White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1928-04-06
SCOTLAMD'S MYSTERY
MAN WINS RESPITE
Fights to Clear Name After
10 Years in Prison.

| Glasgow,-Scotland's MAN in the
Iron Mask" set free after 10 years
behind the bars of Peterhead prison
under the name of Oscar Slater, is
fighting before the Scottish Court Of
Appeals to clear his name Of the
stigma Of an infamous hammer muir
der.
If he is finally adjudged innocent
through the reversal of the nineteen
year-old verdict of guilty, it is likely
that parliament will be asked to reim
burse him for his long years of false
imprisonment.
Who he was before he became a
prison numeral none has come for
ward to say. All that is known of
him to this day is that he is Silesian
Jew and has sister living in Ger
many.
Many Call Him Innocent.
Behind the iron mask of Slater's i'm
passive face is an innocent man, de-
clare many eminent men in England
headed by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
creator of Sherlock Holmes. But ac-
cording to the law Slater Is the MUIR
derer of Miss Marion Gilchrist,
wealthy and elderly Glasgow eccentric
who was killed by blow on the head
with hammer.
Slater's own tight lips are respon-
sible for much of his mystery. Scot
lands best detectives in 20 years have
not been able to learn who he really
is, and Slater refuses to bring noto-
riety to his family by admitting his
identity. Just as no historian can
say who was the Man in the Iron Mask
of the reign of Louis XIV, so there is
no one in Britain who can say who
the man known as Oscar Slater was
before 1908, when his freedom was
snatched from him in New York.
When the appeal is heard Mrs. Ron
aid Gillian, wife of a Scottish miner
supposed to be living near Pittsburgh,
Pa, who as Miss Helen Lambie was
inal trial, may be asked to return to
England to testify.
Slater was implicated in the MUIR
der charge because he had pawned
diamond brooch which the Scottish
police said belonged to the slain wom-
an, and because he went from Glas-
gov to Liverpool and thence to New
York, as If fleeing from the scene of
the crime.
After Slater had been supposedly
connected with the murder, it devel-
oped that the diamond brooch was
not Miss Gilchrist's at all, but Sa-
ters own property, pawned before the
murder.
Trapped by New York detectives on
an ocean liner, Slater was held until
Miss Helen Lambie Miss Gilchrists
maid, together with a girl and man
who lived in the flat below Miss Gill
christ, went to New York and said
they thought he was the murderer.
Expected Quick Release.
Slater returned to Scotland expect
ing quick release, and the greatest
trial in Scottish police history of the
last two decades was on.
1--WE do not know who that man
sitting in the dock really is" Lord
Guthrie declared, pointing to Slater,
in summing up the evidence. ave do
not know where he was born, who his
parents are, where he was brought up.
The man remains a mystery as much
us when the trial began"
Slater was convicted by the jury
and sentenced to death, but before
the date OF execution could be set
public cutlery arose. Nine jurors
had voted for guilty, five for not prov
en- and one for not guilty. In Scot
land at that time majority vote
hanged or freed man. Because of
the outburst of public opinion Slater's
sentence was committed to life impris-
onment.
Since then prominent men, as we'll
as Slater himself, have stubborny
maintained his innocence. In recent
years Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has
headed this group, and he is to Il
large extent responsible for Slater's
recent release. Sir Arthur main
tanned that the Identification of Sla-
ter was wholly unfair
It is coincidence that Lord Mort
son, who as r. B. Morrison, X. C., was
junior counsel for the prosecution al
the trial in 1909 and moved for the
: death sentence on Slater, should be
one of the appeals judges to hear
| Slater's last effort. Lord Clyde, JUS
tice general, will preside.