PICTURE MYSTERY

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 1452, 10 September 1924, Page 2

PICTURE MYSTERY

A GAINSBOROUGH THEFT. ADAM WORTH-MASTER CRIMINAL. -To steal the Duchess of Devonshire, the famous picture of Gainsborough, seemed to be the equivalent of buying trouble. Of What possible use could it be to the thief? It was the renown of the picture and the proof that it was the original masterpiece that had made it so valuable; therefore the moment it was offered for sale detection would follow.

That reasoning seems good at first sight, but the man who stole the picture thought otherwise,, and he was certainly the astutest man who ever misapplied his talents to a 'cause of crime.

In order to (understand this curious affair it is well to form a picture of the principal actor, Adam Worth, or Harry Raymond, for these were the best known of his many names. Worth was his real name, and he first figures in a prominent public capacity as an officer in the Northern army in the great American Civil War. He appears to have acquitted himself with credit, and when the curtain had been rung down on that stirring drama he, like so many adventurous spirits at the present time, found it hard to settle down to a humdrum life. OWNED A YACHT.

He engaged in many schemes which ran .close to the wind, and then coolly and deliberately chose a life of crime. Even then, however, a certain style and distinc- , tion of the man became evident. He disdained petty and vulgar larceny, but he thought out long plots that demanded careful and sustained action and that produced big rewards. He first of all established a large reserve fund of cash, on which he could draw when in difficulties, and he also secured a good address not far from Piccadilly, for his headquarters. He owned a yacht, he moved in the society of substantial and honest men, and though he was well acquainted with the underworld of London.and of other large cities, he did not allow his accomplices or his instruments to know much about '.; is own business

In the year 1876 Adam Worth had the good appearance of a retired ojficer. F.e was rather below the middle height, but he was a trim-built, energetic-looking fellow, while his expression was more thoughtful than that of the average man about town, his manners were undemonstrative and good, and his conversation charming. [ .

SPICE OF ROMANCE, There was a spice of romance in all his crimes, and it is probable that the sporting side of his ventures appealed to him as much as the actual reward of a big success. Previous to the Duchess of Devonshire coup, for eximple, he had planned __a robbery of diamonds in South Africa, and with such skill that nothing was suspected till a registered bag was duly delivered to the merchant expecting it at Hatton Gardens, and found to contain a few worthless trinkets. ',.

Adam Worth "Bad made a study of every feature of the transport of these precious stones from their actual discovery in the soil to their arrival in London, and he had seen how in the Post Office, when the gems were lying in the mail bajs waiting for transmission to the mail boat he could make the substitution he desired.

Adam, Worth being a man of some culture, admired good pictures for themselves, and so it happened that when Messrs Agnew, the famous picture dealers, exhibited the Duchess in their rooms in Bond street, and admitted the public at Is a head, Adam Worth went to see the masterpiece. The picture itself had had a chequered history, for it had been sold in 1841 by an elderly school mistress, Mrs Maginnes, for 60gs, to Mr Wynn-EUis, and after his death had been sold to Messrs Agnew for 10,O00gs. The picture was a brilliant piece of work, but it was probably the trade romance as much as :ta artistic merits that attracted the crowd to Bond street. ON HIS METTLE.

Adam Worth, while walking with a friend, observed that for an object of so high a value it was left comparatively unguarded, but the friend replied, pointing out the difficulty of making away with the picture, and the uselespness of the possession to the thief. This put Worth on his mettle. He was one of those who delighted in a difficult problem in which he, had to pit his brains against those of others. He resolved to steal the Duchess and to profit by the transaction. The gallery was left, in charge of a caretaker who slept on the premises. It was his custom to make a tour of the rooms before 11 o'clock and then to go to bed. There was no great difficulty therefore on that score, provided that the operations were quickly carried out. Worth himself arranged the plan for- the robbery, and it is said by some that he carried out the operation.

The actual thief, whether the principal or an assistant, concealed himself behind a big signboard and remained there until the caretaker had departed for the night. Then emerging from his hiding-place, he went straight to the picture, and with a sharp penknife cut it from its frame, rolled it up in a parcel, And let it down by means of a rope through a window to an accomplice, who placed it under his waistcoat and walked away. The thief then male use of the same rope to descend to the ground.

£I,OOO REWARD. The news of the theft made a, great stir, and a reward of £I,OOO was offered for such information as would lead to the conviction of the thief and the restoration of the picture. Of course, all the' picture dealers in the country, and on the Continent and in the United States, became acquainted with the facts, and it was believed that the recovery of the Duchess would be only u matter of a few days. Weeks passed, then months,, then years, and the case became only the more mysterious. Those of the public who recollected the affair at all thought that the picture was irrecoverably lost. It was possible that it had been destroyed by the possessor in a panic so as to avoid detection. Messrs Agnew, however, never lost confidence that the picture was intact, and that they would eventually regain possession of the masterpiece which was the apple of their eye. 'Twenty-five years had rolled away when Messrs Agnew received the visit of a remarkable person with an Irish name. He was a man of the world, an international character, and that indeed might be said to have been his profession. He was continually voyaging between New York, London, and Paris, a big, broad-shoul-dered, jolly fellow, who looked like a retired prize-fighter, but his finger-tips, carefully pumice-stoned, were more sensitive than those of a nobleman's daughter. He could tell from the feel of the cards as he dealt them what hands were held by the players. Hence his luck at poker and

kindred games, and, incidentally, his staying at the most expensive hotels and mingling with the best company. ON SOLID GROUND. Apart from, cheating at cards and practices of that sort, he was an honest man, and when he proposed to deal with Messrs Agnew for.the return of the Duchess they knew at least that they were on, solid ground. For long years they had refused to entertain any question of a deal except through the police, but a whole generation had passed by, and not the slightest clue, had been found as to the place where the picture reposed, or even as to its existence.

The stranger's terms involved the stipulation that no questions should be asked; that the "principal" should receive £5,000 as his share, and finally that he himself should be rewarded with a little souvenir of £2,000. The famous firm of Pinkerton Bros, were commissioned on the other side with the necessary arrangements, and so it happened that one fine day in 1901 Mr Morland Agnew and Mr Pinkerton were sitting together in- 4 private room 'of one of Chicago's palatial hotels when a knock was heard at the door. " Come in! " A young messenger boy entered carrying a brown paper roll. " Mr Agnew? " " Yes."

The messenger boy silently handed him the parcel, and immediately took his departure. "HONOR AMONG THIEVES,"

Mr Agnew cut the string in eager anticipation, and the famous Duchess of Devonshire rolled open to his view. In the twenty-five years that had elapsed the value of the picture had mounted, so that in the end everyone was pleased. In the meantime, what had happened to Adam Worth ? There is a tale that he had been persistently blackmailed by his accomplices in this theft, but that part of the story is probably imaginative. ' He was always the master mind among the criminals with whom he had to do, and Unlike many of his nefarious profession he did carry/ out to an extraordinary degree the precept of " honor among thieves," and the man who was especially associated with him in this sensational coup was one whom he had befriended and assisted.

One of the stories, currently believed; is that Worth himself got into the gallery by first standing on the shoulders of his accomplice, who was a very tall man, and then clambering through a window.

CRUSHED AND BROKEN. " Little Adam " had in his career stolen to the value of half a million, but he had no sooner finished with one crime than he set to plan another, and always on a large scale. One of his sayings was that it is as easy to get away with 10,000 dollars as with 100 dollars. Following this maxim he robbed a mail train in Belgium, but he bungled. As years passed he had taken to drink, and his judgment and his nerve were not what they were. He received the crushing sentence of seven years, and when he emerged from prison he was, though not very old in years, a crushed and broken man. He could have shortened his term of imprisonment by revealing the secret of the D uc hess of Devonshire, but he wished that the proceeds of this, affair should go to the support of his two young As it turned out, the ransom 1 of £5,000 was all that he was able to leave them, for shortly afterwards, in January, 1902, he died"'''in poor surroundings and almost, alone. . >,.