Napoleon of crime
Napoleon of crime is a nickname that has been applied to various real and fictional criminals.[1]
Even before his death, the name of French leader Napoleon had already become an eponym and metaphor for someone achieving outstanding success, often through ruthless ambition, in various fields of endeavour.[2] Gabriel-Julien Ouvrard was "the Napoleon of finance";[3] later Ferdinand Ward was the "Young Napoleon of Finance";[4] in 1913 The Economist called J. Pierpont Morgan "the Napoleon of Wall Street".[5] Commercial traveller George Moore was "the Napoleon of the Road".[6]
A newspaper report on the 1850 George Parkman murder case contrasted the alternative suspects: "If Webster did it, it was like all such affairs since Cain's, bungling and weak. If Littlefield did it, his arrangements made him the Napoleon of crime."[7] In an 1898 short story, Francis Pollock describes a daring jewel thief as 'what the newspapers call "a Napoleon of crime"'.[8]
Notable instances of people being called a (or the) "Napoleon of crime" include:
- Charles Peace (1832–1879), in newspaper articles in 1879 (quoting "a farmer named Townry" from near Chesterfield, Derbyshire)[9] and 1893 (written by "an official who knew him")[10]
- Professor Moriarty, said by Sherlock Holmes in "The Final Problem" (1893) by Arthur Conan Doyle.[1][11]
- Adam Worth (alias "Harry Raymond", c. 1844–1902) based on a remark ("the Napoleon of the criminal world") by Robert Anderson when Assistant Commissioner (Crime) (between 1888 and 1901) of the UK Metropolitan Police.[1][12] In his 1907 memoir, Anderson said "[Worth] was the most eminent of the criminal fraternity of my time ... His schemes were Napoleonic."[13] A discussion of the book in Blackwood's Magazine said, "Sir Robert Anderson properly calls [Worth] a Napoleon of crime".[14]
- Macavity, the antagonist of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939) by T. S. Eliot.[1][15]
References
- 1 2 3 4 Wolkomir, Richard (October 1997). "Review of 'The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief'". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
- ↑
- "napoleon". Merriam-Webster.
- "napoleon_n2". Oxford English Dictionary (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ↑
- Watkinson, William Lonsdale; Davison, William Theophilus, eds. (October 1854). "Brief Literary Notices: Fifty Years in both Hemispheres: or, Reminiscences of a Merchant's Life By Vincent Nolte. London: Trübner and Co. 1854". The London Quarterly Review. 3 (5). London: Walton and Maberly: 284.
- Adams, William Henry Davenport (1880). The secret of success; or, How to get on in the world. John Hogg. p. 234.
- ↑ "A Disposition to Be Rich by Geoffrey C. Ward". Penguin Random House Canada. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
- ↑ Steck, Robert N. (November–December 1993). "The Napoleon of Wall Street". D & B Reports. 42 (6). New York: Dun and Bradstreet: 60.
- ↑ Allen, A. P. (1885). The Ambassadors of Commerce. London: T. F. Unwin. p. 227.
- ↑ "Webster Trial". New Albany Daily Ledger. March 30, 1850. p. 2.
- ↑ Pollock, Frank L. (June 1898). "The Iron Star". The Black Cat. 3 (33): 35.
- ↑ "Untitled". North Otago Times. Vol. XXVIII, no. 2169. 16 April 1879. p. 2 col 5. Retrieved 16 July 2025 – via Papers Past.
- ↑ "The Napoleon of Crime". Launceston Examiner. 23 September 1893. p. 8. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
- ↑ Doyle, Arthur Conan (December 1893). "The Adventure of the Final Problem". The Strand: 561. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
For years I have endeavoured to break through the veil which shrouded it, and at last the time came when I seized my thread and followed it, until it led me, after a thousand cunning windings, to ex-Professor Moriarty of mathematical celebrity. He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson.
- ↑
- "News of the Week". The Spectator. 86 (3798): 518. 13 April 1901.
Messrs. Agnew, the picture dealers, have recovered the great picture by Gainsborough of the Duchess of Devonshire which was stolen from them in 1876. ... The theft was regarded at the time as a triumph of professional skill, and its author is described even now as a "Napoleon of Crime"
- "The Gainsborough Picture". Norwich Bulletin. Vol. 43, no. 33. Norwich, Connecticut. 7 February 1902. p. 1 col 2.
Adam Worth, alias Henry J. Raymond, and known as the "Napoleon of Crime," is dead in London
- Stevens, C. L. McCluer (1924). Famous Crimes and Criminals. S. Paul. p. 38.
Conversing one day with the late Sir Robert Anderson, at the time when he was head of the Criminal Investigation Department at Scotland Yard, I chanced to ask him who, in his estimation, was the cleverest and most resourceful criminal he had ever met. "Adam Worth!" he rapped out, without a moment's hesitation. "He was the Napoleon of the criminal world. None other could hold a candle to him."
- "News of the Week". The Spectator. 86 (3798): 518. 13 April 1901.
- ↑ Anderson, Robert (1907). Criminals And Crime: Some Facts And Suggestions. London: James Nisbet. p. 94.
- ↑ "Musings without Method: A Napoleon of Crime". Blackwood's Magazine. 182 (1106). Edinburgh: W. Blackwood: 849. December 1907.
- ↑ Eliot, T. S. (1967) [1939]. "Macavity: The Mystery Cat". Old Possum's book of practical cats. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-15-668570-2.