- Inspector Lastrade reveals to Holmes that someone has been inexplicably breaking into homes for the senseless purpose of breaking small busts of Napoleon.
- Inspector Lastrade drops by Baker Street to socialize and presents Holmes with his current problem. He is baffled by a series of apparently senseless burglaries in which the only thing stolen is a small bust of Napoleon, which is later broken into pieces by the thief. Unlike Lastrade, Holmes sees a sinister purpose behind these irrational break-ins and has that confirmed when a Italian immigrant with Mafia connections is found with his throat slashed at the scene of the latest robbery.—Gabe Taverney (duke1029@aol.com)
- In passing, Inspector Lestrade mentions to Holmes a series of minor vandalisms that have taken place: three busts of Napoleon have been destroyed for no apparent reason. Holmes is initially disinterested but his interest is piqued when the next vandalism involves a murder.—grantss
- Sherlock Holmes is asked by Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard to assist with a most peculiar case. He has been investigating a series of break-ins in shops and private homes where all that happens is the destruction of a bust of Napoleon. The case includes murder when one of the burglaries also leaves an unidentified dead man on the front steps. Holmes realizes that someone is searching for an article hidden in one of the busts.—garykmcd
- Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard brings Holmes a seemingly trivial problem about a man who shatters plaster busts of Napoleon. One was shattered in Morse Hudson's shop, and two others, sold by Hudson to a Dr. Barnicot, were smashed after the doctor's house and branch office had been burgled. Nothing else was taken. In the former case, the bust was taken outside before being broken. Holmes knows that Lestrade's theory about a Napoleon-hating lunatic must be wrong. The busts in question all came from the same pre-cast. Why is he breaking them? The next day, Lestrade calls Holmes to a house where there has been yet another bust-shattering, but there has also been a murder. Mr. Horace Harker (Eric Sykes) found the dead man on his doorstep after investigating a noise. His Napoleon bust was also taken by a burglar entering through a window. It, too, was from the same pre-cast. Also, a photograph of a rather apish-looking man is found in the dead man's pocket.
The fragments of Harker's bust are in the front garden of an empty house up the street. Obviously, the burglar wanted to see what he was doing, for there is a streetlamp here, whereas the bust could have been broken at another empty house nearer Harker's, but it had been dark there. Holmes tells Lestrade to tell Harker, a journalist for the Central Press Syndicate, that he is convinced that the culprit is a lunatic. Holmes knows that this is not true, but it is expedient to use the press to convince the culprit that this is what the investigators believe. Holmes interviews the two shopkeepers who sold the busts and finds out whom they were sold to, and where they were made, Gelder & Co. A couple of his informants also recognize the apish man in the picture. They know him as Beppo (Emil Wolk), an Italian immigrant. He even worked in the shop where the first bust was broken, having left his job there only two days earlier.
Holmes goes to Gelder & Co. and finds out that the busts were part of a batch of six, but other than that, the manager can think of no reason why they should be special, or why anyone would want to destroy them. He recognizes Beppo's picture and describes him as a rascal. He was imprisoned for a street-fight stabbing a year earlier (Beppo had had an affair with the sister of a respectable man. when the brother found out, he challenged Beppo to a knife fight just outside the factory where Beppo worked. Beppo stabbed & wounded the brother & was arrested by the police. The brother was related to the mafia & the sister was disinherited because of this affair) but has likely been released now. He once worked at Gelder & Co. but has not been back. His cousin still works there. Holmes begs the manager not to talk to the cousin about Beppo.
That evening, Lestrade brings news that the dead man has been identified as Pietro Venucci (Vincenzo Nicoli) (The same person as the brother of the adulteress sister), a Mafioso. Lestrade believes that Venucci was sent to kill Beppo but wound-up dead himself. Turns out that the brother of the woman Beppo had sex with, was a part of the Mafioso & now the entire Italian mafia was after Beppo to avenge insult to one of their members. Beppo is caught. After sending an express message, Holmes invites Dr. Watson and Lestrade to join him outside a house in Chiswick where apparently Holmes is expecting another bust-breaking. Lestrade by now is exasperated with Holmes's preoccupation with the busts, but comes. They are not disappointed. Beppo shows up, enters the house, and comes back out of the window minutes later with a Napoleon bust, which he proceeds to shatter. He then examines the pieces, quite unaware that Holmes and Lestrade are sneaking up behind him. They pounce, and Beppo is arrested. He will not talk, however.
The mystery is at last laid bare after Holmes offers £10 to the owner of the last existing bust, making him sign a document transferring all rights and ownership of the bust to Holmes. After the seller has left, Holmes smashes the bust and among the plaster shards is a gem, the black pearl of the Borgias. Holmes was aware of the case of its disappearance from the beginning. Suspicion had fallen on the owner's maid, whose name was Lucretia Venucci (Marina Sirtis) - the dead man's sister. Beppo was courting Lucretia at the time & acquired the pearl from her, and hid it inside a still-soft plaster bust at the factory where he worked, moments before his arrest for the street-fight stabbing. Pietro had found that Beppo had used Lucretia to execute this crime & wanted revenge, along with the custody of the pearl. After serving his one-year sentence, he sought to retrieve the hidden pearl. He found out from his cousin who bought the busts, and through his own efforts and confederates, even found out who the end buyers were. He then proceeded to seek the busts out, smashing them one by one to find the pearl.
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