At the conclusion of a criminal investigation, a wealth of material is brought together in compiling the definitive case report. In some instances this can result in room after room full of documents amassed over months or years, having to be indexed and cross-referenced against the body of the report in order to be read and digested by those considering the case. After 19 years in the CID in London I had seen enough of these files to know exactly what it was I had stumbled upon in an Exeter auction room in early 2010. What I was not prepared for was the discovery of the original police papers into the matter recorded simply as - DCC/1435/89, known more readily to us as - 'The Matter of the Hound of the Baskervilles'. These original police reports chronicle the progress of the investigation from the police perspective, something never seen before. The folio consists of reports from the Metropolitan Police and the Devon County Constabulary as well as the Governor of HMP Dartmoor and the Pathologist who examined both Sir Charles Baskerville and Arthur Selden.
The folio concludes with police witness statements from all of the principals together with numerous items of private correspondence and even some original photographic plates and provides a unique insight into the workings of the police and a hitherto unseen side to the official investigation into The Hound of the Baskervilles.