I’VE RECENTLY (RE)ENJOYED To Catch a Thief, that wonderful Cary Grant/Grace Kelly flick in which he portrays the consummate gentleman/thief. Not to say a nervous passenger in a Sunbeam Alpine‘s great drive along Monaco’s Moyenne Corniche.
Image from To Catch a Thief.
Even more recently, in The New York Times Book Review, August 25, 2024, Darrell Hartman asks, “What Happened to the Well-Mannered Cat Burglar?” His answer is look to the real Arthur Barry, as described in Dean Jobb’s new book, A Gentleman and a Thief.
A Gentleman and a Thief, by Dean Jobb, Algonquin Books, 2024.
Here are tidbits about Arthur Barry gleaned from Hartman’s review as well as another at IndieBound.
Sage Advice, Gained Youthfully. Hartman recounts, “Barry came from a working-class Irish American family in Worcester, Mass. From his first boss, a retired safecracker, he received some memorable advice: ‘Be gentlemanly and sincere. It will save you countless inconveniences, and maybe a few trips to the clink.’ ”
“Nevertheless,” Hartman continues, “he made his first such trip at age 18. It was for attempted burglary, a conviction that Barry lied about in order to serve—courageously, it seems—in World War I. By the time he returned to America, the postwar celebrations and best (legal) jobs had evaporated.”
What’s a sincere and resourceful young man to do?
Turn to Crime, Of Course. IndieBound observes, “A skilled con artist and perhaps one of the most charming, audacious burglars in history, Arthur Barry slipped in and out of the bedrooms of New York’s wealthiest residents, even as his victims slept only inches away. He befriended luminaries such as the Prince of Wales and Harry Houdini and became a folk hero, touted in the press as ‘the greatest jewel thief who ever lived’ and an ‘Aristocrat of Crime.’ ”
“In a span of seven years,” IndieBound writes, “Barry stole diamonds, pearls, and other gems worth almost $60 million today. Among his victims were a Rockefeller, an heiress to the Woolworth department store fortune, an oil magnate, Wall Street bigwigs, a top executive of automotive giant General Motors, and a famous polo player.”
Dapper, even in custody. Image from The New York Times Book Review, August 25, 2024.
A Thief, and Yet…. Hartman describes, “Had any of his victims gotten a proper look at him, they would have seen that the burglar was a dapper dresser with movie-star good looks. Indeed, he was known to gate-crash fancy house parties, where he would introduce himself to guests as ‘Dr. Gibson’ before wandering off to case the joint for future burglaries.”
“His biggest single payday,” Hartman reports, “came after he broke into a six-room suite at the Plaza Hotel—a rare Manhattan job—and made off with jewelry worth a staggering $10 million. The owner was the department-store heiress Jessie Woolworth Donahue, whose prize pearls Barry ended up selling back to her insurance company at a discount. ‘Anyone who could afford to wear a $100,000 necklace could afford to lose it,’ Barry later declared.”
Hartman says, “He began rousing ‘clients’ from their beds at gunpoint and politely asking them to hand over valuables; his suavity became the stuff of legend—especially after he agreed to spare items of sentimental value. When one victim showed signs of fainting, he escorted her into the bathroom and fed her an aspirin.”
And a Love Story As Well. IndieBound describes, “A Gentleman and a Thief is also a love story. Barry confessed to dozens of burglaries to protect his wife, Anna Blake (and was the prime suspect in scores of others). Sentenced to a twenty-five year term, he staged a dramatic prison break when Anna became seriously ill so they could be together for a few more years as fugitives.”
All this would seem to make for a wonderful movie. As IndieBound observes, “Catch Me If You Can meets The Great Gatsby meets the hit Netflix series Lupin in this captivating true-crime caper.” And how to separate it from my favorite, To Catch a Thief? I wonder which Twenties cars Barry got involved with? ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024