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This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture.

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The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations but not necessarily

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the only ones to the mysteries we will examine.

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Only a few phrases in English literature have left the printed page to gain their own immortality.

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Shakespeare's To Be or Not To Be is one.

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Charles Dickens, It Was The Best Of Times, It Was The Worst Of Times, is another.

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None perhaps has captured the world's imagination more completely than elementary, my dear Watson, elementary.

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Spoken by the most brilliant and popular private detective of all time.

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The question is still debated to this day. Who was Sherlock Holmes?

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An expert on the Sherlock Holmes period, Peter Lovesey.

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London of Sherlock Holmes was a sinister place, like these bolts of the Western dock.

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It was a place of extreme poverty and squalor, where Jack the Ripper roamed the fogging shrouded streets of the East End,

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looking for his miserable victims. And the police were quite unable to control the crime.

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But many people look back on it as a golden age, when Queen Victoria had reigned for as long as anyone could remember,

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and the upper classes could feel secure, safeguarded by the greatest of all detectives, Mr. Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street.

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The fact of the matter was, in the decade prior to Holmes' appearance in print, the London police had failed to combat the growing crime rate.

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Even corruption in the force flourished.

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There were dynamitings involving the Irish problem, ruthlessly suppressed meetings of the unemployed,

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and most of all, the notorious Jack the Ripper murders never solved.

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Not all police were inefficient or corrupt, of course, but leadership was clearly lacking. The public was not being served.

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The Birth of Sherlock Holmes as a Public Figure is documented in a rare collection owned by Stanley McKenzie.

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The big cornerstone of any Sherlock Holmes collection, which is the envy of most collectors, is Beaton's Christmas Annual for 1887.

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In this, a study in Scarlett was first published. This was the first appearance of the first Sherlock Holmes story.

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Conan Doyle was paid 25 pounds for the copyright, and he never received another penny.

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Sherlock Holmes' reputation was enhanced by the play about him, written by an American actor, William Gillette.

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This poster shows Gillette himself in the gas chamber scene in the play.

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Gillette probably played the part of Holmes more times than any other actor.

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An 1895 recording preserves his performance.

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From theater to motion pictures was also an elementary step for the master sleuth.

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Fame and fortune would quickly accrue to Doyle as well.

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We are getting on once. I'm glad to see you in a more cheerful mood.

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By 1933, a third version of a study in Scarlett had been made, with Reginald Owen playing the detective,

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whose personal and professional style set him apart from all others.

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A large number represented the page, the second, the small number, the column, and the other figures, the message.

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You'll find it decoded on the table.

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Every Holmes adventure is different, but in all of them he plays the violin, of which he was a master.

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A client, Watson? Where? The widow standing under the streetlight.

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A widow? Would you like to bet on that? Of course.

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Well, I'm not going down the street to ask her. Ah, won't be necessary. She's made up of mine.

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So you deduce her to distancing?

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Not in this case. I recognized her features. She's a Mrs. Murphy.

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Her husband was murdered three days ago.

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You mean the man that was found dead in a train?

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Exactly. Come in.

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A Mrs. Murphy to see you, sir. Mr. Holmes, I'm in such a mess. Such a mess.

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My husband up and died without leaving me as much as I could.

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Holmes would never refuse a woman in distress, whether she be plain or beautiful.

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And in some cases, he might reluctantly have to turn her over to the authorities.

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For under his cool exterior burned a passion for justice to be feared by all villains.

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London's most dangerous crook, the King of Blackmailers.

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A gliding, slimy, venomous snake.

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Once in his power, he'll squeeze and squeeze until he's drained, his victims dry.

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More than once I've had my net around him so far, he's managed to wriggle his way out.

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But the time has come, Watson.

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No shark broke that window.

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How did this modern detective come into being? What was Holmes' creator like?

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Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859.

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Raised in one of the gracious Georgian homes in the New Town, he enrolled at the age of 17

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as a student of medicine at the university.

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Here he learned the methods of diagnosis, which applied to the analysis of crime,

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became the basis of Holmes' famous methods of detection.

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No one questions that the inspiration for his quick-witted hero came from Doyle's tutor,

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Dr. Joseph Bell, here recreated for in search of.

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I've always considered Conan Doyle as one of the best students I've ever had.

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He was exceedingly interested in anything concerned with diagnosis.

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Never tired of trying to discover those little details that one must look for.

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I remember he was greatly amused one day.

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A man came in, sat down,

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good morning, Pat, I said, for it was impossible not to see that he was an Irishman.

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Good morning, your honour, replied the patient.

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Well, and did you like your walk across the links today

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as you came in from the south side of the town, sir?

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Yes.

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replied Pat.

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Did your honour see me?

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Well, even Doyle could not see how I came to know that.

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Obsubly simple as it was.

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On a showery day, such as it had been,

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the reddish clay at the bare part of the links

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adheres to the boot.

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Some tiny part of it is bound to remain.

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There's no such clay anywhere else round the town for miles.

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Well, that and one or two similar instances,

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excited Doyle's interest and set him discovering for himself in the same direction,

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which of course was exactly what I wanted with him and all my other scholars.

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Recognition of...

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How much of Belle was in Holmes, how much of Doyle himself,

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no one can say for sure.

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As a young doctor with few patients,

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Doyle found plenty of time to write.

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Years later, he told why he found himself in Holmes.

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He told why he felt compelled to create Holmes.

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I had of course a scientific training

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and I used occasionally to read detective stories.

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It all annoyed me how in the old fashioned detective story,

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the detective always seemed to get at his results,

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either by some sort of lucky chance or a fluke,

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or else it was quite unexplained how he got there.

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I would have never given explanation.

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In a number of films from the 30s,

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Arthur Wautner is Sherlock Holmes and Ian Fleming is Dr. Watson.

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Deductive reasoning is on full display.

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You moved your shaving mirror over to the fireplace.

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Here, that's right.

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My wife has a dressing table where we used to have...

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How do you know?

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I know once that your men have precise habits

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and considerable regard for your personal appearance.

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I've observed that whilst the right-hand side of your face

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is closely shaved, the further we get to the neck.

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The more careless your shaving appears.

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So we come to the angle of the jaw

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and it is posited this suddenly.

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Behind I deduce therefore that you placed your shaving mirror

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where the light strikes on the right side of the face.

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The bed must obviously be crossed the end of the room,

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therefore the fireplace is the only place left

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which could produce that result.

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Amazing, though.

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Elementary, my dear Wautner.

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Elementary.

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Yes, with the hilarious victim.

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I mean that we should see Mr. Holmes doing stuff.

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Stuff?

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It's a modern expression Watson signifying to display one's talent.

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That's right.

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I want Mr. Holmes to tell us what father's been doing

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for the last 20 years just by looking at him.

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Holmes is always observant, even of friends.

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I'm afraid they're very little data.

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I merely observed that since we last met,

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your father has taken to billion

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that he's recently played a hundred up with Mr. Trevor.

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That's so purely correct, Holmes.

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Oh, I do, Wautner. It's implicit in itself.

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I observed that both you and Mr. Trevor

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are traces of blue chalk between the four finger and thumb

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of your left hand, which you put there obviously to settle the queue.

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There. I hope that satisfies you, Diana.

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Where were you married, Mrs. Douglas?

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In New York.

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Ah, in America.

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Holmes is not only observant, he is worldly wise.

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Nothing at all.

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That mark on his arm.

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Do you know what that is?

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No.

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You never asked him?

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Yes, I did once, but he refused to discuss it.

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So I never asked again.

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You have no idea what it is.

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None whatsoever.

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Can't you suggest anything?

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Mrs. Douglas, I suggest that you tell me the truth.

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Mr. Holmes.

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You know perfectly well what that mark is.

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You couldn't possibly have lived in America without knowing.

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I'll write it with you, Moriarty.

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In one of the films, our master detective's arch enemy,

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Professor Moriarty, is about to push Dr. Watson down

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an 80-foot abandoned elevator shaft.

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Very good.

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I will now remove the panel and wish you a sweet journey.

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Don't move, any of you.

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Ah!

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Got it!

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Except you, my dear Watson, who I'm sure would be more comfortable with us.

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You must excuse me for trespassing on your private property.

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I've had to lift, put in order again.

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You're clever.

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No compliments, please.

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Are you sure, Robert Moriarty?

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On what charge?

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Being concerned of the murder of the table boy, Edward Hunter.

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Well, it's the most amazing case we've ever solved, Holmes.

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Elementary, my dear Watson.

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Elementary.

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Most criminologists of today will tip their hats in gratitude

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to the legacy of Holmes and his creator.

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In fact, a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society

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is an official of Scotland Yard, Philip Dalton.

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Mr. Dalton kindly consented to escort us to a very special exclusive place.

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Behind a pub, on an obscure street near Trafalgar Square,

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the Society has assembled a stirring tribute

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to the leading detective of all time.

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Well, here it is, the sitting room at 221B Baker Street.

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Left exactly as it was on the instructions of the Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's brother.

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Nothing to be touched.

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Nothing has been.

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It's all here.

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With Persian slipper.

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With some tobacco still in it.

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The poker.

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But Sherlock Holmes nearly straightened.

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The violin.

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It used to play across his knees.

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There's the gasogen.

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There's the tantalus.

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Patriotic VR, picked out in bullet box.

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And behind me is the bust of Sherlock Holmes

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that was the target for Colonel Sebastian Moran's air-ride.

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And you can still see the bullet hole.

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This room is, of course, a shrine.

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And it's visited by pilgrims from all over the world.

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It's especially a shrine for the Sherlock Holmes Society of London.

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If in this room you were to ask me, was Sherlock Holmes fact or fiction?

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I'd like to echo the reply given by our president, Lord Gobu.

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Who when asked that question said, yes.

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The claim that Sherlock Holmes did exist

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beyond the imagination of Conan Doyle may seem preposterous to many.

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But as we shall see, there is evidence to support this belief.

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The first clues to why Holmes may have been more than simply a fictional character

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may be found in Doyle's life itself.

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HRF Keating is one of Doyle's leading biographers.

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But he did other things in many other fields.

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He was the man who introduced the ski to Switzerland.

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Before that it had just been a way of getting about over the snow in Norway.

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He brought it to Switzerland and started the whole great skiing industry.

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It was like bringing the pump into America.

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Then in the 1914 war, he was the man responsible for the introduction

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of the modern military steel helmet.

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He carried out experiments himself with a rifle

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and proved that protection could be given against the modern bullet.

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At the same time, he insisted that the troops going over from England to France

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were equipped with inflatable life jackets and they went to the British Navy as well.

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As significant as these accomplishments were, however,

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and knighthood would be his reward,

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what is little known is that Doyle was involved in many cases himself.

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In search of, recreates one of them.

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Conan Doyle's secretary, Major Wood, was perhaps the prototype for Dr. Watson.

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One morning in 1906, he opened a letter which he thought would arouse Doyle's interest.

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It was from George Iddalji, an Anglo-Indian lawyer who on weak circumstantial evidence

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and possibly because of his ancestry had been sent to the British Navy

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in prison charged with slashing and maiming horses with a razor.

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After serving three of these seven years, he was inexplicably released,

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but without a pardon.

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Now he wrote to Doyle, asking to clear his name.

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Morning, Alfred.

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The author of this letter here I think you ought to see.

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It's from Mr. Iddalji.

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I think it's from the British Navy.

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Morning, Alfred.

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The author of this letter here I think you ought to see.

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It's from Mr. Iddalji.

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Who it appears has been the butt of a gross miscarriage of justice.

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Iddalji, Iddalji.

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Wasn't there an article in the umpire last month?

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Yes, there was.

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He sent it with his letter. It's amongst those.

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Ah, yes, I remember.

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Extraordinary case.

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I'll have another look at it.

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As I read, the unmistakable accent of truth forced itself upon my attention,

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and I realized that I was in the presence of an appalling tragedy,

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and that I was called upon to do what I could to set it right.

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I got other papers in the case, went up to Staffordshire,

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saw the family, and went over the scene of the crime.

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Between Iddalji's house and the place where the final mutilation was committed,

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lay the full breadth of the London and Northwestern railway,

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an expanse of rails, wires, and other obstacles,

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with hedges to be forced on either side,

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so that I, a strong and a active man, in broad daylight,

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found it a hard method to pass.

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Not until I had examined every fact subtly from every angle

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that I arranged to question Iddalji.

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The meeting took place at my hotel.

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I had been delayed, and he was passing the time by reading the paper.

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I recognized my man by his dark face, so I stood and observed.

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Mr. Iddalji, I presume.

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Oh, Sir Arthur.

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Do you suffer from astigmatic myopia?

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This is indeed an honor.

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Look, don't you wear glasses?

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Never have, Sir Arthur.

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They can't fit me glasses that are any use.

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I have been to two ophthalmic surgeons,

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and both the idea of such a man scouring the fields at night,

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and assaulting animals while avoiding the watchful police,

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was ludicrous to anyone who can imagine what the world looks like

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to eyes with myopia of eight diopters.

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So bad was his defense in his trial,

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that no mention as far as I could have sustained was ever made of the fact

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that the man was practically blind.

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Finally, Doyle wrote a series of articles in the Daily Telegraph.

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They provoked the public outcry,

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and Doyle was invited to a meeting with the Home Secretary.

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Not satisfied with simply clearing Iddalji's name,

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Doyle now set out to discover the identity of the real slasher.

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Before long, he began receiving threatening letters with a Seafort postmark,

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providing him with the clues he needed.

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Clearly, the letters were written by a disturbed, perhaps pathological man

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who also despised foreigners.

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Doyle then traced Iddalji's history from the time of the crimes backwards,

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all the way to Iddalji's grammar school.

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Had there been a fellow student with a vicious nature,

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a hatred against foreigners,

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and a grudge against Iddalji himself,

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and who subsequently went to sea,

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there had.

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Doyle discovered his present whereabouts,

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and learned he had quit the sea at the time the slashings began.

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He had been trained in a slaughterhouse,

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and he showed signs of periodic insanity.

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Doyle even got hold of a long horse lancet

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with which the slashings had undoubtedly been committed.

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The Law Society re-admitted Iddalji to the role of solicitors.

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Although the Home Office granted Iddalji his pardon,

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they wouldn't agree to any compensation.

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However, the case in due course paved the way

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for establishing a court of criminal appeal.

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And this was only one of the good many real life cases

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in which Doyle achieved success.

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Sherlock Holmes and his creator were inseparably linked.

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In his autobiography, Doyle admitted,

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A man cannot spin a character out of his own inner consciousness

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and make it really life-like,

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unless he has some of that character within him.

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The horse-drawn carriages of 1895 may have disappeared,

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but the living presence of Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street persists to this day.

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Nearly a hundred years after a study in Scarlet,

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letters still come into that address at 221B Baker Street,

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now the offices of an insurance company

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00:20:58,445 --> 00:21:01,447
who reply on Sherlock Holmes' behalf.

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00:21:01,447 --> 00:21:04,449
And this one's from San Diego, California.

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It's addressed to Mr. Sherlock Holmes or Dr. John Watson, MD.

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For those who believe Sherlock Holmes was only a figment of a writer's imagination,

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00:21:15,455 --> 00:21:18,457
in search of humbly submits its deduction,

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00:21:18,457 --> 00:21:22,460
that he did, in a very real way, exist.

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00:21:26,462 --> 00:21:28,463
Coming up next in Search of continues

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00:21:28,463 --> 00:21:31,465
with a quest for the missing evolutionary link.

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00:21:31,465 --> 00:21:35,467
Then 20th century with Mike Wallace reports on childcare and nannies.

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00:21:35,467 --> 00:21:39,470
And later tonight, History's Mysteries sets out on one of history's strangest

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00:21:39,470 --> 00:21:41,471
and most moving marches into war,

334
00:21:41,471 --> 00:21:45,473
the children's crusade at 8, here on the History Channel,

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00:21:45,473 --> 00:21:47,475
where the past comes alive.

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00:21:58,481 --> 00:22:03,484
The History Channel