Gentleman thief

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In the Victorian vernacular, a gentleman thief or lady thief (called phantom thief in the East) is a particularly well-behaving and apparently well bred thief. A "gentleman or lady" is usually, but not always, a person with an inherited title of nobility and inherited wealth, who need not work for a living. Such a person steals not in order to gain material wealth, but for adventure; they act without malice. These thieves rarely bother with anonymity or force, preferring to rely on their charisma, physical attractiveness, and clever misdirection to steal the most unobtainable objects — sometimes for their own support, but mostly for the thrill of the act itself.

In popular culture [edit]

Raffles, the gentleman thief, as portrayed by David Niven.

Notable gentlemen thieves (and lady thieves) in popular culture include the following:

• Professor James Moriarty, the archnemesis of Sherlock Holmes
• Leslie Charteris's Simon Templar
• Thomas Crown from The Thomas Crown Affair
• John Robie in Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief,^[1]
• E. W. Hornung's A. J. Raffles
• Carmen Sandiego (character)
• Edward Pierce from The Great Train Robbery
• Frank L. Packard's Jimmie Dale, aka The Gray Seal.
• Selina Kyle (Catwoman)
• Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin
• Arsène Lupin III, from Lupin III (by Monkey Punch).^[2]
• Kaito Kuroba the Phantom Thief Kid from Magic Kaito and later Detective Conan (by Gosho Aoyama)
• Meimi Haneoka, who transforms into Saint Tail, a thief with acrobatic and magician skills, from Saint Tail (by Megumi Tachikawa)
• Dark Mousy the angel-like thief from D.N.Angel (by Yukiru Sugisaki).
• David Goldman in An Education^[3]
• Sir Charles Litton/"The Phantom" in The Pink Panther (1963 film)
• Pierre Despereaux in Psych
• Rodney Skinner in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (film).

All are superb at stealing while maintaining a sophisticated front and/or a thief's code of honor: Raffles steals mostly when he is especially in need of money; Lupin steals more from the rich who don't appreciate art or their treasures and redistributes it (not unlike a modern Robin Hood); Saint Tail steals back what was stolen or taken dishonestly, or rights the wrongs done to the innocent by implicating the real criminals.

In real life [edit]

Christophe Rocancourt is a modern-day, real-life example of the gentleman thief.

Charles Bolles, a.k.a. Black Bart, outlaw of the American West, was known as a gentleman thief in the 1870s and 1880s.

See also [edit]

• Crime fiction
• Gentleman detective
• Kaitō

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• TV Tropes
• The Saint and Leslie Charteris

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