Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-12-10
The Case of Oscar Slater .
By Sir Arthur Conan D0yAe
|. ,,lock Holmes in Real Life
roDAY'S INSTALLMENT.

ia lUDAA -
.s me one really damaging allie
ID ., damaging that had | myself
d nron the Jury and believed it to
..,s / should have recorded my YER
Il u,fo.- rl.e prisoner. and yet this
1 ...,r.r,,p. had no substance at all in
F., his incident alone, there seems
Il -, lie good ground for revision
sentence, or a reference of the
4 H., some court or committee of APP
Il tI.re is the extract from the lord
.,a.s sneech to which I allude:
DAMAGING STATEMENT
49,. This time he had given his name
roosa,s people in Glasgow as Oscar
nm December 25th, the day he
IN 20 back to Cookies office-his
,u,. and his description and all the
81 Of IL appeared in the Glasgow papers
al he sees that the last thing In the
iii that he ought to do, if he studies
Jun safety. is to go back to Cooks
H,a a. oscar Slater. He accordingly
,,,oa5s to pack up all his goods and
ss,ts mon the 18th So far as We know.
never leaves the house from the time
H.. sees the paper. until little after 6
,c,ek. when he goes down TO the Cen
raj station
Here the allegation is clearly made and 1t
7,r 80. g
,ome was in the paper, and that, subse-
rertlv to that, he fled, Such a flight
IrmH clearly be an admission of guilt
That point is of enormous, even vital
Importance.
And vet on examination of the dates,
\ will he found that there is absolutely
ro foundation for ii. 1t was not until the
evening Of the 18th that even the police
heard Of the existence of Slater. and it
was nearly week later that his name
appeared in the papers, he being already
fan cut upon the Atlantic.
What did appear upon the 25th was the
des,rlD.ion of the murderer, already
ogp-ej: with his face shaved clean OF
aft hair" etc. Slater at that time having
= marked mustache Why should he take
such description of himself, or why
should he fOrbear to carry out journey
which he had already prepared for? The
poins goes for absolutely nothing when
examined, and yet if the minds of the
Jury were at all befogged as to the dates
the definite assertion of the lord advo-
cato. twice repeated, that Slater's name
had been published before his flight, was
bound to have a most grave and pref
Judicial effect,
Some of the lord advocate other state
ments are certainly surprising. Thus he
says; THE prisoner is hopelessly unable
to produce a single witness who says that
he was anywhere else than at the scene
Of the murder that night
Let US test this assertion. Here is the
evidence Of Schmalz. the servant, YER
batim may repeat that this woman
vas under no known obligations to Sla-
ter and had just received notice from
him. The evidence of the mistress that
Slater dined in the fiat at seven on the
night Of the murder I pass, but l do not
why Schmalz's positive cor
-oboration should be treated by the lord
advocate as non existent.
The prisoner might well be hopeless"
4 his witnesses We're to be treated so.
Gould anything be more positive than
this
Q. Did he usually come home to
iiuner?"
A. Yes, always seven o'clock was
The usual hour
g. Was it sometimes nearly eight"
A. 1T was my fault AIr. Slater
vas in
q But owing to your fault was it
'oo1t eight before it was served?"
j.. NO. Mr.. Slater was in after
eyeh' and was waiting for dinner"
IAlS seems very definite The murder
Vas committed about seven, The muir
lefer may have regained the street about
ell minutes or quarter past seven 1t
Vas some distance to Slater's fiat If he
'So done the murder he could hardly
ave reached it before half-past seven
Ut the earliest. Yet Schmalz says he was
al seven. ana SO does Antoine.
Inc evidence Of the woman may he
oo1 or bad but it is difficult to under
1"'" now any one could state that the
"NoheF was ''hopelessly unable to pro