Von Bork (His Last Bow)
Von Bork has the distinction of being the last criminal brought to justice by the detective work of Sherlock Holmes. The story is set on the eve of World War One and chronologically marks the final case of Sherlock Holmes written about by Arthur Conan Doyle. Von Bork has been living in England gathering important information to be used against them in the war effort, but is obstructed from his plans to return to Germany by also being the last criminal duped by a character who is actually Sherlock Holmes in disguise.
Lady Frances Carfax (The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax)
Lady Carfax is the titular figure in the collection’s story that provides the solution to her mysterious disappearance. Lady Carfax is a middle-aged spinster of modest means who suddenly goes missing during her stay at a spa in Switzerland.
Culverton Smith (The Dying Detective)
Culverton Smith is yet another in a long line of criminal masterminds whose nefarious schemes put Professor Moriarty’s one actual appearance in a Holmes story to shame. Smith is an amateur microbiologist whose expertise in the tiniest murder weapons available to man are the stimulus behind Holmes pretending to be what the title describes. Even Dr. Watson is immune from the truth that the seemingly fatal symptoms manifested by Holmes is actually just a necessary ruse in order to entrap Smith.
Mycroft Holmes (The Bruce-Partington Plans)
Up until the mysterious disappearance of the three of the ten most important pages comprising the Bruce-Partington Plans for a revolutionary new submarine design are stolen, Sherlock has assumed his brother’s Mycroft has a fairly limited civil service position within the British government. His investigation into the whereabouts of the missing pages gradually reveal a shocking truth: not only is Mycroft’s position within Her Majesty’s government not of far greater importance than he ever imagined, there have been times when it is safe to say that Mycroft is the single most important individual in the entire bureaucracy.
Giuseppe Gorgiano (The Red Circle)
Gorgiano is one of the more infamous international criminals whose paths cross with Sherlock, though once again it is not his own powers of deduction that bring the man to justice, but rather than the vengeance of a wronged party. Gorgiano is—notably—not Sicilian, but Neapolitan and belongs not to the Sicilian Black Hand but the Red Circle. By any other name, an Italian mobster said to be responsible for as many of 50 murders is Mafia.
Don Murillo (Wisteria Lodge)
“Wisteria Lodge” actually comprises two parts of a single story. He is at first known only as Henderson, a wealthy immigrant. In the investigation into the murder of another immigrant, Henderson’s true identity as the “The Tiger of San Pedro” is exposed, revealing his notorious past as one of Central America’s most brutal and despotic dictators until his overthrown. He is yet another who manages to avoid being brought to justice by Holmes, managing to escape the clutches of British law by mere minutes. Watson reports, however, that six months later justice finally caught up to the Tiger at the hand of his enemies in Madrid.
Dr. Leon Sterndale (The Devil’s Foot)
Dr. Sterndale joins a surprisingly large list of known or confessed criminals whom Sherlock Holmes passes judgment on as a jury of one and declares innocent by reason of justification. Sterndale confesses openly to having caused the horrifying death of Mortimer Tregennis, but when Holmes learns that Mortimer was forced to die in exactly the same terrifying as in which he himself killed, among others, the woman Sterndale loved, Holmes is moved. Would he have been equally moved had Sterndale not also been an esteemed African explorer and adventurer?
