Eddie

Uncle Eddie, known as Uncle Eddie, is the great-uncle of Katarina Bishop and Gabrielle, as well as the leader of the "family.

Uncle Eddie is by many as the most experienced and respected thief alive, even among members of the other old families. Despite being an older man, and despite spending most of his time cooking in his brownstone house in Brooklyn, he is still an active thief.

The Heist Society series is full of references to Eddie's accomplishments.

Life
Most information about Uncle Eddie's life is given in anecdotes.

In Uncommon Criminals, we learn that Uncle Eddie and Uncle Charlie left Romania in 1959 as young men, in order to make their way as thieves across Europe. However, Uncle Eddie's native tongue is Russian, so it is possible that he, like the younger members of his family, grew up living a nomadic life in Eastern Europe.

At some point, Uncle Eddie and his twin, Uncle Charlie, met Margaret Grey in London. They both fell in love with her and were manipulated by her in their planned heist of the Cleopatra Emerald at the Montreal World Fair in 1967 because of their love for her. As a result, Uncle Eddie and Charlie had a falling-out and their relationship would remain tense for decades.

In 1973, Uncle Eddie won possession of his Brooklyn brownstone house in a poker game. This house becomes the base of operations for his family's criminal activities. It is where he keeps mementos from previous jobs in his office, stockpiles blueprints in the pantry, and plans jobs at the kitchen table.

Family
Uncle Eddie is the head of both his biological family and of his criminal family. The latter family is one of the old families, the traditional thieving families. Because of this, Uncle Eddie often acts as the wise old man, giving advice and information to the younger members of the family, as when he reveals to Kat that Visily Romani is one of the Chelovek Pseudonomia. He has also seen as the enforcer of the code of conduct that Kat and the other members of the family live by, which includes don't get caught and do not con charities, orphans, or nuns.

Other than his strained relationship with Charlie, which is repaired throughout the course of the series, Uncle Eddie has a strong relationship with his family. After Margaret, he never married or had children of his own, so he views his nieces and grand-nieces as the closest thing he's ever had to children. Eddie's relationship with Irina has not been explored, but it is implied that he was very close with Nadia, who was implied to be his protege. He is loss fond of Bobby, a fact that doesn't seem to bother Bobby too much.

Uncle Eddie is very affectionate towards Gabrielle whenever they first interact in Heist Society, and pulls the quintessential elderly relative move and makes a snide comment about the length of her skirt. Uncle Eddie is typically more stern with Kat than he is with Gabrielle. In Uncommon Criminals, we learn that Uncle Eddie sees many parallels between himself and Kat, and does not want Kat to make the same mistakes that he did in his youth.