It’s bad enough to be murdered. But Thomas Anderson, a London actor who went by the stage name Thomas Weldon Atherston, had the bad luck to be murdered in the shadow of an even more sensational murder. At this time in 1910, the murder case du jour was that of Cora Crippen. Her husband Hawley Crippen was among those suspected of killing her, but there was no body. Well, the same week that Thomas Anderson was killed, Cora Crippen’s remains were found in the basement of her home. The hunt for Hawley Crippen was on! It was the murder case of the season. And poor Thomas Anderson was all but forgotten by the public.

To this day, Thomas Anderson’s murder remains unsolved. Hawley Crippen, meanwhile, was found guilty and sentenced to death for killing his wife.

This article presents the facts of the Anderson murder as they were known at the time. As the headline suggests, it’s a case that seems to be right out of a Sherlock Holmes story. Maybe you can find a clue where Scotland Yard did not.

SHERLOCK HOLMES WOULD BE BAFFLED BY THIS MYSTERY: A London Actor Is Found Murdered in a Battersea Garden, the Stage Setting Is Unusual, and Three Persons See the Murderer, Yet He Escapes and Scotland Yard Is Mystified. (PDF)

From August 21, 1910