THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE NOTORIOUS CANARY TRAINER (APRIL 23, 1945)

The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes ran from 1939 to 1950, first on the Blue Network, then (from 1943) on the Mutual Broadcasting Network.  It followed the earlier The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which ran from 1930 to 1935.  The earlier series and the first five years of the later series were written or adapted by Edith Meisner, who later returned for the seventh season.  Max Ehrlich and  Howard Merrill wrote the episode for the eighth season.  In between, most of the scripts were written by Dennis Green and Anthony Boucher (with some earlier episodes written by Green and Leslie Charteris); Green returned for the final season.

In Conan Doyle's 1904 Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of Black Peter" (Collier's Weekly, February 27, 1904; reprinted in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, 1905), Dr. Watson mentions several unwritten cases solved by Holmes, including the recent arrest of "Wilson. the notorious canary trainer, which removed a plague-spot from the East-End of London."   Wilson is prominent in Adrian Conan Doyle's pastiche "The Adventure of the Deptford Horror" (Collier's, September 18, 1953; reprinted in Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr's The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes, 1954).  The Nicholas Meyer Sherlock Holmes novel The Canary Trainer (1993) does not feature Wilson, rather the Canary Trainer of the title refers to Eric, the character from Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel, The Phantom of the Opera.

From the Old Time Radio Downloads site (apologies for the syntax):  "It was the summer of 1908, Holmes and Watson were holidaying in a little village called Kingsgate in Kent.  They were staying in a charming little inn called The Fisherman's Arms.  A young girl called Mary Victor asks Mr. Holmes for his advice because she feels someone is following her.  A man living in the same hotel keeps canaries which Holmes finds rather annoying, he calls himself Wainwright, but Holmes remembers him as Wilson a crook  that Homes helped put him in prison eight years earlier.  Mary Victor is nowhere to be found and Wilson commits suicide after confessing to Holmes that he has murdered someone but he won't say who.  Has Wilson really committed suicide or is all a ruse."

Come, Watson, the game's afoot.  Starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy1KQqCsubw&list=PLqPlvTLtBE19NARN3v0iiguwcna56QqhC&index=8