As I understand it, Templar is a buccaneer who helps victims of crime and makes sure that con-men types are brought to justice but who also sometimes keeps the bad guys' loot for himself and his friends. The police know that some of his activities are illegal but cannot prove it. If I have got this right, then -
Can the law not catch up with him, as they did with Al Capone, by asking for his tax accounts?
Although Falkayn seems to be familiar with Templar as a fictitious character, Falkayn's own means of livelihood is honest trade pioneering so is there really much similarity between the two characters?
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I suppose, if the District Attorney cared to, a really hard scrutiny of Simon Templar's tax return might reveal things that would get him into trouble a la Al Capone. It probably depends on the police and the DA deciding that, on balance, The Saint did more good than not.
I think it's simpler to think David Falkayn used the alias "Sebastian Tombs" because he too was a fan of Leslie Charteris. And not because he wished to emulate some of The Saint's more disreputable activities.
Sean
Paul and Sean:
On at least one occasion, The Saint accomplished something that was of such benefit to the UK that HM Government pardoned all his past offenses. And Wikipedia says:
"During the 1920s and early 1930s, The Saint is fighting European arms dealers, drug runners, and white slavers while based in his London home.... During the first half of the 1940s, Charteris cast Templar as a willing operative of the American government, fighting Nazi interests in the United States during World War II."
Templar used "Sebastian Tombs" a lot.
By the way, I think I've mentioned here before that the hero of a minor time-travel series in one story identified himself as "Sebastian Necropolis."
Kaor, DAVID!
Interesting, and thanks! All the more reason for me to find some of The Saint stories!
White slavers? I think that was the old term used for criminals we now call sex traffickers. The real Saint stories only extended up to 1963, so I would expect to see archaic slang terms, expressions, figures of speech, etc., in them.
After 1963 Leslie Charteris authorized other writers to write "The Saint" under his name. His role in these stories was mostly editorial. So I would focus on the stories he actually wrote between 1928 and 1963.
Sean
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