The Oscar Slater Murder Story
New Light on a Classic Miscarriage of Justice
By Richard Whittington-Egan
Oscar Slater, a disreputable German immigrant, living on the fringe of the Glaswegian underworld and off the proceeds of gambling and prostitution, was sentenced to death in 1909 for the brutal murder of Marion Gilchrist, a rich spinster who lived with a secret hoard of precious jewels hidden in her wardrobe in Edwardian Glasgow's fashionable West Princes Street.
Slater, travelling with his mistress under a false name, was tracked down and arrested in New York. Extradited and tried in Edinburgh, he actually heard the gallows being erected for him, but he was reprieved at the eleventh hour and spent the next 18 years in the granite fortress of Peterhead prison, ceaselessly protesting his innocence.
Arthur Conan Doyle, turned real-life Sherlock Holmes, eventually managed to get the unjust conviction quashed and since then argument has raged over who really was responsible for the murder of Marion Gilchrist.
One name - that of a respectable Glasgow doctor - has been a constantly whispered 'open secret'. Accused too, was Miss Gilchrist's nephew. Neither was the true killer. So whodunnit?
Based upon false information and the too-ready acceptance of recently honoured Detective Lieutenant Trench's 'investigations', ALL previous books on the case have got it wrong. This new book stands the whole case on its head…and offers a new solution. This new book:
* Reveals a new picture of Detective John Trench
* Exposes the untold story of the secret suspect Dr Francis Charteris
* Tells the truth about the secret life of Marion Gilchrist
* Exposes the great Empire News fake
* Shows how far short of his creation, Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle fell
* Reveals who Helen Lambie really accused of the murder
* Names the 'stranger' whom the witness Arthur Adams saw in Miss Gilchrist’s hall
* Puts into a true perspective the importance of Miss Gilchrist’s will
Key Features
THE OSCAR SLATER MURDER STORY re-draws the boundaries of the debate about one of Britain's most celebrated miscarriages of justice.