"The Red-Headed League" is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Conan Doyle ranked "The Red-Headed League" second in his list of his twelve favourite Holmes stories.

The work was useless clerical labour, performed in nominal compliance with the will of an eccentric American millionaire who wanted to provide for the welfare of red-headed men like himself.

After eight weeks, Wilson reported to the office, only to find a note on the door stating that the Red-Headed League had been dissolved.

However, the story begins by describing Holmes's meeting with Wilson as being on "one day in the autumn of last year" and the date on the door telling of the League being dissolved is that of 9 October 1890, six months after the ad was placed.

[7] The story inspired the real-life 1971 Baker Street robbery in which a criminal gang tunneled from a rented shop into a bank vault.

An episode of the animated 1999–2001 television series Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century titled "The Red-Headed League" was based on the story.

[17] Other episodes adapted from the story aired on 28 May 1943,[18] and on 2 June 1947 (with Tom Conway as Holmes and Bruce as Watson).

[24] An adaptation aired on BBC radio in June 1978, starring Barry Foster as Holmes and David Buck as Watson.

In the first game, The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures, Herlock Sholmes (who is Doyle's Sherlock Holmes in the original Japanese version, with his name changed for legal reasons as part of localization) incorrectly deduces that one of the involved parties in the final case was trying to dig a tunnel into a bank from a pawnshop, which is quickly disproven by protagonist Ryunosuke Naruhodo.

In the second game, The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve, Sholmes is fooled by a fraudulent advertisement from the "Red-Headed League" and drinks a potion that turns his hair red before being scammed out of five shillings.

Sholmes later has the two leaders of the "league" arrested, and their testimony about the scam proves important in revealing the truth of the international conspiracy at the heart of the game's plot.