Appendix: The Untold Cases
The following has been assembled from several sources, including lists compiled by Phil Jones and Randall Stock, as well as some internet resources and my own research. I cannot promise that it’s complete - some Untold Cases may be missing - after all, there’s a great deal of Sherlockian Scholarship that involves interpretation and rationalizing - and there are some listed here that certain readers may believe shouldn’t be listed at all.
As a fanatical supporter and collector of pastiches since I was a ten-year-old boy in 1975, reading Nicholas Meyer’s The Seven-Per-Cent Solution and The West End Horror before I’d even read all of The Canon, I can attest that serious and legitimate versions of all of these Untold Cases exist out there - some of them occurring with much greater frequency than others - and I hope to collect, read, and chronologicize them all.
There’s so much more to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes than the pitifully few sixty stories that were fixed up by the First Literary Agent. I highly recommend that you find and read all of the rest of them as well, including those relating these Untold Cases. You won’t regret it.
David Marcum
A Study in Scarlet
- Mr. Lestrade... got himself in a fog recently over a forgery case
- A young girl called, fashionably dressed
- A gray-headed, seedy visitor, looking like a Jew pedlar who appeared to be very much excited
- A slipshod elderly woman
- An old, white-haired gentleman had an interview
- A railway porter in his velveteen uniform
The Sign of Four
- The consultation last week by Francois le Villard
- The most winning woman Holmes ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for their insurance money
- The most repellent man of Holmes’s acquaintance was a philanthropist who has spent nearly a quarter of a million upon the London poor
- Holmes once enabled Mrs. Cecil Forrester to unravel a little domestic complication. She was much impressed by his kindness and skill
- Holmes lectured the police on causes and inferences and effects in the Bishopgate jewel case
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
“A Scandal in Bohemia”
- The summons to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder
- The singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee
- The mission which Holmes had accomplished so delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. (He also received a remarkably brilliant ring)
- The Darlington substitution scandal, and...
- The Arnsworth castle business. (When a woman thinks that her house is on fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and Holmes has more than once taken advantage of it
“The Red-Headed League”
- The previous skirmishes with John Clay
“A Case of Identity”
- The Dundas separation case, where Holmes was engaged in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling them at his wife, which is not an action likely to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller.
- The rather intricate matter from Marseilles
- Mrs. Etherege, whose husband Holmes found so easy when the police and everyone had given him up for dead
“The Boscombe Valley Mystery”
NONE LISTED
“The Five Orange Pips”
- The adventure of the Paradol Chamber
- The Amateur Mendicant Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a furniture warehouse
- The facts connected with the disappearance of the British barque Sophy Anderson
- The singular adventures of the Grice-Patersons in the island of Uffa
- The Camberwell poisoning case, in which, as may be remembered, Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man’s watch, to prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time - a deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the case
- Holmes saved Major Prendergast in the Tankerville Club scandal. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards
- Holmes has been beaten four times - three times by men and once by a woman
“The Man with the Twisted Lip”
- The rascally Lascar who runs The Bar of Gold in Upper Swandam Lane has sworn to have vengeance upon Holmes
“The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle”
NONE LISTED
“The Adventure of the Speckled Band”
- Mrs. Farintosh and an opal tiara. (It was before Watson’s time)
“The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb”
- Colonel Warburton’s madness
“The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor”
- The letter from a fishmonger
- The letter a tide-waiter
- The service for Lord Backwater
- The little problem of the Grosvenor Square furniture van
- The service for the King of Scandinavia
“The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet”
NONE LISTED
“The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”
NONE LISTED
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
“Silver Blaze”
NONE LISTED
“The Cardboard Box”
- Aldridge, who helped in the bogus laundry affair
“The Yellow Face”
- The (First) Adventure of the Second Stain was a failure which present[s] the strongest features of interest
‘The Stockbroker’s Clerk”
NONE LISTED
“The “Gloria Scott”
NONE LISTED
“The Musgrave Ritual”
- The Tarleton murders
- The case of Vamberry, the wine merchant
- The adventure of the old Russian woman
- The singular affair of the aluminum crutch
- A full account of Ricoletti of the club foot and his abominable wife
- The two cases before the Musgrave Ritual from Holmes’s fellow students
“The Reigate Squires”
- The whole question of the Netherland-Sumatra Company and of the colossal schemes of Baron Maupertuis
The Crooked Man”
NONE LISTED
The Resident Patient”
- [Catalepsy] is a very easy complaint to imitate. Holmes has done it himself.
“The Greek Interpreter”
- Mycroft expected to see Holmes round last week to consult me over that Manor House case. It was Adams, of course
- Some of Holmes’s most interesting cases have come to him through Mycroft
“The Naval Treaty”
- The (Second) adventure of the Second Stain, which dealt with interest of such importance and implicated so many of the first families in the kingdom that for many years it would be impossible to make it public. No case, however, in which Holmes was engaged had ever illustrated the value of his analytical methods so clearly or had impressed those who were associated with him so deeply. Watson still retained an almost verbatim report of the interview in which Holmes demonstrated the true facts of the case to Monsieur Dubugue of the Paris police, and Fritz von Waldbaum, the well-known specialist of Dantzig, both of whom had wasted their energies upon what proved to be side-issues. The new century will have come, however, before the story could be safely told.
The Adventure of the Tired Captain
- A very commonplace little murder. If it [this paper] turns red, it means a man’s life...
“The Final Problem”
- The engagement for the French Government upon a matter of supreme importance
- The assistance to the Royal Family of Scandinavia
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
“The Adventure of the Empty House”
- Holmes traveled for two years in Tibet (as) a Norwegian named Sigerson, amusing himself by visiting Lhassa [sic] and spending some days with the head Llama [sic]
- Holmes traveled in Persia
- ...looked in at Mecca...
- ...and paid a short but interesting visit to the Khalifa at Khartoum
- Returning to France, Holmes spent some months in a research into the coal-tar derivatives, which he conducted in a laboratory at Montpelier [sic], in the South of France
- Mathews, who knocked out Holmes’s left canine in the waiting room at Charing Cross
- The death of Mrs. Stewart, of Lauder, in 1887
- Morgan the poisoner
- Merridew of abominable memory
- The Molesey Mystery (Inspector Lestrade’s Case. He handled it fairly well.)
“The Adventure of the Norwood Builder”
- The case of the papers of ex-President Murillo
- The shocking affair of the Dutch steamship, Friesland, which so nearly cost both Holmes and Watson their lives
- That terrible murderer, Bert Stevens, who wanted Holmes and Watson to get him off in ’87
“The Adventure of the Dancing Men”
NONE LISTED
“The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist”
- The peculiar persecution of John Vincent Harden, the well-known tobacco millionaire
- It was near Farnham that Holmes and Watson took Archie Stamford, the forger
“The Adventure of the Priory School”
- Holmes was retained in the case of the Ferrers Documents
- The Abergavenny murder, which is coming up for trial
“The Adventure of Black Peter”
- The sudden death of Cardinal Tosca - an inquiry which was carried out by him at the express desire of His Holiness the Pope
- The arrest of Wilson, the notorious canary-trainer, which removed a plague-spot from the East-End of London.
“The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton”
NONE LISTED
“The Adventure of the Six Napoleons”
- The dreadful business of the Abernetty family, which was first brought to Holmes’s attention by the depth which the parsley had sunk into the butter upon a hot day
- The Conk-Singleton forgery case
- Holmes was consulted upon the case of the disappearance of the black pearl of the Borgias, but was unable to throw any light upon it
“The Adventure of the Three Students”
- Some laborious researches in Early English charters
“The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez”
- The repulsive story of the red leech
- ...and the terrible death of Crosby, the banker
- The Addleton tragedy
- ...and the singular contents of the ancient British barrow
- The famous Smith-Mortimer succession case
- The tracking and arrest of Huret, the boulevard assassin
“The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter”
- Henry Staunton, whom Holmes helped to hang
- Arthur H. Staunton, the rising young forger
“The Adventure of the Abbey Grange”
- Hopkins called Holmes in seven times, and on each occasion his summons was entirely justified
“The Adventure of the Second Stain”
- The woman at Margate. No powder on her nose - that proved to be the correct solution. How can one build on such a quicksand? A woman’s most trivial action may mean volumes, or their most extraordinary conduct may depend upon a hairpin or a curling-tong
The Hound of the Baskervilles
- That little affair of the Vatican cameos, in which Holmes obliged the Pope
- The little case in which Holmes had the good fortune to help Messenger Manager Wilson
- One of the most revered names in England is being besmirched by a blackmailer, and only Holmes can stop a disastrous scandal
- The atrocious conduct of Colonel Upwood in connection with the famous card scandal at the Nonpareil Club
- Holmes defended the unfortunate Mme. Montpensier from the charge of murder that hung over her in connection with the death of her stepdaughter Mlle. Carere, the young lady who, as it will be remembered, was found six months later alive and married in New York
The Valley of Fear
- Twice already Holmes had helped Inspector Macdonald
His Last Bow
“The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge”
- The locking-up Colonel Carruthers
“The Adventure of the Red Circle”
- The affair last year for Mr. Fairdale Hobbs
- The Long Island cave mystery
“The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans”
- Brooks...
- ...or Woodhouse, or any of the fifty men who have good reason for taking Holmes’s life
“The Adventure of the Dying Detective”
NONE LISTED
“The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax”
- Holmes cannot possibly leave London while old Abrahams is in such mortal terror of his life
“The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot”
- Holmes’s dramatic introduction to Dr. Moore Agar, of Harley Street
“His Last Bow”
- Holmes started his pilgrimage at Chicago...
- ...graduated in an Irish secret society at Buffalo
- ...gave serious trouble to the constabulary at Skibbareen
- Holmes saves Count Von und Zu Grafenstein from murder by the Nihilist Klopman
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
“The Adventure of the Illustrious Client”
- Negotiations with Sir George Lewis over the Hammerford Will case
“The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier”
- The Abbey School in which the Duke of Greyminster was so deeply involved
- The commission from the Sultan of Turkey which required immediate action
- The professional service for Sir James Saunders
“The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone”
- Old Baron Dowson said the night before he was hanged that in Holmes’s case what the law had gained the stage had lost
- The death of old Mrs. Harold, who left Count Sylvius the Blymer estate
- The compete life history of Miss Minnie Warrender
- The robbery in the train de-luxe to the Riviera on February 13, 1892
“The Adventure of the Three Gables”
- The killing of young Perkins outside the Holborn Bar
- Mortimer Maberly, was one of Holmes’s early clients
“The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire”
- Matilda Briggs, a ship which is associated with the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared
- Victor Lynch, the forger
- Venomous lizard, or Gila. Remarkable case, that!
- Vittoria the circus belle
- Vanderbilt and the Yeggman
- Vigor, the Hammersmith wonder
“The Adventure of the Three Garridebs”
- Holmes refused a knighthood for services which may, someday, be described
“The Problem of Thor Bridge”
- Mr. James Phillimore who, stepping back into his own house to get his umbrella, was never more seen in this world
- The cutter Alicia, which sailed one spring morning into a patch of mist from where she never again emerged, nor was anything further ever heard of herself and her crew.
- Isadora Persano, the well-known journalist and duelist who was found stark staring mad with a match box in front of him which contained a remarkable worm said to be unknown to science
“The Adventure of the Creeping Man”
NONE LISTED
“The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane”
NONE LISTED
“The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger”
- The whole story concerning the politician, the lighthouse, and the trained cormorant
“The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place”
- Holmes ran down that coiner by the zinc and copper filings in the seam of his cuff
- The St. Pancras case, where a cap was found beside the dead policeman. Merivale of the Yard, asked Holmes to look into it
“The Adventure of the Retired Colourman”
- The case of the two Coptic Patriarchs