Josiah Amberley
From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
Fictional character.
In the Sherlock Holmes stories
Josiah Amberley was the man who came to Sherlock Holmes claiming he was a wronged husband whose wife had run off with Dr. Ray Ernest and stolen his money, but he was ultimately revealed to be the murderer in the case. He was the client and the murderer.
- He was junior partner of Brickfall and Amberley, manufacturers of artistic materials (RETI 25). He retired from business and bought a house ("The Haven") at Lewisham (RETI 28, 59).
- He was literally bowed down by care, but with the framework of a giant (RETI 76). Sherlock Holmes noted he had an "artificial limb" (RETI 80).
- He married a woman twenty years younger than himself (RETI 32). He claimed she and Dr. Ray Ernest went off together (RETI 43) and that she carried off his deed-box with a good part of his life's savings (RETI 44).
- Sherlock Holmes stated Amberley "planned it with diabolical cleverness" (RETI 347) and used the strong-room to kill by turning the outside tap the room could be flooded with gas (RETI 377), and anyone shut up in that little chamber would die quickly (RETI 378). Sherlock Holmes confronted him about the bodies, and Amberley tried to kill himself with a white pellet, treated by the police as a practical confession (RETI 325).
