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Boscombe Valley Mystery

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Brief overview

Holmes proves James McCarthy innocent; a dying man's "Ballarat" names John Turner, blackmailed for twenty years.

  1. Circumstantial evidence points wherever you standHolmes warns it may point straight at one thing, then at something entirely different if you shift your point of view.
  2. Two dying words solved the caseThe "Coo-ee" meant for someone else and the last syllables of "Ballarat" narrowed the field to an Australian in a grey cloak.
  3. Old blackmail, not a son's temperMcCarthy had held Turner since the gold robbery, living rent free on his best land and finally demanding Alice for his son.
Executive Summary AI
  • On the train west Holmes lays out the case: in Boscombe Valley near Ross in Herefordshire the largest landowner, Mr. John Turner, made his money in Australia and lent Hatherley Farm to a fellow ex-Australian, Mr. Charles McCarthy.
  • On June 3rd McCarthy walked to Boscombe Pool for an appointment at three, was seen quarrelling with his son James by fourteen-year-old Patience Moran, and was found with his head beaten in beside the pool, his son's gun lying a few paces away.
  • At the inquest James swore his father cried "Coo-ee" before he could have known his son was back from Bristol, refused to give the cause of the quarrel, and described a grey cloth on the ground that vanished while his back was turned.
  • After reading the ground at the pool Holmes tells Lestrade the murderer is a tall, left-handed man who limps with the right leg, wears thick-soled shooting boots and a grey cloak, and smokes Indian cigars in a holder.
  • John Turner then confesses: as Black Jack of Ballarat he robbed the gold convoy McCarthy drove, was bled for twenty years and finally struck him down; Holmes keeps the signed confession, James McCarthy is acquitted, and Turner dies seven months later.
Key Quote
“Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing”
— Sherlock Holmes
Key Quote
“There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact”
— Sherlock Holmes
Key Quote
“I know that James didn't do it.”
— Miss Turner

Transcript

0:00 THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY. the adventures of sherlock holmes by sir arthur west of england in connection with boscombe valley tragedy shall be glad if you will come with me air and scenery perfect leave paddington by the eleven fifteen "'I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at present.'
1:06 "'Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking a little pale lately.
1:11 I think that the change would do you good, and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes's cases.'
1:18 "'I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained through one of them,' I answered.
1:24 "'But if I am to go, I must pack
1:26 at once, for I have only half an hour. My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had
1:32 at least had the effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were few and simple,
1:39 so that in less than the time stated I was in a cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station.
1:46 Sherlock Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall gaunt figure made even
1:51 gaunter and taller by his long grey travelling cloak and close-fitting cloth cap.
1:56 "'It is really very good of you to come, Watson,' said he.
2:00 "'It makes a considerable difference to me having someone with me on whom I can thoroughly rely.
2:05 Local aid is always either worthless or else biased.
2:09 "'If you will keep the two corner seats, I shall get the tickets.'
2:12 "'We had the carriage to ourselves, save for an immense litter of papers which Holmes had brought with him.
2:18 "'Among these he rummaged and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until we were past Reading.
2:24 "'Then he suddenly rolled them all into a gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack.
2:29 Have you heard anything of the case? he asked.
2:32 Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days.
2:36 The London press has not had very full accounts.
2:40 I have just been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the particulars.
2:43 It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those simple cases which are so extremely difficult. That sounds
2:50 little paradoxical. But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a clue. The more
2:57 featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more difficult it is to bring it home. In this case,
3:02 however, they have established a very serious case against the son of the murdered man.
3:08 It is a murder, then? Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for granted
3:13 until I have the opportunity of looking personally into it. I will explain the state of things
3:18 to you as far as I have been able to understand it in a very few words.
3:23 Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross in Herefordshire.
3:28 The largest landed proprietor in that part is a Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia
3:34 and returned some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he held, that of Hatherley,
3:40 was lent to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was also an ex-australian the men had known each other in the colony so that it was not unnatural that when they came to settle down that they should do so as near each other as possible terms of perfect equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, a lad of eighteen,
4:06 and Turner had an only daughter of the same age, but neither of them had wives living.
4:11 They appear to have avoided the society of the neighboring English families and to have led
4:15 retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of sport and were frequently seen at the
4:20 race-meetings of the neighborhood. McCarthy kept two servants, a man and a girl.
4:26 Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the least. That is as much as
4:31 I have been able to gather about the families. Now for the facts.
4:36 On June 3rd, that is, Monday last, McCarthy left his house at Hatherley, about three in the
4:41 afternoon, and walked down to the Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed

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