by Margalit Fox
another wrongful conviction: E.g., Toughill (2006), 115–16.
“It is notorious”: Conan Doyle (1912), 27.
On February 21, 1909: Hunt (1951), 61ff.
those who made an identification chose Slater: Ibid., 63.
“To expect a row”: Park (1927), 116.
common practice at the time: WP to ACD, Feb. 2, 1927, ML.
“Slater impressed everyone”: Hunt (1951), 66.
“The more I see of Slater”: Quoted in ibid., 67.
On April 6: Ibid.
that would come to be called criminalistics: For an extended discussion of the ideological and methodological differences between criminalistics and criminology, see, e.g., Alison Adam, A History of Forensic Science: British Beginnings in the Twentieth Century (London: Routledge, 2016).
the Age of Identification: See, e.g., Anne M. Joseph, “Anthropometry, the Police Expert, and the Deptford Murders: The Contested Introduction of Fingerprinting for the Identification of Criminals in Late Victorian and Edwardian Britain,” in Jane Caplan and John Torpey, eds., Documenting Individual Identity: The Development of State Practices in the Modern World (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001), 164–83.
the very concept of a “crime scene”: Robert Peckham, “Pathological Properties: Scenes of Crime, Sites of Infection,” in Peckham, ed. (2014), 58.
did not begin to come into its own: Adam (2016), 3.
think of Hester Prynne: Although Cain was also marked after killing Abel, the purpose of that mark, as Genesis 4:13–15 makes clear, was not to protect other people from Cain but to protect Cain from reprisals at the hands of other people. God, who had condemned Cain to wander the earth, deemed that to be sufficient punishment.
“Branding and ear-boring”: Edward Higgs, Identifying the English: A History of Personal Identification, 1500 to the Present (London: Continuum, 2011), 89.
criminal suspects were routinely strip-searched: Ibid.
“Outlawry was the capital punishment”: Pollock and Maitland (1911), 2:450.
“To pursue the outlaw”: Pollock and Maitland (1911), 1:476.
“Who are you, with whom I have to deal?”: Jeremy Bentham, Principles of Penal Law (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016), 248. Quoted in Jane Caplan, “ ‘This or That Particular Person’: Protocols and Identification in Nineteenth-Century Europe,” in Caplan and Torpey (2001), 51.
a “waived” woman: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
In the 1870s, Alphonse Bertillon: See, e.g., Simon A. Cole, Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001), 33ff. Bertillon did his professional reputation considerable damage when he testified as a handwriting analyst—a field in which he had no expertise—in the 1894 trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. Dreyfus was convicted of treason partly as a result of Bertillon’s testimony, later discredited, that he was the author of an anonymous memorandum disclosing French military secrets to the Germans.
“This was not merely an idea”: Gina Lombroso Ferrero, Criminal Man: According to the Classification of Cesare Lombroso, Briefly Summarised by His Daughter Gina Lombroso Ferrero (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1911), xii.
the writings of Havelock Ellis: See, e.g., reprint of Havelock Ellis, The Criminal (Memphis, Tenn.: General Books, 2012).
the work of Francis Galton: See, e.g., Adam (2016), 52ff.; Cole (2001), 25ff.
“the racialization of crime”: Knepper (2007).
His handbook ranged over such subjects: Hans Gross, Criminal Investigation: A Practical Handbook for Magistrates, Police Officers and Lawyers, trans. and ed. John Adam and John Collyer Adam (New Delhi: Isha Books, 2013), ix–xix.
scarcely more than half a dozen references: S. Tupper Bigelow, “Fingerprints and Sherlock Holmes,” Baker Street Journal 17, no. 3 (1967): 133. As more than one student of literary forensics has pointed out, the sagacious Mark Twain (1835–1910) homed in early on the utility of fingerprints: in both Life on the Mississippi (1883) and Pudd’nhead Wilson, first published in book form in 1894, murderers are identified by means of them.
on the workbox: Hunt (1951), 26.
“Sentence first—verdict afterwards”: Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Alice’s Adventures Underground (Cleveland: World Publishing Company, 1946), 147.
“available and disposable”: Eleanor Jackson Piel, “The Death Row Brothers,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 147, no. 1 (2003): 30.
“For some time before the murder”: WP to ACD, Nov. 25, 1927, ML; italics added.
“virtually hypnotized by class”: Gay (1993), 429.
CHAPTER 9: THE TRAP DOOR
At 10:00 a.m.: Roughead (1950), 1.
On his right: Toughill (2006), 71ff.
the Georgian courtroom: Whittington-Egan (2001), 79.
among them a warehouseman: Roughead (1950), 8.
known in Scottish law as “productions”: Whittington-Egan (2001), 79.
planned to introduce sixty-nine of them: Roughead (1950), 2–3.
We know the physical arrangement: Toughill (2006), 71.
“like a pantomime genie”: Whittington-Egan (2001), 79.
“Evidence of this kind”: Conan Doyle (1912), 40.
planned to present ninety-eight of them: Roughead (1950), 4–5.
just thirteen names: Ibid., 7–8.
“It is one of the new points”: Quoted in Park (1927), 184–85.
“Helen Lambie’s evidence”: Conan Doyle (1912), 31–32.
Was it only his walk and his height: Roughead (1950), 55–56.
The hat presented to her: Hunt (1951), 89.
“You were shown a photograph”: Quoted in ibid., 93.
she took pains to say: Ibid., 89–90.
a man “closely resembling”: Ibid., 80.
“It is too serious a charge”: Ibid., 81.
She testified that on the night: Ibid., 97–100.
Two months later: Ibid., 98.
she, too, had been shown: Ibid., 91.
weaving up and down: Park (1927), 147–48.
At the Crown’s request: Roughead (1910), 108ff.
“Over his 33 years”: M. Anne Crowther and Brenda White, On Soul and Conscience: The Medical Expert and Crime. 150 Years of Forensic Medicine in Glasgow (Aberdeen, U.K.: Aberdeen University Press, 1988), 42–44.
“The body was that”: Quoted in Roughead (1910), 110ff. Glaister conducted the autopsy with a colleague, Dr. Hugh Galt.
Glaister went on to state: Ibid., 108–21.
eight-ounce hammer: Hunt (1951), 99.
“I did not find in the dining-room”: Quoted in Roughead (1950), 112.
Glaister identified twenty-five stains: Ibid., 114ff.
“more of gravy than of grave”: Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol: And Other Christmas Books (New York: Vintage Classics, 2012), 21.
“In the absence”: Crowther and White (1988), 47.
“The case later provided”: Ibid.
Among them was McLean: Roughead (1950), 135–37.
“Did you find out”: Quoted in ibid., 104; italics added.
“McClure would have scored”: Hunt (1951), 124–25.
“When you first knew him”: Quoted in Roughead (1950), 156.
“The treasured and conspicuous emblems”: Gay (1993), 496.
At this point: Ben Braber, personal communication.
“Who engaged you?”: Quoted in Roughead (1950), 182–83.
“The public careers”: Jann (1995), 111.
Antoine, too, alibied Slater: Roughead (1950), 187.
“I have no questions to ask”: Quoted in ibid., 188.
“never hea
rd of a case”: WP to ACD, Dec. 5, 1927, ML.
In February 1909: Roughead (1950), xlviii.
working his way stealthily home on foot: ACD to the Spectator, July 25, 1919. In Gibson and Lancelyn Green (1986), 206.
material that was never shared: Hunt (1951), 145–46.
CHAPTER 10: “UNTIL HE BE DEAD”
“crushing the while”: Quoted in ibid., 103.
Speaking for nearly two hours: Ibid., 103.
“Up to yesterday”: Quoted in ibid., 198–99.
“a house situated”: Quoted in ibid., 199.
“We shall see”: Quoted in ibid., 199.
“I come now”: Quoted in ibid., 213–14.
“Gentlemen, I have done”: Quoted in ibid., 217.
“That, however”: Quoted in ibid., 220.
“Can you lay”: Quoted in ibid., 235.
“Clarence Darrow could have done it”: Hunt (1951), 109.
His father, the Rev. Thomas Guthrie: Braber (2007), 24.
the elder Mr. Guthrie had helped found: Ibid.
a temperance crusader: Ibid.
“You have heard a good deal”: Quoted in Roughead (1950), 329–38; italics added.
The jury retired at 4:55 p.m.: Ibid., 245.
“not guilty, and don’t do it again”: See, e.g., Dani Garavelli, “Insight: The Jury’s Still Out on ‘Not Proven’ Verdict,” Scotsman, Feb. 13, 2016.
to preempt hung juries: Peter Duff, “The Scottish Criminal Jury: A Very Peculiar Institution,” Law and Contemporary Problems 62, no. 2 (Spring 1999): 187.
At 6:05: Roughead (1950), 245.
the most painful utterance: Toughill (2006), 119.
“My lord”: Quoted in Roughead (1950), 245.
“The said Oscar Slater”: OS death sentence, May 6, 1909, NRS.
“whereby a prisoner”: Park (1927), 38.
On May 17: Roughead (1950), 264.
requesting the commutation: Reprinted in ibid., 257ff.
“The Memorialist thinks”: Reprinted in ibid., 264.
signed by more than twenty thousand: Ibid., 257.
Mary Barrowman received half: Hunt (1951), 140.
on loan to Inverness: Ibid., 132.
“somewhat to the astonishment”: Ibid.
he had just arranged: Ibid., 137.
“It was a curious compromise”: Philip Whitwell Wilson, “But Who Killed Miss Gilchrist?,” North American Review 226, no. 5 (1928): 536.
“Should you visit”: OS to REP, March 11, 1911 (letter suppressed by prison officials), NRS.
CHAPTER 11: THE COLD CRUEL SEA
“Through my small window”: OS to LF, June 4, 1914, NRS.
“It was, I find by my log”: Conan Doyle (1924), 37–38.
opened in 1888: Jeffrey (2013), 5.
“We are always being told”: PL to OS, Dec. 27, 1910, NRS.
“I would rather be”: John MacLean, Accuser of Capitalism: John MacLean’s Speech from the Dock, May 9th 1918 (London: New Park Publications, 1986), 26.
“just a little box”: MacLean (1919).
The only furniture: Jeffrey (2013), 14.
“Each cell is heated”: MacLean (1919).
“The endless dreary days”: Gerald Newman, two-part handwritten ms., n.d., ML.
Convicts’ hair: MacLean (1919).
“kept clean and sanitary”: Ibid.
From the prison’s earliest days: Jeffrey (2013), 18–19.
“The blades were no ornamental”: Ibid., 18.
on July 8, 1909: Roughead (1950), lxi.
Prisoner 1992: LF to HMPP, March 27, 1913, NRS: “The old parents of the prisoner Oscar Slater Pr. No. 1992 long greatly for a sign of life from their son and beg you kindly to allow him to write to them.”
Slater’s prison intake sheet: Enquiry Form, completed by Detective Superintendent John Ord, May 28, 1909, NRS.
At five each morning: MacLean (1919).
“to break great granite blocks”: OS to MP, Dec. 17, 1912, NRS.
“He was a quiet, well-spoken man”: William Gordon newspaper clipping, n.d. [c. 1925], newspaper unknown, ML.
“a pint of broth”: MacLean (1919).
The sleeping hammock could be used: Ibid.
“My innocent Oscar”: PL to OS, postmarked Dec. 15, 1909, NRS.
“In your last letter”: OS to PL, April 11, 1914, NRS.
“You need not get anxious”: PL to OS, Dec. 30, 1913, NRS.
“You would hardly know Beuthen”: PL to OS, Dec. 30, 1913, NRS.
“Electric light is very convenient”: OS to LF, Dec. 13, 1913. NRS.
“Yes! It is quite correct”: PL to OS, April 28, 1914, NRS.
“You were always a good child”: PL to OS, Aug. 21, 1913, NRS.
“We were very much rejoiced”: PL to OS, Sept. 18, 1909, NRS.
“My beloved and good son”: PL to OS, March 14, 1910, NRS.
“I should like to give you”: OS to LF, Jan. 1, 1912, NRS.
“When I was sitting”: OS to LF, Sept. 13, 1913, NRS.
“This is a very deep business”: OS to Dr. Mandowsky [first name not recorded], May 27, 1910, NRS.
scant correspondence with their lawyers: An undated letter, written c. 1922, from an official of HMPP to a Dr. Mamroth, a German lawyer known to Slater’s family, reads, “As it is against the Commissioners’ practice to permit Law Agents to have access to convicted prisoners with a view to preparing petitions for their release, and there does not seem to be any reason for setting this practice aside in favour of Slater, I have to inform you that letters from you cannot be forwarded to him.”
“The question of visiting you”: PL to OS, July 17, 1910, NRS.
“Unfortunately I have to confess”: OS to LF, Oct. 24, 1912, NRS.
CHAPTER 12: ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, CONSULTING DETECTIVE
died in December 1909, at thirty-seven: Ewing Speirs death record, scotlandspeople.gov.uk.
“For them the bullets”: Conan Doyle (1924), 175.
an account of the conflict: A. Conan Doyle, The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct (New York: McClure, Phillips & Company, 1902).
“At a time in history”: Steven Womack, introduction to Stephen Hines, The True Crime Files of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (New York: Berkley Prime Crime, 2001), 13; italics in original.
“I lunched that day”: Conan Doyle (1924), 386–87.
“from the embraces of drunkards”: Quoted in Miller (2008), 279–81.
“When I shot a crocodile”: Adrian Conan Doyle to Pierre Nordon, Dec. 7, 1959. Quoted in Nordon (1967), 192; italics in original.
“Two white lies”: Conan Doyle (1924), 153.
“Mr. Adrian Conan Doyle”: Nordon (1967), 174 n. 4.
“There was a breadth of mind”: Adrian Conan Doyle (1946), 15.
“This is the very individual”: Ibid., 16.
some fifteen years his junior: Leckie was born on March 14, 1874.
“Even among writers”: Womack (2001), 15.
Among the titles in his collection: Walter Klinefelter, The Case of the Conan Doyle Crime Library (La Crosse, Wis.: Sumac Press, 1968).
Though Conan Doyle acquired most: Ibid., 6–7.
three were published posthumously: Conan Doyle (1988).
Strange Studies from Life: Conan Doyle (1988).
In 1904, he became: Stephen Wade, Conan Doyle and the Crimes Club: The Creator of Sherlock Holmes and His Criminological Friends (Oxford: Fonthill Media, 2013), 9.
Other members included: Ibid., 10.
The cases they analyzed: Peter Costello, The Real World of Sherlock Holmes: The True Crimes Investigated by Arthur Conan Doyle (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishe
rs, 1991), 52; Wade (2013), 41ff.
“We have the epitome”: Adrian Conan Doyle (1946), 16.
Camille Cecile Holland: Costello (1991), 46ff.
“What about the moat?”: Ibid., 48.
He confessed his guilt: Ibid., 49.
from the Langham Hotel: Ibid., 104.
“A few of the problems”: Conan Doyle (1924), 110–12.
CHAPTER 13: THE STRANGE CASE OF GEORGE EDALJI
George Ernest Thompson Edalji: Richard and Molly Whittington-Egan, introduction to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Story of Mr. George Edalji, ed. Richard and Molly Whittington-Egan (London: Grey House Books, 1985), 11.
Charlotte Elizabeth Stuart Stoneham: Ibid., 12.
“Placed in the exceedingly difficult”: Conan Doyle (1985), 36.
In 1888, when George: Ibid., 37.
Then, in 1892: Ibid.
“Before the end of this year”: Quoted in ibid., 41.
objects stolen from around the village: Ibid., 42ff.
bogus advertisements: Miller (2008), 259.
Some of the letters identified: Nordon (1967), 118.
He was arrested in August 1903: Ibid.
an expert witness identified: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case of Mr. George Edalji (London: T. Harrison Roberts, 1907), in Conan Doyle (1985), 58.
“He is 28 years of age”: Quoted in Miller (2008), 261–62.
“Many and wonderful”: Quoted in ibid., 262.
Tried in October 1903: Costello (1991), 77.
garnered ten thousand signatures: Miller (2008), 262.
In October 1906: Ibid.
He had read the Sherlock Holmes stories: Ibid., 263.
“As I read”: Conan Doyle (1924), 216–18.
his 1907 pamphlet: Conan Doyle (1907), reprinted in Conan Doyle (1985), 34–78.
“The first sight”: Conan Doyle (1985), 35; italics added.
“So bad was this defence”: Conan Doyle (1924), 218.
“My own sight”: ACD to the Daily Telegraph, Jan. 15, 1907, in Gibson and Lancelyn Green (1986), 125.