What if Holmes Actually Caught Moriarty?

Allow me to throw in a "what if"? What if Holmes captured Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls? How would Holmes bring him back to England? He brought nothing to tie him with in his meeting. Maybe without knowing it he was hoping Moriarty would kill him. Holmes would have feared the boredom and Moriarty was his ultimate challenge.

Would Moriarty (as he feared) be bound by Holmes as Caesar bound Vercingetorix and paraded through London? Imagine the reception. Now imagine what the trial would be like. The threat of witnesses disappearing, for example. Too many people have their livelihoods connected to the Professor to just allow him to go down the tube. Would the subsequent conviction and hanging become a political event? Would Moriarty be thought of as common criminal or Irish matyr?

Does Sherlock Holmes Really Want to Capture Moriarty?

In some ways no. Why do I say that? I suspect for Holmes, Moriarty is like another one of the narcotics Holmes uses. Moriarty is the most interesting criminal Holmes has ever dealt with. Holmes takes the drugs when his mind is not occupied. In that sense, Holmes needs Moriarty!

Holmes must eventually catch Moriarty in order to not be seen as having failed. It reminds me of the Gilbert and Sullivan Operetta, the Mikado when Katisha thinks the executioner has killed Nanki Poo and she cries "Where shall I find another?" In Holmes' mind, he will never meet another challenge like Moriarty.

Did Holmes want to kill Moriarty? No! Moriarty's going for that fatal swim is not what Holmes wanted at all. Holmes wanted to be able to bring Moriarty back to England in shackles and deliver him to British Justice. Holmes wanted to be able to see Moriarty tried on a capital charge and then be able to attend his hanging.

Moriarty certainly did not want to die at the Falls. If a camera could have followed him like a bungee jump, he probably would have thought before he blacked out, better this than Holmes taking him back Britain, humiliating him, and then having hated British justice finish him off.

I've read about many Serial and Spree killers such as Andrew Cunanan or Herbert Baumeister who will kill themselves to avoid capture. This way, they are in control, even to the end. If Moriarty were cornered, rather than shoved over the falls, might he have taken his own life instead, with his own version of falling on his sword? Food for thought.

Switzerland Reichenbach Falls and Moriarty's Watery Roiling End.

Website in Sherlock Holmes' Swiss Footsteps

What a rugged place! I would not have chosen it for a final meeting if I thought for a minute the discussion would become violent. In military planning, you would not have chosen such a spot.