Why Is Sherlock Holmes A Good Criminal

Sherlock Holmes is a work of art, he cannot be copied. Holmes is always very serious as he needs to get his job done. In The Hound Of the Baskervilles, Holmes interrogates Dr. Mortimer, one of his clients, “And you, a trained man of science believe it to be supernatural?” (Doyle 31). Also, Holmes is very deliberate in the way he thinks. He is able to see a small detail and process it into his method almost immediately. Lastly, Holmes is always a detective and is certain he will

I think Holmes came to the conclusion that "doctor's make the greatest criminals" because Holmes even said himself, "When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge." I agree to Holmes' statement because doctors know of all sorts of medications and poisons that could be used to put harm onto someone. Doctors are perfectionists, they make it their business to be careful with even the simplest of steps in practice. Doctors would be "great" because they would take that attention to detail with them and be careful and persistent in the actions, and are trusted in the community.

In Criminal Justice, there are many different detectives with many different qualities. So how do you know what it takes for a detective to be successful? What traits and qualities make a good detective? Today, two very popular detectives will be compared, Sherlock Holmes and Nancy Drew. These investigators are being “investigated” in one of their most popular novels, The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene and The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Both of these novels have very good sleuths, with many similar and contrasting qualities. Let’s follow the clues in these books to figure out the qualities of these good detectives and what qualities will take most detectives down the path of success.

Holmes became a medical student at the University of Michigan (“H.H.” 1). This is when he started to steal human bodies and experiment on them. This is when people started to heed and pay very close attention to him. “I was born with the devil in me”, he wrote. “I could not help the fact I was a murderer, no more that the poet can help the inspiration to sing” (Larson 109). This gives an insight into his mind. Based on this statement, it seems that he had no control over his actions. H.H. Holmes was hung on May 7th, 1896 (“H.H.” 1). They considered him to be one of America’s first serial killers. He killed anywhere between 20 to 200 people. He is most definitely a stark opposite of good.

“They tend to share certain key characteristics. They're manipulative, cold, and lack what we might call a moral compass--they know right from wrong but are not invested in that distinction. Their only concern with their ‘wrong’ behavior is getting caught, but because they are deceitful, callous and not subject to anxiety, they easily elude capture” (Spikol, 5). These sort of criminals were ones that the Chicago Police Department had never been introduced to before, causing them to change their entire perspective on cases once Holmes’ had passed. According to John Bartlow Martin, a writer for the “Harper’s Archive”, Holmes’ murder castle was filled with trapdoors, gas chambers, secret passageways, and even pits of acid used to get rid of bodies and other pieces of evidence. These were all things that the law enforcers had never even heard of in a story, much less seen or thought of in real life. It’s safe to say that Holmes drastically affected the police’s outlook on the cases in the near, and even far, future of criminals after his mystery; or at least part of his mystery had been

The basis of detective fictions is a well-developed and observant character that is able to walk the audience and outside perspectives through the case. In this case, Arthur Conan-Doyle utilizes the observant perspective of Watson to describe the actions of Sherlock Holmes. Doyle characterizes Sherlock through underscoring vocabulary and the first person understanding of Watson. A series of analytical language and descriptive literary devices such as juxtaposition to portray the effects of Irene Adler on the near-perfect character of Sherlock Holmes.

Holmes wrote a history of himself, which he wrote, “ I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing.”

Larson includes a description of this by referencing the work of a famous psychologist and stating, "...in his path-breaking book The Mask of Sanity, Dr. Hervey Cleckley described the prototypical psychopath as 'a subtly constructed reflex machine which can mimic the human personality perfectly'" (88). Holmes greatly demonstrates this ability and takes it one step further by manipulating people. He uses it almost like a superpower. In his time, Holmes was considered handsome and certainly charming. People often found Holmes to be a sweet and caring guy, which he then used to his advantage. For example, Holmes knew how to treat a woman. Holmes in multiple cases would have long relationships with women which he then used not only to kill his lover but also a family member as well if he wished. He could also manipulate Men, such as the workers he hired and fired in in a repeating cycle in order to build his hotel for virtually no cost. Most people would not have suspected Holmes to be a psychopath or a murder. Holmes' ability to not only disguise his psychopathy but also to manipulate people, allowed him to have complete control over the situation and commit his crimes with little to no

Let us begin with Holmes. Holmes lived in Chicago and owned a pharmacy. He had medical training and loved money and women (Larson 36-37). He was able to smooth talk and gave people a sense of happiness. Holmes could convince people of anything, which he used as a way to sell stories as to why the people he killed had just disappeared. He also used this in constructing his building/hotel. He barely paid a dime because he convinced workers that their job was unsatisfactory (Larson 67). The furniture companies would come looking for H. S. Campbell, the alias he used as the owner of the building, and he would tell them he was out on business (Larson 71-72). A man named Belknap, the uncle of one of Holmes’s three wives, described him as “warm and ingratiating, but also telegraph that some important element of humanness is missing”. For a long time this was known as “moral insanity” and later the term psychopath was used (Larson 87-88). Holmes himself was intrigued by Jack the Ripper (Larson 70).

H.H. Holmes was a great example to future serial killers. An “expert” like this must have a knowledge of how to murder people and get away with it while, at the same time, get something out of it. Although he was a horrible person and admitted to murdering 27 people and was hung for his crimes, H.H. Holmes was a great example to future serial killers with his fake credibility, dishonest sources of income, manipulative personality, and ability to cover up crimes.

Holmes had everything he could ever want, which was great for him of course. His childhood was very privileged, and he enjoyed it. People told his family that he was a very intelligent kid for his age. Holmes was treated well. As he grew up, he got interested in the art of medicine. He graduated from the University of Michigan. Holmes was married twice. Holmes was treated well there as well. He passed his exam to practice medicine. He was always treated well, he was smart. He was looked as an equal. This led Holmes to animal experiment and also used corpses as experimental subjects. Holmes also stole corpses and used them to make fake insurance claims. There were rumors that indicates that he was responsible for his friend’s death. That was the first rumored victim of Homes later on he got a job in a pharmacy. Which Holmes convinced the pharmacy wife’s owner to sell him the pharmacy due to his suppose claims that the owner had “passed away”, and it was rumored that he killed the owner of the pharmacy. Then one day the wife went missing, to which Holmes claimed that she had moved to California. But it’s

Kocsis, R. N. (2004). Profiling the criminal mind: Does it actually work? Lancet, 364(1), 14-15.

The individual is able to recognize, comprehend, imitate, and evolve their criminal behaviors as they would with any learned

“My mind," he said, "rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation” (Sign of Four 6). Sherlock Holmes can not only solve the mysteries that are presented to him, but he can solve them with ease because of his reasoning skills. In particular, he mostly uses abductive reasoning, but sometimes he uses deductive and inductive reasoning. This also overlaps into mathematics, with proofs and inferences.

H.H Holmes was a very smart man, but he threw his whole life away. He could of did something with himself and made himself Out to become something, but he didn't. His childhood wasn't very good at home but, He was a good child. H.H Holmes got straight A’s When he was in school. When he became an adult and his adulthood started forming that's when everything started to turn for him. People thought he was a good man, and did everything right until all of his secrets starting coming out. You would never think someone would make their house into a “Murder castle” but H.H Holmes did.