History Monster / SherlockHolmes

* [[Characters/SherlockJimMoriarty Jim Moriarty]] is a "consulting criminal" who lends his [[DiabolicalMastermind genius]] to [[PsychoForHire help other crooks commit crimes]], in the name of alleviating his own boredom and obsessively trying to capture the attention of Sherlock Holmes, not caring who he hurts while doing so. [[TheManBehindTheMan Behind the villains]] of the first two episodes, Moriarty takes center stage in "[[Recap/SherlockS01E03TheGreatGame The Great Game]]", selling out his own clients and challenging Sherlock to solve his puzzles lest bombs he has strapped to innocents--one of whom is a child--detonate, considering the whole spectacle a demented game for himself. When an old woman begins describing the sound of his voice to Sherlock, Moriarty immediately detonates her bomb, killing her and eleven others. [[Recap/SherlockS02E03TheReichenbachFall Later]], threatening the family members of a jury to force them to declare him innocent when arrested, Moriarty goes on to poison two children; murders his own accomplice; frames Sherlock for his own crimes; and tries to force Sherlock to commit suicide, threatening to have his loved ones killed if he does not. When Sherlock attempts to force Moriarty into calling off his killers, Moriarty happily [[SpitefulSuicide shoots himself dead to "win" his game with Sherlock]]. Even after his death, Moriarty arranges a plan with Sherlock's sister to continue forcing him through {{Sadistic Choice}}s, resulting in the death of more innocents, unwilling to let go of his obsessive chase with Sherlock even with his own passing.

** "[[Literature/AStudyInScarlet A Study in 'S']]": [[AdaptationalVillainy Duke Enoch J. Drebber]] is a prolific SerialKiller and SerialRapist of women who delights in [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing]] and breaking his victims. [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections Using his noble status to dodge any repercussions]], Drebber kidnaps women from his area who take his fancy and subjects them to horrors, including forcing the wife of Jonathan Hope into being his latest victim.
** "[[Literature/TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles The Hunting of the Baskervilles]]": [[SerialKiller Moires Baskerville]] is a [[FauxAffablyEvil creepily jovial]] noble who orders manhunts of [[WouldHurtAChild children]]. Charming street children into coming into his carriage, Baskerville kidnaps them and then removes vital body parts from them before [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame having them hunted down]] alongside his gang using his dogs and killed in horrific ways, with Baskerville having an entire collection of the skeletons and heads of the children he's killed as an exhibit. On one occasion, Baskerville forces a brother to take out his own eye if he wanted to save his sister before [[ILied lying]] and forcing them to participate anyway and killing them both anyway. Disgusting Moriarty himself with his acts of horror, Baskerville is taken down just as he gleefully plans to kill a new pair of child siblings for his collection, which already numbers in the dozens if not hundreds.

** [[ImmoralJournalist Charles Augustus Milverton]], the self-styled King of {{Blackmail}}ers, is the mastermind of the [[UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper Ripper]] murders, forging the local fanatics into a serial killing unit to butcher the lower classes of society, all so he can cause a mass conflict and seize control in the ensuing chaos. Delighting in [[TheCorrupter corrupting]] people into monsters and destroying their lives, Milverton targets a good-hearted reformer, Parliament member Adam Whiteley, by blackmailing a man into [[TargetedToHurtTheHero killing his brother and servants]] so Whiteley will murder the killer, after eliminating anyone who could possibly trace the crime to Milverton. Milverton ends up threatening Mary, the fiancée of Sherlock Holmes's best friend Watson, to turn Holmes and Moriarty against one another, relishing in referencing to himself as "evil itself" to contrast Moriarty.

[[folder:Literature]]
* Creator/SirArthurConanDoyle's original [[Literature/SherlockHolmes stories]]:
** ''Literature/TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles'': Jack Stapleton, real name [[BlackSheep Rodger Baskerville]], wins the trust of the Baskervilles family while using an abused, trained hound to simulate the dark legend of the Hound of the Baskervilles. [[FrightDeathtrap Terrifying family patriarch Charles to death]], Stapleton uses his own wife Beryl as a HoneyTrap for Charles's nephew Henry, viciously [[DomesticAbuse abusing Beryl]] to force her under his control. Murdering a convict with the Hound that he mistakes for Henry, Stapleton later beats Beryl to keep her from interference and sends his beast to murder Henry to [[InheritanceMurder claim the family estate]], even callously feeding the family doctor's little spaniel to the Hound and stopping at nothing to satisfy his cruel greed.
** "The Adventure of the Red Circle": [[BigBad Giuseppe Gorgiano]] is a brutish thug and the most prominent member of the secret society "the Red Circle". With over 50 deaths tied to his commands and personal rap sheet, Gorgiano takes a sick interest in Emilia Lucca and attempts to kidnap and [[AttemptedRape rape]] her, thwarted only by her husband Gennaro. In retaliation, Gorgiano tries to force Gennaro to burn the couple's father figure alive lest they both be slain, and when Emilia and Gennaro try to flee, Gorgiano intends to track them down, murder Gennaro, and take Emilia for himself to do as he pleases with her.
** "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client": [[AristocratsAreEvil Baron Adelbert Gruner]] is a depraved, [[TheHedonist hedonistic]] aristocrat who prides himself on his "collection" of his women whose souls he has ruined, keeping a journal detailing the countless women he has seduced then "[[MindRape broken]]" for his own pleasure. One of his victims, Kitty Winter, was forced into a life of debauchery and prostitution thanks to Gruner, a fate hinted to be the regular for women who catch his eye. Using his hypnotic wiles to lasso another potential victim, Gruner tries to murder Holmes and Watson for attempting to save his latest target, the detective knowing she will meet the same fate as Gruner's last wife: murder at his hands, and [[LeaveNoWitnesses elimination of any witnesses to the crime]].

* ''Gaslight'' series:
** ''Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes'':
*** "His Last Arrow", by Christopher Sequeira: [[FakeUltimateHero Sherlock Holmes himself]] is [[AdaptationalVillainy depicted here]] as an [[OurGeniesAreDifferent evil Djinn]] responsible for most of the murders that he's claimed to solve. Holmes wreaks havoc on London and the surrounding area, causing fantastical and seemingly impossible murders before coming up with a seeming solution to [[AttentionWhore gain fame]]. Influencing the minds of his victims, Holmes even has [[FrameUp countless innocents take the fall for his crimes]] and sends them to lifelong imprisonment, and even the gallows, simply to satisfy his hunger for fame and attention.
*** "Merridew of Abominable Memory", by Chris Roberson: Phipps, better known as the [[SerialKiller Dockside Dismemberer]], is a steward running a nightmarish con game that entails serial murder. Abducting his victims, Phipps proceeds to [[ColdBloodedTorture torture]] them for days on end, [[CruelAndUnusualDeath slowly dismembering them before killing them after repeated torture]].
** ''Gaslight Grotesque: Nightmare Tales of Sherlock Holmes'':
*** "The Best Laid Plans" by Robert Lauderdale: During the mass arrests, [[TheDreaded Professor James Moriarty]] gleefully [[BadBoss guns down several of his associates]] as he's being arrested, either for trying to escape or just to tie up loose ends. It is revealed that Moriarty has [[PlayingWithSyringes experimented]] on dozens of people, fusing them with animal parts and [[AndIMustScream leaving them in agonizing pain]] and later uses a failsafe to dispose of them before making his way to Reichenbach Falls in order to [[DuelToTheDeath duel Holmes to the death]].
*** "The Hand-Delivered Letter", by Simon Kurt Unsworth: After Reichenbach Falls, [[VillainProtagonist Professor James Moriarty]] is found by a kind farmer couple [[TheFarmerAndTheViper who he later murders to escape]]. Rounding up scientists, Moriarty creates an [[PlagueZombie undead plague]], [[TestedOnHumans testing it on innocents]] and murdering his scientists to cover it up. Later having Watson killed by a zombie, Moriarty brings down a zombie plague on London just to spite Sherlock Holmes, sending the titular letter to gloat over the [[ZombieApocalypse apocalypse]].
** ''Gaslight Arcanum: Uncanny Tales of Sherlock Holmes'': In "The Deadly Sin of Sherlock Holmes", by Tom English, [[SinisterMinister Brother Moriarty]] is a fiendish monk who communes with the Devil in order to create a [[DeadlyBook magical book]] inked with [[CouldntFindAPen his own blood]]. Moriarty enchants it so that anyone who reads it will become mind-controlled with the need to [[CruelAndUnusualDeath murder and mutilate people in the most horrific ways possible]], with the book even leading to the creation of UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper, over two centuries after his death, ensuring a legacy of evil.

[[folder:Live-Action Films]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]

* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'':
** [[Characters/SherlockJimMoriarty Jim Moriarty]] is a "consulting criminal" who lends his [[DiabolicalMastermind genius]] to [[PsychoForHire help other crooks commit crimes]], in the name of alleviating his own boredom and obsessively trying to capture the attention of Sherlock Holmes, not caring who he hurts while doing so. [[TheManBehindTheMan Behind the villains]] of the first two episodes, Moriarty takes center stage in "[[Recap/SherlockS01E03TheGreatGame The Great Game]]", selling out his own clients and challenging Sherlock to solve his puzzles lest bombs he has strapped to innocents--one of whom is a child--detonate, considering the whole spectacle a demented game for himself. When an old woman begins describing the sound of his voice to Sherlock, Moriarty immediately detonates her bomb, killing her and eleven others. [[Recap/SherlockS02E03TheReichenbachFall Later]], threatening the family members of a jury to force them to declare him innocent when arrested, Moriarty goes on to poison two children; murders his own accomplice; frames Sherlock for his own crimes; and tries to force Sherlock to commit suicide, threatening to have his loved ones killed if he does not. When Sherlock attempts to force Moriarty into calling off his killers, Moriarty happily [[SpitefulSuicide shoots himself dead to "win" his game with Sherlock]]. Even after his death, Moriarty arranges a plan with Sherlock's sister to continue forcing him through {{Sadistic Choice}}s, resulting in the death of more innocents, unwilling to let go of his obsessive chase with Sherlock even with his own passing.
** Series 3: [[ImmoralJournalist Charles Augustus Magnussen]] is the "[[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Napoleon]] of {{blackmail}}", regarded by Sherlock Holmes as one of the few people who can disgust him. A vile predator who uses gathered information on everyone around him to blackmail them, Magnussen abides by his creed of "knowing is owning" to then dominate, bully, and sexually prey on whoever is under his thumb, using them to satisfy his sadistic ego. Molesting and threatening worse to Lady Smallwood while blackmailing her husband, Magnussen showcases what happens to those who don't cow to his whims by using his media network to demonize and [[DrivenToSuicide drive Lord Smallwood to suicide]] with his blackmail material, the Smallwoods both serving as just one example of his many victims. When Sherlock and John Watson interfere in his affairs, Magnussen threatens to expose Mary Watson's past as a gun-for-hire to get her and her loved ones slain, and forces John to withstand his eyeball being flicked repeatedly by Magnussen, who brags all the while that he torments his secretary and entire countries in whatever ways he likes [[EvilIsPetty for his own petty enjoyment]].
** "[[Recap/SherlockS02E02TheHoundsOfBaskerville The Hounds of Baskerville]]": [[AdaptationalVillainy Dr. Bob Frankland]] was once one of the lead scientists in Project H.O.U.N.D., working with the group in testing an awful new hallucinogen on unwitting innocents who were subsequently [[DrivenToMadness driven into homicidal or suicidal mania]], resulting in countless deaths attributed to the project. Going into hiding after the project was shut down, [[MadScientist Frankland]] continues the experiments in the hopes of creating a new method of chemical warfare [[ArmsDealer he can sell]]. When one of his co-workers tries to expose Frankland's heinous machinations, Frankland infects the man and his young son Henry with the chemical and beats Henry's father to death, spending years after trying to [[DrivenToSuicide drive Henry to suicide]] with the hallucinogen to cement the cover-up.
** "[[Recap/SherlockS04E02TheLyingDetective The Lying Detective]]": [[FauxAffablyEvil Culverton Smith]] is a [[VillainWithGoodPublicity seemingly charitable philanthropist]] who uses his public persona to hide the truth that he is a sadistic SerialKiller whose greatest desire is to kill anyone he can. Having taken part in the construction of a hospital, Culverton secretly outfitted it with a variety of secret passageways and doors, which he uses to enter the rooms of patients and murder them, framing their deaths as accidents or natural causes so as to enable his murder spree to go on for years and claim countless lives. Spending his free time playing with corpses in the hospital's mortuary and drugging people so as to confess his crimes and enjoy their horrified reactions before the drugs wipe their memory of the confession, Culverton taunts Sherlock and Watson with his crimes when they begin investigating him, before ultimately trying to kill Sherlock with obvious sexual glee. Boasting the [[ForTheEvulz simple motivation]] that he just loves to watch people die and make them into "things" for him to toy with, Culverton cheerfully confesses to his immense amount of murders when caught, musing about how famous he's going to be for the killings.
* ''Series/{{Elementary}}'':
** "[[Recap/ElementaryS01E03ChildPredator Child Predator]]": [[WouldHurtAChild Adam Kemper]] is TheManBehindTheMan to Samuel Abbott. When Abbott kidnapped Kemper, Kemper was able to bend Abbott to his will, even forcing him to live in squalor. Kemper forces Abbott to kidnap and murder five children. When Kemper is arrested, he [[WoundedGazelleGambit pretends to be a innocent victim]] with UsefulNotes/StockholmSyndrome, and is offered an immunity deal. After Abbott is confronted and [[DrivenToSuicide commits suicide]], Sherlock realizes he's been had. Kemper brags that he will escape prosecution, until Sherlock notices a loophole in the deal, and confronts him while he observes future victims on the playground.
** "[[Recap/ElementaryS01E07OneWayToGetOff One Way to Get Off]]": [[SerialKiller Wade Crewes]] murders couples by tying them to chairs and executing them with a bullet to the head. Crewes would [[EvilGloating gloat]] to the cops when questioned, until Gregson's partner [[FramingTheGuiltyParty planted his prints on the scene]]. Years later, his secret illegitimate son, Sean Figueroa, reaches out to him. Crewes convinces Figueroa to continue his crime spree, killing another two couples as well as a guest, and attempts to [[FrameUp frame a man]] with the gun and cigarette butts. When Figueroa confesses the crimes, Crewes is confronted with the evidence, but still insists that he is innocent and [[IHaveNoSon denies having a son]].
** "[[Recap/ElementaryS03E11TheIllustriousClient The Illustrious Client]]" & "[[Recap/ElementaryS03E12TheOneThatGotAway The One That Got Away]]": [[BitchInSheepsClothing Adelbert "Del" Gruner]] uses his corporate executive status and [[FauxAffablyEvil charming facade]] to attract many women, before kidnapping them, and [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing]] them with his branding iron, while also [[SerialRapist raping them]]. This kind of brutality would last for weeks before his victims would [[SerialKiller succumb to their wounds]], while Gruner would find more women, having doing this for years racking a body count in the dozens; Kitty Winter was the only survivor of Gruner's cruelty. When Gruner learns that Kitty is trying to bring him to justice, he tries to incriminate her, while continuing his killing spree in New York.
** "Scrambled" & "Hurt Me, Hurt You": [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Tyus Wilcox]] is introduced as the seemingly-innocent brother of Bonzi Folsom, the leader of the South Bronx Killers gang. He is later revealed to be secretly running the gang, and [[SiblingMurder has Folsom killed]] with bleach laced cocaine when Folsom [[HeKnowsTooMuch receives too much police scrutiny]]. In the next episode, Wilcox kidnaps Carmen, the innocent sister of Mara Tres gang leader Halcon, forces her to read out a message on camera, kills her, and sends her body along with a recording of the video to her brother. Halcon, in retaliation, has a SBK party massacred, killing ten people including two children. Wilcox, knowing that the police would want to prevent the war, sells out his entire gang to receive a full immunity deal. Wilcox then calls Joan Watson, mocking her over the death of gang informant Shinwell Johnson, and [[ItsAllAboutMe scoffing at the idea of being loyal to his gang]].

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Comics by Sylvain Cordurié et al.:
** ''Sherlock Holmes and Vampires of London'': Selymes, the VampireMonarch who serves as the first supernatural threat Holmes encounters, runs a huge network of vampires that he uses to amass dozens of victims at a time for himself, who he gleefully drains of every ounce of their blood, killing them in the process. When Selymes himself turns a man named Owen Chances into a vampire, he forces the man into his service by threatening his innocent brother, and, when Owen slowly becomes savage due to Selymes's tainted blood, Selymes covers up his taint by torturing and killing Owen's brother in front of him, then leaving the corpse at Owen's side for the years he is locked away, blaming Owen's vicious bloodlust on the stress of said experience. After massacring dozens of people who try to rise up against his evil, Selymes gleefully tries to murder Owen while promising to butcher Sherlock Holmes's best friends before turning him into a vampire so as to torture him for all eternity.
** ''Sherlock Holmes and the Necronomicon'': Taher Emara initially starts as the sinister accomplice of James Moriarty himself before gradually revealing himself to eclipse even Moriarty in wickedness. Initially helping Moriarty in his own plan, including being willing to murder the entirety of London's populace with his black magic--magic he later practices on three upstart muggers, reducing them to piles of flesh--Taher [[TheStarscream betrays Moriarty]] and locks him under his thrall, magically killing all of Moriarty's men and revealing his intention to use the [[TomeOfEldritchLore Necronomicon]] to allow the eldritch Elder Gods themselves passage into Earth and sentence all mankind to a horrifying death. Further demonstrating his callousness by forcing a score of guards to shoot themselves and using Moriarty as a conduit for the Elder Gods--torturously killing him in the process--Taher's last words upon being killed by Holmes are a defiant assurance it's already too late. As cunning as he is vile, Taher manages to trump the Napoleon of Crime himself in sheer evil.
** ''Sherlock Holmes Society'':
*** [[TheFundamentalist Graham Taylor]], the understudy of Moriarty, is the leader of the enigmatic Council and a [[KnightTemplar fanatical madman]] seeking to purge England of all "false Christians"; Taylor's idea of a purge is forcing a ZombieApocalypse onto London to infect and kill millions. Taylor robbed from Edward Hyde a poison capable of infecting people and commissions [[TestedOnHumans immoral experimentation]] with the poison, turning dozens of unfortunate guinea pigs into zombies. Further testing the poison's capabilities on a village of hundreds, leaving no survivors, and ordering several assassinations of both failed subordinates and liabilities to the Council, Taylor ultimately releases the poison into London itself, leading to 30,000 fatalities. Taylor even stops to give squads of soldiers sent to stop the zombies a sporting chance before gunning them down out of nothing more than [[ForTheEvulz self-admitted sadistic amusement]], ultimately planning to release the poison to six more major cities before committing suicide as one last part of his divine mission.
*** Ryan Shelvey is a [[PsychoPsychologist slimy psychiatrist]] whose first atrocities began when he hypnotized his own patients into becoming psychotic killers, notably turning one into a JackTheRipoff who kills three women. When approached by Taylor to assist in his and the Council's plans, Shelvey happily uses his own patients as [[TestedOnHumans test subjects]] for the zombification virus, resulting in dozens of innocents being fatally experimented on. Fully aware that Taylor plans to use his own research to aide in wiping out most of London, Shelvey later sends 3 more of his hypnotized patients after Sherlock Holmes to stop his investigation, with orders to force him to watch his friends and landlady are killed in front of him before ending his life. Even when faced with life in prison, Shelvey refuses to reveal the details of Taylor's plans, knowing that, unimpeded, Taylor would arrange the annihilation of 7 major cities across the planet, starting with London.

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

[[folder:Frogwares video game series]]

[[folder:Other Media]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/monster_sherlock_holmes.jpg]]

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[[caption-width-right:350:Whether [[UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler human]] or [[{{Dracula}} vampire]], Dracula's always evil.]]

%% NOTE: Due to the controversial nature of this trope, any changes (additions, removals, edits) should be discussed [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=6vic3f9h1cy5qivsenw8llok here]].

** Series 3: [[ImmoralJournalist Charles Augustus Magnussen]] is the "[[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Napoleon]] of {{blackmail}}", regarded by Sherlock Holmes as one of the few people who can disgust him. A vile predator who uses gathered information on everyone around him to blackmail them, Magnussen abides by his creed of "knowing is owning" to then dominate, bully, and sexually prey on whoever is under his thumb, using them to satisfy his sadistic ego. Molesting and threatening worse to Lady Smallwood while blackmailing her husband, Magnussen showcases what happens to those who don't cow to his whims by using his media network to demonize and [[DrivenToSuicide drive Lord Smallwood to suicide]] with his blackmail material, the Smallwoods both serving as just one example of his many victims. When Sherlock and John Watson interfere in his affairs, Magnussen threatens to expose Mary Watson's past as a gun-for-hire to get her and her loved ones slain, and forces John to withstand his eyeball being flicked repeatedly by Magnussen, who brags all the while that he torments his secretary and entire countries in whatever ways he likes [[EvilIsPetty for his own petty enjoyment]].

-->--'''Sir Thomas Rotheram''' describing '''Lord Henry Blackwood''', [[Film/SherlockHolmes2009 2009 film]]

** "[[Recap/ElementaryS01E03ChildPredator Child Predator]]": [[WouldHurtAChild Adam Kemper]] is TheManBehindTheMan to Samuel Abbott. When Abbott kidnapped Kemper, Kemper was able to bend Abbott to his will, even forcing him to live in squalor. Kemper forces Abbott to kidnap and murder five children. When Kemper is arrested, he [[WoundedGazelleGambit pretends to be a innocent victim]] with StockholmSyndrome, and is offered an immunity deal. After Abbott is confronted and [[DrivenToSuicide commits suicide]], Sherlock realizes he's been had. Kemper brags that he will escape prosecution, until Sherlock notices a loophole in the deal, and confronts him while he observes future victims on the playground.