Paul Finglemore

Paul Finglemore (1862-1947), known among many aliases but especially John Clay, was a thief and master of disguise. Though largely forgotten by the modern day as most of his crimes were committed in the Victorian Era for a brief period from 1887 to 1992, Finglemore still had a significant influence as the "Master of Disguise".

## **Biography**

Paul Finglemore was born as the illegitimate son of General Sir William Clayton and Josephine Balsamo II, also known as the Countess Cagliostro. Balsamo clashed with Arsene Lupin in 1892 and the Opera Ghost Agency. An affair with Sir William Clayton, resulted in the birth of Paul Balsamo. Not wanting to be burdened with a child, she left Paul in the care of an English Couple, the Finglemores. Growing up, Paul Finglemore was a promising young man with  a great mind but little desire to do anything with it. His older adopted brother Charles Finglemore by contrast went to school and Became a stock broke with Sir Charles Vandrift among his main clients.

Paul Finglemore squandered his money on gambling drinks and women. His parents put him on a more limited allowance. This led him to run con games, leading him to be noticed by Professor James Moriarty. Moriarty asked his daughter Urania to convince Paul to join and she seduced him. Moriarty looked into Paul’s background and uncovered the true identity of his parents, exposing them to him, however Moriarty narrowed it down to the Claytons as one of his fathers and Paul believed it to be John Clayton, not William Clayton, not that Moriarty bothered correcting him. As a result, Paul began to refer to himself as John Clay as a nod to this. In 1883, Paul and Urania had a son named James, who would later take the name of Dr.James Caber, growing up to be a criminal and protecting his family name.

Paul had reached such a level of respect in Moriarty’s organization as his step-son that he was able to politely turn down Moriarty’s plot to discredit an astronomer named Stent with a Martian Hoax in favor of his own scheme and conning a man using a fake “Red-Headed League.” This worked but the conned man hired Sherlock Holmes, who solved the case and got “John Clay” arrested.

Moriarty arranged Paul to escape in 1888 but he had to flee to France. During a visit by Urania, their second son was conceived. Carl Clay and later Carl Peterson was born in 1889. Paul took the alias of Cuthbert Clay, later known as Colonel Clay. He became a master of disguise, creating various masks and conning African Millionaire Sir Charles Vandrift over several years due to the connection he had towards his adoptive family. He learned this skill due to being employed under a Wax Museum operated by Professor Henry Jarrod. Among his used aliases were: Cuthbert Clay, Senor Antonio Herrera, Reverend Richard Brabazon, the Count of Lebenstein, David Granton, Colonel Caoutchouc, Joseph Medhurst (detective) Dr. Elihu Quackenboss (doctor and chemist) and Algernon Coleyard (poet).

Paul obtained two wives, Urania likely did not care. Between 1891 and 1892,  Paul was sentenced for 14 years in prison for defrauding Charles Vandrift. He escaped from prison in 1893 by posing as a guard. By the time he escaped, Moriarty’s criminal organization had seemingly perished and he was surprised when Moriarty contacted him, revealing himself to be alive in secret. Clay was brought back into the fold and began working for British Secret Service using his newly acquired disguise masks. He was not present in 1898 when Moriarty attacked London and in fact protested it. He was also shocked when The Molluscs Invaded. After the invasion he was confronted by an offer to join a cult which one of Moriarty’s brothers had created only for the cult to be betrayed by the Molluscs. Instead he joined the alliance of America, Britain, Germany and Japan in offering his services in mask making, though since there was distrust between the Anglosphere and Germany and Japan. He worked largely with America and Britain. He refused attempts to join KRAFTHAUS, the successor to Moriarty’s organization, disillusioned with their betrayal of humanity. He primarily worked on training his craft with the Impossible Mission Force, which made great use of latex face masks later in its history, something he pioneered. Paul grew bored easily and would be allowed on occasion on missions, where he was dubbed "The Master of Disguise". Paul had another son while in Italy, who took the mock alias of Disguisey, being somewhat dimwitted. He would have a son named Fabbrizio Disguisey, who in turn had a son in 1979 named Pistachio Disguisey. All kept the facade that they were a great family of spies and disguise artists before Fabbrizio retired after the birth of his son and defeat of mastermind Devlin Bowman. Bowman went after the family in 2002, kidnapping Fabbrizio and his wife into committing robberies for him before Pistachio and his father caught up and the family defeated Bowman and captured him.

Paul was eventually allowed to retire and chose to reside in Germany, believing that KRAFTHAUS was gone, unfortunately it had transformed into a new organization called THRUSH and had kept good records of the old members. While in Germany, Paul foiled a young thief, which he then opted to train, said young thief becoming the criminal Diabolik. THRUSH finally caught up to him and he was killed in 1947. He was 85.