According to Vincent Starrett, who authored the book, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used Adam Worth as the prototype for Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis Professor Moriarity. “The original of Moriarty was Adam Worth, who stole the famous Gainsborough, in 1876, and hid it for a quarter of a century. This was revealed by Sir Arthur in conversation with Dr. Gray Chandler Briggs, some years ago.” Professor Moriarity has been immortalized in literature by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle but virtually no one is familiar with Adam Worth, a former Union soldier wounded at the Battle of Bull Run Bridge, erroneously declared dead in a Georgetown hospital, who then went on to a life as a master criminal on multiple continents.

Adam Worth was born into a poor Jewish family somewhere in Germany in 1844. His original last name may have been “Werth”. At the age of five, his family moved to the United States and settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His father worked as a tailor. In 1854, Worth ran away from home and moved first to Boston and in 1860 to New York City. When the Civil War broke out, he was 17. He lied about his age and enlisted in the Union Army. He was wounded at the Battle of Bull Run Bridge and sent to a hospital in Georgetown. While there, he learned he had been listed as killed in action and he left the hospital. It is likely that he was confused with another soldier Adam Wirth, who served in the 2nd NY Heavy Artillery who died at the same hospital of wounds he suffered at the same battle. Worth enlisted in various regiments under assumed names for a bounty and then deserted. When the Pinkertons began to track him, he left New York.

After the war he became a career criminal. Starting as a pickpocket and progressing to organizing gangs of robbers. He was caught robbing the cash box of an Adams Express wagon and was sentenced to three years in Sing Sing prison. After escaping he resumed his criminal career, which now included robbing banks and stores. After robbing the Boylston National Bank in Boston on November 20, 1869, through a tunnel from a neighboring shop, the bank alerted the Pinkertons. They tracked a shipment of trunks used to transport the money to New York and Worth left the country for England. There he robbed local pawnshops. He moved to France where he set up an illegal gambling hall in Paris. Raids by Paris police led him to return to London. There, he lived as a respected member of high society under the alias Henry Judson Raymond.

In 1876, Worth stole Thomas Gainsborough’s painting of Georgiana Cavendish the Duchess of Devonshire from the London gallery of Thomas Agnew and Sons. He liked the painting and did not try to sell it. He kept it with him even when he was traveling. He traveled to South Africa, where he stole $500,000 worth of uncut diamonds. Back in London, he founded Wynert & Company, which sold diamonds at discount prices. In the 1880s, Worth married Louise Margaret Boljahn, while still using the name Henry Raymond. They had a son Henry and a daughter Beatrice. It is possible his wife did not know his real identity. He smuggled the painting to the United States and left it there.

In 1892, Worth visited Belgium. On October 5th he carried out a robbery of a money delivery cart with two untried associates, one of them the American Johnny Curtin. The robbery went badly, and he was captured. His two accomplices got away. In jail, Worth refused to identify himself, and the Belgian police made inquiries abroad. Both the New York Police Department and Scotland Yard identified him as Adam Worth. He was found guilty and sentenced to seven years for robbery. During his time in jail, Johnny Curtin, who was supposed to have taken care of his wife seduced and abandoned her. She was committed to an asylum and his children placed in the care of his brother John in the United States. After an early release for good behavior in 1897, he returned to London and stole £4,000 from a diamond shop to get funds to return to the United States.

When he visited his wife in the asylum, she barely recognized him. He traveled to New York and visited his children. He then met with William Pinkerton, to whom he described the events of his life in great detail. The manuscript that Pinkerton wrote is still preserved in the archives of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Through Pinkerton, Worth arranged the return of the painting Duchess of Devonshire to Agnew & Sons in return for $25,000. The portrait and payment were exchanged in Chicago on March 28, 1901. Worth returned to London with his children and spent the rest of his life there until he died on January 8, 1902. His son went on to become a career Pinkerton detective.

Next- The First Battle of Bristoe Station (Kettle Run) and Bristoe Station Heritage Park

Source

The Napoleon of Crime- The Life and Times of Adam Worth Master Thief by Ben Macintyre