# The Black Gang — Character guide

> Key figures in The Black Gang by H. C. McNeile.

- [Hugh Drummond](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/hugh_drummond.md): Drummond moves through London as a genial clubman and friend of Scotland Yard, yet he is the elusive leader the papers blame for vigilante justice. His gift is performance: he can sit across from an enemy, discuss his ow
- [Carl Peterson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/carl_peterson.md): Peterson operates behind respectable fronts, using men like Latter as disposable instruments and information as a weapon. He is patient, theatrical, and willing to kidnap to force a trade, which makes him a different ord
- [Sir Bryan Johnstone](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/sir_bryan_johnstone.md): Sir Bryan sits at the uneasy junction of official policing and Drummond's unofficial war, close enough to be teased and senior enough to be useful. He hears Charles Latter's plea for protection and, later, the strange sa
- [Charles Latter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/charles_latter.md): Latter is the story's first casualty and its clearest warning: a man whose political respectability masks dirty business, and whose terror of the Gang is entirely earned. Drummond's account of the house-party that unhing
- [Phyllis Benton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/phyllis_benton.md): Phyllis is connected to the Latter family and to Drummond's circle, and her absence from a lunch appointment is the first sign that the enemy has changed the rules. When the telephone message arrives, Drummond's usual in
- [Inspector McIver](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/inspector_mciver.md): McIver is the professional on the other side of Drummond's amateur theatrics, close enough to be called dear old McIver and blunt enough to be called an ass. He represents the law that Drummond both uses and evades, and 
- [Count Zadowa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/count_zadowa.md): Zadowa moves through Bloomsbury hotels and Green Street offices as the respectable Mr. Atkinson, fronting a criminal network whose real business he is careful never to ask about. His terror of the man calling himself the
- [Delmorlick](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/delmorlick.md): Newly arrived and red-hot for anarchy, Delmorlick works a crowd with a pointed finger and a quiet, earnest certainty that England, Scotland, and Ireland are all moving his way. His face lingers in the mind of at least on
- [Ted Jerningham](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/ted_jerningham.md): Jerningham belongs to the tight set of friends who treat the Black Gang as a lark with a serious edge, moving between Piccadilly clubs and covert operations without ever quite dropping the banter. He is loyal to Drummond
- [Peter Darrell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/peter_darrell.md): Darrell is the sort of young man who can stroll out of the Ritz and vanish eastward to a mysterious date with a minor star, then turn up again when the gang needs a steady hand. He shares Drummond's taste for understatem
- [Mr. William Atkinson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/mr_william_atkinson.md): As Mr. Atkinson, the man behind the alias keeps clerks, a constable, and an Inspector all convinced they are dealing with an ordinary businessman whose premises have suffered a regrettable bomb outrage. The disguise is h
- [Janet](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/janet.md): Janet is spoken of with a tenderness that sits oddly against the violence surrounding her, a small figure whose safety matters to people who otherwise deal in threats and bombs. Her connection to the Longmoor circle make
- [Zaboleff](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/zaboleff.md): Zaboleff arrives late to a candlelit back-room rendezvous where six nervous men wait to hear why they were summoned. His foreign composure and the way the two Jewish conspirators study him mark him as no ordinary accompl
- [Ginger Martin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/ginger_martin.md): A deceased member of the Black Gang, mentioned in the narrative.
- [Reverend Theodosius Longmoor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/reverend_theodosius_longmoor.md): Over chops and small talk, the Reverend Theodosius probes Drummond about the Black Gang's manifesto and its leader, betraying knowledge no innocent clergyman should possess. His calm is a weapon: he lets Drummond know hi
- [Yulowski](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/yulowski.md): Yulowski argues for immediate, brutal murder while Zadowa urges caution and Peterson listens impassively. His readiness to do the job himself, and his shrug when overruled, reveal a man for whom killing is simply a trade
- [Mr. Day](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/mr_day.md): A minor character, possibly a veteran of the Boer War.
- [Denny](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/denny.md): A servant or housekeeper in the Drummond household.
- [Algy Longworth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/algy_longworth.md): Algy belongs to Drummond's tight circle of allies, the kind of man who can stand at the Ritz entrance and separate into the night on mysterious errands. His presence widens the gang's reach beyond its leader, giving the 
- [Flash Jim](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/flash_jim.md): A criminal associate of Peterson's gang.
- [Sir John Manton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/sir_john_manton.md): Sir John sits at the top of government, skeptical until confronted with chapter and verse on the Proletarian Sunday Schools and the criminal men behind the propaganda. He grunts that the Black Gang's anonymous leader des
- [Toby Sinclair](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/toby_sinclair.md): A friend of Drummond, part of his social circle.
- [Sir John Haverton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/sir_john_haverton.md): A government official involved in the plot.
- [Jerry Seymour](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/jerry_seymour.md): A minor character mentioned in the narrative.
- [Irma](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/irma.md): Irma moves through the same elegant London spaces as Drummond and his friends, close enough to Peterson's schemes to know their shape. It was a girl who found Drummond out, and the knowledge sits uneasily in his calculat
- [John Smith](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/john_smith.md): A generic name used as an alias or minor character.
- [Franz](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters/franz.md): A minor character, possibly a servant or foreign associate.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_black_gang_se/characters