La Strada

La Strada
Fictional Character
Atlantis POD: c 85,000,000 BCE; Relevant POD: 1452
Appearance(s):	"The Scarlet Band"
Type of Appearance:	Direct
Nationality:	United States of Atlantis
Date of Birth:	c. 1830
Occupation:	Police inspector, Soldier
Professional Affiliations:	Hanover PD
Military Branch:	Atlantean Army (Atlantean Servile Insurrection)

Inspector La Strada was a police officer in Hanover, Atlantis in the late 19th century. Like many in the upper strata of Atlantean society, La Strada hated the House of Universal Devotion, a religion established in Atlantis about 50 years prior, believing that its followers placed their loyalty to the religion above their loyalty to the country. His hatred was such that La Strada became a leader of a conspiracy to destroy the House by framing it for the murders of various critics.

La Strada and his group overreached themselves when they hired the famous British detective Athelstan Helms to investigate the murders, believing that he would be convinced by the manufactured evidence. Instead, Helms and his associate Dr. James Walton unraveled the conspiracy when a Thetford police sergeant, Casimir Karpinski, clumsily murdered another critic, Benjamin Joshua Morris just after the hapless fellow had met with Helms and Walton. Helms confronted Karpinski, who, at a press conference, fingered La Strada. La Strada attempted to murder Karpinski on the spot, but was subdued by an attentive reporter.

La Strada was a veteran of the Atlantean Servile Insurrection and had been wounded in the leg during the conflict.

Dr. Walton observed that in London, a man of Italian descent, which La Strada was, would never attain a high rank in the police force.

Literary comment

Dennis Hoey, perhaps the most famous film Lestrade.

La Strada is based upon Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard, a supporting character in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes" stories. He was not complicit in any criminal activity in Doyle's writings.