Norwich bulletin., 1913-01-23
STRANGE CASE OF OSCAR SLATER

The occurrence of a crime, shern or not of it's revoIting accessories, is in variably accompanied by & wave of popular prejudice which. if we ana lyze it. can be defined as society's re- venge on the individual, known or un- known, who attempts to destroy It's laws. But time sn1ooths the surface of the waters and the wave disappears. Then the moment arrives for the calm, passionless review of the crfme-the circumstances which led up to It. its actual happening, its details, the police investigation which toiioWea, tne ols- covery of a clew leading to the in- prisonment of the guilty or supposedly guilty party, the latter's trial and sen tence.
 Generally the criminal Cor victim of the law, as the case may be) has suf- fered the supreme penalty imposed by our statutes before that moment ar rives, Nbut in the case of Oscar Slater, sentenced in Edinburgh in 1908 for the murder of Miss Gilchrist, an excep- ton must be made. It will be remem- bered that his death sentence was commuted into one of penal seryitude for life, the alleged cause of the re- prieye being that the amount Of preJ- udice which has been iEnparted into the case rendered the evidence Of identif- cation (which at the best was some when sIendere not sufficiently trust worthy to justify the crown in letting the verdict or the Jury carry It's Ooln- plete corSeq uences.
 Since 1909 Oscar Slater. the German peddling jeweler, and man of an ig- noble past, has been serving his time in Peterhead prison, and today Sir Ar thur Conan Doyle. the creator of small volume the whole history of the Slater case, analyses it. and, like a doctor probing a wound, lays bare the vital points which were at issue, tear
 v1.@,1 h fok, 1n no lice had spun around the foreign-look- ing individual.
 With & masterly hand Sir Arthur sketches the history of the case. Miss Marion Gilchrtst an elderly woman Of retired habits, but with @ passion for collecting jeweiry. lives with a servant at 15 Queens terrace, Glasgow. Fear full for her hoarded gems, she causes two patent locks to be fixed to the door of the fiat and comes to an ar engagement with the inmates or the floor beneath her that in case Of an alarm she would signal to them by knocking upon the floor"
 On December 21 at ! o'clock in the evening, and shortly after the servant, having closed the door of Miss Gill; christ's flat. goes out to buy the even ing paper her downstairs neighbors hear the thud of a falling body and three distinct knocks on the ceiling. Arthur Adams rushes upstairs and
  sound of breaking sticks. Thinking 1t is the maid. he goes downstairs. But his sisters are not satisfied. and he re- turns to ring a second time.
 Just then the servant comes up the stairs, opens the door, and together they enter the apartment, the man waiting g at the threshold, the woman going into the kitchen first. then into the dining room. In the meantime well dressed man advances to the door, passes Adams and disappears down the stairs. The servant has now entered the din ing room-perceiyes the tragedy-the old woman lying on the floor. her head battered and smashed. one eye driven into her brain by the brutality of her murderer.
 When the inventory came to be mad g up one diamond brooch was found missing The criminal had left no traces behind. not even the hammer with which it was believed ha had smashed his victims head.
 Two people had so far seen the man who left the premises. the servant and