You fools,Don't you realize what's happening? The deaths of your station managers were not just accidents. They were ordained by forces none of you understand. The spirits of our Hawaiian ancestors have cursed you, and the ancient Hawaiian Gods are angry.
Beware, each of you is at risk. Change your ways immediately before you too fall to the wrath of Pele and other forces that come for you in the night.
-- Note received by radio stations following the death of Stanley Prudhomme (from the Sherlock Holmes Night mystery)
Who pushed Stanley Prudhomme
By Burl Burlingame
into the fiery volcano pit?
Folks get to sniff out clues at HPD's
Sherlock Holmes Night
Star-BulletinSHERLOCK Holmes, when bored or just deep in thought, would shoot bullets into his wall and spell out "V.R." -- a patriotic "Victoria Regina" -- or he'd snort cocaine, or attend the opera, or fiddle on his violin, or rescue cigars from the coal scuttle. Chances are pretty good that Traffic Division Maj. Gary Dias of the Honolulu Police Department does few, if any, of the above activities. But he's just as likely to say, "Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot!"
Dias is the criminal mastermind behind the unfortunate fictional demise of radio executive Stanley Prudhomme, 61, who tumbled into an active lava flow on the Big Island and disappeared in a puff of greasy smoke. Tumbled? Or ... pushed?
By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
HPD's Major Gary Dias shows a bust of Chang Apana,
the Honolulu detective who inspired Hollywood's version
of Charlie Chan.
"Who Threw Stanley Into the Volcano?" is the back story to this year's HPD Sherlock Holmes Night, starting at 7 p.m. Oct. 3 at the Neal Blaisdell Center Hawaii Room.As in SH Nights in years past, teams will be given clues and background information, will be able to grill suspects ("celebrity guests" such as radio DJs Erika Engle, Kari Steele and "B. Rock" Whaley and TV newscasters such as Paula Akana, Lee Cataluna and Shawn Ching), visit displays of forensic science, and then solve the mystery within the time limit.
It's free, if you don't count parking fees at the Blaisdell. To register and get the information packet, send a contact name, address and daytime phone number to Dias at Traffic Division, Honolulu Police Department, 801 S. Beretania, Honolulu HI 86813, no later than Friday.
The packet is largely a booklet that contains the story of Stanley, written by Dias and illustrated by a posse of police department artists. "Our budget to put this out is about ... zero," said Dias.
Likely Characters:
LEFT TO RIGHT: Lee Cataluna plays Detective Perryleen Mason. A FEW PRIME SUSPECTS: Boris Wysinski (Cliff Richards): Is his green card valid? Natashi Grishenko (Erika Engle): Is her green card valid? Homer (B. Rock Whaley): Who blew up his Volkswagen? Bill Pacheco (Shawn Ching): He has a reason to hate the station owner This year Dias has added appendices and a crime-scene handbook in the back. Scattered throughout are ersatz newspaper stories with wildly improbable bylines like Robileen Dinglelemomi and Robbie Dingleheimer.
Last year, more than 800 people attended the event. "It's grown over the years," said Dias. "The first year, about four years ago, we got 300. We try to keep it lighthearted so the community has a good time."
It's not a fund-raiser, although there will be tables for community groups that gladly accept donations.
The original idea was to create an interactive event so that the public could get a taste of police procedurals. Unless you're a kid in a D.A.R.E. school, most of us only interact with police only when we wish we didn't have to. "Generally, in traffic situations, and that's usually negative," said Dias.
"The immediate benefit for many attending this event is that they come into personal contact with police officers in a friendly, interactive way, and that helps lead to long-term understanding.
"Like Sir Robert Peel said, police should be a part of the community, not apart from the community."
The participants also learn intellectual teamwork. This event isn't for passive couch spuds.
"It often takes many heads together to come up with the correct answer," said Dias. "The mystery gives people a feeling about what it's like to try and do police work, a feel for the difficulties. And we keep it amusing so they're entertained as well."
Teams so far have averaged about 18 percent correct. The police average is considerably higher. Keep that in mind next time you whine about crime-solving in your neighborhood.
The facts
What: Sherlock Holmes Night, for teams of no more than 5 people
