Shortly after his arrival in England, a wealthy, elderly lady was murdered in her home in the same small town in which he had settled.  A friend of the murdered lady knew of the detective’s police background and asked him to help.  The Scotland Yard detective allowed the former police detective into the home just to see if there was anything he could offer.  Within a short time, the Belgian refugee had solved the crime, earned the respect and friendship of the Scotland Yard detective, and began his career as a private detective.  For decades, the private detective had worked independently and with Scotland Yard to solve crimes.

The private detective, now aged, wheelchair bound because of arthritis, and suffering from a weak heart, was working a murder case in the small town where his private detective career began, Styles St. Mary.  The private detective linked four other unsolved murders to the one he was investigating.  Through meticulous investigation, the private detective learned the identity of the murderer and wrote it down in a detailed letter to an acquaintance.  He went to bed that night without taking his amyl nitrite heart medicine and died during the night from a heart attack. 

The New York Times reported that the detective’s age was unknown.  Although elderly, the proud detective concealed his age with false hair and makeup.  Even his being wheelchair bound was a ploy to help him gain information in what was to be his last case.  The former Belgian police detective, the refugee who escaped the atrocities of the Germans, the private detective who purportedly died as a result of a heart attack while solving his last case, was murdered.  He was murdered by his own creator.  The private detective was the creation of the most successful novelist of all time, outsold only by Shakespeare and the Bible.  The private detective’s name was Hercule Poirot.  He was murdered by Dame Agatha Christie just months before her own death.  The obituary published on the front page of the New York Times on August 6, 1975, was the first instance in which the newspaper had printed an obituary for a fictional character. 

Source:

1.      The New York Times, August 6, 1975, p.1.

2.      Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (New York: John Lane, 1920).

3.      Agatha Christie, Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case (London: Collins Crime Club, 1975).