BASIL WICKETSHAW

Basil Wicketshaw is ambitious, fearless, and utterly without mercy.

The character was created by William Murray Graydon.

Basil Wicketshaw, otherwise Count Ivor Zuross, is an outlawed Rumanian nobleman who, years ago, had been banned from his own country and from all decent society. He is a forger and swindler, a dangerous and daring adventurer, a ruthless assassin, and is wanted by the police of every capital in Europe. He is the very prince of criminals, a masterful genius with a perverted brain, fertile in resource and utterly fearless in his actions.

Wicketshaw is the organiser of amazing crimes that no one else can conceive of, let alone carry off. He is the chief of a band of rogues as daring and desperate as himself, men bound to him by such blind loyalty that at his bidding, under the spell of his impelling magnetism, they would follow him through the gates of Hell itself. He holds these satellites in slavish thrall, moulding them to his own ends, sucking their brains from them as spiders suck the life-blood of flies entangled in their webs.

In physical appearance, Wicketshaw is tall and athletic. He has thin, masterful lips, clean-shaven features "cut like a cameo of a Napoleon who lacked one single spark of conscience or mercy," and deep-sunken eyes that can change from a velvety black to a sapphire tint. He speaks in languid tones, often mockingly, as if assured of his own superiority.

Chronology:

1. Their Great Adventure (THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 1st series, issue 17, 1916) Wicketshaw attempts to kidnap, and carry off to Germany, a gathering of reigning monarchs and commanders of the Allied forces who have met in secret conclave at a country residence in England. After Sexton Blake foils the scheme, Wicketshaw escapes in a yacht. However, it hits a floating mine and is blown to bits.

2. The Embassy Detective (THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 1st series, issue 26, 1917)
Wicketshaw is hired by Germany's ambassador to America, Count Von Bernstein, who is plotting to injure British interests in America. First, he tries to agitate a union and incite a strike; next, he attempts to destroy a munitions factory; and finally, he offers support to a German U-boat that's lurking off America's coast. In every endeavour, he is defeated by Sexton Blake. Von Bernstein is ejected from the country and Wicketshaw is arrested. A few weeks later, he escapes from prison.


3. Shadowed Lives (THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 1st series, issue 122, 1920)

While fleeing from Sexton Blake, Basil Wicketshaw stumbles across evidence that a mine owner has deliberately hidden a truth that would lead to his former partner's daughter claiming half of his fortune. Wicketshaw attempts to blackmail the man but Blake gets wind of his scheme and interferes. Wicketshaw changes tack, kidnapping the young woman. Blake again foils the plot and the crook flees having committed two cold-blooded murders.

4. African Gold (THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 1st series, issue 130, 1920) 


5. The Vengeance of Three (THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 1st series, issue 146, 1920) 


6. Gipsy or Gentleman (THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 1st series, issue 162, 1921) 


7. The Four Trails (THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 1st series, issue 200, 1921) 


8. Lost in Cambodia (THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 1st series, issue 257, 1922) 


9. By Order of the King (THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 1st series, issue 380, 1925) 


10. The Case of the Nawab's Son (THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 2nd series, issue 6, 1925) 


11. The Case of the Society Blackmailer (THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 2nd series, issue 12, 1925) 


12. Behind the Walls (THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 2nd series, issue 42, 1926) 


13. The Bogus Tourist Agency (THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 2nd series, issue 194, 1929)