Literature Review
Holmes laughed. “Watson insists that I am the dramatist in real life,” said he. “Some touch of the artist wells up within me, and calls insistently for a well-stated performance.”
The last Sherlock Holmes novel (as opposed to short stories) that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote was The Valley of Fear, which was serialized in the Strand Magazine during 1914-1915. Doyle set the story well back in time, before Holmes’ “death” in a fight with Professor Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls. Doyle places Moriarty in the story’s background, laying some preemptive groundwork for the story, “The Final Problem,” where Moriarty, one must admit, appears a little suddenly for an arch-enemy and nemesis.
In The Valley of Fear, Holmes gets a cipher message from an informant inside Moriarty’s organization, warning him of danger to a man at a country place called Birlstone House. Soon after this, a police detective named MacDonald arrives to ask him to help solve a grisly murder at that very place.
They arrive at Birlstone, which is a stately house surrounded by a moat, whose drawbridge is drawn up every night. So it’s virtually impossible that anyone sneaked into the house during the night. But some time that night, the owner of the house, Douglas, was murdered in his study, his face destroyed by a blast from a double-barrelled shotgun. The circumstances make suicide unlikely, but in that case how did the murderer get away? Holmes, of course, goes over the crime scene carefully with his magnifying glass, and it’s not long before he hits on the solution.
Inspector MacDonald arrives at 221B Baker Street with news that Douglas was murdered the night before. MacDonald, Holmes, and Watson travel to Birlstone House to investigate. After interviewing Cecil Barker, a frequent guest at Birlstone House, and the man who discovered the body, they agree that suicide is out of the question and that someone from outside the house committed the murder. Barker explains that Douglas married after arriving in England five years earlier. Barker believes a secret society of men pursued Douglas, and that he retreated to rural England out of fear for his life. Mrs. Douglas said her husband mentioned something called “The Valley of Fear”. Holmes learns that the housekeeper heard a sound, as if of a door slamming, half an hour before the alarm; Holmes believes that this sound was the fatal shot. Local detective White Mason and Inspector MacDonald track a bicycle found on the grounds of the house to an American staying at a guest house. The American appears to be the murderer, but there is no sign of him. Holmes asks MacDonald to write to Barker, telling him that the police intend to search the moat the next day. That night, they lie in wait outside Birlstone Manor and see Barker fish the clothes of the missing American out of the moat. Barker refuses to explain the situation. At that moment, Douglas appears, alive and well. He hands Watson a written account called “The Valley of Fear”, which explains why he feared for his life. Douglas explains that he had spotted an enemy of his, Ted Baldwin, in the area and expected an attack. When Baldwin attempted to shoot Douglas in his study, Douglas grabbed the gun and, in the struggle, Baldwin was shot in the face. With Barker’s help, Douglas dressed the man in his clothes to confuse his enemies. He then hid himself in the old priest hole at Birlstone. The main narrative pauses to explain Douglas’ past in America. Douglas’ real name was Birdy Edwards and he had been a Pinkerton detective in Chicago. Working for the Pinkertons, Edwards had travelled to Vermissa Valley to infiltrate a corrupt coal miner’s trade union, secretly a cover for a murderous gang. After Edwards brought the gang to justice, the criminals attempted to kill him. Hounded, Douglas ran to England, where he met and married his second wife. Holmes urges Douglas to leave England. Douglas takes this advice, but, shortly after, Holmes learns from Barker that Douglas was lost overboard on the ship to Africa. Holmes believes Moriarty was responsible for ending Douglas’ life and he swears to bring Moriarty down.
In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novel The Valley of Fear, the crime organization is known as the Eminent Order of Freemen (specifically, Lodge 341), located in the fictional Vermissa Valley.
Significance of Study
The organization is a dark, corrupted version of a fraternal society that operates as a ruthless, mafia-like syndicate. Here is an explanation of how it works, its leadership, and its real-world inspiration.
The Structure and Operation
While the Eminent Order of Freemen is a legitimate national organization focused on charity and brotherhood, Lodge 341 in Vermissa Valley is entirely corrupt.
- The Facade: They use the language of brotherhood, secret handshakes, and ritual signs to mask their criminal operations.
- The Extortion Racket: The lodge controls the local coal and iron industries through terror. They extort money from wealthy mine owners and managers. If an owner refuses to pay or treat workers the way the lodge demands, they face violent retaliation.
- The “Scowrers”: This is the inner, violent circle of the lodge. They carry out assaults, arson, and assassinations to enforce the lodge’s will and eliminate anyone who speaks out or cooperates with the law.
- The System of Alibis: To avoid police interference, the lodge brings in hitmen from neighboring districts who are unknown to the local authorities. Meanwhile, local lodge members provide ironclad, fabricated alibis for one another.
The Leadership
The organization is run with an iron fist by Bodie Edwards, known within the lodge as the Bodu-master (or Boss McGinty).
- McGinty is a terrifying, brutal man who holds immense political power in the valley as a local councilman.
- His dual role as a public official and a secret crime boss makes him virtually untouchable by local law enforcement.
The Downfall
The organization’s stranglehold on the valley is broken by an operative named Jack McMurdo, who quickly rises through the ranks due to his fierce attitude and willingness to commit crimes. However, McMurdo is actually Birdy Edwards, a brilliant undercover detective from the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Edwards spends months gathering hard evidence against the lodge, culminating in a mass arrest that sends McGinty and his top lieutenants to the gallows or prison.
Real-World Inspiration
Arthur Conan Doyle based the Vermissa Valley crime organization entirely on the Molly Maguires, a real-life secret society of Irish immigrants that operated in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania during the 1870s. Just like in the novel, the real Molly Maguires used the framework of a fraternal organization (the Ancient Order of Hibernians) to conduct a campaign of sabotage, extortion, and murder against mine owners, and they were ultimately brought down by a real Pinkerton detective named James McParland.
The Valley of Fear begins with Holmes and Watson investigating the brutal and senseless murder of a country squire, Mr Douglas. The man had an Irish upbringing, but he’d lived for many years in America. Fives years before the murder, Mr Douglas moved to England, married, and settled into a quiet country house called Birlstone Manor.
Mr Douglas was found shot to death in his study by his friend and houseguest Mr Barker. Barker called for help, and Mrs Douglas and the butler came running from their rooms. Barker would not allow the lady to enter and sent the butler for the police. The room was not touched by anyone else. The police sent word to Scotland Yard to send a detective, who asked Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson to join the investigation.
When Holmes arrived, he studied the room where the murder took place and questioned the people in the house. Though their stories seemed true and conclusive at the beginning, they were quickly disproved by Holmes. He was not sure at first what the answer to the mystery was, but he could tell at least that Mrs Douglas and Mr Barker were not telling the whole truth. According to Holmes, the case rested on the fact that there was only one dumb-bell in the room where the murder happened. Where was the other?
In part two, Doyle, as Dr Watson, relays events that happened twenty years earlier – events which culminated in the murder at Birlstone Manor. The history follows a young man named Jack McMurdo who takes up residence in a coal mining town in Vermissa Valley. He joins the lodge in town and soon finds out that the members of the lodge are a hardened criminal gang who extend their hand of judgment and revenge on the people in the valley. The lodge would blackmail the local people and require coal companies to pay them large sums of money to keep them from destroying mines. Any time the law would come after them for a crime, the members of the lodge would band together to provide alibis and to intimidate judges and juries.
McMurdo proved himself to be as black-hearted as the rest of the gang, but he also fell in love with a lady named Ettie. He assured her that he would never hurt her or her family. There was no way McMurdo and Ettie could continue to live in that Valley of Fear, so he promised her that they would leave the valley before a year was over. Leaving the valley and the lodge could be dangerous, as the lodge would see it as desertion, so McMurdo told Ettie to be ready to drop everything and leave with him as soon as he gave the signal.
Soon, the lodge was disturbed by news that a Pinkerton detective was coming to the Valley to shut them down. They plotted to kill him, and McMurdo offered his rooms as the place where they could do it. Fortunately, the Pinkerton detective got away before he was harmed, but not before several of the lodge were arrested on charges that they could not fight in court. The detective travelled from Chicago to California, changed his name, married his sweetheart, but no matter where he was, he was never safe. The leaders of the lodge had sworn to have revenge on him. When his wife died, he left America for good. Changing his name to Douglas, he sailed across the ocean to England and then took up residence in Birlstone Manor.