BARON VON KRAVITCH AND HIS DAUGHTER, ELSA

Baron Von Kravitch is a villain who would long ago have been jailed were it not for the efforts of his innocent daughter, Elsa.

The characters were created by George Hamilton Teed.

Baron Von Kravitch is a rich but exiled Polish nobleman, handsome, of early middle age, and usually faultlessly groomed. He is clean-shaven, with prominent but well-cut features, strong white teeth, grey eyes, and intensely black hair. He was educated in England, as was his daughter, Elsa. He is a man-about-town when in London, a prominent race-horse owner, and a well-known figure in Parisian Society. Until Sexton Blake became involved in his affairs, no trace of a scandal could be attached to his name. However, despite his impeccable manners, Von Kravitch is exposed by the detective as an arch schemer, a smooth crook and, ultimately, a cold-blooded killer.

Always, Von Kravitch's daughter strives to persuade him to change his ways. No more than twenty years old when Blake and Tinker first encounter her, she has platinum blonde hair, blue eyes, and is exceedingly lovely to look upon. She is, though, tormented by her father's iniquities, an unhappy girl who misses her late mother terribly.

1. The Silent Woman (DETECTIVE WEEKLY, issue 3, 1933)

A crooked solicitor is found murdered at the Silent Woman Inn. Sexton Blake receives a tip-off that the dead man is in possession of a stolen necklace. When a young woman visits Baker Street, faints, then flees before Blake can question her, he finds that she has left behind a packet of stolen jewellery. This then, is the detective's introduction to Elsa Von Kravitch, and the start of a trail that leads to her father, who is indulging in both theft and blackmail. The detective catches up with the crook but, responding to a plea from Elsa, he allows Von Kravitch to escape, warning him that he will be hunted down if he continues his villainous ways.

2. The Chocolate King Mystery (DETECTIVE WEEKLY, issue 6, 1933)

When a French millionaire known as the 'Chocolate King' and his wife go missing in Paris, Sexton Blake begins to suspect that Baron Von Kravitch is once again up to no good. A letter from Elsa proves his theory and further investigation leads Blake and the French police to Kravitch's property, where a pitched gunfight erupts. The hostages are rescued but the crook and his daughter escape in a monoplane.


3. Perilous Pearls (DETECTIVE WEEKLY, issue 12, 1933)

An ex-jewel thief named Flash Jim Brady is framed by Von Kravitch for a theft the baron himself has committed. Blake suspects that the victim of the theft, Max Vramstein, might be trying to swindle insurers. After he interviews the man, Vramstein, unaware that he is being followed by Tinker, goes straight to Von Kravitch. The crook, furious with him for doing so, shoots him dead and flees ... with Tinker hot on his tail! Brady is accused of the murder but Tinker leads Blake to Von Kravitch's hideout. Unfortunately, the villain escapes. Brady is vindicated. Elsa disappears, presumably to be with her father. 


4. Issue unknown (this is either an unrecorded story or it refers to SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 384, Rogues of Ransom or SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 391, The Crook's Decoy)

Von Kravitch teams up with George Marsden Plummer but their criminal scheme is defeated by Sexton Blake.


5. The Banker's Box (DETECTIVE WEEKLY, issue 22, 1933)

Von Kravitch and Elsa join a large group of Jewish refugees who are fleeing from Germany to Poland. Among them, there is a banker carrying a fortune in jewels. When the group sets up camp, Von Kravitch strangles the man, steals the gems, and tells Elsa that he has heard that the camp is about to be raided. They leave it and make their way back to a town on the German border. The sons of the banker hire Sexton Blake to track down the stolen property along with bonds that have been stolen from their bank by one of its accountants. That man, Muller, is allied to Von Kravitch and knows too much, so the baron kills him and frames one of the sons for the murder. Blake encounters Elsa, who confirms that she and her father had been with the refugees when the jewels were stolen. The detective storms into the crook's home, holds him at gunpoint, and retrieves the stolen goods. He forces Von Kravitch to sign a confession before then demanding — for Elsa's sake — that he leaves the country and does not return.



Sexton Blake has no further encounters with Baron Von Kravitch and Elsa.