Langdale Pike is a celebrated gossipmonger whose columns are published in numerous magazines and newspapers which are referred to as the "garbage papers" by John Watson. Pike is introduced in "The Adventure of the Three Gables" in which he helps Sherlock Holmes learn the name of the woman who led Douglas Maberley to his demise, although he does not actually appear in the story itself and is only referred to by Watson, who describes Pike as "strange" and "languid" and states that all of Pike's waking hours are spent "in the bow window of a St. James's Street club".