BOOK REVIEW: THE NAPOLEON OF CRIME

Allow me to enthuse about The Napoleon of Crime by Ben Macintyre (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997), which is the biography of Adam Worth, who began his life of crime as a Civil War bounty-jumper before maturing as a bank robber. He is credited with masterminding the 1869 robbery of the Boylston National Bank in Boston, which was accomplished by the robbers tunneling into the bank from the adjacent building.

Astute fans of Sherlock Holmes will, of course, recognize this technique from The Red-headed League. Worth was also a planner and sponsor of heists carried out by others, which led to him being credited as the inspiration of Professor Moriarty.

Worth was pursued throughout his career by William Pinkerton, who, of course, came to admire him and helped support him and his children at the end of his life.

I found the book very readable and interesting in its depiction of crime and finance in the latter half of the 19th century, as well as including a nice number of end-notes. While it doesn’t directly bear on numismatics, it provided me with a lot of context regarding financial practices of the time.

For more information on Amazon.com, see:
The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief (www.amazon.com/The-Napoleon-Crime-Times-Master/dp/0385319932)

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