the criminal Sherlock Holmes!

One of the reasons I rebel against the strict rules of 'the Great Game' these days is that there are a great many instances in the Holmes stories of Watson laying various people (including himself) open to charges of serious breaches of the law, such that if they were indeed genuine historical records would have seen the stories' characters most likely flung in jail. Doyle wrote a good deal of biographical prose but never at any point did he casually reveal that he let a murderer go free or that he did a spot of breaking & entering on occasion.

Sherlock Holmes himself, perhaps surprisingly, comes off the worst in this regard - and it is something of a surprise to say the least that the world's foremost exponent of criminal detection puts his foot in it a great many times.

Doyle seems to play with this - 'Charles Augustus Milverton' begins with the 'realistic' framing device of having Watson say that names, places and even the decade of this case have been disguised by him so as to prevent a scandal, or worse. But this device is playfully compromised by then revealing the wantonness with which both Holmes and Watson actually break the law of the land. As Watson says, "the principal person concerned is beyond the reach of human law" - seemingly forgetting himself and Holmes!

In fact, in CHAS the list of our detective duo's crimes and misdemeanours soon stacks up:

Unlawful Imprisonment
During Milverton's visit to 221b, Holmes tries to lock him in, with Watson standing by wielding a chair. Very unwisely, and not merely because their would-be prisoner is "armed to the teeth, and I am perfectly prepared to use my weapons, knowing that the law will support me." (my emphasis)

Intent to commit a crime
Holmes suggests a break-in to get at Milverton's papers, noting that although he can justify it it is "technically criminal" (!). Watson's ludicrous and self-damning response is, "Yes", I said, "it is morally justifiable so long as our object is to take no articles save those for which are used for an illegal purpose". I doubt a judge would view it in so lax a manner! Holmes also does himself no favours by introducing his bag of tools as "a first class, up-to-date burgling kit".

Damage to property & Unlawful entry

As good as his word, Holmes calmly uses his kit to get into Appledore Towers: "Holmes removed a circle of glass and turned the key from the inside."

Watson and Holmes, from their hiding place, witness the murder of Milverton by a mystery woman he has been blackmailing. This is a murky area - apparently there is no legal crime if you fail to try and prevent a murder whereby your attempt could put your own self in danger. "No interference on our part could have saved the man from his fate," muses Watson, which is probably true, but to blandly add "it was no affair of ours" doesn't exactly help him  much. Any legal prosecution team would chew over this a long time and a crime of Omission or possibly even Manslaughter would not be totally impossible to make a case for.

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Holmes, it must be said, seems never to make much of a fuss over his selective loyalty to the forces of law and order. In 'The Three Gables' he says famously, "I suppose I shall have to compound a felony as usual" - and indeed this is not the first time he uses that phrase, or something very close to it, when justifying his letting a criminal slip from his (or the Police's) grasp. In 'The Abbey Grange' he tidies a murder case up very neatly simply by letting Watson take on the mantle of an official jury!

And if one objects to reading these tales as actual historical chronicles there are an abundance of lesser 'crimes', such as revealing for all to see that Lestrade's successes are almost always down to Holmes. How Lestrade was never pulled in by his superiors for this I'll never know...

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And yet... see how easy it is to write and think about these characters as if they were indeed alive! Somewhere up there Doyle is looking down on us and chuckling. Even with one eye closed this reader still finds himself playing The Great Game...!