Colonel Moran
Colonel Sebastian "Basher" Moran is a fictional character in the stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. An enemy of Sherlock Holmes, he first appears in the 1903 short story "The Adventure of the Empty House". Holmes once described him as "the second most dangerous man in London," the most dangerous being Professor Moriarty, Moran's employer. Fictional character biography. In "The Adventure of the Empty House", Sherlock Holmes looks up for biographical information about Sebastian Moran in his index of criminal biographies. According to these data, Moran was born in London in 1840, the son of Sir Augustus  Moran, CB, sometime Minister to Persia. He was educated at Eton College and the University of Oxford before embarking upon a military career. Formerly of the 1st Bangalore Pioneers (Madras), he served in the Jowaki Expedition of 1877–1878 and in the Second Anglo-Afghan War, seeing action at the Battle of Char Asiab, 6 October 1879 (for which he was mentioned in despatches); the Battle of Sherpur, 23 December 1879; and at Kabul. A devoted sportsman and highly skilled shot, he was author of the books "Heavy Game of the Western Himalayas" in 1881 and "Three Months in the Jungle  in 1884, and reportedly once crawled down a drain after a wounded man-eating tiger". Although there was no open scandal after his turning to crime, he was obliged to retire from the army and return to London. Outwardly respectable, with an address in Conduit Street, Mayfair, and membership of the (fictional) Anglo-Indian Club, the Tankerville Club and The Bagatelle Card Club, he was nevertheless recruited by Professor Moriarty, and served as his chief of staff. Ultimately he is used solely for assassinations that required his peculiar skill with the rifle; Holmes mentions the killing of a Mrs. Stuart  in 1887 which he suspects (but cannot prove) Moran was involved in. In "The Final Problem" (set in 1891), Moran escaped incrimination, and followed the Professor to Reichenbach Falls, where Moran attempted to kill Holmes by rolling boulders upon him. Thereafter Moran earned a living in London by playing cards at several clubs. When one of the other players, Ronald Adair, noticed that Moran won by cheating and threatened to expose him, Moran murdered Adair with a silenced air rifle that fired revolver bullets. Dr. Watson and the returned Holmes having taken the case, Moran attempted to kill Holmes  by firing the air rifle from a vacant house opposite the detective's residence. Holmes having anticipated this, Moran shot a wax effigy of the detective, while Holmes, Watson, and Inspector Lestrade all hid nearby to seize the would-be assassin. In "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client", Holmes mentions Moran as still alive (in September 1902). Moran is also mentioned in "His Last Bow" as an example of Holmes's many adversaries who have futilely sworn revenge against him. Colonel Sebastian Moran was also the villain in Doyle's Sherlock Holmes play "The Crown Diamond," written in the early  1900s but not performed until 1921. When this play was adapted as the short story "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone", Moran was replaced by 'Count Negretto Sylvius'.