A vintage hotel, an unsolved murder, and the rise of a little detective - a thread:
The Savoy Hotel in Mussoorie is an iconic colonial era structure. Presently operated by the ITC Group, the Savoy was opened in the summer of 1902 (1/n)
The Savoy Hotel in Mussoorie is an iconic colonial era structure. Presently operated by the ITC Group, the Savoy was opened in the summer of 1902 (1/n)
It soon rivaled The Cecil, Shimla & The Carlton, Lucknow as a popular holiday destination for the European gentry in India. In 1905, princess of Wales (later Queen Mary) stayed there during a visit to India (2/n)
However, in 1911, the hotel received possibly its strangest visitor ever. Miss. Frances Garnett-Orme, a 49-year old spinster who was reasonably well known as a spiritualist, came to stay at the Savoy (3/n)
At one point of her life, Miss Frances was engaged to be married to a British army officer but her would-be husband died just before their marriage. The lady never married and instead devoted her life to seances, crystal ball gazing and so on (4/n)
She was accompanied by another lady, Miss Eva Mountstephen, whom she had met while traveling and who also shared similar interests. The rather unusual pair had struck up a friendship possibly because of their common interest of the afterlife (5/n)
But one day, things went terribly wrong. Miss Frances was found dead in her bed. The doors & windows of her room were found locked from the inside. Miss Eva had left for Agra the previous morning (6/n)
An autopsy on the deceased revealed the cause of death to be prussic acid (a form of cyanide) poisoning. Suspicion immediately fell on her companion, Miss Eva Mountstephen since she was the only one in close contact with the departed (7/n)
Miss Eva was arrested but she was acquitted for lack of solid evidence by Judge William John Dwyer Burkitt, who prophetically as it would turn out, claimed that the true circumstances of Miss Frances' death probably never be known (8/n)
Suspicion had also fallen on Miss Frances' doctor. There were rumors that he was co-conspirator and had supplied the deadly poison to Miss Eva. The man lost his flourishing practice & soon left Mussorie (9/n)
One more round of surprise was still left. Mr. Charles Jackson, a painter who was well acquainted with both the ladies, suddenly died, apparently of cholera, two months after Miss Frances' death (10/n)
His body was later exhumed for autopsy and cause of death was found to be arsenic poisoning. However, no headway was made in this case either. The Frances Garnett-Orme mystery became quite famous and reached English shores (11/n)
Rudyard Kipling, who was then in India, wrote to his good friend, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, urging him to find out more about the case and maybe base a story on it. Conan Doyle never came to writing on it (12/n)
But it has been suggested that Agatha Christie's Mysterious Affair at Styles, that marked the debut of her little Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, was inspired by the Savoy affair (13/n)
Alas, there was no Holmes or Poirot in Mussorie to solve this crime that left the police baffled (14/n)
Picture credit: The Better India & Make My Trip
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