Jack Stapleton

The murderer of The Hound of the Baskervilles, who painted a savage hound with phosphorus to win an inheritance.

Jack Stapleton is the murderer in Arthur Conan Doyle's novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. He lives on Dartmoor with Beryl, who passes as his sister but is in fact his wife, and he is really Rodger Baskerville II, the secret son of Sir Charles Baskerville's youngest brother. Holmes remarks that he considers Stapleton one of his most cunning adversaries.

Quick Facts

Novel debut: The Hound of the Baskervilles

Lore & Background

Stapleton bought a savage black hound and painted it with phosphorus to make it look diabolical, hoping that by fright or direct attack it would remove the other heirs so that he could inherit the Baskerville fortune. On the moor he is over-friendly, drops hints about the hound and warns Watson against trying to cross the dangerous Grimpen Mire, and he strongly objects when Sir Henry falls in love with Beryl. His hound, set on the trail with Sir Henry's stolen boot, instead kills the escaped convict Selden, who was wearing Sir Henry's discarded clothes.

Reader's Guide

Holmes notices that a portrait of Sir Hugo Baskerville bears a remarkable resemblance to Stapleton, but lacks the proof to convince the authorities, so he uses an unwitting Sir Henry as bait and hides near Stapleton's house with Watson and Inspector Lestrade. Despite thick fog they kill the hound when Stapleton unleashes it after Sir Henry. At the house they find that he has bound his wife to a column and vanished into the mire, where he is presumed to have drowned.

Did You Know?

Holmes explains that Stapleton was really Rodger Baskerville II, the secret son of Sir Charles's youngest brother.
Beryl, who poses as his sister, is actually his wife; abused and forced into the pretence, she repeatedly tries to get Sir Henry to flee back to London.