Conan Doyle for the Defense
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Tilstone, William J., Kathleen A. Savage, and Leigh A. Clark. Forensic Science: An Encyclopedia of History, Methods, and Techniques. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2006.
Toughill, Thomas. Oscar Slater: The “Immortal” Case of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Stroud, U.K.: Sutton Publishing, 2006.
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Whittington-Egan, Richard, and Molly Whittington-Egan. Introduction to Conan Doyle (1985).
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Womack, Steven. Introduction to Hines (2001).
NOTES
ABBREVIATIONS
ACD
Arthur Conan Doyle
AMA
Arthur Montague Adams
AT
Amalie (Malchen) Leschziner Tau
DC
David Cook
ES
Ewing Speirs
EL
Euphemia (Phemie) Leschziner
HL
Helen Lambie
HMPP
His Majesty’s Prison Peterhead
JTT
Det. Lt. John Thompson Trench
LF
Leschziner family
MB
Margaret Birrell
ML
Mitchell Library, Glasgow
MP
Master of Polworth
NRS
National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh
OS
Oscar Slater
PL
Pauline Leschziner
REP
Reverend Eleazar Phillips
WAG
William A. Goodhart
WG
William Gordon
WP
William Park
WR
William Roughead
AUTHOR’S NOTE
“given the compound surname”: Russell Miller, The Adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle: A Biography (New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, 2008), 24.
The True Conan Doyle: Adrian Conan Doyle, The True Conan Doyle (New York: Coward-McCann, 1946).
INTRODUCTION
“as brutal and callous a crime”: Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case of Oscar Slater (New York: Hodder & Stoughton/George H. Doran Company, 1912), 79–80.
“remain immortal in the classics”: ACD letter to the Spectator, July 25, 1914. In John Michael Gibson and Richard Lancelyn Green, eds., The Unknown Conan Doyle: Letters to the Press (London: Secker & Warburg, 1986), 205.
“See you Oscar”: Dictionary of the Scottish Language, www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/sndns2758. Though less well known than its Cockney counterpart, Glasgow rhyming slang likewise arose during the nineteenth century and has remained at least as robust as its London cousin. Contemporary examples include “the Tony Blairs” (“stairs”), “Andy Murray” (“curry”), “Gregory Pecks” (“specs”), and “Marilu Henner” (“tenner”—a ten-pound note). These examples are from Antonio Lillo, “Nae Barr’s Irn-Bru Whit Ye’re oan Aboot: Musings on Modern Scottish Rhyming Slang,” English World-Wide 33, no. 1 (2012): 69–102.
“disgraceful frame-up”: Arthur Conan Doyle, Memories and Adventures, 2nd ed. (London: John Murray, 1930), 445.
“Scotland’s gulag”: Quoted in Phil Scraton, Joe Sim, and Paula Skidmore, Prisons Under Protest (Milton Keynes, U.K.: Open University Press, 1991), 65.
Had he passed the twenty-year mark: WP to ACD, Dec. 1, 1927, ML.
“I was up against a ring of political lawyers”: Letter, marked “Private,” from ACD to unknown recipient, n.d., ML; also quoted in Miller (2008), 299.
“a cat would scarcely be whipped”: Andrew Lang letter to WR. Quoted in Peter Hunt, Oscar Slater: The Great Suspect (London: Carroll & Nicholson, 1951), 142.
“The Slater affair”: Pierre Nordon, Conan Doyle: A Biography, trans. John Murray (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1967), 115.
“that paladin of lost causes”: William Roughead, ed., Trial of Oscar Slater, 4th ed., Notable British Trials Series (Edinburgh and London: William Hodge & Company, 1950), xxviii.
very likely the most famous character: In 1987, the eminent science-fiction writer and impassioned rationalist Isaac Asimov went this appraisal one better, writing, “Indeed, it is quite possible to maintain that Sherlock Holmes is the most famous fictional creation of any sort and of all time.” Isaac Asimov, “Thoughts on Sherlock Holmes,” Baker Street Journal 37, no. 4 (1987): 201.
Arthur and George: Julian Barnes, Arthur and George (London: Jonathan Cape, 2005).
“a disreputable, rolling-stone of a man”: Conan Doyle (1912), 43.
“reason backward”: “A Study in Scarlet,” in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes (New York: Penguin Books, 1981), 83.
“I have a turn”: Ibid., 23–24.
the moving series of letters: In accordance with prison regulations, Slater was normally obliged to write to his family in English; their German-language replies, on reaching Scotland, had to be translated into English before they could be passed on to him. Slater’s English was not the best, and his writing in the language reflects as much. Correspondingly, the texts of the letters from his family that have been preserved in Scottish archives are rendered in the English of a series of translators of varying abilities. The situation is not ideal, but it is the best we have, and the letters in both directions are no less valuable for it, and no less moving. In the quotations from Slater’s letters that appear in this book, I have occasionally, for ease of reading, made minute changes to the unorthodox punctuation and paragraphing that he, and s
ome of the translators, used throughout; I have also standardized the various English spellings of certain German names.
“the long nineteenth century”: Peter Gay, The Cultivation of Hatred: The Bourgeois Experience, Victoria to Freud (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1993), 3: fn.
“a painful and sordid aftermath”: Conan Doyle (1930), 445.
“the racialization of crime”: Cf. Paul Knepper, “British Jews and the Racialisation of Crime in the Age of Empire,” British Journal of Criminology 47 (2007): 61–79.
PROLOGUE: PRISONER 2988
On January 23, 1925: Gordon’s release date and prisoner number per HMPP internal memorandum, Feb. 17, 1925.
would culminate nearly three years later: OS was released in November 1927.
during a meeting: Hunt (1951), 187.
a regimen of enforced silence: John MacLean, “Life in Prison,” Red Dawn 1, no. 1 (March 1919): 8–9; republished at www.scottishrepublicansocialistmovement.org/Pages/SRSMJohnMacLeanLifeinPrison.aspx.
supervised round the clock by armed guards: Robert Jeffrey, Peterhead: The Inside Story of Scotland’s Toughest Prison (Edinburgh: Black & White Publishing, 2013), 19.
Slater had already been disciplined: HMPP disciplinary record, Sept. 1, 1912, NRS.
Gordon my boy: OS to WG, n.d., ML.
Just a few lines: Suppressed anonymous letter to OS, most likely from WG, Feb. 14, 1925. Attached to HMPP internal memorandum, Feb. 17, 1925, NRS.
“a case of murder”: Douglas Grant, The Thin Blue Line: The Story of the City of Glasgow Police (London: John Long, 1973), 54.
“Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing”: “The Boscombe Valley Mystery,” in Conan Doyle (1981), 204–5.
CHAPTER 1: A FOOTFALL ON THE STAIR
population of more than three-quarters of a million: www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/history/industrial_era/the_industrial_revolution/revision/3.
the second-largest city in Britain: Ibid.
“Now an alien breed”: Quoted in Ben Braber, “The Trial of Oscar Slater (1909) and Anti-Jewish Prejudices in Edwardian Glasgow,” History 88 (2003): 273–74.
“has cast a lurid light”: Quoted in ibid., 274.
She was born in Glasgow: County of Lanark, Register of Births and Baptisms, NRS.
“Miss Gilchrist was not on good terms”: MB to JTT, December 1908; document preserved by him for use in 1914 Slater case inquiry, ML.
On November 20, 1908: Marion Gilchrist, Trust Disposition and Deed of Settlement and Codicil, May 28 and Nov. 20, 1908. Books of Council and Sessions, NRS.
The previous version: Ibid.
valued at more than: Richard Whittington-Egan, The Oscar Slater Murder Story: New Light on a Classic Miscarriage of Justice (Glasgow: Neil Wilson Publishing, 2001), 71.
“a likeable, high-spirited, superficial”: Hunt (1951), 17.
“a very good domestic worker”: Agnes Guthrie letter to WP, quoted in Whittington-Egan (2001), 156.
the “maindoor house”: Ibid., 7.
she amassed an extensive collection: List adapted from Roughead (1950), 248–49.
At her death, the collection: William Park, The Truth About Oscar Slater [with the Prisoner’s Own Story] (London: Psychic Press, 1927), 46.
“She seldom wore her jewelry”: Conan Doyle (1912), 9.
forgoing the safe in her parlor: Hunt (1951), 17.
“a detachable pocket”: Ibid.
She pinned other pieces: Jack House, Square Mile of Murder (Edinburgh: Black & White Publishing, 2002), 143.
“Against…unwelcome intrusion”: Hunt (1951), 17.
“The back windows were kept locked”: Ibid.
If she were ever in distress: Ibid.
New York, London, Paris, and Brussels: Hunt (1951), 69–70.
he married a local woman: Register of marriages, Oscar Leschziner (Slater) and Mary Curtis Pryor, July 12, 1901, NRS.
an alcoholic who was constantly after him: Hunt (1951), 69.
He was known to have lived briefly again: Ibid., 73.
Slater arrived in Glasgow: Ibid., 75.
known professionally as Madame Junio: Ibid., 39.
On November 10: Roughead (1950), lxi.
an initial loan of £20: Ibid. Slater pawned the brooch on Nov. 18.
her Irish terrier: Hunt (1951), 18.
during the first three weeks of December: Ibid.
“The ‘watcher’ was seen”: Ibid., 19.
“I was informed by her”: AG to WP, 1927. Quoted in Whittington-Egan (2001), 157.
which Lambie implied in a later conversation: Ibid.
and confirmed outright: MB to JTT, December 1908.
returning at about four-thirty: HL, Slater trial testimony, May 3, 1909. In Roughead (1950), 51.
a rainy evening: Hunt (1951), xi.
“Before I reached the door”: Rowena Adams Liddell, Slater trial testimony, May 4, 1909. In Roughead (1950), 85–86.
At a minute or two before seven: Conan Doyle (1912), 10.
a penny for the newspaper: Ibid., 20.
“Lambie took the keys with her”: Ibid., 10.
a forty-year-old flutist: Hunt (1951), 17; House (2002), 140. Adams was born on April 21, 1868; www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk.
“I rang hard”: AMA, Slater trial testimony. Quoted in Roughead (1950), 78.
“breaking sticks in the kitchen”: Ibid.
“like to crack”: Quoted in Park (1927), 22.
she noticed a footprint: HL, Slater trial testimony. Quoted in Roughead (1950), 51.
“He was never a visitor”: Ibid.
“Oh, it would be the pulleys”: Ibid.
in her recollection, she remained: Hunt (1951), 21.
a well-dressed man come toward her: HL, Slater trial testimony. Quoted in Roughead (1950), 51.
the gaslight in that room: Ibid.
his clothing bore no visible traces: Hunt (1951), 24.
“I did not suspect anything wrong”: AMA, Slater trial testimony. Quoted in Roughead (1950), 79.
“Where is your mistress?”: Ibid.
“The spectacle in question”: Conan Doyle (1912), 13.
autopsy photographs depict: Thomas Toughill, Oscar Slater: The “Immortal” Case of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Stroud, U.K.: Sutton Publishing, 2006).
Adams rushed downstairs: Park (1927), 25.
“Dr. Adams surmised”: Hunt (1951), 24.
who arrived at 7:55: Ibid., 24.
who arrived later that night: Ibid., 25.
The half sovereign: Ibid., 24.
There was no sign of a struggle: Ibid., 27.
trade name Runaway: Ibid., 25.
Adams, who was nearsighted: Conan Doyle (1912), 14.
“well featured and clean-shaven”: Ibid., 15.
a three-quarter-length gray overcoat: Conan Doyle (1912), 15.
At 9:40 that night: Glasgow police internal report, Dec. 21, 1909, ML.
“An old lady was murdered”: Ibid.
In 1908, Glasgow: Braber (2003), 273.
a letter from an old American crony: Park (1927), 171.
told the barber of his travel plans: Hunt (1951), 94.
On Wednesday, December 23: Toughill (2006), 150; Roughead (1950), 88.
“not merely as an honest man”: Conan Doyle (1930), 445.
a local woman, Barbara Barrowman: Hunt (1951), 30; Toughill (2006), 250.
Encouraged by her mother: Hunt (1951), 31.
“He looked towards St. George’s Road”: Ibid., 31–32.
known as a Donegal cap: Mary Barrowman testimony, Slater extradition hearing transcript, Jan. 26, 1909, 36, NRS.
a seco
nd internal bulletin: Quoted in Hunt (1951), 32–33; italics in original.
That day, Superintendent Ord: Ibid., 33.
Glasgow soon blazed with rumor: Ibid.
“News of the dastardly outrage”: Park (1927), 36–37.
On the evening of December 25: Hunt (1951), 34.
CHAPTER 2: THE MYSTERIOUS MR. ANDERSON
answered to the name Anderson: Hunt (1951), 36.
It weighs barely an ounce: The wrapper, weighed by me on a postal scale at the National Records of Scotland in 2017, registers 0.7 ounce.
“marginal clubs, peopled by marginal characters”: Hunt (1951), 36.
a bookmaker’s clerk named Hugh Cameron: Ibid.
On the morning of December 26: Park (1927), 78.
Miss Gilchrist’s brooch was set: Ibid., 78–79.
Slater had left the brooch there: Hunt (1951), 78.
should have been a “fiasco”: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Memories and Adventures (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1924), 223.
“Already the very bottom of the case”: Conan Doyle (1912), 22–23; italics added.
“The trouble…with all police prosecutions”: Ibid., 61.
One of four children: Hunt (1951), 131.
on January 8, 1872: A letter from LF to OS dated Jan. 7, 1912, NRS, refers to Jan. 8 of that year as Slater’s fortieth birthday.
“I was educated very inadequately”: “Oscar Slater’s Own Story: Specially Compiled from Private Documents,” Empire News, April 13, 1924.
Oskar lighted out for Berlin: Whittington-Egan (2001), 49–50.
“two or three well-kept rooms”: Hunt (1951), 130.
“decayed tenement house”: Ibid.
an invalid with spine disease: Ibid.