Sherlock Holmes and Batman as Aspirational Superheroes

Some people reject the notion of Sherlock Holmes as a superhero because Arthur Conan Doyle's books weren't science fiction, or fantasy. The original character possessed qualities that were within the realm of human possibility, thus making him an aspirational figure. Then again, some people hate superheroes. Those people immediately have something in common with super villains, but that's another story. I love superheroes and argue that Sherlock Holmes most certainly was and always has been a great one.

Wikipedia defines a superhero as:

...a type of heroic character possessing extraordinary talents, supernatural phenomena, or superhuman powers and dedicated to protecting the public.

Sherlock Holmes was/is dedicated to protecting the public. He even has an archenemy. His powers now seem completely within the realm of human possibility, but so do Batman's.

In the 1890s, Sherlock Holmes' powers were most certainly science fiction. His, fortunately, was a case of life imitating art.

When Conan Doyle invented Sherlock Holmes in 1887, police relied on rudimentary evidence and witness testimony to solve criminal cases. There's no way Jack the Ripper would still be a mystery today if police still relied on those techniques and the public was beginning to chalk the lack of science up to police incompetence, but they didn't know it was the science that police were missing.

In many ways, modern science was still being invented and could be viewed as an 1890s gentleman's pursuit, one that Conan Doyle's detective was adept at in ways that no one had ever imagined. In addition to his incredible powers of observation, Sherlock Holmes used chemistry to solve crimes. His methods were aspirational and inspired the first generation of forensic scientists.

Catching a murderer through a blood stain was as unfathomable in 1887 as Batman's collapsable jet-skates were in 1967. Unfortunately, the crime solving applications of Batman's jet-skates are still unfathomable, but when we get there, some people may try to argue that Batman's not a superhero either.

Follow me on Twitter @TinyApplePress and like the Facebook page for updates!

If you have enjoyed the work that I do, please support my Victorian Dictionary Project!

The Chamber of Horrors (Waxworks)

Melted and damaged mannequins after fire in
Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in London, 1925

Marie Tussaud's great-grandson, Louis Tussaud opened his own wax museum at 207 Regent Street, London, on Christmas Eve 1890. The establishment would compete with his great-grandmother's more famous Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Though the waxworks at Regent Street were destroyed in a fire on 20 June 1891, Louis ran a successful venture and his museums around the world are now owned by Ripley Entertainment.

The viewing public's approach to the figures in wax museums has always varied from judgmental mockery to silent horror, the latter of which Madame Tussaud's capitalized on by making lifelike figures of the most infamous murderers on trial. A court case, involving murder and a wax museum established the the principle of "libel by innuendo" in English law, and Monson v Tussauds Ltd has been used to draw up defamation laws in many countries since.

From House of Wax (1953) to House of Wax (2005), waxworks form the basis of horror movies, and often included (still do) other attractions, like the hall of mirrors, chamber of horrors, and mock torture chambers. Although they are open year round, they've always tempted those who are in the mood for aa fright, as on Halloween Night. Suitably, the wax figure originated with funeral practices.

House of Wax (1953)

During Royal Funerals in the Middle Ages, mourners traditionally carried the fully-dressed corpse on top of the coffin, so that everyone could see it. Hot weather and the condition of the body sometimes made this practice unappealing. Gradually, was effigies began to stand in for the role of the corpse, and because the figures were fully dressed, only the head and hands needed to be sculpted out of wax.   When the funeral ended, the church would often put these figures on display for paying visitors.

The funeral effigy
(without clothes) of
Elizabeth of York,
mother of King
Henry VIII, 1503,
Westminster Abbey

Gradually, sculpting lifelike figures out of wax became a profitable art form. Figures were created for viewing by those patrons of the arts, the European aristocracy, especially in France.

King Louis XIV's court painter and sculptor, Antoine Benoist exhibited forty-three wax figures that resembled Louis XIV's Royal Circle at his home in Paris. After this exhibition, Louis XIV permitted the figures to be viewed throughout the country, which attracted the attention of King James II, who invited Benoist to England in 1684.

In England, Benoist made figures of the English Royal Court. Soon, Benoist was making wax figures of living royals all over Europe.

Mrs. Mary opened London's first wax museum in 1711. The 'Moving Wax Works of the Royal Court of England' included 140 lifelike figures, some of which used clockwork to create moving parts.

With London's location established on Sherlock Holmes' Baker Street, Madame Tussaud's is still the most famous name in wax museums.

Wax head of Mary
Pearcey (1890) from
Madame Tussaud's
Chamber of Horrors.

As in the Murder of Mrs and Baby Hogg, Madame Tussaud's would often purchase the actual evidence from horrifying crimes to accessorize the figures in their Chamber of Horrors. In 1893, they tried to do the same thing with the Arddlamont Murder Case, but were sued for defamation the following year, when the accused killer was found not guilty. This didn't stop the Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors from carrying on as it always had. The Chamber of Horrors went on to exhibit: George Chapman, Hawley Harvey Crippen, Henri Landru, Buck Ruxton, Bruno Hauptmann, John Christie, John George Haigh, George Joseph Smith and Charles Manson.

Brisbane Courier, 31 May 1895.

As in this article from the Brisbane Courier (31 May 1895), the best waxworks became a place to meditate on the worst aspects of human life. Without access to television news and full-color crime reporting, the figures in the waxworks' Chamber of Horrors became a place to look killers in the eye, while everyone was still terrified of Jack the Ripper and obsessed with Sherlock Holmes.

By the 1890s, most major cities had a wax museum, but the popularity of these went into decline during the twentieth century, as waxworks had to compete with other attractions.

Throughout October 2014, I will be sharing the halloween-themed stories of 1890s London. Check back often!

Follow me on Twitter @TinyApplePress and like the Facebook page for updates!

If you have enjoyed the work that I do, please consider supporting my Victorian Dictionary Project!

The Lambeth Poisoner

Not every Canadian, who moved to London, was as wonderful as Robbie Ross. One was the Lambeth Poisoner. Dr. Thomas Neill Cream was born in Glasgow, raised in rural Quebec, and attended to McGill University.

At age 26, he married Flora Brooks in a shotgun wedding; her family forced him to the church at gunpoint (and Canadians are usually very nice people). She was pregnant, and the abortion he performed almost killed her. They went to London, so he could attend medical school, and she died of consumption a year later, or did she?

A year after Flora's death, Cream left London England for London Ontario (my hometown). It was 1878. He set up a medical practice, and had an affair with Kate Gardner.

London, Ontario, 1878.

She turned up dead in the alley behind his office, pregnant and poisoned by chloroform.

Cream claimed a prominent local business man got Gardner pregnant, but suspicions mounted. When he was accused of both murder and blackmail, he fled to the States.

Abortions were Cream's specialty. Before long, he set up a new practice outside Chicago's red-light district. Abortions were illegal in Chicago. In August 1880, Mary Anne Faulkner died on his operating table, but Cream managed to escape charges. That December, Miss Stack also died after being treated by Cream.

A drawing titled
“The Genius of Advertising”
from an 1880 issue of the
National Police Gazette
shows men outside a
brothel gazing at pictures
of some of the attractions
awaiting them inside
(photo via The New York Times)

This time, Cream blamed the pharmacist, and tried to blackmail him.

Cream lost another patient in July 1881, when Daniel Stott died of strychnine poisoning, after seeing Cream for his epilepsy. Stott's death was initially attributed to natural causes, but after the pharmacist refused to be blackmailed, Cream wrote to the coroner.

The police arrested Cream and Mrs. Julia A. (Abbey) Stott, Stott's wife, who was having an affair with Cream and got the poison from him to get her husband out of their way. When push turned to shove, she provided the evidence against Cream to avoid going to jail. Cream was found guilty and sentenced to life in Joliet Prison.

One night, people secretly erected a tombstone at Stott's grave that read 'Daniel Stott Died June 12, 1881 Aged 61 Years, poisoned by his wife and Dr. Cream.'

In July 1891, Governor Joseph W. Fifer commuted Cream's sentence after Cream's brother pleaded for leniency (probably with bribes), and Cream was released from prison.

Cream and his brother had inherited money from their father's death, and Cream used this to go back to England. He set up residence at 103 Lambeth Palace Road. It sounds nice, but Lambeth was full of poverty at the time, not unlike Chicago's red-light district.

On 13 October 1891, 19 year-old Ellen "Nellie" Donworth accepted a drink from Cream. She fell ill the next day and died three days later from strychnine poisoning. In spite of Stott's death, Cream had developed a pattern of poisoning women, and trying to profit from their deaths. During Donworth's inquest, he wrote the coroner hoping for a £300,000 reward if he could name the killer. He was trying to blackmail W. F. D. Smith, owner of the W H Smith bookstalls.

On 20 October, Cream met 27-year-old Matilda Clover. She died the next morning. Initially, the coroner thought the cause was alcoholism.

Cream took a holiday, and went to Canada, but he'd be back.

Dr. Thomas Neill Cream

On 11 April 1892, Cream met 21 year-old Alice Marsh, and 18 year-old Emma Shrivell. He talked his way into their rooms, and gave them each bottles of Guinness. He left before the strychnine  took effect. Both women died.

The hunt for the Lambeth Poisoner had been on since Donworth's death. Cream didn't know that they didn't suspect murder, when he anonymously wrote to them - offering to reveal the killer. The police were convinced that the author of the letter was the serial killer, already referred to in the papers as 'the Lambeth Poisoner.'

Soon, Cream ran into a police officer from New York City, on holiday in London. The officer had heard of the Lambeth poisoner and was interested in the case, so Cream gave him a murder tour, pointing out where each of the victims lived. When the American police officer mentioned this tour to a British police officer, they were right to be suspicious, and Scotland Yard put Cream under surveillance, which revealed Cream's affinity for prostitutes.

It didn't take long for them to find out about Cream's criminal past, and on 13 July 1892, Cream was arrested for the murder of Matilda Clover.

Newspapers from the period refer to him as Dr. Neill because he insisted that was his name, presumably to try to distance himself from his criminal past.

He was sentenced to death in October that year.

On 15 November, Cream was hanged at Newgate Prison by James Billington. Billington claimed that Cream's last words on the scaffold were "I am Jack The..."

Cream was an active serial killer longer than Jack the Ripper was, but his desire to be associated with the famous murderer further reveals the narcissistic nature of Cream's sadistic psychopathy.

Throughout October 2014, I will be sharing the horror stories of 1890s London. Check back often!

Follow me on Twitter @TinyApplePress and like the Facebook page for updates!