Justice Lawrence John Wargrave was a former judge. He retired and invited the rest of the ten to Soldier Island. Having a romantic imagination, he always wanted to murder people who were guilty. So, he pretends to be a victim of the murderous U.N. Owen by creating a plot with Doctor Armstrong to pretend to die. He ends up killing Armstrong and letting William Blore, Philip Lombard, and Vera Claythorne finish off the job. To show that he was the real "U.N. Owen", Agatha Christie never shows the story from his point of view.
Biography[]
Crime[]
On June 10th, 1930, he committed judicial murder by sending an innocent man, Edward Seton, to hang. Wargrave reasoned this act by saying that Seton was guilty of many things.
Soldier Island[]
Wargrave pretended to be the one who was giving the rest of the group suggestions for who the murderer was. By doing this, he eventually makes Claythorne think that Lombard is the murderer, and vice versa. He was also the only one of the "little Indians" who was not truly guilty of crime, but rather justly doing his job.
Wargrave hired the Thomas and Ethel Rogers and sent all of the notes to the guests. He put cyanide in Anthony Marston's liquor, put a lethal dose of chloral hydrate in Mrs. Rogers' brandy, hit John Macarthur in the head, split Mr. Rogers's head open with an axe, stabbed Emily Brent with the hypodermic syringe, pretended to be shot in the head (the plot with Armstrong), pushed Armstrong off of a cliff into the ocean, dropped the clock onto William Blore's head, and let Claythorne shoot Lombard. He finally tests Claythorne by seeing if she would hang herself, in which she did. He then wrote his confession, threw it into the sea, and shot himself dramatically.
Wargrave thought that the guilty should pay. Pay they did. Wargrave thought that the innocent should not be harmed. Harmed they were not. In conclusion, Justice Wargrave was the murderous lunatic who was behind the scenes, pulling the strings, proclaiming himself as U.N. Owen.
Death[]
After Vera Claythorne leaves the group to go to her room, she is heard screaming. Everyone in the group rushes to her room, but during the confusion, Mr. Owen seemingly corners Wargrave, shoots him in the head, and dresses him in a judicial wig and gown, mimicking the line in the poem. This is a ruse created by Armstrong and Wargrave, however. Wargrave pretends to be dead, so he can spy as Mr. Owen without any suspicion. Wargrave commits suicide later in the novel, after writing an confession.
Portrayals[]
TV[]
- Bruce Belfrage in Ten Little N*ggers (1949)
- Barry Jones in Ten Little Indians (1959)
- Alfred Shieske in Zehn Kleine Negerlein (1969)
Film[]
- Barry Fitzgerald (as Francis Quincannon) in And Then There Were None (1945)
- Wilfred Hyde-White (as Judge Cannon) in Ten Little Indians (1965)
- Richard Attenborough (as Arthur Cannon) in Ten Little Indians/And Then There Were None (1974)
- Vladimir Zeldin in Desyat Negrityat (1987)
- Donald Pleasence in Ten Little Indians (1989)
Video Game[]
- Philip Clarke in Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None