birdsoup

This is not a bird related post. I stumbled on a unusual fact that peaked my curiosity and wrote the following:

Sherlock Holmes in White Plains
by
Hank Weber

It has been over a century since master detective Sherlock Holmes retired as an to lead a quiet life as a beekeeper in Sussex Downs. Yet today Holmes is still the most famous detective in the world thanks to 56 short stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle detailing his most fascinating cases not ot mention  countless plays, radio dramas, parodies, television series, and many movies.
Considering his global recognition it might surprise some to realize that Holmes never existed. This legendary character was created by the imagination of Arthur Conan Doyle. Of course, Conan Doyle drew liberally on real crimes and actual locations to make his stories vivid and memorable.
For example, Sherlock’s archenemy, Professor James Moriarty, who he often called “the Napoleon of Crime” or “the most dangerous man in London”, is based on Adam Worth, a true criminal mastermind whose notorious career began in White Plains. As a youth in New York City, he was a typical small time pickpocket and thief, eventually forming his own gang of pickpockets. When he was caught stealing the cashbox of an Adams Express Wagon, he was sentenced to three year in Sing Sing, but escaped.

He had ambition and intelligence and soon progressed to larger and more complex crimes including bank and store robbery. In 1869, after stealing $100,000 worth of goods from the Hudson River Railway Express the safe cracker in his gang, “Piano” Charley Bullard, was captured and imprisoned in the new White Plains Jail.  Worth conceived a plan to free Bullard by digging a tunnel under the jail from a nearby building. It worked, and the gang fled to Boston.  Adam Worth was so pleased with the tunneling technique that he used it again in November to break into Boylston National Bank. Working at night the gang tunneled into the bank vault from an adjacent store, opened the safe and escaped with an estimated $200,000.

Note: Sherlock Holmes fans will recall that in “The Red-Headed League” Professor Moriarty’s gang used the same tunneling technique to break into a London bank from an adjacent store.

The size and audacity of the Boston robbery roused the entire banking community and stirred the Boston police. In addition, the bank hired the famous Pinkerton Detective Agency to track him down. Adam Worth sensed the intense pressure and fled to England where he continued his criminal ways both on the continent and in Britain.
So Westchester’s criminal became London’s problem. He soon formed a new criminal network and organized major robberies and burglaries. The actual crimes were carried out by several intermediaries who never new his real name. He was involved in gambling, diamond theft, forged checks, fake letters of credit. One of his most sensational capers was stealing a famous painting by Thomas Gainsborough directly off the wall of theAgnew & Sons, a London art gallery. He loved the painting so much he didn’t sell it immediately on the black market but carried it with him for several years as he moved around Europe. Eventually he did return it to the insurance company for $25,000. But the authorities could never prove his role in the theft.
He was so notorious, that Scotland Yard detective Robert Anderson dubbed him “The Napoleon of the criminal world”.
Sherlock Holmes often used that exact phrase to describe his nemesis, Professor Moriarty.

Sherlock Holmes may be fictional. But there is no doubt that the crimes and criminals depicted in his cases are based on real people and places. And the worst of them may have started in White Plains.
Sherlock Holmes Fan Club
Justin Bieber and other pop idols have thousands of fan clubs. Despite enormous current popularity, fame fades quickly with time. And it is unlikely that these clubs will still exist in ten years. However, fan clubs for Sherlock Holmes are still going strong after a century.
There are more than a dozen fan clubs in the NYC metro area, most are part of a larger organization known as the Baker Street Irregulars. The Westchester chapter is called the 3 Garridebs (after one of Sherlock’s famous cases). It serves over 150 local Sherlock fans with bimonthly meetings and annual events. The next meeting, their 40th Anniversary luncheon, will be on Sunday, July 31st. For details call Sue & Ben Vizaskie (914) 948-1376 or http://www.3Garridebs.homestead.com