I remember from my childhood listening to a radio show about a “Gentlemen Cracksmith”, essentially a cat burgular and his sidekick (named Bunny?) If memory serves they were dramtizations of a series of novels written by Conan-Doyles brother in law. They were apparently written around the same time as Sherlock Holmes and in some cases the plots were ripped off from Holmes as well.
The most vivid memory I have is of a story about the cat burgular and his sidekick having to dress as prostitutes in order to sneak into a house. Then the owner of the house (who I belive they were there to rob) discovers them and asks them about their “monster” which my mom explained was slang for Pimp.
Anyone know of this?
Close.
You mean the “Amateur Cracksman.” Meaning A.J. Raffles, the creation of E.W. Hornung, who was, indeed, Conan Doyle’s brother-in-law. I talk about him briefly in this thread:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=106521
His sidekick, always morally queasy about being a party to felonies, was named Bunny Manders.
Raffles was the hero of a number of films, and of a radio program, and led to the the creation of other gentleman rogues like Leslie Charteris’ Simon Templar, aka The Saint.
Well after Hornung’s death, a writer named Barry Perowne began writing further tales about Raffles and Bunny…I think he was probably behind the radio-writing as well.
I can’t help you on that particular plot point; I’ve only read the original Hornung stories, which were darn good, and definitely NOT ripped off from Holmes tales.