| Crooked Man | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Henry Wood |
|
First Appearance |
The Adventure of the Crooked Man (July 1893) |
|
Original Publisher |
Strand Magazine |
|
Created by |
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle |
Origin[]
Henry Wood was a former soldier with a deformed back and legs who worked as a conjurer who entertained the soldiers around Aldershot which is a town in the Rushmoor district of Hampshire, England.
Thirty years prior, he had been in India, and had been a soldier in the Royal Munsters with then-Sergeant Barclay. Both men loved Nancy DeVoy, but she was devoted to Wood, despite her father's disapproval. The couple remained true to each other, nonetheless, but when the Indian Rebellion of 1857 erupted, the Royal Munsters found themselves cut off from supplies. Wood had volunteered to go for help, and Barclay gave him information on how to safely sneak through the enemy lines; however, Barclay, wishing to have Nancy to himself, secretly alerted the insurgents that Wood would be passing.
Wood was captured, and learned from his captors of the betrayal. Over the years, he was repeatedly enslaved and tortured, resulting in his deformed back and legs. Finally escaping, he lived for many years in India as a conjurer, preferring Nancy and his fellow soldiers to think he had been killed in action instead of seeing his deformity.
In his old age, wanting to see England and be around soldiers again, he saved enough money to travel to Aldershot, not realizing his own old regiment was currently stationed there. Unexpectedly running into Nancy, he had admitted her husband's betrayal to her, then secretly followed her to her house. Seeing Barclay arguing with Nancy, Wood had entered the room through the french windows, to defend her; however, Barclay had instantly died of apoplexy at the mere sight of Wood alive, and struck his head on the fender as he fell. Nancy screamed and fainted; in the chaos, Wood's pet mongoose Teddy escaped his wooden box, and ran up the curtain after the canary. Reflexively pocketing the door key, Wood recaptured Teddy and fled the scene, afraid he would be accused of murder.
However after Barclay has died, his wife is suspected of his murder. Nancy, temporarily insane from shock, was removed to a hospital, and Sherlock Holmes was called in to investigate by Major Murphy, a contact of Holmes in the regiment.
Holmes found signs that a silent third party had been present; the man had left his stick in the room, his footprints in the lawn, and presumably also had taken the key. Holmes also found the pawmarks of a short-legged, long-bodied animal on the floor, as well as signs the creature had attempted to eat the Barclay's pet canary. Interrogating Miss Morrison, Holmes learned that, on the way home from the meeting, she and Nancy had encountered a deformed man with a wooden box on his back. Both he and Nancy seemed badly startled; he addressed her by name, and she addressed him as "Henry". They spoke privately for a moment, then parted, both very upset. After swearing her friend to silence, Nancy had returned home. As the man's appearance was distinctive, Holmes was soon able to discover his identity; Henry Wood. Holmes has a member of the Baker Street Irregulars, named a boy named Simpson, watch Henry Wood.
With Watson as a witness, Holmes visits Wood in his lodgings. Wood gladly tells his story to save Nancy from being accused of murder. After hearing his story, Holmes is hesitant to rake up a 30-year-old military scandal; learning that the medical examiner has confirmed the Colonel died of apoplexy, Holmes keeps Wood's story secret for the time being. Questioned by Watson about Nancy's use of the name "David", when no one involved in the case went by that name, Holmes decides that Nancy must have been comparing her husband to the Biblical King David, who arranged the murder of Uriah to steal Bathsheba from him.
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- The Adventure of the Crooked Man
- The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Collects 12 short stories including The Adventure of the Crooked Man)
Public Domain Film Appearances[]
- The Crooked Man (1923)
Notes[]
- Henry Wood's alias of the Crooked Man comes from the English nursery rhyme character of the same name.