John Clay
A brilliant criminal mastermind whose elaborate bank heist was outwitted by Sherlock Holmes.
John Clay is the wanted criminal whom Sherlock Holmes catches in "The Red-Headed League". Under the name Vincent Spaulding he works as the young assistant of the London pawnbroker Jabez Wilson. Holmes suspects him of planning to steal a shipment of gold coins, borrowed from a French bank, from the vault of a bank near the pawnshop.
Quick Facts
- First appears
- "The Red-Headed League"
Lore & Background
As Spaulding, Clay urged Wilson to answer a newspaper advertisement from "The Red-Headed League", which then paid Wilson £4 a week to copy out the Encyclopaedia Britannica for four hours each day. Holmes saw that the League had been devised only to keep Wilson away from his shop for a few hours daily. Spaulding spent much of his time in the cellar, supposedly developing photographs, which made Holmes think he was digging a passage to another building; the worn and dirty knees of his trousers confirmed it.
Reader's Guide
Holmes waits in the darkened bank vault with Watson, Inspector Jones of Scotland Yard and the bank chairman Mr. Merryweather. After more than an hour, Clay and his red-headed accomplice Archie break up through the vault floor. Clay is apprehended at once, while Archie flees through the tunnel and is caught by police stationed at the shop.
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