The British Dreyfus

One day in December 1908, a wealthy 81-year-old spinster named Marion Gilchrist was bludgeoned to death in her Glasgow flat. Miss Gilchrist, who lived alone with her maid, was an obsessive collector and hoarder of jewels, which she hid among her clothes. There was no sign of a forced entry, but a valuable diamond brooch was missing. The month before the murder she had changed her will, cutting out her relatives, whom she hated, and leaving everything to her maid.

The Glasgow police decided to arrest a foreigner named Oscar Slater. He happened to have pawned a brooch around the time of the murder. The brooch turned out to belong to Slater himself, but the police persisted in pursuing him, even though he denied having any knowledge of Miss Gilchrist.

The police knew that Slater was innocent, yet they insisted on bringing him to trial. In the High Court at Edinburgh he was convicted, chiefly on the unreliable evidence of an identity parade. Any evidence that contradicted the police case was suppressed. The crucial testimony was a statement from Gilchrist’s niece, who had told the police that her aunt’s maid had seen the murderer leaving the house and knew exactly who he was. This was not mentioned in court.

Slater did not get a fair trial. He was found guilty, and the judge, who was both biased and incompetent, condemned him to death. Forty-eight hours before he was due to be executed, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and hard labour. He spent 18 years in a grim prison in Peterhead, breaking up granite blocks.

Margalit Fox has chosen a cracking story and, as her account makes clear, Oscar Slater was framed. He was a German Jew, a rascal and part-time pimp, and these facts in themselves were enough to damn him in the eyes of the Glasgow police.