His work determined that the moths killed in this way are suicidal. As corroborating evidence, he cited the global human suicide rate of .0074 percent. When you figure there are an estimated 200 trillion moths and butterflies, it makes sense that millions would kill themselves every night. It’s simple mathematics.

It was accounted a strange coincidence when Dr. Seckenheim himself committed suicide after his marriage ended.

Stephens could find no explanation for the manner of death. The victim was fully dressed in a suit and tie, but had died from several bullet wounds to his heart. His clothes did not have any holes or blood on them. No one reported hearing any gunshots. A note read that despite his death, he refused to leave the neighborhood.

No one could ever remember any water being drawn from the well. Yet, thanks to its purported wish granting properties, people still visited from miles around.

The well was meant to be a mystery, like God or a woman’s heart; it was better not knowing where the bottom lay.

Old Man: The fault, dear kids, lies not with my stars
nor with any lack of resolve in my felonious arts,
but in your mysterious machine you came peddling
and in solving this crime have proven sorely meddling

Exuent Old Man

When Detective Byrne linked the brand of cigarette ash, the stray button made of gold-lip oyster pearl, and the Stratford Street haberdasher, he was hailed as the living embodiment of Sherlock Holmes.

Within the decade, Byrne was supervising the entire London department. The Haberdasher was eventually executed.