Joseph, Elias’s brother and the father of John, moved to Horsham in early 1884, and received a letter on January 4, 1885, with five orange pips and the message “Put the papers on the sundial.” This letter was posted at Dundee, Scotland. Joseph died three days later, on January 7, 1885.
John Openshaw received his pips letter, which was sent from east London in September 1887, and died in the Thames.
The most incredible thing is why the assassins took such long holidays between their murders. Elias lived peacefully for thirteen years in England. They might not have been able to find him, as Elias was not a social person. However, they then took a one year and ten month holidays until threatening and killing Joseph. From Joseph’s murder to John’s, there was a two year and eight month interval. The assassins, Captain James Calhoun and two other Americans were staff of the Lone Star, but it is unbelievable that they were also part-time killers as a side job. If their first purpose in visiting England was the papers of Elias, why didn’t they resign their job on ship and concentrate on their most important work? If they did not need to kill the Openshaw family so urgently, did they need to kill them at all? When they first visited Horsham to investigate Openshaw’s house, why did they not steal the papers or set his house on fire after killing Elias? They must have researched Horsham very well, since they killed Elias and Joseph in very dark without any evidence, and knew that there was a sundial in their garden. The paper they wanted was just inside of the house, only some feet away. Why didn’t they take it? They could kill three men, why can’t they steal a small tin box? They were the most negligent assassins in the world. The K.K.K. commanders would order another assassin to kill Captain Calhoun and the others, if they were sane.
It was totally impossible for me to find any reason for them taking such long intervals between the three murders. It is easy to conclude they were idiot assassins, but such a result is not what I want. There would be something wrong there.
The only explanation after eliminating the impossible, is that there were no assassinations in Horsham. Elias died in this situation;
We found him, when we went to search for him, face downward in a little green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, brought in a verdict of ‘suicide.’
If three men violently tried to kill Elias in a pool, there would be many footprints around the pool. Elias’s clothing would be dirty and torn. He was not a small puppy, but a violent man. There were no signs of murder. I think Elias died of a heart attack or some other sudden illness. Even if “he winced from the very thought of death,” he cannot escape the hand of illness.
Even for Joseph, “He had, as it appears, been returning from Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in bringing in a verdict of ‘death from accidental causes.’ Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no robbery, and no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads.”
There was no evidence to support that it was a murder. Sherlock Holmes himself said “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts” in SCAN. John Openshaw did not show the letters and pips received by Elias and Joseph, but just presented a letter written to himself. There is no support to prove his story.
I cannot stop suspecting the reliability of the story told by John Openshaw. If there were no letters from the K.K.K., no one would believe they were murders. John cannot show the letters themselves, but only tell his story. It is suggested that John told Holmes a falsehood. You may wonder why John told such a lie to Holmes, as he died (or was killed?) just after that by K.K.K. assassins. I’m also suspicious of this.
Benjamin Clark writes in “The Horsham Fiasco”, that “Elias led a solitary life in Horsham, so the desire for company in the house was understandable; but surely it was an oddly selfish request, calculated as it was to deprive a retired widower of his only child.” and “Even odder, however, was the apparently ready acquiescence of the father to this arrangement. Joseph was a rich man so, as far as the present was concerned, the boy had nothing to gain materially by the change, which none the less he was perfectly willing to make without, apparently, any regrets.” Mr. Clark thought John was the only child of Joseph, but if there were a brother, the situation is changed. If John had an elder brother (we can here call him Joseph Jr.), he would inherit all the fortune of Joseph, and John would receive nothing. It would then be best if John was adopted by Elias.
If Elias and Joseph died naturally, and Elias did not make the will which was mentioned in John’s story, what would have happened? Joseph Jr. would receive the fortune of Joseph Sr., and John would receive Elias’. However, if Joseph Jr. spent all the money in the stock market, or Elias’ fortune was ten times larger than Joseph Sr.’s, what would Joseph Jr. think then? It would be a good motive to kill John.
I suspect it was Joseph Jr. who visited 221B, wearing John’s clothes. He told a false story about the K.K.K., which he made up from Elias’ old stories, to make Holmes believe there were serial murders and become suspicious of the K.K.K. John might have been already dead in the Thames. Joseph might just have thrown a large stone, and cried “Help!” from the embankment. In addition, Holmes did not research Horsham, or visit Openshaw’s house. He did not know whether the story told was truth or not, and he did not know the real face of John. But Holmes believed the story, and Joseph Jr. could then inherit the fortunes of Elias and Joseph Sr., just by telling a lie to Holmes and murdering his brother.
(The Shoso-in Bulletin vol.12, 2002)
Sherlockiana in Japan 2001-2002
The most welcome Sherlockian item since the publication of the last issue of the Shoso-in Bulletin (vol.11), was the complete set of DVD disks of The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes from Granada Television. It consists of twenty-three disks, including three versions of each story, including the original English version, a Japanese translation version, and a version dubbed in Japanese. I have no chance to compare it with that of American DVD disks, but it is said that the Japanese version is better quality.
Old Japanese translations of the Canon also gained the attention of publishers. The third volume of Meiji no Hon-yaku Mystery (Translated Mysteries of Meiji-era, three volumes, edited by Kawato Michiaki, Sakakibara Takanori, Satsuki-shobo, Tokyo) contains the first translation of the Canon into Japanese (TWIS, 1894) and six other stories from the canon which were translated up to 1911. Meijiki Sherlock Holmes Hon-yaku Shusei (“A Collection of Translations of Sherlock Holmes in the Meiji-era”, in three volumes, edited by Kawato Michiaki, Arai Seiji, Sakaibara Takanori, Kinokuniya-shoten, Tokyo) include twenty early translations. These two books received the Sherlock Holmes Award from the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club at the March convention.
The JSHC Summer Convention was held at Matsue, Shimane on August 25. Endo Takahito spoke on “Sherlock Holmes and Shimane prefecture,” Nakanishi Yukata presented the paper “Lafcadio Hearn and Holmes/ Doyle”. Hearn is a British man who came to Japan to be a professor of English literature. Later he married a Japanese woman and wrote many stories about Japan. Nakanishi pointed out that Hearn’s great grandfather’s name is “Richard Holmes.” Harada Kakuko talked about “Sherlockian Drugs”. Shigaki Yumiko and Amano Yaeko showed a video of the unveiling ceremony of Crowborough’s Doyle stature and FMHC’s Dartmoor tour cerebrating the anniversary of The Hound of the Baskervilles.
In “The Rockheart Castle” in Takayama, Gunma, there is a “Gentleman’s Coach” used for Granada’s Sherlock Holmes series. I do not know why it is there, and I have never seen it myself, but it is said there is a doll of Holmes in it, and some pic
tures on display.
There was a performance of a ballet about Sherlock Holmes on October 20, at Melpark Hall, Tokyo. Its title is “Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Missing Great Diamond,” and it was written by Kitahara Naohiko. It is the second attempt at a Sherlock Holmes ballet. I enjoyed it, though some parts were difficult to understand, and there was no speech. I needed to ask Mr. Kitahara about it after the performance. It received the Special Award of the JSHC.
The Spring Convention was held on March 17, in Tokyo. Firstly, Seki Nagaomi presented “The Canon in China”. He worked as a CEO of a company in Shanghai for many years, and he reported on many Chinese translations of the Canon and parodies of the past twenty years.
To celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of HOUN, there was a panel discussion on HOUN. First, Prof. Koike Shigeru said that though HOUN was situated in the countryside, all the characters were metropolitan citizens, and it may be called a metropolitan novel, and the first distinguished metropolitan mystery. Next, there was a discussion on “Who benefited in HOUN?” Before the discussion, all the members wrote their answers on paper. After discussing these results, we considered the problem again, and finally decided that the character who gained the most benefit was Dr. Mortimer. Second place went to Henry Baskerville; third place was Beryl Stapleton. Other answers were Cartwright, the postman of Grimpen, readers of HOUN with great joy, and nearly twenty other candidates. On the other side, of the characters who were harmed in the case, the Hound, Selden, Jack Stapleton were top three. Others were Dr. Mortimer’s spaniel, the kidnapped girl in the legend and others. The final result was that it is impossible to get perfectly right answers.
(The Shoso-in Bulletin vol.12, 2002)
Some Problems on “Conan Doyle Syndrome”
Recently, there have been several psychological studies on Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published. Some of them are quite worthwhile to read, but some of them are of questionable worth, in my opinion. I have always wondered whether psychology and psychiatry are true sciences. The essential condition to be a science is that one double-checks experiments for verification. However, it is quite difficult to arrange the same conditions in two experiments for psychiatric study. Even now we cannot understand what the mind is, and it is impossible to find two people with the same mind. It is inevitable that these experiments have unsatisfactory conditions. In addition, it is impossible to do animal experiments for psychology, because it is doubtful whether any animal has the same mind as a human. On the other hand, dentistry, my profession, is the most scientific field in medicine, because dentistry is a way to change a part of the human body into an artifact. All the experiments are physically, biologically and chemically well conditioned. Double checks are essential for every experiment.
From a point of view of a scientifically trained person, I always doubt the reliability of psychology. I wonder why many people, including intellectuals and doctors, believe Freud’s theories are true. Freud’s work was just retrospective analysis and deduction, not proof or verification. He observed his patients and created his hypotheses, but no one has ever proven his hypotheses to be correct. It is possible all of his hypotheses are wrong. For example, cerebral physiologists have found that his assessments on dreams are wrong, and proved that dreams are not controlled by the brain. And even if Freud’s hypotheses were true, he observed only Austrian middle class people. It is quite difficult to apply his thoughts to people with other cultural backgrounds. It is not easy for us Japanese to understand or predict how Freud’s patients thought.
Naked is the Best Disguise is the most famous psychological work on Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle. The author, Samuel Rosenberg, put forward the notion of “Conan Doyle Syndrome.” He “found” that:
“My accumulated notes had revealed that in almost every story I’d synopsized, the printed or written word in any form - books, book titles, magazine or newspaper articles, advertisements, signs, diaries, manuscripts, letters, words scribbled on scraps of paper, words written on the wall (even in blood) or in the floor dust of a murder chamber, or even expressions read in a person’s face - was always accompanied by an allusion or some form of forbidden sexual expression, either heterosexual or homosexual, or both. This allusion was usually associated in turn with images of draconian punishment in the form of the murder or individuals or of masses of people in Sodom and Gomorrah, Khartoum, Jericho or Milan, or in the English and the American Civil Wars.” (p.92)
Rosenberg gave examples as follows.
Story
Word
Sexual Expression
Murder
LAST
Bee-Book
Bee
WWI
VALL
Almanac
A man supposedly killed by his wife and her lover
John Douglas
STUD
Decameron
Decameron & ring
Drebber
EMPT
Catullus
Catullas
Ronald Adair
When I first read his book, a question rose in my mind. If his hypothesis is true, this condition would not be satisfied in another author’s works, as they had different backgrounds and mentalities from Conan Doyle. However, it does not seem so for me because of the following reasons:
(1) Especially before World War II, detective fiction was written as a past time for intellectuals, and most of the characters in detective fiction belonged to the middle class or upper class. They are educated people, and it is natural for them to get close to books or magazines.
(2) For Freudians, most things are regarded as sexual symbols. For example, any long thing, such as a snake, a rocket, a knife, is a phallic symbol. A Freudian can find a sexual symbol in anything.
(3) In detective fiction, it is natural to find murders. That is one of the main themes of detective fiction.
If I find “Conan Doyle Syndrome” in other writers’ work, it can no longer be called “Conan Doyle Syndrome.” It is just a commonality in detective fiction, and it means it does not have any relationship with Doyle’s psychology.
First, I checked several short stories by R. Austin Freeman (1862-1943). He is the author of the “Dr. Thorndyke” series, the most famous “rival of Sherlock Holmes.” His cultural background would be near to that of Conan Doyle, and this is a reason to choose him as the first example. These short stories are the first five that were translated in a Japanese book called “The Casebook of Dr. Thorndyke.”
(1) “A Case of Premeditation”
The murderer Pembury read Chambers’ Encyclopaedia (First condition, words), and he went to buy musk. Musk is “a strong-smelling reddish-brown substance produced by a gland in the male musk deer” (The Oxford English Reference Dictionary), and is secreted to attract female musk deer (Second condition, sexual expression). After that, Pembury killed Pratt. (Third condition, murder).
(2) “The Echo of a Mutiny”
“The chart-rack, the tell-tale compass and the chronometers marked it as the captain’s cabin.” (First condition, words) Girdler’s lighthouse would be called a phallic symbol by Freudians. (Second condition, sexual expression). Jeffereys killed Todd. (Third condition, murder).
(3) “A Wastrel’s Romance”
Bailey stole an invitation card (First condition, words). He danced with his former lover at the party. (Second condition, sexual expression). He thought he killed her with chloroform (Third condition, murder).
(4) “The Old Lag”
Dr. Thorndyke received a letter (First condition, words). Belfield was “at home all evening and night.” (Second condition, sexual expression). The Camberwell murder occurred (Third condition, murder).
(5) “The Blue Sequin”
Dr. Thorndyke received a telegram (First condition, words). Old lovers quarreled in a compartment of a train (Second condition, sexual expression). Miss Grant was stabbed with an Ox horn. “Ox” is of course, male, and “Ox’s horn” is a phallic representation for Freudians. (Second condition, sexual expression & Third condition, murder).
Though I did not choose these stories intentionally, all of them can be interpreted as expressing “Conan Doyle Syndrome.” Should we now call this disease “Conan Doyle - Freeman Syndrome”? Or it is a common aspect for Victorian writers?
Next, I examine a writer with a completely different cultural background. His name is Edogawa Rampo (1894-1965), the “Father of Japanese Mystery.” His first short story, “Nisen Douka (Two Cent Coin)” (1922) is the first true original mystery written in Japanese. He wrote many mysteries and horror stories, and also helped young detective writers. He edited Houseki detective magazine, and established the Japan Mystery Writers Club. As you can see, he had no cultural relationship with Victorian mystery writers, Doyle or Freeman. Of course, he read their works earnestly, but it would not have affected his principal mindset.
(1) “D zaka no Satsujin Jiken” (Murder at D Slope)
There was a murder at an antique bookshop (First condition, words & Third condition, murder). The shop owner, the murderer, was a sadist, and the victim, his wife, was a masochist (the Second condition, sexual expression).
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