More Experiments!

                                                     South Downers Minutes

                                                                    3/10/24

Phil opened the meeting at 7 p.m.

In-person attendees at Scrementi’s were Phil, Connie, Bert, Lenette, Bonnie, Jack and Tim. 

Zoom attendees were Sandy Kozinn, Ales, George Shannon, Mark Hansen, and Val Hoski. 

Bert Jacobson provided a quiz on “The Retired Colourman”. Phil, Lenette, Sandy and George had perfect scores. Jack placed fifth. 

There was a mystery from the Sherlock Holmes Puzzle Case (Page 58).

Phil presented information concerning Vincent Starrett and his  221B poem.

March 1942 was among the darkest days of World War II.

The turning points of Stalingrad in Russia, El Alamein in North Africa and Midway in the Pacific were all months on the future. Yes, that’s the same Midway that the airport in Chicago is named for. Ahead were more than three years of combat.

In the Philippines, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered General Douglas MacArthur to evacuate from the desperate defense of the tiny island of Corregidor in Manila Bay. MacArthur left on a fragile Patrol Torpedo boat, landed in Australia and uttered the immortal and inspiring words, “I shall return.”

It was at this point, more than 80 years ago (four score as Lincoln would say) in March 1942, that Vincent Starrett composed “221b,” the poem we all recite at the end of every meeting. It’s a tradition shared with hundreds of other Sherlockian clubs around the world. Why do we do it? What does it mean? Who was Vincent Starrett?

Starrett was a Chicagoan, a poet, an author and a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. But he had been born in Canada and had traveled to London, just before the Nazi bombing blitz. He was really a citizen of the English-speaking world.

So, it is a poem of hope, when hope was needed most.

“England is England yet, for all our fears —

Only those things the heart believes are true.” 

And

“Here, though the world explode, these two survive.”

Coincidentally, in Hollywood in 1942, Universal Pictures is filming “Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon” with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. The secret weapon was the fictitious Tobel bombsight, which Holmes needed to safeguard from the Nazis. The film would be released in Los Angeles, Christmas Day, 1942.

“221b” is also a poem about enduring friendship.

“Here dwell together still two men of note

Who never lived and so can never die:”

The bumbling Nigel Bruce of the movies does Watson a disservice. In the real canon, Watson is an inspiration, a companion and a co-worker. What would “The Hound of the Baskervilles” be without Watson’s well-thumbed reports? In “The Blanched Soldier,” Holmes describes Watson as “the ideal helpmate.”

Finally, “221b” is a poem about nostalgia.

“A yellow fog swirls past the window-pane

As night descends upon the fabled street:

A lonely hansom splashes through the rain,

The ghostly gas-lamps fail at twenty feet.”

Today we know that the yellow fog was the accumulation of coal soot and industrial pollution. The modern London is blue-skied.

But 1895 was a time we all would have wished for, particularly when compared to the bombs of the Nazi Heinkels overhead and the evils of the German Gestapo over the channel.

Beloved Victoria had been on the throne in Sherlock’s day. She stood for moral rectitude, a happy marriage and family and for genuine concern for her subjects. She once sent a box of candy to every serving British soldier in the Boer War. The Victoria Cross, England’s highest honor for battlefield valor, was named for her and it was named for her during her lifetime.

Victoria relished the Empire. She was Empress of India. Her golden and diamond jubilees were worldwide causes of celebration with delegates, troops and royalty from many continents. Victoria lectured her granddaughter, Empress Alexandra of Russia, that she must work to gain the trust and the love of her people. It was advice that Alexandra ignored, a decision that helped to cost her her life and her throne.

Starrett was stuck in Chicago, a city with politicians on the take and mobsters on the make. Oh, how he and we wished for the times of the strong-willed, strong-woman, smart-minded incorruptible Victoria.

Starrett had been born a subject of Victoria, in Toronto in 1886. He was relocated to Chicago as a child and started his career at the Chicago Interocean, an oddly named paper that was between the oceans and not near any of them. When that paper folded, Starrett became a crime reporter at the Chicago Daily News before settling in as the “Books Alive” columnist for the Chicago Tribune for more than a quarter century.

In 1920 he wrote one of the great Holmes pastiches of all time, “The Adventure of the Unique Hamlet,” which deals with the theft of an original first edition autographed by Shakespeare. In 1933 Starrett authored “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes,” which expanded Doyle’s hints about the master into a full biography.

In 1934, Starrett wrote “Recipe for Murder,” which was filmed by Fox in 1935 as “The Great Hotel Murder.” You can find versions for viewing on the Internet.

He even created his own series of detective short stories, “The Case Book of Jimmie Lavender.” It was fiction, of course, but Jimmie Lavender was a real Chicago person, a pitcher for the Chicago Cubs who was good enough to pitch a no hitter in 1915. Lavender was a spitballer, licking the baseball to wet it, so it would spin differently. He also threw an emery ball. He hid the emery board on his pants and would rub the ball against it to file it down and, thus, again so it would spin in an unusual way. Both practices are now against the rules in baseball.

But Starrett liked Lavender’s name so much that he wrote to him, asking permission to use it. It was granted. So, there you have it, a detective named after a Chicago Cubs pitcher.

Sherlockian Starrett was a founding member of the Chicago scion, The Hounds of the Baskerville, a society prestigious enough that it was the one Basil Rathbone joined.

Starrett, thus, had a long and productive life, writing for newspapers, writing books, reviewing books, writing poetry and writing short stories.

He lived to 87, dying Jan. 5, 1974. When he died, he was buried in Graceland Cemetery, where he rests among the Windy City’s elite.

His tombstone features an open book. The left-hand page honors him as “The Last Bookman.” And, to the right, the final page, there is a depiction of Holmes, pipe in hand, with the inscription, “And it is always 1895.”

Some pictures from the case. 

Phil had his toast to the case

Upcoming Meetings

May 29

The Blanched Soldier

Phil will have a program on the Boer War. 

June 26

A Study in Scarlet (Part 1)

We begin again. 

221B was read

Meeting adjourned.       

                                                 South Downers Minutes

                                                              2/28/24

Phil opened the meeting at 7 p.m.

There were eleven in-person attendees at Scrementi’s and fourteen people zooming.

Bert Jacobson brought the Bee filled with treats. He had us all pick the name of a case. Guest Kathleen Burdick won the bee, was thrilled and said she would return with it at a future meeting.

Bob Sharfman spoke about the BSI weekend in New York and encouraged us to both subscribe to the BSI Journal and to consider attending the New York annual meeting.

The meeting boosted the presidential candidacy of an unpleasant lawbreaker, who is widely misunderstood.

That’s right, Sherlockians — VOTE for Moriarty!

Bob passed out Moriarty for President campaign buttons.

Quiz: Lenette Staudinger created a challenging quiz covering Shoscombe Old Place. Prizes included bottles of Imperial Stout and Bit’O’Honey candy.

Top scores from Phil Angelo, Bert Jacobson and Bonnie Dinell-Dimon in person; and by Jack Levitt and Edward Gibson on line.

Honey keeper Lenette reported that we have $1,645.01 in the treasury now.

We have more than 20-dues paid members, with more still pending.

Please pay dues before the end of March.

Make checks payable to the South Downers. For $20 a membership.

Mail to:  

Lenette Staudinger 

9049 Sheri La. 

Orland Park, Ill., 60462

With unanimity, it was agreed that all members with their dues paid will receive a South Downers Coffee Mug, with the Year 2024, our logo and the term Canonical Celebration. Dave Nicholls created the attractive design.

Dave Nichols and our celebration committee, with other members Deb Morgan, Lenette and Bonnie, will also work on other items, shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies or caps, that the group might like., Big thanks to Dave for his work and to the entire group.

Program: Mark Hanson entertained the group with a lively presentation of slides that had us guessing about the title of each case.

Augie Anzelmo reports that the Chicago Heights Kiwanis is raising money to benefit youth. Here is the information on French Toast for the Good Cause.

· Chicago Heights Kiwanis is having a French Toast fundraiser

· All proceeds benefit children’s charities

· $10 a ticket for all you can eat. Children 5 and under free.

· Saturday, April 27, 7 a.m.-Noon

· Paul’s Lutheran Church, 330 Highland Dr.

· Chicago Heights, Ill.

· You can buy a ticket at the door or send ticket money or a donation to:

· August Anzelmo

· 1515 S. Halsted St., Chicago Heights, Ill., 60411

· For info call him at 708-754-3447

Jack Levitt had his monthly Agony Column.

Ten Sherlockians and friends attended a February 4th performance of the Kankakee Valley Theater Association. It was “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”.

What is The Mystery of Edwin Drood?
The novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens is a double mystery. The story is a murder mystery, but one night Dickens put his pen down to go to bed and never woke up. He never finished the novel and left no notes behind.

Phil presented slides from Shoscombe Old Place.

Phil had the following report on the Shoscombe Old Place:

Shoscombe Old Place

Generally thought to be the last story in the canon, but in most standard editions it comes out second to the last.

One of two stories (the other is Silver Blaze) having to do with horse racing. 

One of four stories having to do with gambling. The others being Silver Blaze: The Empty House and the death of Ronald Adair; and The Sign of Four where the officer’s debts from cards leads him to offer freedom to Jonathan Small.

Was made into a video by Granada in 1991. Much of the dialogue is drawn right from the canon. One piece of dialogue they did edit was to delete anti-Semitic references to Norberton’s creditors as being Jews.

The changes that they did make seemed to improve the story. The teleplay opens with an argument with Norberton’s creditors. A scene is added where Watson, with his expertise as a doctor, infiltrates the home to try and do a medical exam. The argument with Sam Brewer is fleshed out and becomes a plausible alternative explanation.

The dog got a name, Jasper. The dog does a marvelous job of acting. Outside of the hound, maybe this becomes the best dog story in the canon.

You may recognize the young jockey who masqueraded as Lady Beatrice. It was Jude Law, later to be Watson to Michael Downey’s Sherlock Holmes on film. It was one of his first roles. Only two years earlier, he got his start in, of all things, Beatrix Potter.

Bookriot places this story at 52 out of the 60.

Ira Fistell says that while the story has many elements that might make a good tale ( a spooky crypt, horse racing, gambling ), it is actually quite dull. The crime is disguising a dead body.

In addition to Granada, Peter Cushing filmed it. There were at least half a dozen radio versions, including three by Edith Meiser.

Phil had his toast to the case

Here’s another tale of Victorian gambling woe; 

Remember again Adair, Straker and Sholto? 

While each of those paid the ultimate penalty 

Sir Robert Norberton walks away scott free. 

Did Beatrice’s body suffer true desecration? 

As ancient Shoscombe relatives faced cremation? 

This much we can say of the tale that we read:

It would be more interesting with someone else dead.

Upcoming Meetings

April 10

The Retired Colourman (Bert Jacobson will have the quiz.)

May 29

The Blanched Soldier

Phil will have a program on the Boer War.

Guest Rudy Altergott read 221b

We enjoyed Connie’s cupcakes in honor of Sherlock’s birthday last month. 

                                                             Sherlock Holmes

                                                         South Downers Meeting 

                                                                  Scrementi’s

                                                             October 25, 2023

Attendees: Phil Angelo, Connie Angelo, Bonnie Dimon, Bert Jacobson, Diane Siaroff, Deb Morgan, Gerry Morgan, Thomas Schildhouse, and Lenette Staudinger.

Zoom Attendees: Sandy Kozinn, Jack Levitt, Stephen Mason, Cynthia Karabush,  Ales Kolodrubec.

Phil called the meeting to order at 7:05 PM. 

South Downers News: None this month. 

Quiz on The Veiled Lodger by Phil Angelo.

The quiz took the form similar to the Jeopardy Show

with different dollar amounts for the questions in different categories. 

Scoring: $420 Gerry, $390 Lenette, $300 Bert, $270 Jack,  

Thomas awarded the traveling Bee with English items to Diane. 

Phil introduced members in turn for them to show and explain their annual Halloween costumes.  

Phil reviewed our last meeting which featured the radio play, “The Giant Rat of Sumatra”. Several people commented that they enjoyed performing the play. 

Phil’s report on Petri Wines: 

1. You may think of Petri as a small, now forgotten and irrelevant brand of wine. That’s wrong. Petri still exists today, though its wine is carried in many other labels.

2. Petri was, in fact, a conglomerate, owning, at one time or another, Italian Swiss Colony, Inglenook and many other labels. Petri bought out at least nine other wineries. In 1953 it was the largest wine company in the nation.

3. Petri was a pioneer in bottling American wine. Before Petri most American wine was sold by the barrel. Consumers brought their own bottles to restaurants for a fill-up.

4. Petri was also a pioneer in selling wine in supermarkets (Safeway), branching out from liquor store sales.

5. Petri hired professional designers and marketing experts to create names, labels and image — hence those Sherlock Holmes commercials.

6. Petri prospered, more than most other wineries, during Prohibition because the family also sold cigars.

7. During the run-up to Prohibition, Petri made money by selling up to the last minute and raising the price as the deadline got closer and closer.

8. During Prohibition, it was still legal to make your own wine for personal consumption. Petri sold folks the grapes.

9. During World War II, Petri had a great deal of influence with the OPA (Office of Price Administration), which was charged with setting prices and rationing.

10. Petri bought and modified an ocean-going tanker to ship wine by boat (from California to the East Coast) to avoid high railroad freight rates. It succeeded in both shipping and forcing railroads to lower their rates. The SS Angelo Petri was originally the SS Sackett’s Harbor, a ship that split in half in 1946. The back half of the ship was salvaged and towed to shore. The engines were used as a power station for years. Petri bought it and spent $7 million to build a new bow, repair and refloat the ship. It was capable of carrying 2.5 million gallons of wine at a time. That’s a lot of two buck chuck.

11. Wine-making is capital intensive. You have to own a lot of land, and you have to be willing to wait, sometimes years, before selling your product. The financing of wineries is important.

12. Grape growers have other markets for their products. They can create raisins or just sell grapes. Winemakers have an incentive to form and contract with cooperatives to assure themselves a proper grape supply.

13.On Feb. 9, 1960, the Petri Wine tanker made the news when a giant rogue wave damaged the ship off the Golden Gate harbor. Much of the crew was evacuated and the ship had to be towed in. At the time, the SS Angelo Petri was carrying 1.7 million gallons of wine, 3,500 tons of vegetable oil and 1,000 tons of Air Force rocket fuel. Like reasonable people, the Petri family tested the wine, found it was still good to drink — and sold it anyway. On the positive side, they did not mix it up with the rocket fuel.

Source: “The Petri Family in the Wine Industry”

Yes, there’s a book about Petri wine.

Some scenes from the story.

Phil & Connie attended the 

Murder mystery at the 

Grand Hotel. 

Phil gave his toast to the Veiled Lodger

Another short story that makes you wonder,

What Doyle saw in the history of Ronder.

As an example of suspense we’re not buyin’

Trying to pin the crime on the circus lion. 

The story begins with a cruel spouse,

But lover Leonardo was also a louse.

When you set out to kill, your clever plan might fail.

Punishing even yourself, that’s the moral of the tale. 

Jack’s Agony Column:

When Jack went to a drug store lately and he saw that their gloves were a brand named Criterion and the box was labeled that way, he asked for the box and they gave it to him. At a recent show all the Agatha Christie detectives were compared and ranked. 

At the next meeting we will have a Murder Mystery. 

Connie explained many of the aspects of the mystery planned for  the next meeting. 

Phil reviewed character assignments. Remote zoomers will be mailed a packet prior to the meeting. Attendees will receive a packet at the next meeting. 

The next meeting is scheduled for December 13th at the usual time and place (Scrementi’s at 5:30). The January meeting is scheduled for January 17th. 

Deb read 221B. 

Phil thanked everyone for attending via zoom and those that came in person. 

The meeting was adjourned at 8:15  PM.                                                          Sherlock Holmes

                                                            Sherlock Holmes

                                                     South Downers Meeting

                                                              Scrementi’s

                                                            July 26, 2023

Attendees: Phil Angelo, Connie Angelo, Bonnie Dimon, Bert Jacobson, Diane Siaroff, Deb Morgan, Gerry Morgan, Jim Rowe, Thomas Schildhouse, George Shannon, Lenette Staudinger, and Kelly Weber..

Zoom Attendees: Sandy Kozinn, Stephen Mason, Elaine Lintzenich, George Vandenbergh, and Cynthia Karabush.

Phil showed the video of “The Thor Bridge” for those who attended at 5:30 PM. There were considerable technical issues with the Zoom meeting arrangements which continued through the meeting with reverberation sound issues. Hopefully the Zoom meeting issues will be solved. We will be using a centralized microphone in August which will hopefully solve the dueling microphones problem.

Phil called the meeting to order at 7:05 PM.

South Downers News:

Lenette’s address was posted for prospective members to submit their membership fees.

Quiz on “The Thor Bridge”. Bert reviewed the answers for the quiz. Scores: Gerry 29, George 28, and Phil 27. Kelly passed out prizes.

We enjoyed this quiz and the prizes, thanks Bert and Kelly.

Phil noted that Bert brought back the bee and now Tom has it.

At a recent meeting arranged by Jim Rowe, Phil presented on presidents who visited Kankakee County and presidents who were important to Kankakee County. He commented on Al Smith, Democratic presidential candidate in 1928. He received a higher percentage of votes in Kankakee County than in the nation as a whole. He was governor of New York and was asked to speak at Sing Sing Prison. He started his speech as “My fellow citizens.” He realized they were prisoners and not fellow citizens. He started again with “My fellow prisoners.” and realized he was wrong again. The third time is the charm, so he started with “Oh well, I’m glad to see so many of you here today.”

Jim Rowe, Kankakee County States Attorney: Jim commented on the role of the States Attorney. They do not investigate crimes or gather evidence, but if there is sufficient evidence and the police solve the crime the States Attorney’s office review and if there is sufficient evidence they will prosecute.

One of his unusual cases happened on his first day in office. Two hours into the day the coroner called and said they have a problem. They found a severed foot in the parking lot at Walmart. It turned out to be the foot of a black bear. Apparently, some random people play this prank around the country in that it looks like a human foot. He was relieved to go to work on his second day without concerns about a criminal cutting body parts off and leaving them around the county.

He quoted Holmes in that “It is a capitol mistake to theorize before one has data. One begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts.” We cannot find facts to meet our conclusion but rather have facts that lead to a conclusion.

One of the techniques that we have today that Holmes would liked to have had is cellphones. Phones are trackable and can be narrowed down to about thirteen feet. They can be subpoenaed and will divulge the person’s location history.

We also can have access to a vehicle’s “black box” that records speed data that can be used to provide the history of the car prior to a crash. Jim related several examples of how this information has been used to prosecute cases.

He also discussed the prevalence of video cameras that are everywhere. Access to all of these technologies has made the prosecution of crimes easier than previously.

Members continued to ask questions with Jim responding again with examples from his experiences.

Jack’s Agony Column: None tonight.

Toast to the Case: None tonight. 

The August 30th meeting will be on “The Creeping Man” with a quiz from the archives. The program will be a mystery by Tom Schildhouse. The September 20th meeting will feature “The Lion’s Mane” with a reading of a radio play on “The Giant Rat of Sumatra”. On October 25th the story will be “The Veiled Lodger” and will have our annual costume meeting. On November 29th the program will be to solve a mystery. No meeting is scheduled for December and our Annual Holmes Birthday Meeting will be on January 10th

Phil thanked everyone for attending.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 PM.

                                                     Sherlock Holmes

                                               South Downers Meeting 

                                                         Scrementi’s

                                                       May 24, 2023

Attendees: Phil Angelo, Connie Angelo, Bonnie Dimon, Bert Jacobson, Diane Siaroff, Cynthia Karabush, Deb Morgan, Gerry Morgan, and Lenette Staudinger.

Zoom Attendees: Sandy Kozinn and Elaine Lintzenich. 

Phil showed the video of “The Sussex Vampire” for those who attended at 6:30 PM. This was a cartoon version of the story. 

Phil called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. 

South Downers News:  

Lynette reported that the finances are doing well. The current balance is $1,652. 

Jim Rowe, the Kankakee County States Attorney, will present at the July meeting. 

Phil passed out some quiz prizes from previous quizzes. Phil had official South Downers bottle openers created and he gave these to the quiz winners from previous meetings.  

Phil presented puzzle # 56 “The Statuette Cunning” followed by some discussion of it and the solution.  

Quiz on “The Sussex Vampire”. Deb reviewed the answers for the quiz. Scores: Gerry 16, Bert 14, Bonnie 14, Cynthia 13, Phil 13, and Lynette 12.

Deb’s report on Vampires:

                                               Vampire Lore

                                                Distant past

Legends of vampires have existed for millennia; cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, and Romans had tales of demonic entities and blood-drinking spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. Almost every nation has associated blood drinking with some kind of revenant or demon, from the ghouls of Arabia to the goddess Sekhmet of Egypt. Mesopotamia was an area rampant with superstition of blood-drinking demons. The Persians were one of the first civilizations thought to have tales of blood-drinking demons: creatures attempting to drink blood from men were depicted on excavated pottery shards.

Ancient Babylonia had tales of the mythical Lilitu, synonymous with and giving rise to Lilith (Hebrew) and her daughters the Lilu from Hebrew demonology. Adam’s first wife….hmmmm

In India, tales of vetalas, ghoul-like beings that inhabit corpses, are found in old Sanskrit

folklore. Legend tells of King Vikramāditya and his nightly quests to capture an elusive one. The vetala is described as an undead creature who, like the bat associated with modern day vampirism, hangs upside down on trees found on cremation grounds and cemeteries. Pishacha, the returned spirits of evil-doers or those who died insane, also bear vampiric attributes.

The malign and succubus-like Baobhan sith from the Scottish Highlands and the Lhiannan Shee of the Isle of Man are two fairy spirits with decidedly vampiric tendencies. The Dearg-due,literally ‘Red Blood Sucker’ in Gaelic, from Ireland may have contributed to the storylines of Irish authors Sheridan Le Fanu and Bram Stoker. The Bruxas of Portugal, which take the form of a bird at night and assail travelers, are another female vampiric spirits hostile to humans.[49]

In “The Sussex Vampire”, Sherlock Holmes investigates a case that the client believes involves the supernatural. Holmes comes to an alternate conclusion, but ever since, readers have been fascinated with the question of what Holmes would do if he was up against the undead.

If you’d like to read more on this subject, I’ll make sure the compiled list of books, stories, and comics involving Sherlock Holmes and vampires will be available in the minutes. 

Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire’ (1924) is particularly revealing of Conan Doyle’s creative vision. Conan Coyle actually was drawing on some of the maternal metaphors popularized in his friend Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), which he read and admired. Shortly after its publication, Conan Doyle enthuses to Stoker in a letter: ‘I think it is the very best story of deviltry which I have read for many years. It is really wonderful how with so much exciting interest over so long a book there is never an anticlimax. It holds you from the very start and grows more and more engrossing until it is quite painfully vivid.’

Howard K. Elcock’s illustration of Mrs. Ferguson, for ‘The Sussex Vampire’ in The Strand Magazine harks back to Dracula.

In contrast to the ‘pair of frightened but beautiful eyes (that) glared at (Watson) in apprehension’ Elcock shows a frail and seemingly dying Mrs. Ferguson, who resembles the cadaverous Lucy.

The Victorian period is a period of deep and sustained religious revival. There was an evangelical revival in the Christian church but also a host of dissenting unorthodox and apocalyptic cults. It was a golden age of belief in supernatural forces and energies, ghost stories, weird transmissions and spooky phenomena. For a long time historians ignored these beliefs as embarrassing errors or eccentricities, signs of the anxiety and dread produced by the speed of cultural change. 

In fact, it is much easier to grasp the religious and scientific strands of the century as closely intertwined. Every scientific and technological advance encouraged a kind of magical thinking and was accompanied by a shadow discourse of the occult. For every disenchantment there was an active re-enchantment of the world. Because the advances in science were so rapid, the natural and the supernatural often became blurred in popular thinking, at least for a time. And no area of the literary culture of the Victorians was left untouched by this interplay of science and magic. 

The Bruxas of Portugal, which take the form of a bird at night and assail travelers, are another female vampiric spirits hostile to humans. 

European Beliefs

Our modern vampire lore stems from 18th-century Southeastern Europe, particularly

Transylvania, as verbal traditions of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published. 

The 12th-century English historians and chroniclers Walter Map and William of Newburgh recorded accounts of revenants, though records in English legends of vampiric beings after this date are scant. These tales are similar to the later folklore widely reported from Transylvania in the 18th century, which were the basis of the vampire legend that later entered Germany and England, where they were subsequently embellished and popularized.

During this time in the 18th century, there was a frenzy of vampire sightings in Transylvania, with frequent stakings and grave diggings taking place to identify and kill the potential revenants; even government officials were compelled into the hunting and staking of vampires. Despite being called the Age of Enlightenment, during which most folkloric legends were quelled, the belief in vampires increased dramatically, resulting in what could only be called a mass hysteria throughout most of Europe. The panic began with an outbreak of alleged vampire attacks in East Prussia in 1721 and in the Habsburg Monarchy from 1725 to 1734, which spread to other localities.

Two famous vampire cases, which were the first to be officially recorded, involved the corpses of Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole from Serbia. Plogojowitz was reported to have died at the age of 62, but allegedly returned after his death asking his son for food. When the son refused, he was found dead the following day. Plogojowitz soon supposedly returned and attacked some neighbours who died from loss of blood.

In the second case, Arnold Paole, an ex-soldier turned farmer who allegedly was attacked by a vampire years before, died while haying. After his death, people began to die in the surrounding area and it was widely believed that Paole had returned to prey on the neighbours. 

The two incidents were well-documented: government officials examined the bodies, wrote case reports, and published books throughout Europe. The hysteria, which is commonly referred to as the “18th-Century Vampire Controversy”, raged for a generation. The problem was exacerbated by rural epidemics of so-claimed vampire attacks, undoubtedly caused by the higher amount of superstition that was present in village communities, with locals digging up bodies and in some cases, staking them.

Although many scholars reported during this period that vampires did not exist, and attributed reports to premature burial or rabies, superstitious belief continued to increase. Dom Augustine Calmet, a well-respected French theologian and scholar, put together a comprehensive treatise in 1746, which was ambiguous concerning the existence of vampires. Calmet amassed reports of vampire incidents; numerous readers, including both a critical Voltaire and supportive demonologists, interpreted the treatise as claiming that vampires existed. In his Philosophical Dictionary, Voltaire wrote: These vampires were corpses, who went out of their graves at night

to suck the blood of the living, either at their throats or stomachs, after which they returned to their cemeteries. The persons so sucked waned, grew pale, and fell into consumption; while the sucking corpses grew fat, got rosy, and enjoyed an excellent appetite. It was in Poland, Hungary, Silesia, Moravia, Austria, and Lorraine, that the dead made this good cheer.

In 2009, a sixteenth-century female skull with a rock wedged in its mouth was found near the remains of plague victims. It was not unusual during that century to shove a rock or brick in the mouth of a suspected vampire to prevent it from feeding on the bodies of other plague victims or attacking the living. Female vampires were also often blamed for spreading the bubonic plague throughout Europe.

Among the Romani people, mullo (literally one who is dead) are believed to return from the dead and cause malicious acts as well as drink human blood, most often that of a relative or the person who had caused their death. Other potential victims were those who did not properly observe the burial ceremonies or kept the deceased’s possessions instead of properly destroying them. Female vampires could return, lead a normal life and even marry but would eventually exhaust the husband with their sexual appetite. Similar to other European beliefs, male vampires could father children, known as dhampirs, who could be hired to detect and get rid of vampires. 

Anyone who had a horrible appearance, missing a finger, or had appendages similar to those of an animal was believed to be a vampire. A person who died alone and unseen would become a vampire, likewise if a corpse swelled or turned black before burial. Dogs, cats, plants or even agricultural tools could become vampires; pumpkins or melons kept in the house too long would start to move, make noises or show blood. According to the late Serbian ethnologist Tatomir Vukanović, Roma people in Kosovo believed that vampires were invisible to most people but could be seen by a twin brother and sister born on a Saturday who wore their clothes inside out. Likewise, a settlement could be protected by finding twins who could also see the vampire outdoors at night, who would have to flee immediately after they spotted it. 

In South Slavic folklore, a vampire was believed to pass through several distinct stages in its development. The first 40 days were considered decisive for the making of a vampire; it started out as an invisible shadow and then gradually gained strength from the blood it had sucked, forming a (typically invisible) jelly-like, boneless mass, and eventually building up a human-like body nearly identical to the one the person had had in life. This development allowed the creature to ultimately leave its grave and begin a new life as a human. The vampire, who was usually male, was also sexually active and could have children, either with his widow or a new wife. These could become vampires themselves but could also have a special ability to see and kill vampires, allowing them to become vampire hunters. The same talent was believed to be found in persons born on Saturday.

In the Dalmatian region of Croatia, there is a female vampire called a Mora or Morana, who drinks the blood of men, and also the kuzlac/kozlak who are the recent-dead “who have not lived piously.” They can be men or women who show themselves at crossroads, bridges, caves, and graveyards and frighten the locals by terrorizing their homes and drinking their blood. To be killed, a wooden stake must be thrust through them.

In Croatia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, a type of vampire called pijavica, which literally translates to “drinker, is used to describe a vampire who has led an evil and sinful life as a human and in turn, becomes a powerfully strong, cold-blooded killer.

Incest, especially between mother and son, is one of the ways in which a pijavica can be created, and it usually comes back to victimize its former family, who can only protect their homes by placing mashed garlic and wine at their windows and thresholds to keep it from entering. It can only be killed by fire while awake and by using the Rite of Exorcism if found in its grave during the day.

To ward off the threat of vampires and disease, twin brothers would yoke twin oxen to a plow and make a furrow with it around their village. An egg would be broken and a nail driven into the floor beneath the bier of the house of a recently deceased person. Two or three elderly women would attend the cemetery the evening after the funeral and stick five hawthorn pegs or old knives into the grave: one at the position of the deceased’s chest, and the other four at the positions of his arms and legs.

Other texts maintain that running backwards uphill with a lit candle and a turtle would ward off a stalking vampire. Alternately, they may surround the grave with a red woolen thread, ignite the thread, and wait until it was burnt up.

In Bulgaria from the Middle Ages through to the beginning of the 20th Century, it was a

common practice to pin corpses through the heart with an iron stake to prevent their return as a vampire.

Folklore vampires can become vampires not only through a bite, but also if they wee once a werewolf, practiced sorcery, were an illegitimate child of parents who were illegitimate, died before baptism, anyone who has eaten the flesh of a sheep killed by a wolf, was the child of a pregnant woman who was looked upon by a vampire, was a nun who stepped over an unburied body, had teeth when they were born, or had a cat jump on their corpse before being buried (England and Japan), a stillborn; a bat flying over a corpse (Romania), being excommunicated by the Orthodox Church (Greece), being the seventh son of the seventh son; a dead body that has been reflected in a mirror; red heads (Greece); people who die by suicide or sudden, violent deaths; people who were improperly buried; renouncing the Easter Orthodox religion. 

Before Christianity, methods of repelling vampires included garlic, hawthorn branches, rowan trees (later used to make crosses), scattering of seeds, fire, decapitation with a gravedigger’s spade, salt (associated with preservation and purity), iron, bells, a rooster’s crow, peppermint, running water, and burying a suspected vampire at a crossroads. It was also not unusual for a corpse to be buried face down so it would dig down the wrong way and become lost in the earth. 

Catholics and Vampires

Catholicism did not escape its own legend of vampires and suggest that because Judas Iscariot, one of the 12 faithful disciples, betrayed Jesus to the Romans for 30 pieces of silver….Judas was overtaken by  remorse, and as a result of his deep love for Jesus and his guilt regarding the part in His death, his betrayal, he committed suicide! He walked up a hill and hung himself on the Genus Cercis, since then renamed the Judas Tree for the obvious reason. 

The tale holds that vampires originated with Judas. Because of his betrayal of Jesus, God cursed him and his descendants ‘to walk the earth forever’. His suicide subsequently was not the end but the beginning, people who committed suicide were very likely to come back as vampires, which contributed to the legend. Because he was cursed by God for his betrayal of His son, God turned away from Judas and allowed one of Satan’s demons to cut down Judas’ body in the night and to pour his own, unclean blood in Judas’ mouth. When Judas awoke, he received a message from Satan ‘ For your aide in delivering the son of God and His followers into my hands, I have made you my son, that you may rejoice in Darkness and taste the dark and bitter

fruits that you have sown’.

The beliefs that vampires are afraid of silver, crosses and can be vanquished with a stake of aspen wood are easily explained as well in this context. Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and as a result, Jesus was crucified on an aspen-wooden cross….. So, in other words, Judas and his descendants were repelled by anything that reminded them of this great crime of betrayal!

It's largely believed that Dracula is based on a Wallachian Prince named Vlad Tepes, or Vlad Dracul, meaning “The Dragon”. Though this may not be so. There’s no evidence that Bram Stoker had ever heard of this monarch while writing the book. Vlad Tepes was born in the fortress of Sighisoara, Romania in December of 1431. When he was born his father, Vlad Dracul, was the military governor of Transylvania, appointed by the emperor Sigismund. A year prior to this time Vlad Dracul was welcomed into the Order of the Dragon. The Order began in 1387 and was a society committed to the military and religion. The Order could be compared to a men’s club today that consisted of members that were passionate about preserving the Catholic religion and to fight against the Turks. Dracula became prince in 1456 and in his brief reign is estimated to have killed 100,000 people. He is named “the Impaler” because of his proclivity for impaling his victims on a sharp pole often eating meals on the field in which his victims were suspended. He was assassinated in 1476. 

Modern Explanations

New research suggests that the vampire folklore originated from human beings that suffered a genetic disease, late in the Middle Ages. Dr David H. Dolphin, a biochemist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, had been researching the myth of vampires for a long while when he stumbled upon this interesting fact in 1985.

In his paper, Dr Dolphin had advanced the theory that vampires are actually normal people, who suffered from one class of incurable hereditary diseases known commonly as porphyria is a slight malfunction in the body’s chemicals and sufferers become afflicted with the same symptoms as the fabled “vampires”. Their bodies usually became grotesquely disfigured, and they had extreme sensitivity to any forms of natural/unnatural light (even the exposure to sunlight left patients’ bodies with sores and scars). Sometimes, the patients’ fingers would fall off and resemble that of animal claws. Lips and gums would stretch so that the teeth would become more pronounced, of course giving resemblance to a vampire bat.

Dr Dolphin concluded that because of this, victims would only venture out at night and also may grow their hair long as it acted as protection against the deadly night. He argued that porphyria victims in the past instinctively sought the hemoglobin their bodies lacked by biting and sucking the blood of others. In this day and age, people suffering from this disease can simply inject themselves daily, weekly, or whenever necessary. As to the vampire bite causing the birth of another vampire, the good doctor suggested that brothers and sisters could have shared the defective gene that causes the diseases, but that only one of them might have experienced symptoms of the disease. If that victim then bit a sibling to get blood, the shock of the experience might have triggered an attack of the disease in the bitten sibling, thus producing another vampire. As to the fear of garlic, he postulated that garlic, contains a chemical that exacerbates the symptoms of porphyrias. Dolphin was noted to have confused fictional (bloodsucking) vampires with those of folklore, many of whom were not noted to drink blood. Similarly, a parallel is made between sensitivity to sunlight by sufferers, yet this was associated with fictional and not folkloric vampires. In any case, Dolphin did not go on to publish his work more widely. Despite being dismissed by experts, the ideas gained media attention and entered popular modern folklore.

Looking back with this information, we can draw the conclusion that the superstitions of our predecessors in the ‘Dark Ages’ could create such uproar from a genetic dysfunction. Victims suffering the disease were usually located in concentrated parts of Europe and the world, thus bringing the fabled myths and legends from Transylvania.

Many theories for the origins of vampire beliefs have been offered as an explanation for the superstition, and sometimes mass hysteria, caused by vampires. Everything ranging from premature burial to the early ignorance of the body’s decomposition cycle after death has been cited as the cause for the belief in vampires.

People sometimes suspected vampirism when a cadaver did not look as they thought a normal corpse should when disinterred. However, rates of decomposition vary depending on temperature and soil composition, and many of the signs are little known. This has led vampire hunters to mistakenly conclude that a dead body had not decomposed at all, or, ironically, to interpret signs of decomposition as signs of continued life. Corpses swell as gases from decomposition accumulate in the torso and the increased pressure forces blood to ooze from the nose and mouth. This causes the body to look “plump”, “well-fed,” and “ruddy”;-changes that are all the more striking if the person was pale or thin in life. In the Arnold Paole case, an old woman’s exhumed corpse was judged by her neighbors to look more plump and healthy than

she had ever looked in life. The exuding blood gave the impression that the corpse had recently been engaging in vampiric activity. Darkening of the skin is also caused by decomposition. The staking of a swollen, decomposing body could cause the body to bleed and force the accumulated gases to escape the body. This could produce a groan-like sound when the gases moved past the vocal cords, or a sound reminiscent of flatulence when gases moved through other parts.

After death, the skin and gums lose fluids and contract, exposing the roots of the hair, nails, and teeth, even teeth that were concealed in the jaw. This can produce the illusion that the hair, nails, and teeth have grown. At a certain stage, the nails fall off and the skin peels away, as reported in the Plogojowitz case-the dermis and nail beds emerging underneath were interpreted as “new skin” and “new nails”. 

It has also been hypothesized that vampire legends were influenced by individuals being buried alive because of shortcomings in then-current medical knowledge. In some cases in which people reported sounds emanating from a specific coffin, it was later dug up and fingernail marks were discovered on the inside from the victim trying to escape. In other cases the person would hit their heads, noses or faces and it would appear that they had been “feeding”. A problem with this theory is the question of how people presumably buried alive managed to stay alive for any extended period without food, water or fresh air. An alternate explanation for noise is the bubbling of escaping gases from natural decomposition of bodies. Another likely cause of disordered tombs is grave robbing.

Folkloric vampirism has been associated with clusters of deaths from unidentifiable or

mysterious illnesses, usually within the same family or the same small community. The

epidemic allusion is obvious in the vampire beliefs of New England, where a specific disease, tuberculosis, was associated with outbreaks of vampirism. As with the pneumonic form of bubonic plague, it was associated with breakdown of lung tissue which would cause blood to appear at the lips. 

Rabies has been linked with vampire folklore. Dr Juan Gómez-Alonso, a neurologist at Xeral Hospital in Vigo, Spain, examined this possibility in a report in Neurology. The susceptibility to garlic and light could be due to hypersensitivity, which is a symptom of rabies. The disease can also affect portions of the brain that could lead to disturbance of normal sleep patterns (thus becoming nocturnal) and hypersexuality. Legend once said a man was not rabid if he could look at his own reflection (an allusion to the legend that vampires have no reflection). Wolves and bats, which are often associated with vampires, can be carriers of rabies. The disease can also lead to a drive to bite others and to a bloody frothing at the mouth. 

By the end of the twentieth century, over 300 motion pictures were made about vampires, and over 100 of them featured Dracula. Many movies and shows depict vampires as being rich, groomed sophisticates, -but, as we now know, in a good portion of the world’s folklore, vampires are peasants, villagers, and people who just ended up in bad situations. Over 1,000 vampire novels were published, most within the past 25 years. In the 80’s I had planned to read that genre…then the explosion happened. I have not caught up as yet. 

All of which brings me to current biochemical engineering techniques combined with the rabies virus in relation to Zombies. 

But that is a tale for another day!

Thoughts on the case:  Phil commented that this was ranked very low compared to the other stories in the cannon. There was a discussion about vampires and concerning the outcome for the boy and his sea voyage. 

The Jeremy Brett version was long and not very successful, and it changed many details. It was produced on the radio several times. 

Phil mentioned a Japanese program that had a similar theme that was OK to watch. 

Jack’s Agony Column: None this month. 

Toast to the Case:  Phil read a toast to The Sussex Vampire

The usual meeting in June will not be held as there is an event at Scrimenti’s. 

The July 26thmeeting will feature “Thor Bridge”. There will be a 5:00 PM Jeremy Brett video of “The Thor Bridge”. Bert will prepare the quiz.  Jim Rowe is scheduled to present some of his most interesting cases in his career. The meeting will begin with dinner at 6:00 and the meeting will start at 7:00 PM. On August 30th we will have “The Creeping Man” and Tom will make a presentation of a mystery he has written. 

Thanks to Bert for finding the replacement screen. 

Cynthia Karabush read 221B. 

Phil thanked everyone for attending via zoom. 

The meeting was adjourned at 8:25 PM.  

                                                                      Sherlock Holmes

                                                                South Downers Meeting 

                                                                           Via Zoom

                                                                      January 25, 2023

Zoom Attendees: Phil Angelo, Connie Angelo, August Anselmo, Bill Buck, Bert Jacobson, Diane Siaroff, Sandy Kozinn, Jack Levitt, Deb Morgan, Gerry Morgan, Thomas Schildhouse, Bob Sharfman, Lenette Staudinger, and Cynthia Karabush. 

Phil showed the video of “The Scarlet Claw” for those who zoomed for that part of the meeting at 5:00 PM. It was a Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce movie released in May 1944. This is one of fourteen Holmes movies that Rathbone & Bruce participated in between 1939 and 1946. Some of this series, including tonight’s movie, was restored and colorized in the 1970s. The first two movies in the series, “Hound of the Baskervilles” was based on Doyle’s story and “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” was based on an 1899 play “Sherlock Holmes” written by William Gillette. They were produced by 20th Century Fox in 1939 and are set in the 19th century. They were produced with large budgets. Universal secured rights to the characters of Holmes & Watson from the Doyle estate and wrote their own version of stories for the remaining twelve films. The studio set them in the 1940’s sometimes with anti-Nazi themes and produced them as B pictures with lower budgets.  The first of these was “The Voice of Terror” which was released in 1942. 

Phil called the meeting to order at 7:01 PM. 

There was a discussion of “The Scarlet Claw” movie. 

South Downers News: 

Phil mentioned that he had found a $2 book at the grocery store named The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols by Nicholas Meyer who also wrote The Seven Percent Solution. It was a good mix of adventure and history. 

Phil noted that it is time for the annual dues. Please send $20 to Lenette Staudinger, 9049 Sheri La., Orland Park, IL 60462. Make the check out to The South Downers. 

The Quiz on “All Canon Quiz on Romance” was compiled by Phil. With 100 points possible, the results were as follows: Bert 88, Deb 80, Jack 86, Gerry 94, Tom 64. Lenette 45.  We all enjoyed the extensive & interesting coverage of approximately fifty characters from about thirty-four stories from the canon. Good job, Phil!

NOTE:Phil’s answers are attached at the end of this document. 

Love and Marriage presented by Phil

It was the theme song for the television show, “Married … with Children.” For 11 years on Fox, we learned of the suffering of Al Bundy, a shoe salesman and his lazy wife Peggy. The song was the type that would play over and over in your brain. It was a 1955 Sinatra tune.

The point here is how we think of the canon. You can have your murders, your jewel thefts, your bank robberies and your espionage cases. Forget all that. The real heart of the Sherlock Holmes-Arthur Conan Doyle canon is “Love and Marriage.” Nearly two-thirds of all the cases have a love affair, a love triangle or tangled husband-wife relations at their core.

Consider this. Arthur Conan Doyle was married twice. It appears that he fell in love with wife number two while wife number one was still alive. Doyle, biographers say, seems to have been physically faithful, even if he mentally drifted. So marriage and love were topics was close to his heart. Pun intended.

I counted 16 cases in the canon where there was a love triangle. My count may be light. Most of them, three-quarters of them, involve one woman choosing between two men. Or looking for a second fellow after the first one proves to be a failure, a cad or simply evil. In the very first short story, a Scandal in Bohemia, we have Irene Adler. At first, she was the playful lover of the King, disguised before Holmes as Count Von Kramm. The king appears to have had the powerful aphrodisiac of money, but has little else to recommend him to the opposite sex. She throws him over for Godfrey Norton.

In the first novel, A Study in Scarlet, Lucy Ferrier escapes dying of thirst and starvation on the Plains only to fall into the hands of the Mormons. She becomes the polygamous wife of Enoch Drebber, all the while hoping for the strong arms of cowboy Jefferson Hope. Hope’s rescue attempt fails. Lucy dies of a broken heart. Hope seeks revenge, which succeeds, but he succumbs to a failing heart (symbolism here) at the end. 

This is a recurring theme in the canon — a woman trying to escape a lousy marriage or engagement: Anna Coram wedded to stool pigeon Sergius; Nancy Devoy entrapped by the scheming James Barclay; Hatty Doran accepting Lord St. Simon for his title; Mary Fraser married to wife-beater Sir Eustace Bankenstall; Ettie Shafter ditching Scowrer Teddy Baldwin for Jack McMurdo. Mrs. McFarlane marries a better man than Jonas Oldacre after she catches Jonas releasing a cat in an aviary of birds.

In only a handful of these cases is there a happy ending, either immediately or implied in the future. Hatty Doran and Mary Fraser seem to march into the sunset with love assured or promised. But in so many others, the end is a tragedy. Lucy Ferrier is dead. She is joined by the sad ends of James Barclay, Hilton Cubitt and Anna Coram. It gets grimmer as we moved toward the end of the canon. In the Retired Colourman, both the wife and her lover die. In The Veiled Lodger we have the death of Ronder, a cowardly moment from lover Leonardo the Strongman and the possible suicide of Eugenia Ronder.

If Doyle sends any message, consciously or unconsciously, it may be that the straying in love or marriage is not a good thing. Of the 12 cases involving one woman choosing between two fellas, less than half have a happy ending. Few Hallmark Channel fairytale endings here

The odds are even longer in the four cases where a man chooses between two women. Butler Brunton in The Musgrave Ritual cheats on his first love, then asks her for help. He pays for this misjudgment with his life. Brunton is described as a virtuoso. He can unravel the ritual. He can play every instrument. But he cannot fathom the mind of a reasonable woman. In The Cardboard Box, Jim Browner cheats on his wife, then winds up killing her and her lover. Turnabout was not fair play. Maria Gibson, having lost the affection of her husband in Thor Bridge, commits suicide while staging it to frame her rival for murder. Lion killer Leon Sterndale had hoped for love with Brenda Tregennis, but was trapped in a loveless marriage himself by the deplorable divorce laws of England, in the tale, The Devil’s Foot. Having killed big game in Africa, he now kills Brenda’s killer.

Love or love’s revenge is more of a motive for murder in the canon than anything else.

But Doyle does see love as worthwhile. Three of the worst villains of the canon are James Windibank, Jephro Rucastle and Grimesby Roylott. What do these three have in common? Each resorts to trickery to try to keep their daughter or stepdaughters from marrying — all for the sake of keeping the money for themselves. Blood may be thicker than water, but it is not thicker than the English pound. Roylott is the worst of the three. In The Speckled Band, he kills one daughter and aims to kill another, using the rare method of the snake in the ventilator. He ends up dead himself. Rucastle imprisons a daughter, trying to worry her into brain fever. She survives and lives to love, while Rucastle is maimed by his own mastiff.

The most puzzling of these three cases is A Case of Identity. James Windibank disguises himself to make his own stepdaughter fall in love with him. Must have been one hell of a disguise. Holmes finds him reprehensible enough to threaten to trash him. Sherlock says Windibank will rise from crime to crime until he ends up on the gallows. Yet he lets him go.

Of course, some people make bad choices in significant others on their own. For them, love is blind. In The Three Gables, Douglas Maberley falls for scheming cougar Isadora Klein. He regrets it, writes about it, but does not live to regret it. Why did Beryl Stapleton stick with Jack Stapleton so long in The Hound of the Baskervilles? He had failed in business and hit her. She should have left. Same question for Mrs. Carey, the wife of the vicious drunk, in the case named for him, Black Peter. Why not leave, sooner?

Violet de Merville is smitten with Baron Gruner, who had killed his first wife, in The Illustrious Client. She won’t listen to Holmes, and is likely only saved from death by the actions of Kitty Winter, who blasts the Baron with fatal revolver bullets. That Alice Morphy planned to wed the creepy creeping Professor Presbury in The Creeping Man, shows that when love is not completely blind, it can be near-sighted.

In The Beryl Coronet and The Greek Interpreter, Mary and Sophy Kratides, respectively, fall for crooks who want to steal from their families.

But it is not all gloom and doom. There are hero husbands and heroine wives and sweethearts in the canon.

Doyle’s view of romance was entirely conventional. Doyle was certainly aware of the homosexuality scandal involving Oscar Wilde. The author of “The Picture of Dorian Grey” was accused of homosexuality, then a crime in England. He sued for libel, lost his case and then was successfully prosecuted for gross indecency with a man.

Doyle would also have been aware of the presence of prostitution. Jack the Ripper’s victims were prostitutes. Charles Dickens wrote of the seamier underside of urban Victorian Britain. Doyle did not. We have cads like Woodley and Black Gorgiano, but we are really spared the worst. As befitting someone whose epitaph was “Steel True, Blade Straight,” Doyle’s views on romance were uplifting, hopeful. The good guys may not always win, but the bad guys were typically punished.

We have the image of Godfrey Staunton, trapped by the class standards of his time, loyally tending to a dying wife in The Missing Three/Quarter. Emilia Lucca sings the praises of husband Gennaro when he protects her by killing the odious Black Gorgiano in The Red Circle. Perhaps best is the loving and broad-minded Grant Munro in The Yellow Face. He hugs his interracial stepdaughter and tells his wife, “I am not a very good man, Effie, but I think that I am a better one than you have given me credit for being.”

There are also ladies who stand by their man, as Tammy Wynette would sing.  Alice Turner in The Boscombe Valley Mystery, Annie Harrison in The Naval Treaty and Violet Westbury in The Bruce-Partington Plans all affirm their man’s innocence. But the award for best wife goes to Signora Victor Durando who was willing to risk her life to seek revenge on her husband’s killer in Wisteria Lodge.

Kudos, too, to those ladies who emerge from a tangled story to find love later. So, to Hatty Doran, to Violet Smith, to Mary Fraser to Helen Stoner to Irene Adler to others, we end with the words of singer Gene Pitney, in the canon, Only Love can Break a Heart, Only Love Can Mend It Again.

Jack’s Agony Column

For anyone going to Portland, Oregon there is a play called Miss Holmes and Miss Watson Apartment 2B before February 12th. The two women solve a murder mystery. There was an interview with Rick Rubbens who wrote about the creative app. They asked which books should be read by twenty-one. He said that Sherlock Holmes is a great one to pursue. The earlier the better. It is a great primer for awareness and practice.

Every Saturday afternoon a radio station, WNIV from 1 to 5 there is something called an old-time radio show.  Every couple of weeks they will do a Rathbone & Bruce Sherlock Holmes thing. 

On WFMT every Saturday morning at 9:00 AM they have music from the movies. A few weeks ago, they had one on about three Holmes movies. 

Holmes’ birthday was this month. 

Strand magazine was a recipient of a special award called the Edgar award from the Mystery Writers of American. Named for Edgar Allen Poe whose 214th birthday was a couple of days ago. He was born in 1809. Poe wrote the first real detective story “The Purloined letter”. 

Nice review of the Baker Street Irregular weekend. Installed about twenty new people.

There is a website address, I hear of Sherlock everywhere.  The website is ihose@hearofsherlock.com

Joke: Two guys are talking: one says to the other, “Do you know the name of Sherlock Holmes’ son.” The other says, “What son?” The first says, “No, that was his roommate.”

In the Sun Times there is a thing called Wordy Gurdy in which they give a definition and the answer to the question is rhyming. For example: Molar Gumshoe is a Tooth Sleuth. 

Toast to the Case:  Phil read a toast to the Canonical Women of Courage. 

Raise your glass filled with English ale,

To honor canonical courage female. 

Helen Stoner brave in her sister’s room,

While an adder might slither in the gloom.

Beryl Stapleton a warning would sound, 

Beware, Henry and Watson of the hound.

Mother Ferguson would suck out poison

To help protect an innocent infant son. 

Bride Emilia Lucca from Italy’s Porsilippo,

Flashes out the message danger, “Pericolo.”

Elsie Cubitt tries to shield husband Hilton,

But Chicago crook Slaney put the hit on.

In several tales women take their reprisal.

When threatened we all do seek survival.

Shamed Kitty Winter threw vitriol at Gruner,

After he had wooed her and ruined her.

Plump Milverton was the blackmailing king.

A woman and a revolver led to his slaying.

Yet of all the women in these many stories,

Think of brave Mrs. Hudson down on her knees,

Moving Holmes’ statue with moves ever so slight,

To fool Moran and an air gun’s bullet’s flight. 

It’s great to have a woman whose pedigree is royal.

What you really want is someone who is brave and loyal. 

Jack: A Toast to Sherlock Holmes

I rise to toast Sherlock Holmes, and it’s very clear 

what he means to us all. It’s elementary my dear.

It’s his deerstalker hat and his meerschaum pipe,

his knowledge of bicycle tires, and typewriter type.

It’s his magnifying glass, and the VR on the wall,

his Stradivarius violin, and Baskerville Hall. 

His many disguises and the Persian slipper,

Mrs. Hudson’s breakfasts of coffee, tea, and kipper. 

We met him first in the Case of the Scarlet Study 

when he is introduced to Dr. Watson, his chronicler and buddy. 

There was rarely a case that he would ever lose.

He could solve the biggest problem with the smallest of clues.

He was not without faults. He could be exceedingly vain.

He smoked and he drank, and he used cocaine.

His exploits have been translated into almost every tongue

And by Stanford and Wiggins may he be eternally young. 

For us he’s alive and will always be real.

He’s a hero for justice and a court of last appeal. 

If there was never a canon, it would have been a disaster.

So, let’s drink to Sherlock Holmes, detectives’ great master. 

The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 22, 2023, at Scrementi’s, if the weather is OK, otherwise we stay at home. It is planned to be a mystery with 12 suspects. There will be 33 clues, nine murder weapons, 12 clues in one round and then two rounds of 6 apiece. Some of the clues will be mailed to folks in envelopes. Some will be read in person and/or over the zoom. We go through clues one at a time. Prizes for the correct solution.  

August Anselmo read 221B. 

Phil thanked everyone for attending via zoom. 

The meeting was adjourned at 8:05 PM. 

                                                                  Sherlock Holmes

                                                           South Downers Meeting 

                                                                         Via Zoom

                                                                   December 14, 2022

Zoom Attendees: Phil Angelo, Connie Angelo, Bill Buck, Bert Jacobson, Diane Siaroff, Sandy Kozinn, Jack Levitt, Deb Morgan, Gerry Morgan, George Shannon, and Cynthia Karabush. 

Phil called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. 

Phil commented that the last month’s prizes would have been passed out at this meeting which were books entitled “Sherlock Homes & the Christmas Demon”. These will be saved till the next in person meeting. The holiday gift exchange will be moved on to the next meeting, too. 

South Downers News:  

The Quiz on “The Musgrave Ritual” was composed by Lynette. Phil reviewed the answers for the quiz as Lynette was ill and unable to attend. There was a possible point total of 25. 

Results:  Bert 23, Sandy 22, Gerry 22, Bill 21, Jack 18.  

Comments on the film included that it was very close to the book and Jeremy Brett was at the top of his form. It was also good that Watson was in the film even though it was before his time in the book version. There was some discussion about the conclusion and how it was different than the written one. 

Drawings from the case:

Musings on The Musgrave Ritual by Phil

The late Ira Fistell identified “The Musgrave Ritual” as one of his personal favorites in the canon. I thoroughly concur.

Here is a tale with everything: a puzzle to solve; a murder; and a buried treasure. To top it off — the butler did it. We have every plot cliché possible, yet they are so tightly wound, that you cannot stop turning pages.

It is a case, too, that tremendously adds to our view of 221b Baker Street. We have the cigars in the coal-scuttle, the tobacco in the end of the Persian slipper and the correspondence transfixed to the mantle by a jackknife. We have the “V.R.” as outlined by Boxer cartridge bullet-marks in the plaster.

Holmes sifts through his notes from previous cases and leaves us with tantalizing ones we long for: the Tarleton murders; Vamberry the wine merchant; the old Russian woman; the aluminum crutch; and Ricoletti of the club foot, with his abominable wife.

The Jeremy Brett film by Granada is also one of the best in the series. The dialogue is often spot-on. James Hazeldine is superb as Brunton. Michael Culver is good, too, as Reginald Musgrave. Jeremy Paul’s story adaptation won him an Edgar Allen Poe award from the Mystery Writers of America.

If anything, the few changes he made seem to improve the story. Watson is on the scene. Lovemaking between Brunton and Janet Tregellis is clear and erotic, but not crude. She lifts up her skirt for him. One of the trees in question becomes a weather-vane atop the Hurlstone house. Holmes’ solution of the riddle is more dramatic. He strides across the lawn with determination, then floats across the moat in the prow of a boat, like an alert lookout in the forefront of a Viking longship.

Doyle wrote the story while traveling by train across France with his first wife, Louise. “The Bedside, Bathtub and Armchair Companion to Sherlock Holmes” points out a paradox. The canon says “We ransacked every room and cellar without discovering the least sign of the missing man.” Maybe the train was rattling along too fast when Doyle wrote that line.

Let us point out one other conundrum: What happens to Rachel Howells?

Of course, this is not the only case where the story ends with the culprit not apprehended. Holmes famously lets jewel-thief James Ryder walk in “The Blue Carbuncle.” Murderers escape the gallows in “The Boscombe Valley Mystery” and “The Abbey Grange.” In “The Valley of Fear,” Holmes muses of Moriarty’s criminal machine pushing John Douglas overboard to a drowning death, but takes it no further.

But what of Howells? — suffocating Brunton in a dark airless tomb.

Granada solves the enigma with a grim picture as the case closes. A dead Rachel silently floats to the surface of the mere? Killed? Suicidal? Drowned or something else? We are left to ponder and wonder.

In the written canon, Howells’ steps lead up to the lake, with no exit. But as the story ends, Holmes seems to think she has escaped, and gone beyond the reach of the law.

At least two authors have some sort of answer. John Linwood Grant writes of “The Musgrave Burden” in David Marcum’s “Adventures Beyond the Canon,” a book of Sherlock Holmes’ sequels. There is also “The Legacy of Rachel Howells by Michael Doyle in The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures.”

In both stories, Howells becomes more of an actor and less of a victim. In The Legacy, Holmes is handed an envelope, postmarked from Baskerville, Canada, containing folded blank sheets of paper. So, the envelope itself is the message.

It’s inscribed with nonsense words that Holmes unscrambles to form new words — a sort of Scrabble in action.

Following a dazzling series of deductions, Holmes locates Howells, who escaped to Canada and has now planned to reclaim a share of the loot — nothing less than the scepter and orb of King Charles.

In Grant’s version, a dying Reginald Musgrave confesses that Brunton really was the correct heir to the estate — a twist on the plot of “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” Holmes uncovers a series of surprises. The real ritual has different lines. There is another chamber off the fatal chamber. Brunton is NOT the dead man in the cellar. Instead, Howells and Brunton elope and live out their lives. Rachel Howells survives and returns to the scene of the crime.

Far-fetched? Perhaps. But a whole lot more romantic than a floater in a pond.

Jack’s Agony Column

Jack read some comments about today’s case. At the beginning of the story Watson’s description of Holmes’ untidy habits including the fact that he keeps the records of early cases in a large tin box, mirror those of the author himself. Who was just as much a pack rat as his fictional character. Louise Doyle complained that her husband was unwilling to throw things away. The beginning of this story could have easily taken place at the Doyle house. 

In the Sun Times there is a thing called Wordy Gurdy in which they give a definition and the answer to the question is rhyming. For example: Molar Gumshoe is a Tooth Sleuth. 

Somethings that they write about, not only Sherlock, are Enola Holmes, his younger sister, in the Case of the Missing Marquess, Mycroft Holmes, a government official, and Eurus Holmes, another sister that was in one of the Cumberbatch stories. 

There were some things about honey. It can prevent blood sugar swings, stop insomnia, ease allergies and asthma, ease tension and some other things. The amount of honey consumed per person in the US is about 1.31 pounds (20 ounces). There is a book about the Healing Powers of Honey, a free book. The number of flowers to make a pound of honey is two million. 

The Torist group will be meeting on December 27th at the Great Escape. 

The cartoon network had someone a few days ago named Sherlock Knomes. 

Toast to the Case:  Phil read his toast to the case. 

The next meeting is scheduled for January 25, 2023, at Scrementi’s, if the weather is OK. This will be the annual birthday meeting. Phil will compose the quiz which will be all-canon on the romantic couples of the canon, such as Watson and Mary Morstan. Connie will have treats. We plan to have the December gift exchange at this meeting. 

Deb Morgan read 221B. 

Phil thanked everyone for attending. 

The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 PM. 

                                                                 Sherlock Holmes

                                                          South Downers Meeting

                                                          Scrementi’s & Via Zoom

                                                             September 28, 2022

Attendees: Phil Angelo, Connie Angelo, Bonnie Dimon, Jan Graziadei, Bert Jacobson, Jack Levitt, Deb Morgan, Gerry Morgan, Lynette Staudinger, Tom Schildhouse and Diane Siaroff. Via Zoom: August Anselmo, Cynthia Karabush, George Shannon, and Kelly Weber.

We enjoyed the video of “The Voice of Terror” with Basil Rathbone as Sherlock. At the ending of the movie Holmes and Watson are standing together and Rathbone delivers his final comment that is almost exactly as Doyle wrote it at the end of tonight’s story, “His Last Bow”.

Phil called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM.   

South Downers News

None tonight.

Quiz on “His Last Bow” by Kelly.

Kelly reviewed the answers for the quiz.

Results: Bert & Gerry 14 and Jack 9.

Illustrations from the case were displayed on the screen drawn by several different artists.

2

Diane gave a presentation on: Mata Hari.

Note: This presentation is available in a separate document “Mata Hari Presentation 9 28 2022.

Toast to the Case: Phil read his toast to the case.

Jack’s Agony Column

There is a play on the north side called “Miss Holmes Returns” There was a “Miss Holmes” and Sherlock is played by a woman. It will be continuing until October 16th. There is a Watson and a Lestrade in it. It received two and a half stars.

This appeared in Sunday’spaper and it’s called a jumbled crossword. It was so good they ran it for two straight weeks. The clue was “Who first appeared in print in 1887” and the answer was Sherlock Holmes.

There was a cartoon that in the last frame someone says “OK Sherlock”.

I have some Help save the Bee bookmarks if anyone is interested.

Not exactly Sherlock but there are a group of Who dun’its. Twelve exemplary crime writers have put together twelve new Jane Marple mysteries. The title is “Marple’s Twelve New Mysteries”. If you are into Agatha Christie, you might be interested in that.

There is a Japanese cartoon series called Sherlock Hound. There are twenty-six episodes from 1984 to 1985. Has subtitles in English. It is an animated TV series.

The Torists met this week and won’t meet until three months.

The Criterion Bar is trying to get new members and they are going to try on a Sunday from noon to three at a restaurant and have zoom, too.

Hot off the press: on Jeopardy today, the topic was waterfalls. The item was “What was the name of the waterfall where Holmes met Moriarty”.

Phil commented on the “Murder on the Orient Express” play at Drury Lane. It is scheduled for October 6th. Several people will be going.

The next meeting is scheduled for October 26th. This is the Halloween meeting so feel free to come dressed as a character or anything else Sherlockian. We will be at Scrementi’s with a movie at 5:00 the meeting will be at 7:00 PM. The quiz will be on “The Mazarin Stone” and Lenette will compose the quiz. Phil will have a program on Italians in The Canon.

Deb read 221B.

Phil thanked the Zoom participants.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:15 PM.

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