Birds are not my only interest. Lots of other area interest me as well, maybe too many and thus I spread myself and my time too widely. Recently, as I was perusing a mathematics book (that’s one of my interests) I came across an interesting historical (that’s another interest) tidbit about Sherlock Holmes (that’s a third)
Arthur Conan Doyle created Professor James Moriarity, a mathematician and criminal mastermind, to be the arch enemy of Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle and Holmes referred to him as “the Napoleon of crime” and the brains behind all criminal enterprises in London.
Conan Doyle used real events and locations to add authenticity to his stories. Sherlockian scholars believe that Professor Moriarity was based on a real-life criminal named Adam Worth. Born in Germany, Worth traveled to America as a youth. Starting as a pickpocket and small-time thief, he eventually organized his own gang that specialized in major robberies, even bank robberies, in New York City. In the 1860s when his favorite safe-cracker, Piano Charley Bullard, was imprisoned in the White Plains jail (this is the part that caught my attention) Worth helped him escape by digging a tunnel. They fled to Boston and one year later broke into the vault of the Boylston National Bank by tunneling into the bank from a neighboring store. To escape the law and Pinkerton detectives, he fled to England to continue his career.
Those of you who are fans of Sherlock Holmes may recall that in the story, “The Red-headed League”, criminals tunneled into a bank from the shop next door.
It is a small world to realize that one of the best known stories has ties to three of my interests and is based on a true criminal exploit here in nearby White Plains.