Arthur Conan Doyle Studies Murder

While reading The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes 2 selected and introduced by Alan K. Russell (1979) I was surprised to find three articles on real life crime written by Arthur Conan Doyle which were published in 1901. Doyle’s articles are told with the flair of fictional short stories.

I had remembered I had a book, Conan Doyle Detective by Peter Costello, about Doyle as an amateur detective and keen student of real life crime but did not recall the book summarized those stories until I looked at the book for writing this post. (A link to my review is at the end of this post.)

The first article - The Holocaust of Manor Place - recounts the story of William Godfrey Youngman and his fiancee, Mary Wells Streeter. After securing a 100 pound insurance policy upon her life he invites her to London. After a day of sightseeing and an evening at the theatre they stay overnight at his parents flat in separate bedrooms. In the early morning, after Youngman’s father has left for work, other residents of flats in the house hear noises and a thump. Mary and Youngman’s mother and his two brothers have been killed through stabbing. Youngman claims his mother went insane killing Mary and her other sons and he stopped her and killed her in self-defence. A jury takes less than half an hour to convict him.

Doyle sees Youngman as suffering from the “insanity of selfishness”. Recounting family history of insanity he concludes:

…. It is doubtful whether the case should not have been judged upon medical rather than upon criminal grounds. In these more scientific and more humanitarian days it is perhaps doubtful whether Youngman should have been hanged, but there was never any doubt as to his fate in 1860.

A link to the account of the case at the Old Bailey is https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t18600813-723

The second article - The Love Affair of George Vincent Parker - With names altered to avoid pain to surviving relatives Doyle explores insanity again. Parker, a young “man of artistic temperament, with all the failings of nerve and character which that temperament implies” becomes engaged to a young woman. After four years, with both families disapproving of the engagement, she writes to end the engagement. He is deeply upset. He agrees but wants to see her again. Their letters are moving. In that meeting he stabs her and then tries to save her but she dies. He says he knows he will be hanged. At trial there is evidence on his sanity. His mother recounts a family history of insanity. There is professional evidence:

Two specialists in lunacy examined himn and said that they were of opinion that he was of unsound mind. The opinion was based upon the fact that the prisoner declared that he could not see he had done any wrong.

The judge stated to the jury:

To be mad with the meaning of the law, a criminal should be in such a state as not to know that he has committed crime or incurred punishment. 

Doyle opines:

Now, it was clear that Parker did know this, since he had talked of being hanged.

You will need to read the book to learn of Parker’s fate.

Doyle was a firm believer in the principle that an accused must be proven guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. In the third article - The Debatable Case of Mrs. Emsley - he stated:

But when one looks back and remembers how often one has been very sure and yet has erred in the issues of life, how often what has seemed certain has failed us, and that which appeared impossible has come to pass, we feel that if the criminal laws has been conducted upon such principles it is probably the giant murderer of England. Far wiser is the contention that it is better that ninety-nine guilty should escape than one innocent man should suffer, and that, therefeore, if it can be claimed there is one chance in a hundred in favour of the prisoner he is entitled to his acquittal. 

Costello discusses the articles:

These he called ‘Strange Studies from Life’ and they were published in The Strand between March and May 1901. He originally planned to write a series of twelve, which would have been enough material for a book; but he soon gave them up, discouraged by the nature of the material, ‘I don’t think I ever felt more uncertain about anything,’ he told Greenhough-Smith, the magazine’s editor, and refused to continue.

I can understand Doyle’s reluctance if the other nine planned studies were about murder as foul and sordid as the trio about which he wrote. As well, the studies left  Doyle with doubt about the correctness of the verdicts and punishment. Defence counsel would have loved to have Doyle as a juror.

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Conan Doyle Detective by Peter Costello

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes 2 selected and introduced by Alan K. Russell (1979)