Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-12-09
The Case Of Oscar Slater .
By Sir Arthur Conan D0yLe

The reader has already a grasp of the
facts. but some fresh details came out at
the trial which may be enumerated here.
They have to be lightly touched upon
within the limits of such an argument as
this, but those who desire a fuller sum
mary will find ii in an account of the
trial published by Hodge, of Edinburgh,
and ably edited by William Roughead.
| w. s.
HIS ACTIONS.
on this book and on the verbatim pre-
cognitions and shorthand account of the
American proceedings, | base my own ex.
animation of the case. First, as to Sla-
ter movements upon the day of the
! crime. He began the day, according to
| the account of himself and the women. by
the receipt of the two letters already re-
ferred to, which caused him to hasten
| his journey to America The whole day
seems to nave been occupied by prepara-
tons for his impending departure. He
| gave his servant Schmaiz notice as from
next Saturday. Before five (as was
shown by the postmark upon the en-
velopel, he wrote to a postoffice in Lon
don. where he had some money on de-
! post. At 6:12 a telegram was sent in his
name and presumably by him from the
! Central station to Dent. London, for his
! watch, which was being repaired. Ac-
cordtng to the evidence of two witnesses
| he was seen in a billiard room at 500.
! The murder, it will be remembered, was
| done at seven He remained about ten
minutes in the billiard room, and left
some time between $50 and $40.
Rathman, one of these witnesses, de-
| posed that he had at the time mus
tache about a quarter of an inch long
| which was so noticeable that no one
| could take him for a clean-shaven man.
| Antoine, his mistress, and Schmalz, the
servant, both deposed that Slater dined
at home at Z o'clock The evidence of the
girl is no doubt questionable, but there
was no possible reason why the dismissed
servant Schmalz should perjure herself
for the sake of her ex-employer.
The distance between Slaters fat and
that of Miss Gilchrist is about a quarter
of mile, From the billiard room to
! Slaters flat is about a mile He had to
! go for the hammer and bring it back
| unless he had it jutting out of his pocket
! all day. But unless the evidence of the
two women is entirely set aside, enough
has been said to show that there was no
time for the commission by him of such
a crime and the hiding of the traces
which 1t would leave behind it,
At GAS that night Slater was engaged
| in his usual occupation of trying to raise
! the wind al some small gambling club
| The club master saw no discomposure
about his dress (Which was the same as,
according to the crown, he had done this
bloody crime in, and swore that he was
| then wearing a short mustache, like
stubble," thus corroborating Rathman 1t
will be remembered that Lambie and Bar
rowman both swore that the murderer
was clean shaven
On December "a, three days after the
murder, Slater was down at Cooks office,
bargaining for berth in the Lusitania
| for his so-called wife and himself He
made no secret that he was going by
, that ship, but gave his real name and
address and declared finally that he would
| take his berth in Liverpool, which he did.
Among other confidantS as to the ship
was a barber, the last person one would
think to whom secrets would be con-
| f1ded. Certainly, if this were a fight, it
is hard to say what an open departure
would be.
IN Liverpool he took his passage I'M
der the assumed name of Otto Sando.
This he did, according TO his own ac-
count, because he had reason to fear pur-
suit from his real wife, and wished to
cover his traces. This may or may not
be the truth, but it is undoubtedly the
| fact that Slater, who was a disreputa-
| Bile rolling stone of a man, had already
assumed several aliases in the course of
| his career 1t is to be noted that there
was nothing at all secret about his de-
parture from Glasgow, and that he car
ried off all his luggage with him in =
perfectly open manner.
| The reader is now in possession of the
main facts, save those which are either
| unessential or redundant 1t will be OBJ
served that save for the identfications,
! the value of which can be estimated, there
! is really no single point of connection be-
tween the crime and the alleged criminal.
| 1t may be argued that the existence
! of the hammer is such a point; but
what household in the land is devoid of
| a hammer? 1t is to be remembered that
| if Slater committed the murder with this
| hammer, he must have taken it with
him in order to commit the crime, since
| it could be of no use to him in forcing
| an entrance. But what man in his senses,
| planning deliberate murder, would take
with him weapon which was light, frail
| and so long that 1t must project from
any pocket? The nearest lump of stone
upon the road would serve his purpose
| better than that
| Again, II must IN us Ou-SOdhed con-
dition have been in his pocket when he
came away from the crime. The crown
never attempted to prove either blood
| stains in a pocket or the fact that any
| clothes had been burned. If Slater de-
stroyed the clothes, he would naturally
fhave destroyed the hammer, too. Even
one of the two medical witnesses of the
prosecution was driven to say that he
| should not have expected such weapon
| to cause such wounds.
FACTS ON ONE SIDE.
| 1t may well be remembered in this
summary of the evidence | may seem to
have stated the case entirely from the
point of view of the defense. In reply, !
would only ask the reader to take the
| trouble TO read the extended evidence, II
he will do so, he viii realize that without
| a conscious mental effort toward special |
pleading, there is no other way in which |
/ the story can he told, The facts are on
one side. The conjectures, the unsatis-
factory identihcations, the damaging flaws