Hero Professor Moriarty. Jim Moriarty - the perfect antagonist Moriarty's main achievement in science

The $1 million from the bank heist was enough to spin up an underground casino in Paris, and then create the largest criminal network of its time that entangled London. All these criminal exploits were carried out by a man named Adam Worth (pictured below).

Contemporaries called him the Napoleon of the underworld, and the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, copied his professor Moriarty from him.

Profession - deserter

In 1891, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle conceived an unheard-of villainy. He decided to get rid of Sherlock Holmes, who had bothered him, but he was going to do it in such a way that the brilliant detective would die, having accomplished some great feat. The writer needed a character equal to Holmes in mental abilities, but at the same time embodying absolute evil, so that the brilliant detective would die, having managed to destroy him. Conan Doyle overheard high-ranking Scotland Yard officer Sir Robert Anderson calling one of the criminals the Napoleon of the underworld. The criminal's name was Adam Worth. Soon, Conan Doyle published a story in which Sherlock Holmes died dragging the sinister Professor Moriarty to the bottom of the Reichenbach Falls.

Adam Worth was born in 1844 into a poor Jewish family, either Werth or Wirtz, who lived somewhere within Prussia. When the family moved to the United States in 1849, it was decided to change the surname to the English manner, and since then the family was called Worth. Adam's father opened a small tailor shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

There were three children in the family: the eldest John, the middle Adam and the youngest Harriet. Feeding them all was not easy, so every cent counted. Little Adam did not immediately understand the value of money. One day, a school friend showed him a shiny new coin and offered to exchange it for two old worn coins of the same denomination. Adam happily agreed and went home to brag about the good deal. The father was furious and roughly punished his son. Worth later stated: "After that incident, I never let anyone fool me again." It would be more accurate to say that from now on, he himself acted as a deceiver.

The famous Harvard University was located in Cambridge, so that in the city one could constantly observe cheerful and well-dressed young people, often throwing money around. Adam Worth looked at them with a mixture of envy and admiration. Many of his peers dreamed of money and luxury, but this was not enough for Worth. He longed to be a gentleman of fine manners and refined taste. He wanted to dress in the latest fashion, lead a social life and shine in high society. However, the tailor's son was destined for a completely different fate. Unwilling to accept his share, 14-year-old Adam ran away from home and moved to nearby Boston, where, apparently, he led the life of a street tramp and supported himself with odd jobs and thefts. At the age of 16, he moved to New York and soon got a job as a salesman in a store. This was the first and last time that Adam Worth earned a living by honest work. April 12, 1861 in the United States began Civil War, and young Worth preferred a life full of dangers and adventures to a boring job in a dusty shop.

At first, the army of northerners was recruited from volunteers, and each recruit was entitled to a monetary reward. Worth lied about his age, telling recruiters that he was already 21 years old, received his money, and was assigned to the 34th New York Light Artillery Regiment. In the regiment, he showed courage, responsibility and soldier's ingenuity, so that a few months after enrollment he already wore corporal, and then sergeant's stripes. Worth soon commanded a battery.

On August 28, 1862, Worth's regiment took part in the major battle of Bull Run. The victory went to the Confederates, while the northerners suffered heavy losses. Worth ended up in the hospital with a wound, and soon found himself on the list of the dead. The brave sergeant did not think for long what to do: remain an honest soldier and return to his comrades-in-arms, or try to earn money on his "death". Worth chose the latter. He again enlisted in the army under a different name and again received the coveted award. Then he repeated the same trick several more times - he deserted, and then again portrayed a volunteer and received an award. There were quite a few professional deserters like him in those days. They were called jumpers, and when they were caught, a tribunal awaited them. The search for the "jumpers" was carried out by Pinkerton agents, famous for their professionalism in detective work, so Worth's craft was very dangerous. At the end of the war, he decided to finally desert and, having once again escaped from the unit, he returned to New York. Here he was waiting new life for which he was already quite ready.

New York in 1865 was perhaps the most corrupt and criminal city in the United States. The population of the city was about 800 thousand people, of which, according to the authorities, 30 thousand were engaged in theft, and 20 thousand were prostitutes. New York had about 3,000 drinking establishments, 2,000 gambling houses, and countless brothels and thieves' dens. Power in the metropolis was concentrated in the hands of the Irish mafia, which arbitrarily removed and appointed officials, judges and deputies. In the meantime, the criminal world was ruled by colorful authorities with eloquent nicknames Pig Donovan, Gip Krovishcha, Eddie Plague, Jack Eat-em-all and other similar figures. The city was divided between gangs with equally bright names: "Cockroach Guard", "Forty Thieves", "Cattlemen".

Young Worth felt at home in this world like a fish in water. He already perfectly knew how to steal, lie and, on occasion, get away from the chase. In addition, in the army he was taught to command people, so that he could count on a successful criminal career. Worth soon formed a gang and began to organize small thefts. His gang operated primarily in the Manhattan area and over time achieved some notoriety in the underworld. Luck did not accompany him for long. One fine day, Worth was caught red-handed while trying to steal money from a mail car. He was sentenced to three years in prison, but a few weeks later he escaped from prison by climbing over the fence and swimming to a barge on the Hudson River.
Worth realized that if he continued to work without the patronage of one of the crime kings of New York, he would soon get caught again and not get off so easily. Soon he found himself a patron who could appreciate all his talents.

steal a million

Frederica Mandelbaum, like Worth, came from Prussian Jews. Arriving in the United States in 1848, she and her husband opened a grocer's shop, which in reality was just a front for a completely different kind of business. The real income was given to her by buying stolen goods. In 1866 Mother Mandelbaum was one of the largest buyers in New York. This plump 48-year-old woman not only ensured the sale of stolen items, but also organized the crimes herself, distributing orders to thieves. Moreover, Mama was a real shady socialite. She kept a salon in which she took the cream of the criminal world. The most skillful thieves, swindlers and robbers gathered in her luxurious mansion. The diamond thief Black Lena Kleinschmidt shone here, the burglar Max Schinbrun, nicknamed the Baron, known for his aristocratic manners and incredible aplomb, came here, Charles Bullard, known as Charlie the Piano, also visited here. Bullard was a good pianist, although a drunkard, but he used his ear for music picking up the codes to the safes. During magnificent receptions in the house of Mother Mandelbaum, Charlie Piano sat down at the piano and inspiredly performed Chopin's etudes. Among the visitors to the salon were also corrupt judges, lawyers, politicians and police officers, so Savor was the key.

Worth once managed to be invited to Mother Mandelbaum's house. He produced good impression on the hostess and began to work for her. Mother's patronage provided tangible benefits. Firstly, the problem of selling the booty was solved, secondly, it was possible to make useful contacts in her salon, and thirdly, Mandelbaum always tried to help her people who got into trouble. She paid for the services of the most dexterous lawyers, handed out bribes and even organized prisoner escapes. Worth did not deceive the patroness' hopes. He pulled off several daring thefts, one of which was especially successful. Once he managed to steal $20,000 worth of bonds from an insurance company's office.

In 1869, Charlie Piano was caught, and Mother decided to get him out of his cell, no matter what the cost. Communication was established with the prisoners, and soon the construction of a tunnel began under the walls of the White Plains prison. Bullard was digging from his cell as Worth and Max Schinbrun moved towards him outside. The escape was successful, and the grateful Charlie Bullard forever became a true friend of Adam Worth. Shinbrun, on the other hand, could not stand Worth and to the end of his days envied his thieves' luck.

After the escape story, Worth and Bullard became partners. Worth's ingenuity and Bullard's skill in handling safes gave excellent results. In the autumn of 1869, friends decided on a big deal. The target was Boylston Bank in Boston. The Companions rented a building adjoining the wall of the bank. Here they opened a fake office that allegedly sold tonic drinks. In fact, Worth and Bullard were gradually dismantling the wall that separated them from the bank vault. November 20, 1869 the work was completed. After the bank closed, the robbers drilled several holes in the side of the safe and sawed out a passage large enough for Worth to get inside. That night, $1 million worth of cash and securities was stolen from the Boylston Bank vault.
Worth and Bullard hurriedly left Boston and returned to New York, but it was no longer safe for them to remain in the United States. The robbed bankers hired Pinkerton agents, and if these detectives wanted to find someone, they sooner or later found. The companions decided to flee the country and soon sailed to Europe on the steamer Indiana.

Paris is always Paris

In early 1870, the newly minted millionaires arrived in Liverpool. Here, Worth introduced himself as a financier named Henry Judson Raymond, and Bullard became the oilman Charles Wells. They lived in grand style, indulging in all possible entertainments. Here they met the love of their lives. 17-year-old Kitty Flynn worked as a waitress in a bar. Despite her young age, she was already quite an experienced thief and craved money and beautiful life. Worth and Bullard confessed their love to her, and she reciprocated them both. Friends decided not to quarrel over Kitty, leaving her to make the final choice. In the meantime, the girl lived with one of them, then with another. In the end, Kitty chose Bullard and married him. Worth was not offended and even made the newlyweds luxurious wedding gift. He stole £25,000 from a large Liverpool store and presented it to the newlyweds.

Worth and Bullard were rich, but they knew full well that without wise investments, the money would sooner or later run out. In 1871 they decided to act. At that time, France had just lost the Franco-Prussian War, and in Paris the bloody epic of the Paris Commune was coming to an end. The authorities had not yet had time to shoot all the Communards when a strange trinity appeared on the streets of Paris, speaking in English. Worth, Bullard and Kitty arrived in the devastated French capital to fish in troubled waters.
Soon, not far from the still unfinished Grand Opera building, a luxurious restaurant called American Bar appeared. On the first and second floors, guests could enjoy delicious dishes and American cocktails, still unknown in Europe, and on the third floor there was an illegal gambling house. When the police appeared at the door of the institution, the gambling tables moved into hiding places arranged behind the walls and under the floor.

Kitty played the part of the hostess, and Charlie Piano entertained the guests with piano recitals. Adam Worth could boast of a solid appearance and wore a luxurious mustache, turning into lush sideburns, so he got the role of head waiter. He decorously walked around the sparkling halls of his establishment, exchanging courtesies with guests and at the same time making useful contacts. American Bar has become a very popular place among international criminals. the highest category. It was visited by the Dutchman Charles Becker, nicknamed Scratch, who so cleverly forged documents that he himself could not distinguish them from the originals, the famous bank robber Joseph Chapman, the fraudster Carlo Sisikovich, whom everyone considered Russian, the burglar Joe Eliot, nicknamed the Kid and many others. Subsequently, all these people agreed to work for Worth, but in those fun days in devastated Paris, none of them had yet thought of this.

In 1873, an unexpected guest appeared at the American Bar. It was William Pinkerton - the son of Allan Pinkerton himself, the founder of the famous detective agency. Worth and Pinkerton immediately recognized each other. American detectives could not arrest criminals in France, but nothing prevented Pinkerton from denouncing Worth to the French authorities. The detective and the thief sat at the same table and had a nice conversation over a glass of the best French wine. Pinkerton made it clear that he knew everything about Worth, from his first desertion to the Boston bank robbery. The detective took his leave, and Worth realized that Paris was becoming unsafe.

It was decided to close the American Bar, but Worth could not leave France without doing one last thing. On the eve of his departure, he robbed a diamond dealer who had the imprudence to put a suitcase on the floor while playing roulette. precious stones. While Worth was talking to him, Joe Eliot changed the suitcase. The value of the stolen diamonds was £30,000.

Kidnapping of the "Duchess"

In the story “The Last Case of Sherlock Holmes,” the brilliant detective said of Moriarty: “He is the Napoleon of the underworld, Watson. He is the organizer of half of all atrocities and almost all unsolved crimes in our city ... He has a first-class mind. He sits motionless, like a spider in the center of his web, but this web has thousands of threads, and he picks up the vibration of each of them. He rarely acts on his own. He's just making a plan. But his agents are numerous and superbly organized. This description of the criminal community fits perfectly with what Worth intended to create when he moved to London with Bullard and Kitty.

Heart british empire it did not look much like gangster New York, and yet there were a great many thieves and swindlers here. Worth was going to be something like Mother Mandelbaum to them, or something more. Soon he began to act.

For starters, Worth bought a mansion south of town. Here was everything that a true gentleman was supposed to have: expensive furniture, a rich library, a tennis court, a bowling alley, a target shooting gallery, a stable with ten horses intended for racing, and other signs of wealth and high social status. Then he rented an apartment in the center of London, from where it was convenient to conduct business, and set about building his criminal empire.

Worth made a gang of criminals around him upper class. His inner circle included Charlie Piano, Scratch, Malysh, Carlo Sisikovich and Joseph Chapman. Worth planned thefts, swindles and robberies, and then instructed his henchmen to find suitable performers. The Napoleon of the underworld demanded that his men refrain from violence. Worth admonished, “A man with brains has no right to bear arms. Exercise your brain!" However, Worth did not need a weapon, because he was accompanied everywhere by a valet - a former wrestler named Rogue Jack. This thug, who earned his nickname by carrying all sorts of rubbish in his pockets all the time, was not very smart, but he could beat anyone.

Sherlock Holmes said of Moriarty: “Brilliant and incomprehensible. The man has entangled all of London with his nets, and no one has even heard of him. This is what raises him to an unattainable height in the criminal world. Worth was just as omnipresent and elusive, but if his literary counterpart sat somewhere "in the center of his web", then he himself attended concerts at the Albert Hall, the royal races at Ascot and enjoyed all the joys of life that Victorian London had to offer. rich gentleman of exquisite taste.

The Pinkerton report stated that Worth "practiced all forms of crime: counterfeiting, fraud, forgery, safecracking, highway robbery, bank robbery ... all with complete impunity." Of course, William Pinkerton made Scotland Yard aware of who Worth really was, but it was decidedly impossible to prove his involvement in the crimes. Scotland Yard inspector John Shore vowed to catch Worth and put him in jail, but he acted with the clumsiness of a literary Lestrade. In addition, Worth had a network of informants: two Scotland Yard detectives and one lawyer regularly reported to him about every step of the unlucky inspector.

A couple of times Worth was dangerously close to failure. He first tried to employ his older brother John. He instructed his brother to go to Paris and cash a fake check made by Scratch. Adam forbade John from entering the Meyer & Company bank because the institution had been swindled in this manner not too long ago. It was to this bank that John Worth went, where, of course, he was caught red-handed. Adam spent a lot of money on lawyers to get his brother out of prison, and then put him on a steamer and sent him home to America. On another occasion, almost the entire asset of Worth's organization was in trouble. Eliot, Becker, Chapman and Sisikovich got caught with fake securities in Turkey and ended up in an Ottoman prison. Inspector Shore was already rubbing his hands and intending to extradite the criminals, but Worth was faster. He handed out bribes to Turkish officials most fortune, but ransomed his people.

From time to time, Worth committed theft himself. He did this partly out of sport, partly out of a desire to uphold his reputation as a skilled thief. In 1876, he committed the real theft of the century. A year before, all of London was excited by the news that a painting by Gainsborough, which had long been considered lost, would be sold at Christie`s auction. The painting was painted in 1787 and was called "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire". Lady Georgiana herself was a very dissolute lady, and now, 70 years after her death, all the newspapers again wrote about her scandalous adventures. The pre-sale PR campaign was so powerful that only the lazy did not talk about the picture. As a result, art dealer William Agnew bought Gainsborough's work, paying 10 thousand guineas for it, which corresponds to today's $ 600 thousand. Now, when paintings are sold for tens of millions, such a deal does not seem too large, but at that time the amount looked simply fantastic. Agnew intended to resell the painting to the Morgan clan, who was distantly related to the unlucky duchess, but his plans did not come true.

On the night of May 27, 1876, Worth stole the painting. Jack and the Kid were involved in the case, but their work was limited to standing on the lookout. Worth personally snuck into the room where the masterpiece was kept and stole it.

It was absolutely impossible to sell a painting of such value, and therefore Worth only hid it from one place to another. The accomplices were tired of waiting for their share, and Trash Jack even tried to hand Worth over to the police, but the Napoleon of the underworld easily exposed his unpretentious plan. So Adam Worth became the secret owner of Gainsborough's masterpiece. After many years, the stolen "Duchess" will save him from poverty and lonely old age.

Reichenbach Falls

Worth's criminal career continued. Once, for example, he and two other accomplices ransacked the mail car, which contained Spanish and Egyptian bonds worth 700 thousand francs. On another occasion, Worth decided to take a closer look at the diamond fields. South Africa and went to Cape Town. Here the intellectual thief decided to retrain as a robber and tried to rob a stagecoach with diamonds. The Boers guarding the wagon almost shot him, and the unfortunate robber forcibly carried off his legs. Worth decided to return to the principles of non-violence, and this time he succeeded. He learned that from time to time diamonds are left in a safe located at the post station. Worth befriended the elderly postmaster, entertaining him with a game of chess, and discreetly took casts of the keys to the vault. The rest was a matter of technique. Worth returned to Europe with suitcases full of diamonds.

In the 1880s, Worth was quite happy and pleased with himself. He was rich and well received, and Inspector Shore still couldn't find any evidence against him. He married a poor girl named Louise Bolian, who bore him a son, Henry, and a daughter, Beatrice. The "Duchess of Devonshire" no longer burned his hands: he found a way to take the painting to the United States and hide it there in a safe place. He, however, worried about the fate of a friend. Kitty left Bullard and went to America, where she married a millionaire. Charlie Piano used to take a bottle, and now he has begun to drink too much. It was simply dangerous to leave him in business. As a result, Bullard also left for the United States, where he again contacted the Baron.

The overall picture of happiness was not overshadowed even by a new meeting with William Pinkerton. The two respectable gentlemen bowed and bought each other drinks. Worth and Pinkerton chatted in the bar like old comrades and, in a way, colleagues who deeply respected each other's professionalism. Saying goodbye, Worth said with feeling: “Sir, I believe that Inspector Shore is a helpless idiot. I have deep respect for you and your people. I just want you to know this."

The collapse of Napoleon came quite unexpectedly. In 1892, the Baron and Charlie Piano showed up in Belgium. They tried to rob a bank, but got caught and went to jail. Worth went to Liege, hoping to ransom a friend, but he was too late. Charles Bullard died in his cell. This death deeply shocked Worth. What he did next was completely out of his style. Worth planned to steal a box of money from a moving mail coach, and he prepared for the crime extremely carelessly, and found accomplices inexperienced and unreliable. It seems he was just trying to get revenge on Belgium for Bullard's death. At the appointed hour, he jumped into the mail coach, but was caught red-handed, because his accomplices, seeing the policemen, simply ran away without giving him a signal.
Worth ended up in the dock. Inspector Shore gleefully sent his dossier on the London crime king to Belgium, but this had little effect on the court's decision, since he still had no real evidence of Worth's guilt. They were with William Pinkerton, but he kept deathly silence. A helping hand was extended by Kitty Flynn, who by that time had become a very rich widow. She helped find good lawyers and organize the defense.

In 1893, Adam Worth was sentenced to seven years for the only proven episode of carriage robbery. But the worst was just beginning. Worth assigned one of his henchmen to take care of his family, who simply robbed and raped his wife. The unfortunate woman went mad and was placed in a mental hospital. The children were taken to America by his brother John.
Worth was released from prison in 1897 for good behavior. He no longer had friends or family. But he had a plan. Returning to London, he robbed a jewelry store for £4,000 and immediately went to the USA. He visited his brother and children, and then left them, saying that he had two friends left in America. He meant William Pinkerton and "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire."
Pinkerton was quite surprised when the man he had been trying to catch for so long appeared at his reception. Adam Worth had a business proposal. He promised to return the Georgiana to its rightful owners on the condition that Pinkerton help him obtain a ransom. In fact, Worth offered the chief detective of the United States to help him realize the stolen goods. William Pinkerton thought about it and agreed.

William Agnew got his Gainsborough for $25,000. The amount was much less than what Worth usually received for his machinations, but he was also glad of that. Taking the children, he left for London, which he loved, where he lived out his days, leading a life worthy of a poor, elderly gentleman who had retired.

On January 8, 1902, Adam Worth died. Now came into force the last promise made to him by William Pinkerton. Worth's son Henry was hired by the Pinkerton detective agency and made a good career there.

Let me remind you on the topic this: do you know or, for example, what it was like. And of course everyone already knows that The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -

The main character, the head of a powerful criminal organization, the genius of the criminal world.

Here is how Sherlock Holmes describes it:

He comes from a good family, received an excellent education and is naturally endowed with phenomenal mathematical ability. When he was 21, he wrote a treatise on Newton's binomial, which won him European fame. After that, he received a chair in mathematics at one of our provincial universities, and, quite possibly, a bright future awaited him. But the blood of a criminal flows in his veins. He has a genetic propensity for cruelty. And his extraordinary mind not only does not restrain, but even strengthens this tendency and makes it even more dangerous. Dark rumors spread about him on the campus where he taught, and in the end he was forced to leave the department and move to London, where he began to prepare young people for the officer's examination ...

Returning from the review, Kutuzov, accompanied by an Austrian general, went to his office and, calling the adjutant, ordered to give himself some papers relating to the condition of the incoming troops, and letters received from Archduke Ferdinand, who commanded the forward army. Prince Andrei Bolkonsky with the required papers entered the office of the commander in chief. In front of the plan laid out on the table sat Kutuzov and an Austrian member of the Hofkriegsrat.
“Ah ...” said Kutuzov, looking back at Bolkonsky, as if by this word inviting the adjutant to wait, and continued the conversation begun in French.

Professor Moriarty is a character in the cycle of works by Arthur Conan Doyle about Sherlock Holmes, the antagonist of the protagonist, the head of a powerful criminal organization, the genius of the criminal world.

He comes from a good family, received an excellent education and is naturally endowed with phenomenal mathematical abilities. When he was 21 years old, he wrote a treatise on Newton's binomial, which won him European fame. After that, he received a chair in mathematics at one of our provincial universities, and, quite possibly, a bright future awaited him. But the blood of a criminal flows in his veins. He has a genetic propensity for cruelty. And his extraordinary mind not only does not restrain, but even strengthens this tendency and makes it even more dangerous. Dark rumors spread about him on the campus where he taught, and in the end he was forced to leave the department and move to London, where he began to prepare young people for the officer's examination ...
- "The Last Case of Holmes"

Holmes also speaks of Moriarty as "one of the best minds Europe" and "Napoleon of the underworld". Conan Doyle borrowed the last phrase from one of the Scotland Yard inspectors associated with the case of Adam Worth, an international criminal of the 19th century, who served as the prototype for the literary Moriarty.
In the text of the "Valley of Terror" there is a description of Moriarty's appearance:

This man looks amazingly like a Presbyterian preacher, he has such a thin face, and gray hair, and stilted speech. Saying goodbye, he put his hand on my shoulder - just like a father, blessing his son to meet the cruel, cold world.
- "Valley of Terror"

It also mentions that Professor Moriarty has a legal income of 700 pounds a year (salary at the university department) and that he is not married. Information about the name and family of Moriarty is contradictory: in " Last deed Holmes" the professor is not called by name, but it is mentioned that he has a brother, Colonel James Moriarty, who after his death "protected the memory of his late brother." At the same time, in The Empty House, the name "James" is already attributed to the professor himself; thus, it literally turns out that the two brothers have the same name (in the four-act play "Sherlock Holmes", written with the participation of Conan Doyle, the professor already bears the name "Robert"). In addition, in the "Valley of Terror" the brother-colonel is not mentioned at all, but another, younger brother of the professor appears, who "serves as the head of a railway station somewhere in the west of England."

Moriarty acts in only two works of the cycle, in the story "The Last Case of Holmes" (1893) and the later story "The Valley of Terror" (1914-1915); in addition, he is mentioned in five stories: "The Empty House" (1903), "The Contractor from Norwood" (1903), "The Missing Rugby Player" (1904), "His Farewell Bow" (1917), "The Radiant Client" (1924) .

The character was introduced by Conan Doyle as a way to "finish" Holmes in order to end the cycle, which the writer himself considered lightweight pulp fiction. Moriarty dies during a hand-to-hand duel with Holmes, falling off a cliff into the Reichenbach Falls; according to the text of the story, Holmes also perishes with him; Both bodies have not been found. However, subsequently, Conan Doyle, due to numerous protests from readers, had to "revive" Holmes, declaring his apparent death a staging, which was caused by the need to hide in order to defeat the remnants of Moriarty's organization (see the story "The Empty House" in the collection "The Return of Sherlock Holmes")

In the Soviet TV series by Igor Maslennikov "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson", the role of Moriarty was played by Viktor Evgrafov (voiced by Oleg Dal). Among the performers of the role of Moriarty in the movie was Sir Laurence Olivier (in the 1976 film "Seven Percent Solution").
Moriarty also appeared in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes, but his face was not shown, and in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, where he was played by Richard Roxburgh.
In the film Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, the professor's face is still shown, moreover, he is an important character in the film.
In the 2010 series Sherlock, Moriarty first appears in such a way that neither the viewer nor the characters guess who he really is. In age, he is clearly much younger than in the book original. Sherlock characterizes him like this in the Reichenbach Falls series: It's not a man, it's a spider. He knows exactly where people's weak points are and when to press them.
The asteroid (5048) Moriarty, discovered in 1981, is named after the character.
Both mentioned scientific work Moriarty (on the dynamics of an asteroid and on the interpretation of the binomial theorem) are sometimes mentioned in the scientific literature.

Professor James Moriarty(English) Professor James Moriarty) - a character in the cycle of works by Arthur Conan Doyle about Sherlock Holmes, the antagonist of the protagonist, the head of a powerful criminal organization, the genius of the criminal world.

Here is how Sherlock Holmes describes it:

He comes from a good family, received an excellent education and is naturally endowed with phenomenal mathematical abilities. When he was 21, he wrote a treatise on Newton's binomial, which won him European fame. After that, he received a chair in mathematics at one of our provincial universities, and, quite possibly, a bright future awaited him. But the blood of a criminal flows in his veins. He has a genetic propensity for cruelty. And his extraordinary mind not only does not restrain, but even strengthens this tendency and makes it even more dangerous. Dark rumors spread about him on the campus where he taught, and in the end he was forced to leave the department and move to London, where he began to prepare young people for the officer's examination ...

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An excerpt characterizing Professor James Moriarty

I decided to try to “melt the ice” and asked as affectionately as possible:
“Tell me, can I help you with something?”
The woman looked at me sadly and finally said:
– Can I be helped? I killed my daughter!
I got goosebumps at this confession. But this, apparently, did not bother the girl at all, and she calmly said:
“That's not true, Mom.
– But how was it really? I asked carefully.
We were run over by a terribly large car, and my mother was driving. She thinks it's her fault that she couldn't save me. - The girl patiently explained in the tone of a little professor. “And now my mother doesn’t even want to live here, and I can’t prove to her how much I need her.
"And what would you like me to do?" I asked her.
“Please, could you ask my dad to stop blaming my mom for everything?” – the girl suddenly asked very sadly. - I am very happy here with her, and when we go to see dad, then she becomes for a long time the way she is now ...
And then I realized that the father apparently loved this little girl very much and, having no other opportunity to pour out his pain somewhere, he blamed her mother for everything that had happened.
- Do you want it too? I asked the woman softly.
She just nodded sadly and again closed herself tightly in her mournful world, not letting anyone in, including her little daughter, who was already so worried about her.
– Dad is good, he just doesn’t know that we are still alive. - The girl said softly. - Please tell him...
Probably, there is nothing worse in the world than to feel the guilt that she felt ... Her name was Christina. During her life she was cheerful and very happy woman who, at the time of her death, was only twenty-six years old. Her husband adored her...
Her little daughter was called Vesta, and she was the first in this happy family a child who was adored by everyone, and her father simply did not have a soul in her ...
The very same head of the family was called Arthur, and he was the same cheerful, cheerful person as his wife was before her death. And now no one and nothing could help him find at least some peace in his pain-torn soul. And he grew in himself hatred for his beloved, his wife, trying to protect his heart from complete collapse.
- Please, if you go to your dad, don't be afraid of him ... He is sometimes strange, but this is when he is "not real." - The girl whispered. And it was felt that it was unpleasant for her to talk about it.
I didn't want to ask and upset her even more, so I figured I'd figure it out myself.
I asked Vesta which of them wants to show me where they lived before their death, and does her father still live there? The place they named made me a little sad because it was quite far from my house and it took a long time to get there. Therefore, I couldn’t think of anything right away and asked my new acquaintances if they could appear again at least in a few days? And having received an affirmative answer, she “hard-wired” promised them that I would definitely meet their husband and father during this time.
Vesta looked at me slyly and said:
- If dad does not want to listen to you right away, you tell him that his “fox cub” misses him very much. So dad called me only when we were alone with him, and no one else knows this except him ...
Her sly face suddenly became very sad, apparently remembering something very dear to her, and she really became something like a little fox ...
Well, if he doesn't believe me, I'll tell him that. - I promised.
The figures, shimmering softly, disappeared. And I was still sitting in my chair, trying hard to figure out how I could win at least two or three free hours from my family in order to be able to restrain given word and visit a disillusioned father...
At that time, “two or three hours” away from home was a rather long period of time for me, for which I would absolutely have to report to my grandmother or mother. And, since I never succeeded in lying, I had to urgently come up with some real reason for leaving home for such a long time.
I couldn't let my new guests down in any way...
The next day was Friday, and my grandmother, as usual, was going to the market, which she did almost every week, although, to be honest, there was no great need for this, since so many fruits and vegetables grew in our garden, and the rest of the products the nearest grocery stores were usually packed to capacity. Therefore, such a weekly "trip" to the market was probably simply symbolic - sometimes grandmother liked to just "ventilate", meeting with her friends and acquaintances, and also to bring something "especially tasty" to all of us from the market for the weekend.
I spun around her for a long time, unable to think of anything, when my grandmother suddenly asked calmly:
- Well, why don’t you sit, or is it impatient for something? ..
- I have to leave! – delighted at the unexpected help, I blurted out. - For a long time.
For others or for yourself? Grandma asked with a frown.
- For others, and I really need it, I gave my word!
Grandmother, as always, looked at me studying (few people liked her look - it seemed that she was looking right into your soul) and finally said:
- To be at home by dinner, not later. It's enough?
I just nodded, almost jumping for joy. I didn't think it would be so easy. Grandmother often really surprised me - it seemed that she always knew when it was serious, and when it was just a whim, and usually, if possible, she always helped me. I was very grateful to her for her faith in me and my strange actions. Sometimes I was even almost sure that she knew exactly what I was doing and where I was going ... Although, maybe she really knew, but I never asked her about it? .. June 24, 2017, 18:56

Every fairy tale needs a good old villain.

Sir A. Conan Doyle portrayed the perfect villain in Professor Moriarty. He is smart, talented and incredibly cruel. Oddly enough, Moriarty personally appears on the pages of the original Holmes stories only once, in other stories one can only occasionally hear references to the "Napoleon of the underworld." The villain was described so vividly that subsequently almost all the authors who decided to write a continuation of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes turned to this character.

Implacable Rivals: Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty. Illustration by Sidney Paget

“He comes from a good family, received an excellent education and is naturally endowed with phenomenal mathematical abilities. When he was twenty-one years old, he wrote a treatise on Newton's binomial, which won him European fame. After that, he received a chair in mathematics at one of our provincial universities, and, in all likelihood, a bright future awaited him. But the blood of a criminal flows in his veins. He has a genetic propensity for cruelty. And his extraordinary mind not only does not moderate, but even strengthens this tendency and makes it even more dangerous. Dark rumors spread about him on the campus where he taught, and, in the end, he was forced to leave the department and move to London, where he began to prepare young people for the exam for the officer rank ... "

A. Conan Doyle "The Last Case of Holmes"

“This man looks amazingly like a Presbyterian preacher, he has such a thin face, and gray hair, and stilted speech. Saying goodbye, he put his hand on my shoulder - just like a father, blessing his son to meet the cruel, cold world. The most brilliant mind in Europe, who also leads all the forces of hell "

A. Conan Doyle "Valley of Terror"

“The problem with Doyle's Moriarty was that the character was too successful. Pretty much every supervillain that came after him even spoke almost exactly like him. They are elegant, outwardly polite, courteous, amiable. If we were to repeat all this again, it would look like a cliché. So Mark and I decided to create a truly insane, terrifying, unpredictable Moriarty psycho…”

Stephen Moffat

“Doyle was the first, he created a supervillain. All great heroes had their own Moriarty. And you need to try very hard to make the villain worthy of such a strong goodie, or you will get a pale copy of the arch-villain. In general, the point is to tell stories in a different way.”

Mark Gatiss

“Bad people don't know they're bad. They think they're right!" (Mark Gatiss)

Jim Moriarty turned out to be a real, one hundred percent madman, whose intelligence, if not higher, then at least in no way inferior to Sherlock Holmes. For the first time, the viewer sees him only in the third episode of the first season. The man who sponsors the serial killings at the hands of a taxi driver leads the forces Chinese mafia, makes living bombs out of people ... Invincible and terrifying Moriarty turns out to be the boyfriend of hospital employee Molly Hooper. Sherlock initially mistakes Jim for a homosexual.

“When we filmed the pilot, we all just fell in love with Molly Hooper and her hopeless love for Sherlock. And I got the idea that we should give her a prize - a boyfriend that Sherlock would immediately deduce as gay! It was an impromptu joke, but it was she who ultimately led to the fact that for the first time we meet Moriarty in this form, as the person who, literally, you will be the last to suspect. ”

Mark Gatiss

Jim:

“If you don’t stop poking around, I’ll burn you.” I'll burn your heart out.

Sherlock:

- It is known from trusted sources that I do not have it.

Jim:

But we both know that's not exactly true.

To be honest, at first no one bet on Moriarty. Moffat and Gatiss just wanted to create a non-classical Moriarty. He was supposed to be younger than all the actors who played Moriarty before him, he was supposed to be strange, reminiscent of a crazy loser. All. No one planned to make Moriarty one of the main characters of the series, but the appearance of Andrew Scott changed everything.

“The problem is that we had to choose an actor for the role of Moriarty based on the image of gay Jim, but knowing that he would be our Moriarty. I wrote the most idiotic, stupidest scene anyone ever wrote, the confrontation between Sherlock and Moriarty, just for the audition. It was full of the craziest dialogue. "I'll burn your heart out!" and stuff like that, just to see if anyone can say all this nonsense. And then Andrew showed up, played that scene, and he was great. I said to Mark: “Well, not only are we casting him, but now we have to rewrite this scene.” So we changed the whole ending of the series to add a pool confrontation - it never really made much sense, to be honest. What for? Why did he do it? Why now? What does he actually do? But you don't resent it because Andrew Scott is making his first appearance and he's just incredible. If you want to have some fun, check out this final scene and then the very beginning of A Scandal in Belgravia. These few minutes are the most stupid sequence of events you have ever seen in your life. If you show someone these two scenes in a row and say, “This is a great show, they will ask you,“ What? What is this nonsense? What are you all using?"

Stephen Moffat

At the audition, Andrew suddenly began to manipulate the pitch of his voice, making it frighteningly high, then lowering it back to normal. Gatiss liked this feature so much that he asked Andrew to pronounce all his lines in this way. Subsequently, Moffat decided to add an Irish accent to Moriarty, because originally “Moriarty” is a surname of Irish origin. Subsequently, it was for the Irish accent that the fans of the series disliked Moriarty.

“From the very beginning I told Andrew to keep his cute Irish accent for Moriarty, it's an Irish name after all, I thought it would be cute. And, as a nod to the original, I asked him to add a shake of his head, distinguishing feature described by Conan Doyle. It turned out to be literally a nod "

Stephen Moffat

“Privacy no longer exists. She belongs to me." (Jim Moriarty)

With the appearance of Andrew Scott on film set it became clear that Moriarty is a much more complex image than he was thought at first. A person who is able to do anything, but who is not able to agree with his own head. He is bored, and only the mind of Sherlock Holmes leads him to childish delight. Mark Gatiss, creating the image of Jim Moriarty, remembered the recently read biography of Isaac Newton and tried to convey the complexity of the great scientist in the hero of Andrew Scott.

“It's worth saying that there were several things that had a major impact on the creation of Moriarty. One of them (it applies equally to Sherlock) was the story of Isaac Newton. He was so smart and so full of ideas that every morning when he woke up he had to sit for a while at the foot of his own bed, holding his head in his hands, in order to “debug” his own brain. I thought it was a very exciting idea and we wanted to do something similar with Moriarty. The second moment was my memory of watching an interview with Peter Sellers as a child and he said something that was both wonderful and frightening. He was such a chameleon, such a receptacle for other characters and their traits, that he told a journalist, "I think that's my voice." Like he was a lost soul who doesn't know who she really is. And just such empty man, filled with darkness and horror, Andrew was able to embody like no other "

Mark Gatiss

Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat based the character of Moriarty on Isaac Newton. “He was so smart and so overflowing with ideas that every morning when he woke up he had to sit for a while at the foot of his own bed, holding his head in his hands in order to “debug” his own brain.” (Mark Gatiss)

On set, Andrew Scott was completely immersed in his role. He was wildly worried about the fate of Moriarty and practically did not communicate with anyone. After a couple of days of work, Martin Freeman approached him and began asking him about the role. Andrew was so surprised that at first he did not even find what to say, but after a minute he was excitedly talking about how he sees his hero. Subsequently, Martin Freeman and Andrew Scott became real friends.

“He is up against the dapper Sherlock, and since he is vain, he could hardly leave this moment without attention. That Moriarty doesn't bother looking terrifying is what ends up being the most terrifying thing. He starts the game against Sherlock Holmes and seems to be bored with worrying about the outcome, he cracks jokes in his face - that's what unsettles him. He does not care. I repeat myself. He plays because he is bored - cruel child without brakes. A psycho who fell into euphoria from eating sweets "

Stephen Moffat

“Bad people don't know they're bad. They think they are right! And he's just having fun. He rejoices in everything that can distract him from the dreary monotony of being. If you are so devilishly smart, what is left for you? Andrew filled his character with an eerie feeling of emptiness and longing. As if this world is too small, too ordinary, too boring for him. And he is looking for something to have fun. Sherlock is the only one who is close to him in terms of genius, and therefore he can at least briefly enjoy playing with him.

Mark Gatiss

“It's all about confidence in your strength. Moriarty is absolutely sure that he can pull off any business without the slightest effort. Logic is for those who are careful. People who are generally alien to caution are always the most frightening. Moriarty is the man who forces Sherlock to become a hero. In our series, as in the original, Sherlock initially appears before us as a cold, immoral reasoner, captured by the game for the sake of the game itself, indifferent to good and evil. It is necessary that Moriarty appears, who will bring him to a state in which he is ready to sacrifice himself for the love of his friends and what he thinks is right.

Stephen Moffat

“It sounds like a cliché: “they are two sides of the same coin,” but it is the true truth. Sherlock chooses the other side of the game because it's harder to be good! Although eventually Sherlock realizes that he is different from Moriarty. He worries about people even though he would never want to be like most of us."

Mark Gatiss

Andrew Scott on Moriarty

You need me, without me you are nothing. We are the same, you and me. Only you are boring. You are on the side of the angels.

Since Moriarty is very smart and foolish, I had to rely on the foolishness that is in me. I had a lot of ideas, I read the script hundreds of times, and then just waited and see what happens, what Benedict does. I had to be a little unpredictable, I tried different tricks that sometimes worked and sometimes were confusing. So sometimes we had reasons to laugh together.

“Sherlock and Moriarty are similar in many ways. They have the same style of thinking. They need each other." (Andrew Scott)

Sherlock and Moriarty are similar in many ways. They have the same style of thinking. They need each other. Moriarty and Sherlock just went their separate ways. One found himself true friend and Moriarty doesn't have a single person to take care of him. There is more to the love between Sherlock and Moriarty than hate. This is respect.

From the book of Elizabeth Booth

"Sherlock. One step ahead of the audience"