The Considerable Charisma of the Butchered Blackmailer

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n                        Charles Augustus Howell was bornnin 1840 at Oporto to Anglo-Portuguese parents. He always described himself as a man ofnhigh rank in Portugal, and when in evening dress he wore a broad red ribbon,nthe ‘Order of Christ’, across his chest. 

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nHe came to England in his youthnbut left in 1858 for Italy, where it was rumoured he was involved in a plot tonassassinate Napoleon III. He returned in 1864, and by the following year he wasnworking as Ruskin’s secretary and almoner. Howell was variously described as ‘anman of unusual personal charm and business capacity’, ‘a very amusingnman, full of anecdotes’ and a ‘Gil Blas Robinson Crusoe hero out of hisnproper time, a creature of top boots and plumes, splendidly flamboyant.’ 

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nPhysically, ‘although his face was as hairless as a woman’s there was not anfeature in it that was not masculine,’ he was ‘strong’ and ‘powerful’nand he ‘smoked cigarettes in that kind of furious sucking way which isncharacteristic of great smokers,’ although ‘tobacco juice seemed to oozenfrom his face like perspiration, or rather like oil.’ Rossetti describednhim as ‘a professional talker,’ and ‘the greatest romancer of his age,’nwho ‘was always having astounding experiences and marvellous adventures.’ 

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nHe was what we might call today ‘a fixer’ and ‘a charmer’. He bought and soldnart works, provided books and publishers, dealt in prints and people; he knewnand saw everything, gaining a nickname ‘The Owl’, and ‘introduced everybodynto everybody else, he entangled everybody with everybody else, and it was easiernto get involved with Howell than get rid of him.’ And that, of course, wasnthe problem. Like all confidence tricksters, Howell was charming andncharismatic, but very much in business for himself. 

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nAn example of this is hisndealings with the artist James McNeill Whistler. Howell undertook to have somenof Whistler’s prints produced by Graves the printer. One day, Whistler callednon Graves and asked for some proof prints of his own pictures but Gravesnrefused to hand them over, saying he had specific instructions from Howell notnto give them to anyone else bar Howell. A furious Whistler went to Howell,ndemanding to know what was going on. It was, said Howell, a terrible mistake,nand he offered to write a letter to Graves, adding that Whistler could post itnhimself. He dashed off a note, put it in an envelope, sealed it and handed itnto Whistler, who popped in the post. He called again on Graves later, andnreceived the same denial to his request. Furious again, he asked Graves if henhad received a letter from Howell, and when Graves said yes, he demanded to seenit. It read, “Of course you will not give Mr Whistler the proofs he desires.” 

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nWhistler, by now incandescent with anger, went back to Howell, demanding annexplanation. Howell was all apologies – it was all a terrible mistake. Gravesnhad written to him as Whistler’s agent, asking if he should put large editionnnumbers on the prints. Howell had replied, “Of course you will not,” andnthen “Give Mr Whistler the proofs he desires.” Don’t you see – twonsentences, a full stop inadvertently omitted. “Of course you will not. GivenMr Whistler the proofs he desires.” Terrible mistake, old chap, a millionnapologies. Whistler, placated, went back to Graves and eventually got some, butnnot all, of the prints he wanted. But he also had got a glimpse of how Howellnoperated, and did not trust him again. 

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nOne of Whistler’s favourite models wasnRosa Corder, and Howell commissioned him to paint her portrait, Arrangementnin Brown and Black: Portrait of Rosa Corder. Corder was a talented artistnherself, Ellen Terry the actress described her as “one of thosenplain-beautiful women who are far more attractive than some of the pretty ones,”nand in 1873, she and Howell became lovers. 

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nUnder his wing, he tutored her innhis dubious methods, and she is said to have produced forgeries of works bynFuseli and Rossetti, which Howell sold as originals. Max Beerbohm drew ancaricature of the two at work in his Rossetti and his Circle, which henentitled “Mr. —- And Miss —- Nervously Perpetuating The Touch Of AnVanished Hand.” 

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nIt was Howell who arranged for the exhumation of Rossetti’s poems from the grave of Elizabeth Siddall, and although sworn to secrecy bynRossetti, the story got out. When Ruskin discovered that an arrangement forncharitable payments in his name had been made to some of Howell’s cousins, hentoo became suspicious and eventually resolved never to see Howell again. EdwardnBurne-Jones’s wife Georgina said that Howell was, “One H which should bendropped.” Rossetti, in one of his better limericks, wrote: –
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n“There’s a Portuguese person named Howell,
Who lays on his lies with a trowel;
When I goggle my eyes,
And start with surprise,
It’s at monstrous big lies told by Howell.”

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nOne of his tricks was to let news of his death be leaked, so thatnhe could discover what people said about when they got the news. He actuallyndied in April 1890, in very suspicious circumstances – one night his body wasnfound in a gutter near to a pub in Chelsea. His throat had been slit, eithernbefore, during or after death, and a ten shilling coin had been placed in hisnmouth, the sign of revenge on a libeller. To prevent further scandal, the causenof death on the death certificate was given as ‘pneumonic phthisis’n(tuberculosis). After his death, many carefully filed letters from or aboutnfamous people were discovered at his home. 

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nIn 1904, Arthur Conan Doylenpublished a short story in his The Return of Sherlock Holmes entitled ThenAdventure of Charles Augustus Milverton, a thinly disguised pseudonym ofnCharles Augustus Howell – Milverton is a notorious blackmailer, who holds manynincriminating letters in his safe, and is eventually shot by one of hisnvictims, who grinds her heel into his dead face. Holmes, who witnesses thenmurder, refuses to investigate it for the police, “… my sympathies are withnthe criminals, and I will not handle the case.”

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