Prompt: Corrupt, from W.Y. Traveller
Of all the high profile criminal investigations of the last century, it chagrined Holmes to no end that he was not permitted to investigate the most famous of them.
I refer, of course, to the murders committed by that fiend, Jack the Ripper.
The case was handled by divisions of the force with which Holmes had no relationship, though he followed the case obsessively, as did most of London. Holme's own investigation was hampered by the lack of communication from the force; while Holmes's friends at the Yard did pass information on to him, it was often second or third hand, and several days out of date.
"They are bungling things to a degree that is remarkable even for the Yard," Holmes said angrily, pacing around our sitting room in agitation. "Gang activity! No gang takes the time to mutilate their victims the way this monster does. Gangs are practical if nothing else."
I nodded in assent, often the best thing to do when Holmes was on such a tear as this. His frustration could not be alleviated by investigating, and he was unused to finding out new pieces of information as the public did.
"The reward offered will only serve to bring crackpots and unsavory agents working for their own ends," Holmes continued. "They will waste valuable time chasing down fake leads from everyone who wants a piece of the reward money. I have said many times they ought not to offer rewards. Criminal investigation cannot be done for a profit."
"They have wasted much time already," I remarked. Four such victims had been found, each murder more violent than the last.
"Scotland Yard has never cared much about Whitechapel," Holmes said scathingly. "It was only after two murders that they took over the investigation at all, and that after much public pressure."
At that moment a telegram arrived, which upon reading, caused Holmes to grow so agitated I all but forced him to sit down. "You must calm yourself, old fellow," I said.
"Utterly corrupt," Holmes muttered. "To tamper with a crime scene…"
I took the telegram so I might know what he was referring to, and found a message from one of the constables who had been assigned away from Lestrade's division and to the Ripper case. It detailed how a message disparaging of Jews had been found painted on the wall near one of the Ripper's victims, and had been ordered scrubbed away before any record could be made of it, or the press could get wind of it.
"He says it is because they did not wish to inflame anti-Jewish feeling in the city," Holmes said. "It never occurred to them that the message itself may have held many clues! Watson, imagine what I could have discovered had I been called in before these imbeciles cleared it away for their own purposes."
I could understand the sentiment; there was much anti-Jewish feeling in the city, and knowledge of such a message would undoubtedly have inflamed things further. But knowing Holmes's methods as I do, I could not but agree that any crime scene needed to be fully examined, or else the criminal might not be caught.
"It may not have had anything to do with the murders," I said, trying to shore Holmes up. "None of the victims have been Jewish." It seemed to me that the Ripper was targeting women of the street, easy victims, rather than attempting to go after any one ethnicity or religion.
"It may have been someone making an attempt to inflame London's anti-Semitism," Holmes said. "Or it may have been an anti-Semitic group itself, or it may have been something else altogether, and we shall never know, due to Scotland Yard's idiocy and corruption! No doubt the government told them to destroy the evidence, but whether to protect someone, or to avoid the civil unrest that would follow, I do not know. Perhaps they even wanted to take attention away from the many members of the Yard who agree with the disgusting sentiments written on that wall!" Holmes glared at the fire. "If Lestrade were in charge of the investigation, he would never have allowed a crime scene to be tampered with in this way, for any reason."
This was the most complimentary Holmes had ever been of Lestrade, and he smiled at the look on my face. "I have frequently said Lestrade is the best of a bad lot, Watson. Not only because his tenacity has brought many an investigation to a close but because he has integrity enough not to allow anyone to interfere. No corrupting outside influences, even the government, have ever tampered with one of Lestrade's cases."
High praise, indeed.
Holmes sighed. "It is unlikely they will ever find this monster, Watson. Too much has been destroyed, and too much time wasted."
The thought of the Ripper continuing his rampage indefinitely was a terrifying one, and I hoped it would not be the case, though Holmes is rarely mistaken, particularly about a criminal matter. "They ought to have called you in immediately," I said.
Holmes smiled. "You are right, of course, though I daresay this will not be the only case of this type. An entirely new sort of criminal, Watson, and no doubt I shall be called to test my wits against those who follow him."
A/N: This actually happened; during the Jack the Ripper murders, an anti-Semitic slur was found painted on the wall near one of the victims (I'm no expert and I am not certain which one), which Scotland Yard ordered cleaned away before it could be recorded and investigated, to avoid any increase in anti-Semitic feeling in London. It is unknown to this day whether the writing had anything to do with the Ripper murders, was a red herring, a deliberate misdirection, or anything else.