

274
00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:56,120
Speaker 1: steamer heighs because there was a lot of registered mail

275
00:15:56,160 --> 00:16:00,600
Speaker 1: being sent at the time he'd orchestrate post office robberies,

276
00:16:00,680 --> 00:16:04,280
Speaker 1: warehouse break ins. He wasn't always known to the people

277
00:16:04,320 --> 00:16:07,600
Speaker 1: who were committing those crimes. Something I think is is

278
00:16:07,680 --> 00:16:10,080
Speaker 1: kind of maybe more in line with how we think

279
00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:13,680
Speaker 1: of mob bosses or something today. But some associates had

280
00:16:13,760 --> 00:16:17,800
Speaker 1: privileged access to that Mayfair flat that you just mentioned

281
00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:20,360
Speaker 1: to Bolina, but others were anonymous. He never met with

282
00:16:20,400 --> 00:16:22,480
Speaker 1: them at all. He had his guys meet with them.

283
00:16:22,520 --> 00:16:24,920
Speaker 1: So it's easy also here to see the connection to

284
00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:29,640
Speaker 1: holmes description of Moriarty Sherlott Holmes description, he says, quote,

285
00:16:29,880 --> 00:16:32,520
Speaker 1: he sits motionless like a spider in the center of

286
00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:36,160
Speaker 1: its web. But that web has a thousand radiations, and

287
00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:40,400
Speaker 1: he knows well every quiver of each of them. So

288
00:16:40,560 --> 00:16:43,720
Speaker 1: there was one more thing that Worth needed to be

289
00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:48,760
Speaker 1: the master criminal exactly. He needed an escape. Specifically, his

290
00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:51,640
Speaker 1: escape was a luxury yacht, and for him it was

291
00:16:51,720 --> 00:16:54,280
Speaker 1: kind of a two first since it also added cashet

292
00:16:54,360 --> 00:16:58,520
Speaker 1: to Henry Raymond's gentlemanly image. The yaunt certainly helped stage

293
00:16:58,520 --> 00:17:01,720
Speaker 1: grab and go international rhimes. For example, of the Pinkerton's

294
00:17:01,840 --> 00:17:05,560
Speaker 1: rather dramatically described Worth leaving quote a trail of looted

295
00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:09,040
Speaker 1: cities behind him. But having a fast vote also helped

296
00:17:09,119 --> 00:17:13,160
Speaker 1: avoid the law. After a Kingston, Jamaica warehouse robbery, for example,

297
00:17:13,280 --> 00:17:15,840
Speaker 1: it even outran British ships, so that was a pretty

298
00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:18,639
Speaker 1: fast vote was a useful thing to have. But the

299
00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:22,920
Speaker 1: first serious tear in worth little web of crime here

300
00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:26,320
Speaker 1: I didn't occur until eighteen seventy four. So remember how

301
00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:29,560
Speaker 1: we quoted the Pinkerton's earlier. They had written that there

302
00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:33,280
Speaker 1: were three redeeming features in worse Life, one of which

303
00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:36,679
Speaker 1: was that he didn't use violence. Uh. The other was

304
00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:40,399
Speaker 1: that he never forsook a friend or accomplice, which was

305
00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:45,840
Speaker 1: something pretty clearly illustrated when a planned forgery went really

306
00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:50,159
Speaker 1: horribly wrong. So while robbing steamers of certified letters that

307
00:17:50,240 --> 00:17:52,480
Speaker 1: kind of thing was good work. You could make a

308
00:17:52,560 --> 00:17:56,000
Speaker 1: hefty profit on it. Forgery was really the Worth Gang's

309
00:17:56,119 --> 00:17:59,040
Speaker 1: bread and butter, mostly thanks to the talents of one

310
00:17:59,080 --> 00:18:02,960
Speaker 1: of his associates, to Charles the scratch Becker, who could

311
00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:07,920
Speaker 1: make these perfect looking letters of credit. Another crook, little

312
00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:10,760
Speaker 1: Joe Elliott, had the skills to pass off the fakes.

313
00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:16,200
Speaker 1: While Russian Carlosskovich and former Chicago bank clerk Joe Chapman

314
00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:19,440
Speaker 1: could also act as backups. But when the gang tried

315
00:18:19,480 --> 00:18:22,080
Speaker 1: to pass off letters of credit and Constantinople, they were

316
00:18:22,119 --> 00:18:25,040
Speaker 1: caught and they were convicted of forgery and sentenced to

317
00:18:25,119 --> 00:18:29,119
Speaker 1: seven years hard labor in a Constantinople prison. Now Worth

318
00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:31,760
Speaker 1: was pretty good at getting friends out of jail, either

319
00:18:31,880 --> 00:18:35,120
Speaker 1: through breaking them out, like like he did with shin Burn,

320
00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:39,320
Speaker 1: or through bribery, but this situation was different. Even a

321
00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:43,439
Speaker 1: yacht trip that he made to Constantinople with Chapman's desperate wife, Lydia,

322
00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:49,040
Speaker 1: proved fruitless. Finally, for unknown reasons, Becker, Elliott, and Sasakovitch

323
00:18:49,119 --> 00:18:51,640
Speaker 1: were all released. Yeah, and we should explain there too.

324
00:18:51,640 --> 00:18:54,879
Speaker 1: I mean it was definitely from worth influence and the

325
00:18:54,920 --> 00:18:59,000
Speaker 1: money he had been pouring in to trying to secure

326
00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:03,120
Speaker 1: their relief, but it wasn't anything that was officially arranged.

327
00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:05,240
Speaker 1: He didn't know, Okay, my guys are supposed to get

328
00:19:05,280 --> 00:19:08,720
Speaker 1: out on this day, because I've paid enough money for

329
00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:12,080
Speaker 1: that to happen. It just happened one day. The three

330
00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:15,760
Speaker 1: guys were let out. Chapman, though, had gotten into a

331
00:19:15,760 --> 00:19:18,119
Speaker 1: little fight with one of the other gang members and

332
00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:21,919
Speaker 1: had been placed in another part of the prison when

333
00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:24,199
Speaker 1: this release was finally secured. So he was in the

334
00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:28,919
Speaker 1: wrong place, of the wrong time, and nothing that Worth

335
00:19:29,040 --> 00:19:32,080
Speaker 1: did could secure his release too, so he had to

336
00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:35,120
Speaker 1: serve out the rest of his sentence, and consequently, while

337
00:19:35,119 --> 00:19:37,760
Speaker 1: he was doing that, his wife was murdered in her home,

338
00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:42,880
Speaker 1: likely by Seth Covic. Meanwhile, Piano Charlie had gone back

339
00:19:42,880 --> 00:19:45,600
Speaker 1: to the States and was arrested for the Boylston Bank

340
00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:48,640
Speaker 1: robbery of the sixties. He was sentenced to twenty years

341
00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:51,560
Speaker 1: in prison. Kitty had gone back as well, along with

342
00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:54,360
Speaker 1: her daughters, but not to be near Bullard. She went

343
00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:56,440
Speaker 1: out on her own and opened a boarding house in

344
00:19:56,480 --> 00:20:00,200
Speaker 1: New York City. So Worth himself was broke at this point,

345
00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:02,359
Speaker 1: after paying out all that money to get his guys

346
00:20:02,359 --> 00:20:05,959
Speaker 1: out of prison, he was also sands a gang and

347
00:20:06,080 --> 00:20:10,000
Speaker 1: without his love. But Worth wasn't completely done yet. His

348
00:20:10,119 --> 00:20:13,199
Speaker 1: best and boldest heist was still ahead of him, and

349
00:20:13,240 --> 00:20:15,159
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk a little more about that in the

350
00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:17,720
Speaker 1: next actually a lot more about that in the next episode,

351
00:20:18,200 --> 00:20:21,800
Speaker 1: and that was running away with the Duchess Duchess of Devonshire,

352
00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:25,320
Speaker 1: or at least the super famous oil painting of her.

353
00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:29,080
Speaker 1: So we'll save the details of Worths elopement as he

354
00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:31,240
Speaker 1: liked to call it, for the next episode, as well

355
00:20:31,280 --> 00:20:35,119
Speaker 1: as his career as a South African diamond thief and

356
00:20:35,320 --> 00:20:38,960
Speaker 1: his downfall because we told you remember that name, shin Burn.

357
00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:41,680
Speaker 1: And of course we're gonna talk a little bit more

358
00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:46,879
Speaker 1: about that jump to literary notoriety thanks to Arthur Conan Doyle,

359
00:20:46,960 --> 00:20:52,600
Speaker 1: our favorite podcast Cameo Guy, So definitely stay tuned for that.

360
00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:54,560
Speaker 1: And I think in the meantime, let's do a little

361
00:20:54,560 --> 00:21:01,440
Speaker 1: listener mail. So we've received a lot of mail about

362
00:21:01,440 --> 00:21:05,639
Speaker 1: our episode on the Errants Tobacco Collection, and as we requested,

363
00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:07,320
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of people are sending in their

364
00:21:07,359 --> 00:21:10,520
Speaker 1: own collections. We're gonna do a little collecting ourselves, collect

365
00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:13,800
Speaker 1: few these emails and store them up for the future

366
00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:16,160
Speaker 1: listener mail. But I wanted to go ahead and read

367
00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:19,439
Speaker 1: this message we got from Paul. He said, you mentioned

368
00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:22,520
Speaker 1: the Honus Wagner card in the Errant's collection. That didn't

369
00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:25,840
Speaker 1: mention the tobacco collection or the story behind it. Honess

370
00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:28,480
Speaker 1: Wagner was a short stop for the Pittsburgh Pirates in

371
00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:31,400
Speaker 1: the early twentieth century. He was one of the original

372
00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:34,440
Speaker 1: five indectees into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and some

373
00:21:34,480 --> 00:21:37,359
Speaker 1: people argue that he was the greatest all round player

374
00:21:37,560 --> 00:21:41,240
Speaker 1: of all time. In any case, his baseball card, the

375
00:21:41,440 --> 00:21:45,000
Speaker 1: T two six, is one of the most valuable baseball

376
00:21:45,040 --> 00:21:46,639
Speaker 1: cards in the world. I think that's the part that

377
00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:49,600
Speaker 1: we mentioned in the in the podcast. At the time,

378
00:21:49,640 --> 00:21:52,960
Speaker 1: baseball cards were sold with tacks, cigarettes and chewing tobacco.

379
00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:56,639
Speaker 1: Wagner refused to endure such products and was concerned that

380
00:21:56,720 --> 00:21:59,440
Speaker 1: children would buy the tobacco products in order to get

381
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:02,800
Speaker 1: the cards and then use the tobacco, so he refused

382
00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:06,119
Speaker 1: to be depicted on a card. Consequently, there are only

383
00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:09,399
Speaker 1: fifty to sixty known to exist in the entire world,

384
00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:12,159
Speaker 1: and are in high demand because of how good a

385
00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:15,400
Speaker 1: player he is, as well as because of their rarity.

386
00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:18,560
Speaker 1: So pretty neat. When we were researching The Errant's episode,

387
00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:21,640
Speaker 1: I mentioned Honus Wagner to my dad and he told

388
00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:24,879
Speaker 1: me a little bit about this rare baseball card, but

389
00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:28,639
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. Um, the scarcity is because he

390
00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:31,359
Speaker 1: didn't want to be associated with tobacco products. What a

391
00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:34,720
Speaker 1: what a modern kind of thing? Yeah, well, I wonder

392
00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:37,919
Speaker 1: how he feels about being associated with the collection for

393
00:22:37,960 --> 00:22:40,600
Speaker 1: all time. Now, I guess he doesn't get to say

394
00:22:40,600 --> 00:22:43,520
Speaker 1: in it. No he doesn't. He just is the most

395
00:22:43,640 --> 00:22:46,359
Speaker 1: famous baseball card. So I guess not too bad of

396
00:22:46,359 --> 00:22:50,119
Speaker 1: a consolation prize. Absolutely so. Um again, maybe a last

397
00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:52,840
Speaker 1: chance to send us some book collection if you have

398
00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:56,600
Speaker 1: before we launch into that listener mail um, and of

399
00:22:56,640 --> 00:23:00,639
Speaker 1: course any other suggestions you have. We are at History

400
00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:03,280
Speaker 1: Podcast at Discovery dot com. We're also on Twitter at

401
00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:06,119
Speaker 1: Misston History, and we're on Facebook. And if you want

402
00:23:06,160 --> 00:23:08,760
Speaker 1: to learn a little bit more about some of the

403
00:23:09,119 --> 00:23:10,719
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe we shouldn't say if you want

404
00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:12,119
Speaker 1: to learn a little bit more, maybe if you just

405
00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:15,240
Speaker 1: want like a poor word, or yes, maybe you just

406
00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:19,160
Speaker 1: want a passing knowledge of some of the criminal activities

407
00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:22,280
Speaker 1: we've discussed on today's podcast. We do have an article

408
00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:25,560
Speaker 1: called how lock Picking Works that we get some flag

409
00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:27,439
Speaker 1: four once in a while, but if you want to know,

410
00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:29,480
Speaker 1: you can check it out. You might get lost out

411
00:23:29,480 --> 00:23:31,399
Speaker 1: of locked out of your house one day, or something,

412
00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:34,479
Speaker 1: but use it for good, use it for good, not evil.

413
00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:37,760
Speaker 1: You can find it on our homepage at www dot

414
00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:43,919
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Be sure to check out

415
00:23:43,960 --> 00:23:47,159
Speaker 1: our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how

416
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:49,719
Speaker 1: stu Work staff as we explore the most promising and

417
00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:54,200
Speaker 1: perplexing possibilities of tomorrow the house. Stuff Works iPhone app

418
00:23:54,200 --> 00:24:01,720
Speaker 1: has a ride. Download it today on iTunes. Eat In

419
00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:02,600
Speaker 1: Drink