History Monster / SherlockHolmes

[[folder:Literature, by publication date]]

* ''Franchise/SherlockHolmes vs. Dracula'' (OR: ''The Adventures of the Sanguinary Count''), by Loren D. Estleman: In this revision of the original ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' novel with the inclusion of Holmes and Watson, [[{{Dracula}} Count Dracula]] himself has arrived in England in order to make it his new hunting ground and expand his influence. Upon arrival, Holmes investigates the wreck of ''The Demeter'', whose crew and captain were killed by Dracula on his travels. Dracula turns Lucy Westerna into a vampire who'd feed on children, leading to her having to be killed. Perceiving Holmes as a threat, Dracula warns him of the armies he commands, and boasts about the deeds he committed against Jonathan Harker, and later rips the throat out of a prostitute to intimidate them. Failing this, Dracula kidnaps Watson's wife Mary, threatening physical harm if Holmes continues to interfere. Dracula locks Mary in a box as he plans to travel to America to start his operations anew, leading to the deaths of his ship's crew, as well as Holmes and Watson's guide in the ensuing pursuit. In the end, Dracula questions Watson on why he was as devoted as Holmes and Van Helsing to stop him, apparently [[EvilCannotComprehendGood disappointed at Watson's simple answer that Holmes is his friend]].

* "The Mystery of the Hanged Man's Puzzle", by Paul Finch, from ''Shadows Over Baker Street: New Tales of Terror'': Julian Rohampton is an enigmatic American man from a sleepy little New English village named [[Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth Innsmouth]]. Rohampton holds his share of secrets-—namely, he's a [[HumanoidAbomination Deep One]] who came over to England for the purpose of his [[PlayingWithSyringes dark and ambitious experiments]]. Rohampton orchestrates a series of grisly murders using a violent SerialKiller named Jobson in order to cover up the kidnapping of Professor Langley and his daughter, burning alive two bodies to pass them off as the Langleys and abandoning Jobson to execution when his job is done. Rohampton even experiments on his own kind, bleeding them out and forcing Langley to distill the Deep Ones' blood into a virus through which Rohampton intends to [[TransformationHorror forcibly transmute all mankind into Deep Ones]], with London as its breakout point.

* ''Mycroft Holmes'', by Creator/KareemAbdulJabbar & Anna Waterhouse: [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Adam McGuire]] is a racist [[CorruptCorporateExecutive businessman]] who plans to reintroduce slavery to the world. After discovering oil across the beaches of Trinidad, [=McGuire=] uses [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slave labor]] to illegally mine it and in order to scare away the locales, [[WouldHurtAChild murders their young children]] and has their bodies placed on the beach in order to frighten them off. [=McGuire=], contrary to the façade he puts on to his investors, treats his slaves horrifically, having them beaten, chained and starved into submission and chains them to the island's defensive guns to be used as CannonFodder, before detonating a failsafe to kill them when they get rescued. [=McGuire=] captures Cyrus Douglas and tries to murder him in front of his best friend Mycroft Holmes before trying to beat Mycroft to death personally for foiling his operation. A total sociopath out to fuel his racist beliefs and get rich, Mycroft sums up [=McGuire=] well as "a human being devoid of the common thread of human decency."

* Comics by Sylvain Cordurié et al.:

[[folder:Live-Action Films, by release date]]

[[folder:Live-Action Television, by premiere date]]

[[folder:Other Media, by release date]]

* ''Mycroft Holmes'', by Creator/KareemAbdulJabbar & Anna Waterhouse: [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Adam McGuire]] is a racist [[CorruptCorporateExecutive businessman]] who plans to reintroduce slavery to the world. After discovering oil across the beaches of Trinidad, [=McGuire=] uses [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slave labor]] to illegally mine it and in order to scare away the locales, [[WouldHurtAChild murders their young children]] and has their bodies placed on the beach in order to frighten them off. [=McGuire=], contrary to the façade he puts on to his investors, treats his slaves horrifically, having them beaten, chained and starved into submission and chains them to the island's defensive guns to be used as CannonFodder, before detonating a failsafe to kill them when they get rescued. [=McGuire=] captures Cyrus Douglas and tries to murder him in front of his best friend Mycroft Holmes before trying to beat Mycroft to death personally for foiling his operation. A total sociopath out to fuel his racist beliefs and get rich, Mycroft sums up [=McGuire=] well as "a human being devoid of the common thread of human decency."

* Comics by Sylvain Cordurié et al.:

[[folder:Television, by premiere date]]

** [[FauxAffablyEvil Culverton Smith]], from season 4's "[[Recap/SherlockS04E02TheLyingDetective The Lying Detective]]", 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.

** [[WouldHurtAChild Adam Kemper]], from season one's "Child Predator", 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.
** [[SerialKiller Wade Crewes]], from season 1's "One Way to Get Off", 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]].
** [[BitchInSheepsClothing Adelbert "Del" Gruner]], from season 3's "The Illustrious Client" and "The One Who Got Away", 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.
** [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Tyus Wilcox]] is introduced in season 5's "Scrambled" 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, "Hurt Me, Hurt You", 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]].

** [[MadDoctor Dr. Culverton Smith]], from "[[Recap/SherlockHolmesInTheTwentySecondCenturyS1E06 The Adventure of the Deranged Detective]]", is a neurosurgeon turned thief. When Inspector Lestrade finds evidence of his crimes, Smith uses stolen [[{{nanomachines}} nanobots]] to turn her into a feral, insane lunatic to destroy the evidence while lighting several buildings full of people on fire, [[AndIMustScream conscious but unable to stop herself]]. [[FrameUp Framing]] his superior for his crime, he would attempt to drive Holmes insane too when he catches on in order to have him kill Lestrade and then wipe his memory. When Holmes outsmarts him, Smith orders Lestrade to execute a helpless Holmes, smiling as he watches.

** UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper, real name Maki Hokari, was a transgender woman who could not get a sex change. Developing an obsession with becoming perfect, [[TheDreaded the Ripper]] began [[CruelAndUnusualDeath brutally murdering]] attractive men and women, castrating them postmortem and [[ImAHumanitarian eating the women's wombs]]. When Irene Adler steals a USB drive with incriminating information, the Ripper murders her friend and threatens Irene's life, eventually attempting to make good on that threat. When confronted by Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson and called out on the crimes, the Ripper tries to torture Holmes to death out of rage, and when confronted by James Moriarty, the Ripper [[EvilGloating taunts him]] about killing his sister and eating her womb.
** [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Milverton]], from "Don't Take Off the Swimsuit", is a vile businessman known as the "king of all blackmailers". Milverton frequently {{blackmail}}s celebrities for money or [[SexualExtortion sex]], and will release their personal information if they are even a few seconds late with their payment. It is also revealed that Milverton blackmails young girls into becoming prostitutes, and even plans to [[HumanTraffickers sell]] his [[AbusiveParents own very young daughter]] to a pedophile.

[[AC:Literature, by publication date]]
[[folder:Examples]]

* ''Mycroft Holmes'', by Creator/KareemAbdulJabbar & Anna Waterhouse: [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Adam McGuire]] is a racist [[CorruptCorporateExecutive businessman]] who plans to reintroduce slavery to the world. After discovering oil across the beaches of Trinidad, [=McGuire=] uses [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slave labor]] to illegally mine it and in order to scare away the locales, [[WouldHurtAChild murders their young children]] and has their bodies placed on the beach in order to frighten them off. [=McGuire=], contrary to the façade he puts on to his investors, treats his slaves horrifically, having them beaten, chained and starved into submission and chains them to the island's defensive guns to be used as CannonFodder, before detonating a failsafe to kill them when they get rescued. [=McGuire=] captures Cyrus Douglas and tries to murder him in front of his best friend Mycroft Holmes before trying to beat Mycroft to death personally for foiling his operation. A total sociopath out to fuel his racist beliefs and get rich, Mycroft sums up [=McGuire=] well as "a human being devoid of the common thread of human decency."

[[AC:Comic Books]]
[[folder:Examples]]
* Comics by Sylvain Cordurié et al.:

[[AC:Live-Action Films, by release date]]
[[folder:Examples]]
* [[Film/SherlockHolmes1932 1932 film]]: [[FauxAffablyEvil Professor James Moriarty]], following [[ArchEnemy a decade of rivalry with Sherlock Holmes]] as a [[DiabolicalMastermind criminal mastermind]], upon being sentenced to death congratulates his opponents for catching him before promising to ensure they will die first. Killing two guards whilst breaking out, Moriarty murders his prosecutor Mr. Erskine leaving his body hanging for Holmes to find. Building a gang from the most notorious [[CarnivalOfKillers foreign criminals and killers]], Moriarty sets up Holmes to kill Colonel Gore-King of Scotland Yard, so he'll be sent to the gallows. Believing he's succeeded, Moriarty has his gang whip London into chaos, blowing up and shooting up businesses to distract the police from his real plan to rob the Faulkner Bank. To ensure their getaway Moriarty also kidnaps Alice Faulkner and Billy. Even when defeated, Moriarty attempts [[TakingYouWithMe one final attempt to kill Sherlock Holmes]].

[[AC:Television, by premiere date]]
[[folder:Examples]]

[[AC:Other Media, by release date]]
[[folder:Examples]]

*** 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 the aforementioned 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.

* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': "Consulting criminal" [[Characters/SherlockJimMoriarty Jim Moriarty]] 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 [[ThanatosGambit 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.

** [[MadScientist Dr. Gygax]] is a member of the aforementioned cult who runs the Edelweiss Institute. Gygax facilitates the procurement of sacrifices and mistreats and brutalizes the patients in his care, even [[{{lobotomy}} cutting out pieces of their brains]] to make them compliant. Gygax also experiments on his own patients, torturing them to further the cult's ends and [[ForScience to satisfy his sick scientific curiosity]].

[[AC:Video Games]]

[[AC:Anime and Manga]]

** UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper, real name [[spoiler:Maki Hokari]], was a [[spoiler:transgender woman who could not get a sex change]]. Developing an obsession with becoming perfect, [[TheDreaded the Ripper]] began [[CruelAndUnusualDeath brutally murdering]] attractive men and women, castrating them postmortem and [[spoiler:[[ImAHumanitarian eating the women's wombs]]]]. When Irene Adler steals a USB drive with incriminating information, the Ripper murders her friend and threatens Irene's life, eventually attempting to make good on that threat. When confronted by Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson and called out on the crimes, the Ripper tries to torture Holmes to death out of rage, and when confronted by James Moriarty, the Ripper [[EvilGloating taunts him]] about killing his sister and [[spoiler:eating her womb]].

!!Comics
[[AC: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 the aforementioned 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.

[[AC:''Victorian Undead'', by Ian Edginton et al.]]
* ''Victorian Undead: Sherlock Holmes vs. Zombies'': [[ArchEnemy Professor James Moriarty]] is the man behind the titular undead. Having sustained fatal injuries after falling down the Reichenbach Falls during a confrontation with Holmes, he ordered his henchman Colonel Moran to inject him with a serum that turned him into a [[NotUsingTheZWord revenant]]. With his mind still intact, he returned to London and began to secretly abduct people to turn them into [[NightOfTheLivingMooks mindless revenants]] under his control. As soon as he had a sizeable army, he unleashed them into the streets of the city, killing or turning a large number of its population. When Moran, the man who saved his life and served him with UndyingLoyalty, [[EvenEvilHasStandards refused his offer to be turned into a sentient undead]], Moriarty attempted to forcefully turn him into another one of his minions. Already a ruthless man with great ambition in life, his only goal now was to turn every living souls on Earth into a revenant and establish a kingdom of death with himself as eternal monarch.
* ''Victorian Undead II: Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula'': [[UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler Vlad Dracula]] was a ruthless warlord who threw plague corpses into cities, impaled captured enemies and drank the blood of his victims. Centuries later, he reemerged as [[{{Dracula}} a vampire]] and--with the help of the British agent [[AdaptationalVillainy Arthur Holmwood]]--attempted to take over the Empire. Growing impatient with Holmwood, who preferred a more subtle approach, Dracula decided to take matters into his own hands by [[MurderIsTheBestSolution starting a plague outbreak and claiming the throne in the ensuing chaos]]. To achieve this he abducted several people, turned them into mindless thralls and planned to use them as plague carriers. When the plan failed and Holmwood called him out for his impatience, Dracula told him that [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he had outlived his usefulness]] and had one of his vampire minions feed on him. Finally being exposed and cornered by the heroes during a masquerade ball, Dracula grabbed a body-double of the Queen, whom he believed to be the real one, and ripped out her throat in front of everyone before attempting to flee.

!!Films, by Release Date
[[AC:Film/TheBakerStreetDozen]]
* ''Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon'': [[BigBad Professor Moriarty]], during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, has betrayed Britain to side with the Nazis. Murdering a group of scientists who each have a quarter of a genius inventor's new bombsight, Moriarty hunts the inventor down and [[ColdBloodedTorture brutally tortures him]] for the final piece. When unable to locate the final one, Moriarty takes the chance he has with Holmes in his clutches to try to torture the detective to death by slowly bleeding him "drop by drop". Intending on selling the bombsight to the Nazis, allowing them to level London, Moriarty gloats that he will commit the greatest crime in history, allowing him to [[{{Greed}} profit]] off the deaths of countless innocents and prove himself superior to Holmes at last.
* ''The Scarlet Claw'': [[MasterOfDisguise Alistair Ramson]] is a petty, cunning, sadistic SerialKiller who terrorizes the Canadian town La Mort Rouge. An actor imprisoned for [[MurderTheHypotenuse murdering a love rival]], he was believed killed in a prison escape, but in reality survived and sought revenge on not just the actress who spurned him, but also [[RageAgainstTheLegalSystem the magistrate who sentenced him and a guard at his prison]]. Before the film, Ramson killed La Mort Rouge's mailman to steal his identity, and promptly set about killing his targets by tearing their throats out with a [[GardeningVarietyWeapon garden rake]], causing some to die quickly and others over the course of hours by bleeding to death. Using a variety of identities, he dispatches first the actress, then the magistrate, and attempts to kill the investigating Holmes and Watson at every turn. He even kills the prison guard's teenage daughter with the claw when she refused to give up her father, and when lured into a trap by Holmes and the police, makes one last ditch attempt to kill the guard before being killed.
* ''The Pearl of Death'': [[BigBad Giles Conover]] is a career criminal and SerialKiller who steals the Borgia pearl and hides it within a bust of Napoleon. Not knowing which bust contains the pearl, Conover traces them to the owners and has them brutally murdered by his brutish subordinate, the Hoxton Creeper, to mask the theft; this victims range from a retired colonel to a harmless old woman who could not have stopped him from simply stealing it. Conover even intends to have his old associate Naomi murdered, freely admitting that the deaths of so many are just as much from his love of killing as from greed.

''[[AC:Film/AStudyInTerror]]''
* UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper, the sadistic SerialKiller of Whitechapel and Sherlock Holmes's nemesis for this film, stalks the night and butchers prostitutes in brutal, horrific ways, slaying five of them and taunting the police about his murders. In actuality, Jack the Ripper is the [[AristocratsAreEvil aristocratic]] Lord Carfax, Edward Osborne, who balks at his noble brother marrying a prostitute. Edward decides to search for his brother's wife with his knife, killing one after another in an attempt to find her with no intent of stopping until he finds his target, and tries to slay both his brother's wife and Holmes himself when he finally tracks down his target.

[[AC:The Creator/GuyRitchie series has the BigBad of each film.]]
* [[Film/SherlockHolmes2009 2009 film]]: The wicked [[AristocratsAreEvil Lord Henry Blackwood]] murders five women in occult rituals and is stopped from a sixth, though it is later revealed he has [[SerialKiller butchered far more]]. Supposedly returning from the dead, Blackwood begins purging his former Temple of the Four Orders organization of those insufficiently loyal; cruelly [[{{Patricide}} killing his own father]]; and burning another man alive. Intending on [[WarForFunAndProfit starting a massive war]] to strengthen Britain and reclaim America, Blackwood intends on injecting [[DeadlyGas cyanide gas]] into Parliament to kill all those there, except for his most loyal followers, standing as one of the most sinister and vile foes Sherlock Holmes ever encountered.
* ''[[Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows A Game of Shadows]]'': [[TheChessmaster Professor James Moriarty]], dubbed "[[DiabolicalMastermind The Napoleon of Crime]]" by Sherlock Holmes, is a heartless criminal mastermind, as well as Holmes's [[EvilCounterpart equal]] and [[ArchEnemy opposite]] in terms of intellect. After fatally poisoning Irene Adler to [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness remove her from his employ]], Moriarty makes it clear that he has no intention of sparing Holmes's best friend Dr. John Watson or Watson's wife Mary if Holmes continues to interfere with his plans. True to his word, Moriarty tries to have Watson and Mary killed, destroying the train they were travelling on in the process. Engineering a plot to jumpstart UsefulNotes/WorldWarI so that he can [[WarForFunAndProfit profit from the bloodshed]] through the sale of munitions, Moriarty enacts this plot through manipulation and murder, staging a series of bombings to increase tensions between nations, driving a French revolutionary to suicide, and having his henchman, [[TheDragon Sebastian Moran]], assassinate a businessman so Moriarty can acquire his company, killing many others in an explosion to conceal the murder. After capturing Holmes, Moriarty [[ColdBloodedTorture brutally tortures]] him with a meat hook, [[DissonantSerenity calmly singing Schubert as he does]], going on to massacre many of Madame Simza Heron's Gypsy tribe when they rescue Holmes. Having forced Simza's brother to act as an assassin, Moriarty plans to kill a dignitary at a peace summit to incite war. After this plan is thwarted and his assets are seized by the police, Moriarty intends to kill Holmes and his friends in revenge, only being stopped when Holmes throws them both over a waterfall. Ruthless, sadistic, callous, and cruel, Moriarty stands out as the most dangerous criminal Holmes has ever encountered.

!!Literature, by Publication Date

[[AC:''Franchise/SherlockHolmes vs. Dracula'' (OR: ''The Adventures of the Sanguinary Count''), by Loren D. Estleman]]
* In this revision of the original ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' novel with the inclusion of Holmes and Watson, [[{{Dracula}} Count Dracula]] himself has arrived in England in order to make it his new hunting ground and expand his influence. Upon arrival, Holmes investigates the wreck of ''The Demeter'', whose crew and captain were killed by Dracula on his travels. Dracula turns Lucy Westerna into a vampire who'd feed on children, leading to her having to be killed. Perceiving Holmes as a threat, Dracula warns him of the armies he commands, and boasts about the deeds he committed against Jonathan Harker, and later rips the throat out of a prostitute to intimidate them. Failing this, Dracula kidnaps Watson's wife Mary, threatening physical harm if Holmes continues to interfere. Dracula locks Mary in a box as he plans to travel to America to start his operations anew, leading to the deaths of his ship's crew, as well as Holmes and Watson's guide in the ensuing pursuit. In the end, Dracula questions Watson on why he was as devoted as Holmes and Van Helsing to stop him, apparently [[GoodCannotComprehendEvil disappointed at Watson's simple answer that Holmes is his friend]].

[[AC:''Sherlock Holmes and the Terror Out of Time'', by Ralph E. Vaughan]]
* Laslo Bronislav is a [[EvilSorcerer sorcerer]] whom even Creator/AleisterCrowley fears. Hunting down the M'Tollo idol to [[AGodAmI achieve godhood]], Bronislav leaves a trail of bodies, [[ManipulativeBastard manipulating]] criminals and one lord to commit murders on his behalf before eliminating them as well, with no regard for the massive damage committed by the serpentine hunters of the idol. Learning of a plot by Irish separatists to bomb key government places, Bronislav decides to allow the plot to continue as the chaos will prove beneficial to him. Deciding to clear up any loose ends, Bronislav proceeds to even [[BadBoss murder his own loyal manservant]] by having him torn asunder by demons, showing no remorse for all the misery and death he has left in his wake.

[[AC:"The Mystery of the Hanged Man's Puzzle", by Paul Finch, from ''Shadows Over Baker Street: New Tales of Terror'']]
* Julian Rohampton is an enigmatic American man from a sleepy little New English village named [[Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth Innsmouth]]. Rohampton holds his share of secrets-—namely, he's a [[HumanoidAbomination Deep One]] who came over to England for the purpose of his [[PlayingWithSyringes dark and ambitious experiments]]. Rohampton orchestrates a series of grisly murders using a violent SerialKiller named Jobson in order to cover up the kidnapping of Professor Langley and his daughter, burning alive two bodies to pass them off as the Langleys and abandoning Jobson to execution when his job is done. Rohampton even experiments on his own kind, bleeding them out and forcing Langley to distill the Deep Ones' blood into a virus through which Rohampton intends to [[TransformationHorror forcibly transmute all mankind into Deep Ones]], with London as its breakout point.

[[AC:''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 leaving them in agonizing pain and later uses a failsafe to dispose of them before making his way to Reichenbach Falls in order to 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]], 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 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.

''[[AC:Literature/TheHouseOfSilk]]''
* Reverend Charles Fitzsimmons is the head of the House of Silk and the headmaster of the Chorley Grange House for Boys, a guise that obscures his far more wicked pastimes. Using his position to regularly pimp out his [[WouldHurtAChild young boys]] to wealthy clients to [[SexSlave rape and sodomize]] at their leisure for profit, Fitzsimmons enforces a brutal campaign to snuff out any potential threats to his operation in the cruelest ways possible, Charles has a young homeless boy named Ross brutally tortured to death and left with a white strange of silk tied to his mangled carcass as a warning. In response to Sherlock Holmes himself picking up the case, Fitzsimmons kills Ross's sister himself and [[FrameUp frames Holmes for it]], trying to have him murdered later. Fitzsimmons's response to his operation finally being exposed is smug, cheerful indifference to the well-being of the children and a gloating assurance that [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections the position of himself and his clients]] will assure his immunity. A sociopath specializing in the agony of children, [[EvenEvilHasStandards even Moriarty himself]] willingly helps Holmes against Fitzsimmons's operation.

[[AC:"Lestrade & the Damned Cultists", from ''Sherlock Holmes: Franchise/CthulhuMythos Adventures'', by Ralph E. Vaughan]]
* Lord Alathon is the leader of the [[{{Cult}} Order of the Eldritch Gate]], brushed off as a raving madman until he and his cult start engaging in brutal [[HumanSacrifice sacrifice]], leaving four murdered with their [[SlashedThroat throats cut]] and the Elder Sign upon them all across Whitechapel. When Laverne and his men interrupt his affairs and interrupt an attempted fifth sacrifice, Alathon reveals his plans to let the [[EldritchAbomination Great Old Ones]] rise to enslave and feast on all humanity, as he rises above the ashes {{a god|Am I}}.

[[AC:''Mycroft Holmes'', by Creator/KareemAbdulJabbar & Anna Waterhouse]]
* [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Adam McGuire]] is a racist [[CorruptCorporateExecutive businessman]] who plans to reintroduce slavery to the world. After discovering oil across the beaches of Trinidad, [=McGuire=] uses [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slave labor]] to illegally mine it and in order to scare away the locales, [[WouldHurtAChild murders their young children]] and has their bodies placed on the beach in order to frighten them off. [=McGuire=], contrary to the façade he puts on to his investors, treats his slaves horrifically, having them beaten, chained and starved into submission and chains them to the island's defensive guns to be used as CannonFodder, before detonating a failsafe to kill them when they get rescued. [=McGuire=] captures Cyrus Douglas and tries to murder him in front of his best friend Mycroft Holmes before trying to beat Mycroft to death personally for foiling his operation. A total sociopath out to fuel his racist beliefs and get rich, Mycroft sums up [=McGuire=] well as "a human being devoid of the common thread of human decency."

[[AC:''Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell'', by Paul Kane]]
* [[BigBad Professor James Moriarty]], having escaped to Hell itself, has contrived to become the new Engineer, the keeper of the [[Franchise/{{Hellraiser}} Lament Configuration]]. Plotting a coup, Moriarty has many souls smuggled to him, torturing them [[ColdBloodedTorture physically]] and [[MindRape psychologically]] to twist them into Pseudo-Cenobites to serve him and expand Hell's dominion. Intending on capturing Sherlock Holmes, Moriarty horrifically tortures him to break him for good, showing him all his failures amidst the agony, all to satiate his ego and power.

[[AC:''The Lost Husband: A Weird Sherlock Holmes Adventure'', by William Meikle]]
* [[MadScientist William Gatherford]] is a fiendish adventurer and scientist who discovers a way to make [[VoodooZombie zombies]] during a trip to Haiti and decides to use this method to enrich himself. Gatherford persuades hundreds of poor, disenfranchised workers into signing up with him, before having them experimented on and tortured to death and brought back as [[UndeadLaborers undead puppets]] which he uses to increase the profits of his business enterprises by decreasing costs of labor. His zombies [[AndIMustScream kept in an eternal state of pain]], Gatherford sics them on Holmes and Watson and reveals that he intends to spread this operation across the entire world, [[KillThePoor killing the world's poor and disenfranchised]] in order to maximize profits for the rich, all in the name of his smug elitism.

!!Television
''[[AC:Series/{{Elementary}}]]''
* [[BitchInSheepsClothing Adelbert "Del" Gruner]], from season 3's "The Illustrious Client" and "The One Who Got Away", 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 Winters 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.
* [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Tyus Wilcox]] is introduced in season 5's "Scrambled" 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 has Folsom killed with bleach laced cocaine when Folsom [[HeKnowsTooMuch receives too much police scrutiny]]. In the next episode, "Hurt Me, Hurt You", 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]].

''[[AC:Series/{{Sherlock}}]]''
* "Consulting criminal" [[Characters/SherlockJimMoriarty Jim Moriarty]] 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 [[ThanatosGambit 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.

!!Video Games
''[[AC:[[VideoGame/SherlockHolmesTheAwakened The Awakened]]]]''
* [[BigBad Lord Rochester]] is the head of the Cult to "The One", the Great Old One Franchise/{{Cthulhu|Mythos}}. Rochester masterminds a number of brutal murders while also having pockets of his cult active in other parts of the world to murder and abducts others so he can fulfill the conditions for sacrifice. Rochester intends to summon Cthulhu to bring an apocalypse upon the world, dismissing all humans as "flesh" that is disposable and having the captives lobotomized to sacrifice themselves in order to bring Cthulhu upon the world.
* [[MadScientist Dr. Gygax]] is a member of the aforementioned cult who runs the Edelweiss Institute. Gygax facilitate the procurement of sacrifices and mistreats and brutalizes the patients in his care, even cutting out pieces of their brains to make them compliant. Gygax also experiments on his own patients, torturing them to further the cult's ends and to satisfy his sick scientific curiosity.

* Lord Alathon is the leader of the [[{{Cult}} Order of the Eldritch Gate]], brushed off as a raving madman until he and his cult start engaging in brutal [[HumanSacrifice sacrifice]], leaving four murdered with their [[SlashedThroat throats cut]] and the Elder Sign upon them all across Whitechapel. When Laverne and his men interrupt his affairs and interrupt an attempted fifth sacrifice, Alathon reveals his plans to let the Great Old Ones rise to enslave and feast on all humanity, as he rises above the ashes {{a god|Am I}}.

[[AC:''Mycroft Holmes'', by Creator/KareemAbdulJabbar & Anna Waterhouse]]
* [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Adam McGuire]] is a racist [[CorruptCorporateExecutive businessman]] who plans to reintroduce slavery to the world. After discovering oil across the beaches of Trinidad, [=McGuire=] uses [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slave labor]] to illegally mine it and in order to scare away the locales, [[WouldHurtAChild murders their young children]] and has their bodies placed on the beach in order to frighten them off. [=McGuire=], contrary to the façade he puts on to his investors, treats his slaves horrifically, having them beaten, chained and starved into submission and chains them to the island's defensive guns to be used as CannonFodder, before detonating a failsafe to kill them when they get rescued. [=McGuire=] captures Cyrus Douglas and tries to murder him in front of his best friend Mycroft Holmes before trying to beat Mycroft to death personally for foiling his operation. A total sociopath out to fuel his racist beliefs and get rich, Mycroft sums up [=McGuire=] well as "a human being devoid of the common thread of human decency."
[[AC:''Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell'', by Paul Kane]]
* [[BigBad Professor James Moriarty]], having escaped to Hell itself, has contrived to become the new Engineer, the keeper of the [[Franchise/{{Hellraiser}} Lament Configuration]]. Plotting a coup, Moriarty has many souls smuggled to him, torturing them [[ColdBloodedTorture physically]] and [[MindRape psychologically]] to twist them into Pseudo-Cenobites to serve him and expand Hell's dominion. Intending on capturing Sherlock Holmes, Moriarty horrifically tortures him to break him for good, showing him all his failures amidst the agony, all to satiate his ego and power.
[[AC:''The Lost Husband: A Weird Sherlock Holmes Adventure'', by William Meikle]]
* [[MadScientist William Gatherford]] is a fiendish adventurer and scientist who discovers a way to make [[VoodooZombie zombies]] during a trip to Haiti and decides to use this method to enrich himself. Gatherford persuades hundreds of poor, disenfranchised workers into signing up with him, before having them experimented on and tortured to death and brought back as [[UndeadLaborers undead puppets]] which he uses to increase the profits of his business enterprises by decreasing costs of labor. His zombies [[AndIMustScream kept in an eternal state of pain]], Gatherford sics them on Holmes and Watson and reveals that he intends to spread this operation across the entire world, [[KillThePoor killing the world's poor and disenfranchised]] in order to maximize profits for the rich, all in the name of his smug elitism.

''[[AC:Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes]]''
* "His Last Arrow", by Christopher Sequeira: Sherlock Holmes himself is [[AdaptationalVillainy depicted here]] as an 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, slowly dismembering them before killing them after repeated torture.

''[[AC:Victorian Undead]]''[[AC:, by Ian Edginton et al.]]

''[[AC:SherlockHolmes vs. Dracula]]'' [[AC:(OR:]] ''[[AC:The Adventures of the Sanguinary Count'']][[AC:), by Loren D. Estleman]]

''[[AC:Sherlock Holmes and the Terror Out of Time]]''[[AC:, by Ralph E. Vaughan]]

[[AC:"Lestrade & the Damned Cultists", from]] ''[[AC:Sherlock Holmes: Franchise/CthulhuMythos Adventures]]''[[AC:, by Ralph E. Vaughan]]

''[[AC:Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell]]''[[AC:, by Paul Kane]]

* ''Victorian Undead: Sherlock Holmes vs. Zombies'': [[ArchEnemy Professor James Moriarty]] is the man behind the titular undead. Having sustained fatal injuries after falling down the Reichenbach Falls during a confrontation with Holmes, he ordered his henchman Colon Moran to inject him with a serum that turned him into a [[NotUsingTheZWord revenant]]. With his mind still intact, he returned to London and began to secretly abduct people to turn them into [[NightOfTheLivingMooks mindless revenants]] under his control. As soon as he had a sizeable army, he unleashed them into the streets of the city, killing or turning a large number of its population. When Moran, the man who saved his life and served him with UndyingLoyalty, [[EvenEvilHasStandards refused his offer to be turned into a sentient undead]], Moriarty attempted to forcefully turn him into another one of his minions. Already a ruthless man with great ambition in life, his only goal now was to turn every living souls on Earth into a revenant and establish a kingdom of death with himself as eternal monarch.

[[AC:"His Last Arrow", by Christopher Sequeira, from]] ''[[AC:Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes]]''
* Sherlock Holmes himself is [[AdaptationalVillainy depicted here]] as an 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 and than 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.

''[[AC:Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell]]''[[AC:, by Paul Kane]]
* [[BigBad Professor James Moriarty]], having escaped to Hell itself, has contrived to become the new Engineer, the keeper of the [[Franchise/{{Hellraiser}} Lament Configuration]]. Plotting a coup, Moriarty has many souls smuggled to him, torturing them [[ColdBloodedTorture physically]] and [[MindRape psychologically]] to twist them into Pseudo-Cenobites to serve him and expand Hell's dominion. Intending on capturing Sherlock Holmes, Moriarty horrifically tortures him to break him for good, showing him all his failures amidst the agony, all to satiate his ego and power.

* [[MadScientist Dr. Gygax]] is a member of the aforementioned cult who runs the Edelweiss Institute. Gygax facilitate the procurement of sacrifices and mistreats and brutalizes the patients in his care, even cutting out pieces of their brains to make them compliant. Gygax also experiments on his own patients, torturing them to further the cult's ends and to satisfy his sick scientific curiosity.

->''"...[H]e's a monster. They don't need a why."''
-->--'''Kitty Winter''', about her attacker '''Adelbert "Del" Gruner''', ''Series/{{Elementary}}'', "The Illustrious Client"

!NOTE: ALL SPOILERS ARE UNMARKED

''[[AC:[[Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows A Game of Shadows]]]]''
* [[BigBad Professor James Moriarty]], dubbed "[[DiabolicalMastermind The Napoleon of Crime]]" by Sherlock Holmes, is a heartless criminal mastermind, as well as Holmes's [[EvilCounterpart equal]] and [[ArchEnemy opposite]] in terms of intellect. After fatally poisoning Irene Adler to [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness remove her from his employ]], Moriarty makes it clear that he has no intention of sparing Holmes's best friend John Watson or Watson's wife Mary if Holmes continues to interfere with his plans. True to his word, Moriarty tries to have Watson and Mary killed, destroying the train they were travelling on in the process. Engineering a plot to jumpstart UsefulNotes/WorldWarI so that he can [[WarForFunAndProfit profit from the bloodshed]] through the sale of munitions, Moriarty enacts this plot through manipulation and murder, staging a series of bombings to increase tensions between nations, driving a French revolutionary to suicide, and having his henchman, [[TheDragon Sebastian Moran]], assassinate a businessman so Moriarty can acquire his company, killing many others in an explosion to conceal the murder. After capturing Holmes, Moriarty [[ColdBloodedTorture brutally tortures]] him with a meat hook, [[DissonantSerenity calmly singing Schubert as he does]], going on to massacre many of Madame Simza's Gypsy tribe when they rescue Holmes. Having forced Simza's brother to act as an assassin, Moriarty plans to kill a dignitary at a peace summit to incite war. After this plan is thwarted and his assets are seized by the police, Moriarty intends to kill Holmes and his friends in revenge, only being stopped when Holmes throws them both over a waterfall. Ruthless, sadistic, callous, and cruel, Moriarty stands out as the most dangerous criminal Holmes has ever encountered.

!!Literature

* [[WouldHurtAChild Reverend Charles Fitzsimmons]] is the head of the House of Silk and the headmaster of the Chorley Grange House for Boys, a guise that obscures his far more wicked pastimes. Using his position to regularly pimp out his young boys to wealthy clients to rape and sodomize at their leisure for profit, Fitzsimmons enforces a brutal campaign to snuff out any potential threats to his operation in the cruelest ways possible, Charles has a young homeless boy named Ross brutally tortured to death and left with a white strange of silk tied to his mangled carcass as a warning. In response to Sherlock Holmes himself picking up the case, Fitzsimmons kills Ross's sister himself and [[FrameUp frames Holmes for it]], trying to have him murdered later. Fitzsimmons's response to his operation finally being exposed is smug, cheerful indifference to the well-being of the children and a gloating assurance that the [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections position of himself and his clients]] will assure his immunity. A sociopath specializing in the agony of children, [[EvenEvilHasStandards even Moriarty himself]] willingly helps Holmes against Fitzsimmons's operation.

!NOTE: ALL SPOILERS ARE UNMARKED

!NOTE: ALL SPOILERS ARE UNMARKED

!!Films by Release Date