Claude Solnik, The Daily Record Newswire
Eugene and Daniel Friedman, a father and son team of pediatricians, routinely solve medical mysteries. In their spare time, they may have helped resolve a century-old enigma related to Sherlock Holmes' creator.
The doctors researched and co-wrote a book about the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle titled "The Strange Case of Dr. Doyle," published by Square One.
While researching Doyle's life, the team at Allied Physicians Group found it to be as full of fiction as his novels. Stories circulated about his run-in with a teacher named Creah, for instance, although nobody could find evidence that the teacher existed.
"All the biographies say they contacted the school and there is no Mr. Creah," Daniel Friedman said.
Friedman soon solved the case of the mysterious Mr. Creah. Holmes in "A Study in Scarlet" finds the word "rache" or "revenge" in German written on a wall.
"Mr. Creah is an anagram of the clue Rache," Friedman said. "That episode never occurred. It's just an anagram."
While doctors routinely follow clues to solve clinical mysteries, the Friedmans retraced Doyle's life (and lies) in detail in their biography mixed with mystery.
"You have to follow your clues put everything together in the blink of an eye which is what Joseph Bell, Doyle's professor at Edinburgh, taught his students," Eugene Friedman said.
In this mixture of Hollywood plot and history, they follow Doyle's life and take it on a hypothetical course.
Doyle like many in his era followed the case of Jack the Ripper. But the doctors' book lifts Doyle from author into a main character in the Ripper mystery.
"Through the process of the book, you're given enough information to see there's a correlation between lies Doyle told and the murder," Rudy Shur, the publisher, said.
While many professionals write books, these medical detectives chose to diagnose among the greatest murder mysteries with one of the world's greatest writers as key suspect.
The idea that Doyle himself was Jack the Ripper, while a far stretch, turns into an at least fascinating premise worthy of Sherlock Holmes.
"A doctor is a medical detective," Daniel Friedman said. "No one comes into you and says, 'I have this.' Our job is to find it. That's how I approached the book."
Daniel Friedman's interest in Doyle started in medical school when he read an article about Doyle's thesis.
"During medical school, a lot of people think we have whatever disease we're studying," Daniel Friedman said. "He is no exception to that rule."
Doyle's thesis was about syphilis, which the authors speculate would provide a motive. They portray Doyle as the antithesis of Sherlock Holmes. He stabbed a boy in school, fought with a seaman and quarreled with his first partner.
His brother-in-law Jack Wilkins died after Doyle gave him a high dose of a new medicine.
"When the nurse went to check on him in the middle of the night, he was dead. They investigated him," Daniel Friedman said. "He got off the hook, because the family doctor who saw him said he was fine."
Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes book, "A Study in Scarlet," appeared in 1887, a year before Jack the Ripper's string of five murders. But in the doctors' murder mystery, the author moves beyond concocting to committing crime.
"He only got 25 pounds for it and it wasn't a big seller," Daniel Friedman said. "He had no money and was scared he was afflicted with a disease."
Where does Watson a doctor and part alter-ego for Doyle come from? Doyle trained at the Watson School of Medicine in Edinburgh, knew a John Watson in his masonic lodge among other Watsons and may have liked the ring of the word.
By contacting Doyle's elementary school, college, medical school and Scotland Yard, the doctors found Doyle faked his medical school transcripts, fudging grades.
"He perpetrated a hoax in Birmingham, inviting rich people to a ball that didn't exist," Eugene Friedman said of another action. "The police actually questioned him."
After Jack the Ripper struck, Joseph Bell, Doyle's teacher, wrote police, indicating he believed he might know the murderer's identity.
"The (moment) Joseph Bell wrote a letter to the police, saying he knows who the murderer is, the murders stopped," Daniel Friedman said.
Doyle, the Friedmans say, may have been the last to see an 1893 letter signed "Jack the Ripper."
"The year 1893 is relevant," Daniel Friedman said. "That's the year that fingerprinting made its way into the forensics department."
The Friedmans speculate that whoever stole the letter worried that his fingerprints were on it. The letter resurfaced decades later.
Even if Doyle only killed by pen, the Friedmans solved the murder of Sherlock Holmes, who tumbled into Reichenbach Falls in 1893, the year Doyle's father died.
"After his dad died, he killed off Sherlock Holmes," Daniel Friedman said. "That year, he lost five people he loved. And he killed his best character."
Doyle brought Holmes back to life in 1902 when he and Fletcher Robinson conceived what became "The Hound of the Baskervilles."
But there's at least one more tantalizing clue connecting Doyle, his character or at least their style to crime.
On September 7, 1888, a day before she was killed by Jack the Ripper, Annie Chapman was seen with a man wearing a black coat and a deerstalker hat, similar to Sherlock Holmes' attire.
While Doyle isn't likely to have been a killer, the doctors portray him as a curious character. After spending months looking into Doyle's life, what would they say if they could meet him?
"I would be in awe. He's a great writer," Daniel Friedman said. "If after we spoke and he said, 'Let's go to a bar together,' I'd say, 'You can go by yourself and have a nice night. I know there will be some adventure there.'"
Published: Fri, May 15, 2015
