Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character, Sherlock Holmes is a detective based on a real-life figure who used methods of deduction at work, Dr. Joseph Bell.

The “real” Holmes was a patrician gent named Dr. Joseph Bell, who lectured at the University of Edinburgh’s medical school in the 19th century and had a knack for revealing things about a ...

Elementary and The Real Sherlock Holmes Elementary, with Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu, debuts Thursday on CBS and Global; The Real Sherlock Holmes follows Friday on History Sept. 26, 2012 3 min read ...

But more than 120 years after Holmes’ first tale was published, new evidence has emerged of the real inspiration for the enigmatic detective. And the answer is, well, elementary.

However, this detective was not Sherlock Holmes but a real-life investigator, Jerome Caminada, who, research suggests, was the main inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle’s celebrated hero.