Fred Porlock
From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
Fictional character.
In the Sherlock Holmes stories
- Fred Porlock was a "nom de plume" used by a shifty, evasive person (unnamed) who serves as a link to Professor Moriarty's organization, and who has twice before given Sherlock Holmes advance information (encouraged by occasional ten-pound notes), including the cipher warning about Douglas, before writing that it was "too dangerous" to go further and signing "Fred Porlock." (VALL 16).
