I use the phrase "Useful Idiot" in the political sense--an extra-pejorative version of Cat's Paw. It doesn't mean flunky--it means someone who has some power, and is manipulated into using it to ends of which he is unaware.

See, e.g., every POTUS since JFK got "corrected"

I mean, think about your "support" for the thesis that he was in the know: that he acted as if Darf Syphilis was a witness to Doodoo's death when he asks, "But, the loss of Count Doodoo!" Based on clear, obvious tone and context, Gregious obviously believes the loss of Doodu was a setback, or he wouldn't even ask the question. Therefore, if Gregious knew that Papulae was a witness to the death, he would have known that Papulae/Syphilis gave the command! This would have confused good ol' Gregious more than Syphilis's seeming nonchalance about the death itself, no?