Man writes original Sherlock Holmes stories for Boy Scouts

[fgoodwin 23]

Man writes original Sherlock Holmes stories for Boy Scouts

 

http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/118460526965600.xml&storylist=newsmichigan

http://tinyurl.com/2up3p5

 

7/16/2007, 12:44 p.m. ET

By GARY GOULD

The Associated Press

 

CORUNNA, Mich. (AP) When people told Jerry "BP" Riggs his stories were something that should be experienced by a larger audience, the answer for the 57-year-old retired postal worker was elementary.

 

Riggs' stories about the further adventures of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes had become staples of summer camps offered to area Boy Scouts. But to reach more people he decided to have his stories published.

 

Recently, his first book, "The Unusual Sherlock Holmes," was published by Infinity Publishing.com, bringing to print three Riggs stories that for years have encouraged problem solving skills among the Boy Scouts of the Chief Okemos Council.

 

"The methods Holmes used to solve mysteries were methods of observation and the proper use of imagination," Riggs said. "Some of these methods used to be taught to scouts, but now it's gone. But I brought it back."

 

Riggs' stories about Holmes dealt with the principles of S.H.E.R.L.O.C.K. See Hear Examine Read Learn Observe Conclude Know which were an integral part of the training British scouts were put through under Colonel R.S.S. Baden-Powell.

 

Baden-Powell, a colonel with the 5th Dragoon Guards, trained elite British cavalry scouts more than 100 years ago, emphasizing detective skills. Many of those skills were derived from the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories about the great detective Sherlock Holmes.

 

"Baden-Powell called it 'Sherlocking,'" Riggs said, noting that his own "BP" nickname comes from the British officer's name. "Police forces back then used it as part of their training, too."

 

Riggs said he has for years told Holmes stories to scouts, but only recently was he urged to put his own scout summer camp tales into book form.

 

"After each session they were supposed to come up with their findings and I found that they all wanted to say that (the murder) was done with a certain weapon, in a specific room by a particular person," Riggs said. "I then realized they were getting their deduction skills from playing the (board) game Clue."

 

Riggs, a Holmes fan since he was a 14-year-old junior high student in Lansing, said deduction and problem solving are lost scouting arts.

 

Riggs said after finding a publisher, he set out to write three of his stories a task made difficult by his limited computer knowledge. He said staff of the Community District Library in Corunna taught him word processing and helped him transform thoughts and handwritten notes into printed words.

 

"I bribed them with a lot of homemade cookies," he said. "I took one of the first copies (of the book) down there, and it's on the library's shelf now."

 

The published stories include an 1879 adventure by a young Sherlock Holmes in the wilds of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, another that investigates a mystery involving the legend of Camelot and another where Holmes and his faithful assistant, Watson, stumble onto a murder while taking in the fall colors in the England countryside.

 

Riggs is already working on a sequel.

 

"Everyone from early readers to adults with a college education have come back and said these stories are good," Riggs said. "It makes me feel good. It's like watching a kid come down to Christmas morning and seeing the reaction on their face. I wish everyone could read my book."

 

--

Information from: The Argus-Press, http://www.argus-press.com