221B BAKER STREET 1. >THE UNHOLY MAN< The preacher was in fact a thief who had stolen the original manuscript of Hamlet from an exhibit on the Riviera, where he also acquired his tan. The preacher disguised the manuscript as a Bible and had Longworth authenticate it for the Duke, whom the preacher hoped would buy it. Longworth, however, in desperate need of money, killed the preacher with Hamlet's sword and stole the manuscript. Longworth, who does not smoke, planted the German-made cigarette near the victim's body to throw suspicion from himself; but in the process, he accidentally dropped his packet of aspirin. KILLER: EARL LONGWORTH WEAPON: SWORD MOTIVE: MANUSCRIPT 2. >SILVER PATCH< Sir Reginald Cosgrove, in dire need of money, concocted a plot to collect money from his large insurance policy on Silver Patch. Sir Reginald painted over the silver patch on the mane of his prize horse and painted a silver patch on the mane of Night Dancer, another of his horses. He then switched stalls and poisoned Night Dancer, who now looked like Silver Patch. Realizing that he would have to take Oscar Switt into his confidence, Sir Reginald arranged for his trainer to meet him at the stables. When Switt refused to go along with Sir Reginald's plan to kill Night Dancer, Sir Reginald became enraged and killed the trainer, smashing him over the head with an ale bottle, then stabbing him repeatedly with the broken bottle. KILLER: SIR REGINALD COSGROVE WEAPON: BROKEN BOTTLE MOTIVE: INSURANCE 3. >THE CHAMELEON'S VENGEANCE< Disguised as Inspector Lestrade, the chameleon planted explosives in the violin case which housed the instrument Holmes was to play in the duet finale at the Playhouse. SURPRISE: EXPLOSIVES HIDING PLACE: VIOLIN CASE CHAMELEON: LESTRADE 4. >THE CODED MESSAGE< Knowing death was near, Rudolph Hickle forced his canary to swallow the valuable Eyes of Lucifer. Hickle then attempted to notify his good friend, Harry Blake, by writing in a code the two had developed years ago. MESSAGE: PEARLS INSIDE CANARY. 5. >THE CLERK'S DEMISE Two years after being dishonorably discharged from the British military, Donald Hobson changed his name to Alfred Cooke and tried to start a new life. Neither his eventual employers at Scotland Yard nor his wife and children knew the truth of his past. Manfred Maloney stumbled onto Cooke and attempted to blackmail his old army buddy. To protect his secret, Cooke killed Maloney with an icicle and tried to make it appear to be the work of a radical political group. KILLER: ALFRED COOKE (DONALD HOBSON) WEAPON: ICICLE MOTIVE: BLACKMAIL 6. >THE REWRITTEN DEATH< Understudy, Vance Hillyard, planned to murder Roderick Garrick to obtain the star's role; but, owing to Hillyard's color blindness, the actor mistakenly killed Albert Boswell. KILLER: VANCE HILLYARD MOTIVE: STAR'S PART 7. >THE PILLAGED PAWNBROKER< While cleaning out her husband's attic, Mrs. Phyllis Cahill inadvertently included among the items sold to the pawnbroker a secreted Ming vase John Cahill had stolen from the museum. Cahill traced the priceless chinese objet d'art to the pawnbroker shop and broke in, placing the Ming vase in an armor helmet for protection and wrapping the treasure with newspaper and string. When Miles Balfour surprised the thief, Cahill killed the pawnbroker with a broadsword from the set of old English armor and, as an afterthought, robbed the cash till to throw suspicion from himself. KILLER: JOHN CAHILL WEAPON: BROADSWORD MOTIVE: MING VASE 8. >THE EMPTY-HANDED THIEF< As was her custom periodically, Mrs. Beatrice Galton opened the wall safe in her husband's study to view the Renshaw Diamonds bequeathed by her late mother. When she attempted to return the gem tray, a stone fell to the floor and she whirled, stepping firmly, only to find the "diamond" crushed underfoot. Numbly, Beatrice smashed "jewel" after "jewel" with a letter opener from the desk. She suddenly realized the truth. Her husband had disposed of her diamonds, replaced the gems with glass replicas, and squandered the money. Beatrice confronted Galton as he entered the room with the latest packet of unpaid bills and, in a fury, she stabbed him. KILLER: BEATRICE WEAPON: LETTER OPENER MOTIVE: DISCOVERED JEWELS 9. >THE PECULIAR CHARWOMAN< Tobacconist Daniel Ferguson, equally dividing his time between his London and Liverpool shops, found in the arrangement an equal opportunity to divide his affections. Surprised by his Liverpool wife Bessie's visit to his London shop, Ferguson lured the unfortunate girl into a shed behind the shop (used to hickory-smoke certain blends), then dressed his victim in a charwoman's garb, his immediate problem cured. KILLER: DANIEL FERGUSON MOTIVE: BIGAMY CAUSE OF DEATH: SMOKE INHALATION 10. >THE DUCHESS'S DEMISE< In her sitting room at Barrington Manor, the Duchess confronted Alex Stafford, demanding he return the funds he had won from cheating at the card table. Enraged, Stafford killed the Duchess with a poker from the fireplace and attempted to establish an alibi for himself using ventriloquism. KILLER: ALEX STAFFORD MOTIVE: DISCOVERED CHEATING ALIBI: VENTRILOQUISM 11. >THE DEADLY CALLER< Captain Victor Juno feared his stepmother's wild infatuation for gigolo Lorenzo Marchetti and concocted a fiendish murder plot to secure his inheritance. Juno returned to England carrying a deadly but trained Indian cobra. He then adjusted the radiator in his stepmother's room to emit a "whistling" pitch. from his adjoining room, Juno released the cobra into a common ventilator shaft opening near his stepmother's bed. As Mrs. Lyons rose in the night hearing the gentle sound of movement, she realized too late that "music" from the radiator pipes had "charmed" the caller. KILLER: VICTOR JUNO WEAPON: SNAKE MOTIVE: INHERITANCE 12. >THE SPINSTER'S WILL< Learning that a vast diamond field had been discovered near the worthless gold mine Miss Pierpoint was to bequeath him, druggist Ward Ramsey substituted sleeping pills for the aspirin tablets Miss Pierpoint kept at her bedside. KILLER: WARD RAMSEY WEAPON: SLEEPING PILLS MOTIVE: DIAMOND MINE 13. >THE NETTLESOME BRIDE< Penelope Holloway discovered she was making a bridal trousseau for another woman to marry the man who once proposed to her. Seeking revenge for her romantic jealousy, the seamstress stabbed Imogene Boylan with a pair of scissors and stole the engagement ring from her finger. KILLER: PENELOPE HOLLYWAY MOTIVE: ROMANTIC JEALOUSY WEAPON: SCISSORS 14. >THE AMOROUS SAILOR< "I wed two wives" should be Willie Dryden's epitaph. The white ring of untanned flesh around Willie's ring finger tipped Holmes to the fact that Willie had no business marrying Mitzi. He was already married in Singapore to the lady in black. This femme fatale followed Willie to London, learned he was marrying Mitzi, took her place in the receiving line and gave Willie the kiss of death. IDENTITY: DRYDEN'S WIFE MOTIVE: BIGAMY METHOD: POISON LIPSTICK 15. >THE UNKNOWN VICTIM< Enraged by his wife's confession of having had an affair with Carl Seagram, Barry Auguston plotted the General's death. On the pretense of showing him the house, Auguston lured Seagram into the guest chamber. Auguston requested a look at Seagram's sword; and when he had it, he forced the General to change into a tweed suit and then stabbed him. He quickly shaved off the General's moustache and beard, hoping no one would recognize him. He left the body on the bed, along with the sword. He hoped Scotland Yard would assume the missing General killed this man, then drop the case when the General couldn't be found. KILLER: BARRY AUGUSTON VICTIM: CARL SEAGRAM MOTIVE: JEALOUSY 16. >THE KIDNAPPED SONGSTRESS< Winnie Oats and her manager Dale Rice are devious characters. They used poor Lloyd Newcomb to get favorable publicity, then tried to hang the kidnapping on him by planting the mask in the reporter's carriage. Dale Rice wore the mask when he swept down on the rope to kidnap Winnie, who was fully prepared for the kidnapping. Winnie's husband, Guy, found out about her involvement with Newcomb. Guy booked passage for himself, probably bound for his lawyer and a divorce. KIDNAPPER: DALE RICE MOTIVE: PUBLICITY STUNT LOCATION: PLAYHOUSE ATTIC 17. >THE POISONED POKER PLAYER< Ralph Cotson was correctly convinced that Roger Stearns had been winning at cards by cheating. When Stearns brought his jade ring to Cotson the jeweler for repair, Cotson contaminated the ring with cyanide poison, and waited anxiously for their next big poker game. MURDERER: RALPH COTSON MOTIVE: CHEATING HOW POISONED: RING 18. >THE GLUTTONOUS GOSSIP< Harold Quail, the driver of a food delivery carriage, was madly in love with Helen Thrush, wife of the hotel manager. When Charles Maxwell exposed Harold's affair with helen in his gossip column, Helen committed suicide. One night, as Harold was making a food delivery at the pub, waiters carried Charles Maxwell out to the carriage to be rushed to the hospital. Maxwell was unconscious from an orgy of overeating. Filled with anger and hatred for the journalist, Harold covered the face of the unconscious man and smothered him to death with his bare hands. KILLER: QUAIL MOTIVE: REVENGE METHOD: SMOTHERED WITH BARE HANDS 19. >THE WELL-INFORMED THIEF< Dentist Harrison Beale was in dire financial straits due to his compulsive cardplaying, when he decided to extract Mrs. Haigh's life savings along with her tooth. Beale administered a truth serum when the widow visited the dentist. While unconscious, the widow answered all of Harrison's questions concerning where she hid her life savings and when she would be away from her house. THIEF: BEALE HOW HE KNEW WHERE TO LOOK: ADMINISTERED TRUTH SERUM DURING DENTAL WORK. 20. >THE LIMPING TAX COLLECTOR< Pawnbroker Phillip Pupil was a very lucky man until tax collector Clarence Alexander discovered that Pupil had filed false income tax returns for years. faced with probable imprisonment, Pupil decided to stab Clarence with a poisoned needle and leave false clues of suicide. When Clarence took his shoes off in the park and waded in the pond, Pupil stuck a needle dipped in curare poison in Clarence's left shoe. When Clarence put his shoe on and collapsed, Pupil rushed forward pretending to render first aid. He used this opportunity to plant the typewritten suicide note and the bottle of poison on Clarence. KILLER: PHILLIP PUPIL MOTIVE: TAX FRAUD METHOD: STUCK POISONED NEEDLE INSIDE SHOE 21. >THE FALLEN ANGEL< Hot air balloonist Willie Crayfield talked human fly Hector Angel into a daring heist of the Crown Jewels stored in the heavily guarded Tower of London. As Crayfield maneuvered his balloon above the Tower, Angel climbed down a rope and entered a vent leading to the room containing the regal gems. After stealing the Crown Jewels, Angel commenced to climb back up the rope into the gondola of Crayfield's balloon. Angel made the fatal mistake of first handing the gems to Crayfield before completing his climb. As soon as Crayfield grabbed the jewels, he drew a sword and cut the rope Angel was ascending. Poor Hector Angel fell to his death still clutching a section of the severed rope. KILLER: WILLIE CRAYFIELD WEAPON: SWORD HOW KILLER ESCAPED: HOT AIR BALLOON 22. >THE ALPHABET SPY< The leaders of the militant German province of Prussia were about to expand their influence by invading France. This aggression became known as the bloody Franco-Prussian War, and the date in the message marked Prussia's first assault. Bonus points for any sleuth who pegged the year as 1870, five years after the civil war. THE MESSAGE: AUGUST NINETEENTH THE EVENT: INVASION OF FRANCE WHO SENT THE MESSAGE: KING WILHELM 23. >THE MYSTERIOUS SKULL< If you know anything about the sport of rowing, you know a "scull" is a racing boat used in the Olympics and the Henley Regatta. The fishermen who pulled the coach from the Thames heard the right word, but everybody assumed the wrong spelling. KILLER: ROWING TEAM HOW KILLED: HIT BY BOAT MOTIVE: COVER UP DRUG USE 24. >THE MUSICAL MURDER< The quartet's harpist was bitter over the theft of his musical piece "Goodbye, Dolly," so he was determined to end William Minor's career on a sour note. You had an edge on this case if you know music and recognized that on the piano an E flat and a D sharp are exactly the same note. KILLER: JEFF DESHARPE WEAPON: HARP STRING MOTIVE: STOLEN COMPOSITION 25. >THE EYE OF THE EIGER< Sir Edmund Hillman was an old fashioned hero: adventurous, modest and widely admired. Dr. Simon "Sy" Klopps who scaled the Eiger with Hillman deeply resented that his team leader gathered "all the glory" for the climb. Motivated by intense envy, Dr. Klopps utilized his considerable skills as a hypnotist to cause Sir Edmund to disgrace himself by appearing to shoplift clothes bearing the Eiger fashions logo. Holmes realized that Sir Edmund's doodles of a green eye in the Eiger revealed the solution to the case. Sir Edmund's subconscious mind associated Dr. Klopps with the one-eyed monster of myth, the cyclops. The green eye on the sketch suggested envy as a motive and hypnotism as the means of the crime. CRIMINAL: DR. SY KLOPPS MOTIVE: ENVY METHOD: HYPNOTISM 26. >THE RANDOM MURDERS< Whig precinct worker Sean Byron set a new low in unsportsmanlike conduct in a political campaign: he murdered supporters of the opposition party. The incumbent candidate, Whig Sir Leroy Tick, derived a double benefit from his zealous supporter's actions since the murders not only decreased the number of Labour votes but also provided him with a strong "law and order" campaign issue. Although Sir Leroy did not instruct Byron to commit murder, he set the shocking events in motion by ordering his unbalanced aide to "do what it takes" to eliminate the Labour lead in the polls. Byron did as he was told. KILLER: SEAN BYRON MASTERMIND: SIR LEROY TICK MOTIVE: WIN ELECTION 27. >MORIARTY'S CHALLENGE< The arch-villain, Professor James Moriarty, chose Holmes' birthday as an appropriate occasion to engage the master sleuth in a battle of wits. He planted an explosive in the candle at the table reserved for Holmes at the London Bistro. Although waiter Bill Beaconfield bore no ill will toward Holmes and never had dealings with Moriarty, he was Moriarty's unwitting agent in crime by lighting the candle intended to kill the great detective. As the candles at the restaurant last three hours, and the explosive was contained midway in the candle on Holmes' table, the murder would have occurred at 9:30. MORIARTY'S AGENT: BILL BEACONFIELD METHOD: EXPLODING CANDLE INTENDED TIME OF MURDER: 9:30 PM 28. >THE DOCTOR'S LAST LAMENT< Dr. Van Nogh was a man with a guilty conscience. He served in the British Army during the South African Campaign; but when he was captured in battle he became a traitor and fought on the side of the Boers. Hence his cryptic remark that he had been a "bloody bore". His commanding officer, General Vernon Arnoux, always suspected Van Nogh's treason but could never prove it. Finally, he decided to take justice into his own hands and "execute" Van Nogh. When Arnoux confronted Van Nogh, he permitted the Doctor to write a suicide note. The general killed Van Nogh by injecting air into the man's arm with a hypodermic needle. Afterwards, thinking that he needed a more credible suicide method, General Arnoux poured cyanide into the dead man's mouth. KILLER: ARNOUX WEAPON: HYPODERMIC MOTIVE: PUNISH TREASON 29. >THE MYSTERIOUS MURDER< Irene Marlow was unaware of her husband's old business partnership with Albert Kenilworth. Colonel Marlow had swindled Kenilworth, driving him to commit suicide. Ten years later, Albert's brother Arnold made good on his threat of revenge. Marlow had never met Albert Kenilworth, which Kenilworth used to his advantage. He followed Marlow and engaged the unsuspecting Colonel in a game of backgammon at the pub. After the game, Kenilworth jumped the Colonel and injected him with a large dose of strychnine, causing near-instantaneous death. Kenilworth then dragged Marlow's body to the dock and threw it into the river. MURDERER: ARNOLD KENILWORTH MOTIVE: REVENGE CAUSE OF DEATH: THE DRUG, STRYCHNINE WHERE: PARK 30. >THE MURDERED STOCKBROKER< Barry Coopersfield, worried about the competition from Henry Lancelot's company, devised a devious plan to gain extra money for himself. He convinced Bailey that they should buy an insurance policy in case either of them died, with the surviving partner getting the insurance money. After the policy was taken out, Coopersfield took his souvenir western "six-gun" revolver, followed Bailey after work, and shot him outside the tobacconist. Coopersfield then went to the Wild West Show at the Playhouse. Posing as a stagehand, he snuck into the prop room and put his revolver in a prop bin containing other revolvers from the show. MURDERER: BARRY COOPERSFIELD MOTIVE: INSURANCE MONEY WHERE MURDER WEAPON IS: PLAYHOUSE PROP ROOM