Caminada was born in
Deansgate, Manchester in 1844, to an Irish mother named Mary Boyle and an Italian father. At that time, Deansgate consisted mostly of
public houses,
brothels, and poor quality housing for mill workers, and was the heart of
Victorian Manchester's crime world. He began working as an engineer in the city, but in February 1868, he joined the
Manchester City Police force, at the age of 24. In 1872 he was promoted to sergeant, and transferred to the newly formed detectives division, based in
Manchester Town Hall. Over his thirty-one-year career, from 1868 until 1899, he earned the respect of colleagues, judges and criminals alike; he was often known as Detective Jerome to the local criminals, who struggled with pronouncing his last name. On 25 September 1880 Caminada led a
police raid on a
cross-dressing ball held in the Temperance Hall in
Hulme, rounding up 47 suspects, about half of whom had been in
drag and the other half in fancy dress. A blind
accordionist had been hired to provide music. Rather than let the alleged evidence of
male prostitution be brought to public trial, the
magistrates' court bound over all the suspects for a year on two
sureties of £25 each. In 1888, Caminada's national reputation for policing – he was reportedly responsible for the imprisonment of 1,225 criminals and for the closure of 400 public houses – earned him promotion to inspector. Threats on his life were commonplace; Caminada often carried a
Colt Lightning Revolver, and had cause to use it on more than one occasion. Bob Horridge, regarded as public enemy number one in 1880s Manchester, was a Blacksmith in
Angel Meadow by day and a violent burglar and armed robber by night, and arch rival of Caminada, who eventually apprehended him in 1887. Caminada tracked
Fenian dynamite conspiracy suspects. His policing style was eccentric by modern standards, and often involved dressing in disguise to gather evidence on suspects. He maintained a large network of informers, whom he would often meet on the back pew of
St Mary's RC Church, known as the Hidden Gem. His methods were effective however, and he was soon made
Detective Superintendent. Caminada retired in 1899, and became a private detective, an estate agent, and a Manchester city councillor for
Openshaw between 1907 and 1910. Angela Buckley, a British historian and trustee of the Society of Genealogists, claims that the Victorian-era detective who featured in Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle's novels was based on Jerome Caminada's life. “Caminada became a national figure at just the time that Sherlock Holmes was being created. There are so many parallels that it is clear Doyle was using parts of this real character for his," Buckley was quoted by the Telegraph as saying. Dubbed 'the Garibaldi of Detectives', Caminada rose to prominence in the mid-1880s, shortly before Doyle's debut Holmes novel,
A Study in Scarlet, and during his time as an investigator is said to have helped imprison 1,225 criminals. The detective died in 1914 aged 69 – the year the last Holmes book was published. ==Family==