The Rich Thief

“You must not make the criminal a hero.”
Arthur Conan Doyle, 1924.

One of the most enjoyable plot gimmicks for mystery writers and readers is the story where the protagonist, a criminal, a thief who never kills, is actually a wealthy (or in the case of Raffles, apparently wealthy) socially-connected man who engages in crime to tweak the nose of the system , to champion some worthy cause, or just for the adrenaline rush of risking everything he has, even his freedom for twenty years or so.
A fun write, after all, look at the number of authors involved – but one that can, too easily, become a multi-layered cliché.
A few rich thieves who come immediately to mind would be:
The classic movie, The Thomas Crown Affair, particularly the original 1968 version with Steve McQueen, though the later 1999 version with Pierce Brosnan is also enjoyable (with a sequel rumored at various times). [As an aside, the original movie was being filmed in Boston while I was at the Harvard Business School. So it is a real nostalgia trip when my wife and I watch it again.] At the time of its 1968 filming the Boston Strangler story was much in the news which is why no street signs were revealed in the filming, with even the location of the Crown mansion on Beacon Hill (85 Mt. Vernon St.) was concealed, in order to ensue no viewer started thinking Strangler when they should be thinking Crown. One of the killings attributed to the Strangler took place about half-a-block from one of the scenes. And yes, I did take glider lessons, which was a blast. There is no age limit on glider licenses.
A friend, Walter B. Gibson, writing as Maxwell Grant, wrote one of the truly legendary rich thieves, The Shadow, starting in1930. Walter’s Shadow was not invisible, but had about every other talent imaginable. Walter ended up writing 286 Shadow novels at a rate of two novels per month. In one of our conversations, he told me, laughing, that his ardent readers would closely critique the stories and then chastise him for any mistakes he made, as, in one novel, when he put the Shadow’s telephone in his Sanctum on the wrong side of the desk. But at two novels a month and other writings in his “spare time” Walter was really the incarnation of the word prolific. The popularity of the Shadow radio program finally forced him to add Margo Lane to his novels, something he had resisted for a number of months. And, while Lamont Cranston was a wealthy man-about-town, in Walter’s stories, Cranston was a real person whose identity the Shadow used when Cranston himself was out of town. All Shadow fans know the Shadow’s real name.
Then there was Erle Stanley Gardner’s 1932 creation, The Patent Leather Kid, who was wealthy idle man-about-town Dan Seller, the source of whose wealth was a mystery. Unlike some other rich thieves, Seller assumes an intermediate persona, businessman Rodney Stone, who then, wearing black patent-leather mask, gloves and shoes, becomes the Kid whose exploits constantly antagonize Inspector Phil Brame. There were twelve stories and the Kid ceased his career in 1934.
Among the 49 other series characters that Gardner created, there were a few other short-lived rich thieves before He focused primarily on lawyer, Perry Mason.
No even brief consideration of rich thieves could omit Zorro, Johnston McCulley’s 1919 creation which has appeared in every mode of presentation possible. Don Diego de Valera, the indolent idle son of a wealthy Spanish land owner, dons black mask and costume, and on his great black stallion, Tornado, rides out to defend the poor or embarrass the Spanish authorities. McCulley’s portrayal of Zorro varied over the stories, particularly when he kills Zorro in his first story, then brings him back.
As popular as the stories were, it was the Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., appearance in the 1920 silent film, The Mark of Zorro that put Zorro on the popular map for decades to come. It also created a new career for Fairbanks.
One of the earliest and most popular rich thieves was A. J. Raffles, by E. W. Hornung, the son-in-law of Arthur Conan Doyle. The amateur cracksman and premier cricketer first appeared in 1898. Hornung’s creation was the inverse of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Raffles stole primarily to maintain his social standing, but also at times to settle accounts and for the sport of defeating an arrogant aristocracy. The final story in which Raffles, together with his loyal accomplice, Harry “Bunny” Manders, try to even things up ethically by joining the British Army during the Boer War during which Raffles is heroically killed.
Raffles became immediately popular with actors as Anthony Valentine, David Niven, Ronald Coleman, and John Barrymore portraying him in film, stage and television. After Hornung’s death, other authors continued the stories, all of which lead to an enjoyable read. Valentine’s Raffles in the British series of that name seems right on, a believable, resourceful rich thief.
There are more incarnations, naturally, The Scarlet Pimpernel and Arsene Lupin come to mind, but the rich thief remains one of the most enjoyable mystery clichés out there -- and what other mystery plot could get you up in a glider?