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faithful-grigori · 2 years ago

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Personally I assume there’s a degree of “names changed to protect the innocent” going on, which might help.

And in terms of blackmail and mercy, I’ve seen it speculated that the reason Holmes seems to so hate blackmail, and why he’s so willing to spare McCarthy here, is the memory of Victor Trevor’s father James Armitage, who lived a similar but much more sympathetic set of circumstances and who a young Holmes couldn’t save.

The Boscombe Valley Mystery pt 3

So, we're looking for a man with a limp and a blunt pen knife... Surely there can't be many of them in the countryside!

"Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a cigar and let me expound."

Just sit there and let me talk at you, Watson. There's a good chap.

Odd to see Holmes actually asking for advice, though. Usually he only does this to try to get Watson to work through his method and come to the right conclusion - at least that we've seen so far. And he stated at the end of the last section that he had the solution. So what does he need advice for? Does he think that the murderer should go free again?

Or is the murderer the guy who is dying?

Clearly James McCarthy, Ken extraordinaire, shouldn't be hanged for a crime he didn't commit, though. And if the man is already dying then is the death penalty really a penalty to him?

"One was the fact that his father should, according to his account, cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying reference to a rat."

Ah yes, my theory did not explain the rat.

Hmmmmmm...

"But 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was someone who had been in Australia."

Check.

This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand over part of the map. "What do you read?" "ARAT," I read. "And now?" He raised his hand. "BALLARAT."

Aha, a place name... now I read it, I do remember that... unless I'm remembering something from Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Yeah, I think they go to Ballarat in that.

But, more importantly, my theory is still valid and has yet to be disproved.

Less likely it's Turner, though, because why would he specify Ballarat when the son knows Mr Turner well?

"By an examination of the ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal."

OK, now that's just mean. This story is giving me whiplash about his and Lestrade's relationship. Are they friends or do they hate each other? Although with Holmes, calling someone an imbecile might not even be an insult. But it does seem particularly insulting here.

"Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the direction in which all this points. The culprit is—" "Mr John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor.

I mean, I'd argue that all Holmes' evidence is circumstantial and couldn't stand up in court. There could be any number of people in the country that smoke cigars with a holder, haven't sharpened their pen knife in a while and who had a limp on that particular day. And the reference to Ballarat doesn't even have to be the name of the murderer. The guy was struck from behind. Are we even sure he saw his murderer? We need more than that.

But mostly I quoted this bit because I love the dramatic cut with Watson about to say the name and then DUN DUN DUUUUUN the person the audience must assume the evidence points to is right here! It's very cinematic, not that that would have been a thing at the time. But it seems very cinematic now.

"I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a jail."

OK, fine, so it was Turner. The old woman was innocent.

Still think she was up to no good, though.

It's really jarring to see diabetes here as a definite death sentence, even though I know that before insulin, and then synthetic insulin, it essentially was. It's just... We're all so used to the use of insulin that it feels strange to see it written about like death is a certain thing. I don't think about my friends who have diabetes as being particularly sick, because they have the tools to manage their condition.

I looked up the timeline of insulin and it was first manufactured in 1922 and it was the 1923 Nobel Prize for Medicine that was awarded for the discovery of its use. Synthetic insulin didn't come around until the 60s. At the time of this story the only treatments were diet and exercise. I assume, because of his age, he has type 2 diabetes, not type 1. Either way, it's strange thinking how far medicine has come in just over 100 years.

(Of course, access to insulin is another thing entirely... I'm over here in the UK with free healthcare and cheap medicine, so there's that.)

"I was a young chap then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang."

I'm not feeling particularly sympathetic for Mr Turner so far. 'Oh, I got in with bad companions and I was drunk.' This does seem a little bit like you're making excuses for your choices. And then the end of this little description doesn't exactly scream 'remorseful'.

"There were six troopers and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of their saddles at the first volley."

Yeah... that's still murder, my dude.

"There I parted from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, to make up for the way in which I had earned it."

I mean, great. But still... from your story it sounds like you killed a lot of people before him and then went on to live a comfortable life with the money you stole from them. I mean... it is all a little 'kill the billionaires' with the gold and stuff, but that was only one of the highway robberies you committed. And it seems like that was the Big Score, so before that you were just robbing and killing anyone who looked like they might have something you wanted?

So glad you chose to turn over a new leaf. Very happy that you were aiming for a redemption arc. I'm just not sure that murdering a man, even if he is a blackmailer, is the best sort of redemption arc to have.

"But there I was firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that was enough."

And that's all a bit mean to poor James, and a little bit eugenicist. It's not James's fault his father was a blackmailer. And if you believe in that sort of genetic predisposition, then what does it say about Alice being your daughter, given the crimes you committed? Murderers in glass houses, you know...

"He was urging his son to marry my daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she were a slut from off the streets."

See, this is what I meant when I said the conversation could definitely have been relevant to the murder. Because clearly it was.

"Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we may never be exposed to such a temptation."

Can you judge him just a little bit for being hypocritical? Just a little bit?

"...if McCarthy is condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or dead, shall be safe with us."

Holmes really doesn't like blackmailers. That's fair. And he clearly believes in second chances. I'm still a bit struck by how Mr Turner started off his entire story by refusing to acknowledge his own culpability in things. Sure, he says he tried to make up for it by doing a 'little good', but this is such a weird story.

On the one hand, yes, second chances are important and Mr Turner does appear to have made the most of his.

On the other hand, he doesn't seem to have taken responsibility for his actions and he went on to live happily with the money he got by killing people.

And also he's like 'Alice is perfect' but 'James is cursed'...

Eh... I'm not sure he deserves to get off for this one. Mr McCarthy was a terrible person, but the thing he was blackmailing Mr Turner about was literal murder. Multiple counts of it. But then I don't agree with the death penalty at all.

I just... this is weird. I am in a quandary. From a purely fictional perceptive, good for him killing McCarthy, who seems to have been terrible and good for him for turning his back on his life of crime and becoming a better person. Which is what we really want from the justice system, tbf. So I guess I'm talking myself into being on his side.

I just... I'm not fully on his side. I just can't quite commit to it. Guy says he was trying to make up for how he earned his money, but it just doesn't quite ring true to me.

"Why does fate play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'"

What the fuck kind of dark secrets lurk in Holmes' past that he thinks he could be blackmailed about? Has Holmes murdered people? Seriously... there's a direct comparison here between a man who confessed to being in a highway gang that robbed and killed people and Holmes, made by Holmes himself. 👀

James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their past.

Oh, a happy ending! James and Alice are happy together, in spite of the fact that Turner really didn't want that to happen (ha!). BUT, Watson... Watson... You have once again published the secret thing for all the world to read. Watson, they might read this. Watson?

#Literature #Sherlock Holmes #Letters From Watson #john watson #dr watson #james mccarthy #charles mccarthy #john turner #alice turner #james armitage #trevor sr #trevor senior #headcanons

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