31 Facts About Adam Worth

Adam Worth is widely considered the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional criminal mastermind James Moriarty in the Sherlock Holmes series.

Adam Worth was born into a poor Jewish family somewhere in Germany.

In 1854, Adam Worth ran away from home and moved first to Boston and then, in 1860, to New York City.

Adam Worth worked as a clerk in a department store for one month.

Adam Worth lied about his age and enlisted in the Union Army.

Adam Worth was wounded at the Second Battle of Bull Run on 30 August 1862 and shipped to a hospital in Georgetown, Washington, DC In the hospital, he learned he had been listed as killed in action and left.

Adam Worth became a bounty jumper, enlisting into various regiments under assumed names, receiving his bounty, and then deserting.

Adam Worth began to work for the prominent fence and criminal organiser Fredericka "Marm" Mandelbaum.

Adam Worth was financier "Henry Judson Raymond", a name that he "borrowed" from the late founder editor of The New York Times, and which he used for years afterwards.

Adam Worth became Bullard's wife, but did not disfavor Worth.

William Pinkerton believed Adam Worth fathered both of Kitty's daughters.

Adam Worth shared the loot with Bullard and Flynn when they came back, and together, the three moved to Paris in 1871.

Adam Worth formed a new gang of associates, including some of his old comrades from New York.

Adam Worth used his place for the last time to defraud a diamond dealer, and the three moved to London.

Adam Worth formed his own criminal network and organised major robberies and burglaries through several intermediaries.

Adam Worth managed to exonerate him and get him sent back to the United States.

Adam Worth liked the painting and did not try to sell it.

Phillips tried to get him to talk about the theft in the presence of a police informer, and Adam Worth effectively fired him.

Adam Worth gave Little Joe money to return to the United States, where he tried to rob the Union Trust Company, was arrested, and talked to the Pinkertons.

Adam Worth kept the painting with him even when he was travelling and organising new schemes and robberies.

Adam Worth smuggled the painting to the United States and left it there.

In 1892, Adam Worth decided to visit Belgium, where Bullard was in jail.

In jail, Adam Worth refused to identify himself, and the Belgian police made inquiries abroad.

In jail, Adam Worth heard nothing about his family in London, but received a letter from Kitty Flynn, who offered to finance his defence.

Adam Worth flatly denied that he had anything to do with various crimes, saying that the last robbery had been a stupid act he had committed out of a need for money.

Adam Worth claimed that his wealth came out of legal gambling.

Later, Adam Worth heard that Johnny Curtin, who was supposed to have taken care of his wife, had seduced and abandoned her.

Adam Worth travelled to New York and visited his children.

The manuscript that Pinkerton wrote after Adam Worth left is still preserved in the archives of the Pinkerton Detective Agency in Van Nuys, California.

Adam Worth returned to London with his children and spent the rest of his life with them.

Adam Worth was buried in Highgate Cemetery in a mass pauper's grave under the name of "Henry J Raymond".