Professor Padraic Ratigan is the main antagonist in the Basil of Baker Street book series, originally written by Eve Titus and illustrated by Paul Galdone, and later continued by Cathy Hapka and illustrated by David Mottram.
Ratigan is depicted as a taller-than-average mouse (five inches tall with a scrawny build), and the main crime lord of the Mouse World.
Biography[]
Basil and the Lost Colony[]
Professor Ratigan is first introduced in the second book, Basil and the Lost Colony, published in 1964. In the opening narration, Dr. Dawson states that he, Basil and Ratigan attended Ratcliffe College together, but Dawson lamented that Ratigan had decided to use his genius for evil.
By the time the book begins, Basil has already dismantled most of Ratigan's operations, with only him and two minions remaining at large. Basil returns to Baker Street injured and in tatters, revealing that Ratigan hired a Siamese cat to assassinate him. While the heroes are out, Ratigan visits their home and tricks their mousekeeper Mrs. Judson into letting him in, steals some evidence relating to the Case of the Lost Colony. Mrs. Judson is unaware of his identity until Basil returns, though Basil notes that if she had tried to stop him Ratigan would have showed her how cruel and ruthless he can be. Wanting to outdo Basil by being the one to discover the Lost Colony and the Abominable Snowmouse, Ratigan uses the stolen evidence to impersonate Basil and kidnaps Flora and Fauna Faversham. He leaves a cypher taunting Basil for having fallen for a trick, and sets Flora and Fauna adrift on a raft to eventually drown when they refuse to tell him what he wants to know.
Ratigan and his minions steal the other expedition's mountaineering equipment and tries to murder Basil with a mousetrap. But Basil calls him out on this. Ratigan then captures the Maharajah of Bengistan, the ruler of a mousedom within India, and gloats that when he beats Basil to discovering the Lost Colony he'll be lauded as a hero and invited to all the wealthiest mice's homes, which he'll then rob and use the finances to expand his criminal empire globally. Basil and Ratigan fight on the edge of a cliff until they both fall off, only to be caught by Elmo the St. Bernard. Ratigan is arrested and humiliated by being tied up with his own tail, but escapes with the help of his gang.
Basil and the Cave of Cats[]
In the third book, Ratigan has become the dictator of Bengistan, keeping the Maharajah imprisoned in his own home. He levies a heavy tax on everything in the land. Mice too poor to pay the taxes are left to starve, and Ratigan keeps the money for himself. Basil and Dawson travel to Bengistan and are willingly captured and brought before Ratigan, who gloats about his victory. He invites Basil to rule the world together, geniunely claiming that he's always admired Basil's intelligence and genius as a detective. When Basil refuses, Ratigan sentences him to the dungeon.
Basil escapes through a hidden passage and finds the Maharajah, who informs him that Ratigan forces the famous opera singer Relda to sing for him everyday and starved her for two days when she refused. The heroes capture Ratigan while he's distracted enjoying the music. He is then locked up in the Maharajah's dungeon until he escapes the same way Basil did. Ratigan and his minion Dorian tail Basil as he departs on an expedition to find the Island of Mini Cats, pose as sailors, and try to instigate a mutiny only to be thwarted by Basil and Dawson without much difficulty. Ratigan escapes and returns to London, resuming command of his crime syndicate.
Basil in Mexico[]
In the fourth book, Ratigan creates counterfeited cheese designed to break the teeth of the mice who gnaw it. He had kidnapped the sons of London's mice dentists in order to blackmail them into giving him their salaries from fixing the broken teeth by threatening to make sure they never see their children again if they go to Mouseland Yard or Basil. Basil finds the missing children and alerts Mouseland Yard, and Ratigan's gang is forced to retreat. When Ratigan and Basil arrive in Mexico, the crime lord forms an alliance with the deposed dictator El Bruto to return him to power. He then kidnaps Dr. Dawson at gunpoint. El Bruto suggests Ratigan dispose of Dawson once they stage their coup, but Ratigan wants to keep Dawson as a prisoner to bait Basil. Ratigan is arrested once again, but swears revenge.
Basil in the Wild West[]
In the fifth book, Dawson's states that Ratigan was still imprisoned, and that he had teamed up with the American outlaw Monterey Jack and smuggler J.J. (the main antagonists of this book) to form the Anti-Basil League.
Basil and the Big Cheese Cook-Off[]
In the sixth book, written in 2018 by Cathy Hapka, Ratigan admits that he had considered poisoning the cheese at the International Cheese Cook-Off in Paris, and that another young mouse had written threatening letters if the convention was not cancelled. Having been thwarted again, Ratigan flees to Italy.
Basil and the Library Ghost[]
In the eighth book, Ratigan escapes Newgate Prison and heads towards Ratcliffe College. He plans on robbing the college museum, and threatening and/or bribing a couple of security guards into stepping down so his accomplice Alfie can sign up. Upon learning from Alfie that Basil is at the college investigating rumors of a ghost haunting the library (which turns out to be a prank by some of Basil's old classmates), Ratigan uses white phosphorus to plant ghostly footprints in the library as a distraction, not knowing Basil had already figured everything out, with the added bonus of them igniting and almost burning the library down. When Basil confronts Ratigan and Alfie, the professor lights a pair of white phosphorus matches and throws one match at the valuables he had tried to steal and another at Basil himself before making a getaway while Basil and his friends put the fires out.
Trivia[]
- In the book series, Professor Ratigan is revealed to be a mouse on multiple occasions. Basil only calls him a rat out of jest.
