Professor Moriarty Comes to Chicago

   Adam Worth ran a criminal ring in England during the latter part of the nineteenth century. A London detective once called him “The Napoleon of the Criminal World,” and Worth is thought to be the model for Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis, Professor Moriarty. And though Holmes never had any dealings in Chicago, the real-life Moriarty did.

   Born in Germany in 1841, Worth grew up in Massachusetts. He eventually settled in London, posing as an American financier with social connections. During the 1870s he put together an elaborate underworld organization, specializing in high-end burglaries of his unsuspecting society friends. Scotland Yard suspected him, but could prove nothing.

   Then, in 1876, Worth’s brother was arrested on forgery charges and needed bail. At the time a famous Gainsborough painting, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire was about to be offered at a London auction. So one night Worth simply got a ladder, climbed through a window at the auction house, cut the painting from its frame, and made off with it.

   As it turned out, the charges against little brother were dropped. Rather than fence the stolen painting, Worth decided to keep it.

Adam Worth

   Georgiana became Worth’s constant companion. He usually kept it in the false bottom of a suitcase as he traveled. At some point he smuggled the painting out of England and put it in storage in the United States. That’s where Georgiana was in 1893, when Belgian authorities convicted Worth of a string of robberies and sent him to prison.

   By 1899 Worth was again free. His crime ring was in shambles and his fortune was gone. Using the Pinkerton Detective Agency as a go-between, he began negotiating a “no-questions-asked” return of Georgiana to the auction house. After nearly two years haggling, a price of $25,000 was agreed upon. The transfer was to be made at Pinkerton’s headquarters city, Chicago. 

   Morland Agnew of the auction house came over from London with his wife, arriving in Chicago on March 27, 1901. They were met at the train station by William Pinkerton of the detective agency. Pinkerton assured the Agnews that things were moving forward according to plan, and offered to take the visitors on a tour of the city. The Agnews declined. Exhausted and anxious, the couple checked into the Auditorium Hotel for a good night’s sleep.

William Pinkerton 

At 9:30 the next morning, Morland Agnew and Pinkerton made their way to the First National Bank to cash a bank draft for the ransom. When the cashier examined the size of the draft, he warned Agnew, “That’s a lot of money to carry around Chicago!” Agnew simply nodded and gestured toward Pinkerton, who was standing just behind him. Everyone in Chicago knew William Pinkerton. “Oh, I guess you’ll be all right then,” the cashier said.

   As instructed, the money was in used bills. Agnew carried it to Pinkerton’s office, where the two men sorted it out. Then they returned to the hotel. The painting was to be delivered there at 1 p.m. 

   Mrs. Agnew had been left alone at the hotel while her husband and Pinkerton assembled the ransom. By now the tension was getting to her, and she was a nervous wreck. As the hours slowly passed, Agnew and Pinkerton also became apprehensive. Was Worth going to carry out his part of the bargain?

Georgiana

   At precisely 1 p.m. a messenger arrived at the Agnews’ hotel room, carrying a parcel wrapped in brown paper. After Morland Agnew identified himself and handed over the money, the messenger surrendered the parcel. Inside it was the long-lost Georgiana.

   Within hours the Agnews were on the train to New York, and from there the ship to England. Not until the painting was safely back in London was the news released to the public. Then the Chicago papers ran the story on the front page for a week.

   Adam Worth in disguise had been the messenger returning the painting. Less than a year after collecting the ransom, he was dead of natural causes. But in a twist worthy of Conan Doyle himself, the real-life Moriarty’s son refused to take over the family business. Instead, he found a new career—as a Pinkerton detective.

This is just one of the stories in my book UNKNOWN CHICAGO TALES. Available at local bookstores or on Amazon.