Captain “Bingo” Hale

In the short story Finessing the King/The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper, Captain "Bingo" Hale is a good friend of Sir Arthur Merivale and his wife Vere. So close was their relationship that he often stayed over at the residence of the Merivales.

When Lady Merivale was stabbed, at the Ace of Spades bar, she told Tuppence with her dying breath that "Bingo did it". Hale was immediately arrested and the evidence began to stack up against him when it was found that he had been having an affair with Vere and had been exchanging letters. Lately, however, he had become interested in American woman. Inspector Marriot was somehow not convinced that Hale was the killing type but had to follow the evidence. Thus it was left to Tommy and Tuppence to discover the truth.

Portrayals
In LWT's 1983 TV adaptation of Finessing the King/The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper, "Bingo" Hale is portrayed by Peter Blythe. The portrayal is faithful to the original, except that here, he actually engages the Berefords through his solicitor to investigate the case. Tommy and Tuppence visit him in the police lock up to interview him and he provides all the background information which in the original was narrated by Inspector Marriot. The one difference is that the dagger which killed Lady Merivale actually belonged to him, and not to her. He kept it in his chambers in Jermyn Street and this was where he had his rendezvous with Lady Merivale. She had her own set of keys to the rooms. On dressing up in newspaper, he told the Beresfords that this was the idea of one of the servants in the Merivale household. She liked Alice in Wonderland and suggested it and made it for him.