#beddington

Today’s antagonist is an interesting one. We’re looking at The Stockbroker’s Clerk, and because there are a lot of impersonators, it’s hard to tell who the actual criminals are. 

The best solution is to give a brief explanation to the story, or what it is when it’s solved. 

Arthur Pinnar wanted Hall Pycroft to be out of London in order for him and his brother (Beddington) to rob this company. He hired Pycroft into his own company, but in a very unusual way. 

He pretended to be one man called Pinnar, then told Pycroft to meet his brother, also Pinnar. But there aren’t two Pinnars, it’s just... Pinnar. Pycroft figures it out when he notices both brothers have the exact same gold tooth. Nice planning Pinnar. 

Also, Arthur Pinnar may or may not be his actual name, since he’s... impersonating Pinnar.

It is confirmed in a newspaper article from the story that Beddington is called Beddington. He was discovered when he was robbing the company Pycroft worked for. 

There’s even more impersonators when Sherlock and Watson pretend to be looking for a job when they’re trying to get to Pinnar, but they didn’t have to act for long since... Pinnar ran off and... tried to kill himself, unsuccessfully. Poor man can’t seem to do anything. 

The way Pinnar tries to commit suicide is quite dramatic: he tries to hang himself by his own trouser braces, and Sherlock could hear him banging about in a room when he was in the process of doing it. 

Beddington is more of a villain, so you could probably say ‘Pinnar’ was sort of coerced into doing it. He didn’t seem very well put together, and he was awful at lying. Whilst Pinnar had a mental breakdown, Beddington was robbing a company and becoming a murderer, whilst impersonating Pycroft. Siblings can be very different. 

After that very confusing case, we get a nice speech from Sherlock: