by Margalit Fox
“Now the police try”: Conan Doyle (1985), 57–58.
“England soon rang”: Conan Doyle (1924), 217.
Conan Doyle, too, began receiving: Ibid., 220.
“a fact,” he wrote: Ibid.
published fully only in 1985: Womack (2001), 19.
the Home Secretary, Herbert Gladstone: Herbert Gladstone was the youngest son of William Ewart Gladstone, a prime minister under Queen Victoria.
In May 1907: Nordon (1967), 123.
“The conclusions it came to”: Ibid.
“It was a wretched decision”: Conan Doyle (1924), 219.
Edalji was reinstated: Nordon (1966), 126.
Edalji was a guest: Miller (2008), 273.
“Conan Doyle claimed”: Stashower (1999), 260.
helped spur the establishment: Womack (2001), 20.
CHAPTER 14: PRISONER 1992
“The convict is somewhat excited”: Report from HMPP governor to prison commissioners, April 8, 1910, NRS.
“Conduct somewhat indifferent”: Ibid., Sept. 2, 1910.
“Conduct very indifferent”: E.g., ibid., May 4, 1911.
Entries during his first years: HMPP disciplinary record, NRS.
“As regards Georg”: PL to OS, April 16, 1913, NRS.
“Fanny’s girls”: PL to OS, Sept. 22, 1913, NRS.
“My beloved innocent Oscar”: PL to OS, July 18, 1911, NRS.
“I am most unhappy”: OS to PL, April 3, 1913, NRS.
“I have appealed”: OS to LF, April 19, 1913, NRS.
“Dear parents, do not grieve”: OS to LF, Nov. 13, 1913, NRS.
“I don’t likely satisfy”: OS to MP, Dec. 17, 1912, NRS.
“I did not consider him”: Unsigned memorandum, HMPP, Dec. 19, 1912, NRS.
“I hope to get my liberty”: Suppressed letter from OS to REP, March 11, 1911, NRS.
“Master of Polworth”: OS to MP, March 24, 1911, NRS.
“On Saturday last”: OS to MP, March 25, 1911, NRS.
“an intractable hell”: MacLean (1919).
“When I was in Peterhead”: MacLean (1986), 25–26.
“What is not in question”: Ibid., 25 n. 29.
“With respect to prisoner’s”: HMPP internal memorandum, June 4, 1911, NRS.
“Since I was generally”: Conan Doyle (1924), 222.
“It is impossible to read”: Conan Doyle (1912), 7–8.
CHAPTER 15: “YOU KNOW MY METHOD”
“It is an atrocious story”: Conan Doyle (1924), 225.
“I have been in touch”: Arthur Conan Doyle, introduction to Park (1927), 14.
Peterhead’s correspondence log: The log is in the archives of the NRS.
it offered a welcome distraction: Conan Doyle (1924), 215.
“Some of us still retain”: ACD to Spectator, Oct. 12, 1912. In Gibson and Lancelyn Green (1986), 176.
without leaving his rooms: “The Mystery of Marie Rôget,” in Poe (1984).
“Insurance companies are”: Pasquale Accardo, M.D., Diagnosis and Detection: The Medical Iconography of Sherlock Holmes (Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1987), 109.
“Data! data! data!”: Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches,” in Conan Doyle (1981), 322.
“That his opinion”: Hunt (1951), 141.
“The Iserbach”: PL to OS, March 5, 1914, NRS.
“On working with my granite-stones”: OS to LF, Dec. 13, 1913, NRS.
“No doubt you would realise”: OS to LF, April 11, 1914, NRS.
“Your letter has been handed”: OS to LF, June 4, 1914, NRS.
“My most beloved good son”: PL to OS, June 15, 1914, NRS.
“You know my method”: E.g., Conan Doyle, “The Boscombe Valley Mystery,” in Conan Doyle (1981), 214.
“Never trust to general impressions”: Conan Doyle, “A Case of Identity,” in Conan Doyle (1981), 197.
“Is there any point”: Conan Doyle, “Silver Blaze,” in Conan Doyle (1981), 347.
“The actions of Helen Lambie”: Conan Doyle (1912), 16–17; italics added.
“In Edinburgh Barrowman”: Ibid., 34.
“The Lord Advocate made”: ACD to Spectator, July 15, 1914. In Gibson and Lancelyn Green (1986), 205–6; italics added.
“Consider the monstrous”: Conan Doyle (1912), 59.
“What the police never”: Ibid., 27.
“No further reference”: Ibid., 50.
“How did the murderer”: Ibid., 64–66; italics added.
He has planned out: Ibid., 66–67; italics added.
“Presuming that the assassin”: Ibid., 62–63; italics added.
“It will be observed”: Ibid., 44; italics added.
“the three important points”: Ibid., 26.
“The Lord-Advocate spoke”: Ibid., 45–48.
“Some of the Lord-Advocate’s”: Ibid., 48–49.
“that answers to the prisoner”: Quoted in ibid., 51.
“ ‘That answers to the prisoner’ ”: Ibid., 51.
“The Lord-Advocate said”: Ibid., 52–53.
“Where so many points”: Ibid., 55–56.
“What clue could you have”: Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle,” in Conan Doyle (1981), 246–47.
“What so often leads”: Sebeok and Sebeok (1983), 23.
“One question which has to be asked”: Conan Doyle (1912), 61–63; italics added.
Diamonds were objects: See, e.g., Stefanie Markovits, “Form Things: Looking at Genre Through Victorian Diamonds,” Victorian Studies 52, no. 4 (2010): 591–619.
“It might be said”: Conan Doyle (1912), 63; italics added.
published on August 21, 1912: Roughead (1950), lxii.
went on sale for sixpence: Miller (2008), 295.
“Since the publication”: Sept. 2, 1912; quoted in Gibson and Lancelyn Green (1986), 175.
“I may seem to have stated”: Conan Doyle (1912), 45; italics added.
“When you have eliminated”: Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four, in Conan Doyle (1981), 111; italics in original.
“I do not see”: Conan Doyle (1912), 58.
“each clue against Slater”: Conan Doyle, introduction to Park (1927), 8.
“As to my case”: OS to LF, Aug. 21, 1912.
“I am happy to say”: OS to LF, Aug. 9, 1913.
CHAPTER 16: THE RUIN OF JOHN THOMSON TRENCH
In November 1912: House (2002), 164.
all five identified Warner: Ibid., 164.
“One of them wept”: Hunt (1951), 167.
There, twelve more witnesses: Ibid.
she had been killed several weeks earlier: House (2002), 164–65.
“Warner found that”: Hunt (1951), 167.
The son of a Scottish plowman: Whittington-Egan (2001), 101.
he had joined the force: Hunt (1951), 158.
“conspicuous for gallantry”: Whittington-Egan (2001), 113.
“His manners were easy”: Hunt (1951), 159.
the father of six: Ibid.
“If the constable mentioned”: Quoted in ibid., 168.
Trench appeared to interpret this: Hunt (1951), 168.
“You will be good enough”: DC to ACD, March 26, 1914, ML; italics added.
Before the end of March 1914: Hunt (1951), 168.
the following five points: Quoted in ibid., 168.
“The convict named”: H. Ferguson Watson to HMPP officials, Feb. 2, 1914, NRS.
“Sheriff Gardner Millar is”: DC to ACD, April 24, 1914, ML; italics added.
not with the conduct of the trial: Toughill (2006), 149.
“sug
gest to me that the Enquiry”: DC to ACD, April 17, 1914, ML.
“I had particular instructions”: JTT, statement to 1914 inquiry, quoted in Toughill (2006), 150.
“This is the first real clue”: Hunt (1951), 161.
“I am niece”: Glasgow police internal report, Dec. 23, 1908, ML.
“I have been ringing up”: Hunt (1951), 161.
“Although I had not”: Quoted in Roughead (1950), 271.
named Elizabeth Greer: Toughill (2006), 154.
James died in 1870: Ibid., 213, 154.
The couple had three sons: Ibid., 154.
their forebears included: Ibid., 153.
Francis Charteris further cemented: Whittington-Egan (2001), 19.
whose wedding Miss Gilchrist attended: Ibid., 20.
it was from him: Ibid., 19.
“Miss Gilchrist stated to me”: Glasgow police internal report, Dec. 23, 1908, ML.
Conan Doyle privately believed: Costello (1991), 117.
“I intend to deal delicately”: DC to ACD, May 9, 1914, ML.
from April 23 to 25, 1914: Roughead (1950), lxii.
some twenty witnesses: Hunt (1951), 171.
who now held the rank: Ibid.
now chief detective inspector: Ibid., 172.
denied having mentioned: HL, testimony before 1914 inquiry. Quoted in Roughead (1950), 282–83.
MacBrayne testified: Ibid., 289.
MacCallum testified: Ibid., 285.
Last to testify: DC to ACD, April 24, 1914, ML.
“The Inquiry as you are aware”: DC to ACD, April 24, 1914, ML.
“With regard to the manner”: Quoted in Toughill (2006), 175.
“I am satisfied”: Quoted in Hunt (1951), 180; italics added.
“This inquiry was held in camera”: ACD to Spectator, July 25, 1914, in Gibson and Lancelyn Green (1986), 204–6; italics in original.
“we could do no more”: Conan Doyle (1924), 226.
On July 14, 1914: Hunt (1951), 182.
the Royal Scots Fusiliers: Toughill (2006), 178.
In May 1915: Ibid.
Cook was arrested: Ibid.
The trial of Cook and Trench: Toughill (2006), 179.
The jury complied: Ibid.
Trench went on to serve with distinction: Roughead (1950), xxxi.
discharged from the military in October 1918: Toughill (2006), 180.
Trench in 1919: Death record, scotlandspeople.gov.uk. The cause was heart trouble and pernicious anemia.
Cook in 1921: Death record, scotlandspeople.gov.uk. The cause was bronchitis and heart failure.
“I got weary”: ACD to unnamed recipient, n.d., marked “Private,” ML. The letter clearly postdates the prosecution of Trench and Cook: in a postscript, Conan Doyle writes, “The faked police prosecution of their own honest Inspector…was a shocking business.”
“It is a curious circumstance”: Conan Doyle (1924), 226.
CHAPTER 17: CANNIBALS INCLUDED
“It is a recognised thing”: William Gordon newspaper clipping, n.d. [c. 1925], newspaper unknown, ML.
“Dearest Parents”: OS to LF, July 24, 1919, NRS.
“I need not hide from you”: AT to OS, April 16, 1919, NRS.
“I can imagine, dear Oskar”: AT to OS, Feb. 24, 1920, NRS. The earlier letter, informing Slater of the deaths of his parents, has not survived.
“It is a pity”: AT to OS, Oct. 7, 1920, NRS.
“Good Malchen”: OS to AT, n.d., NRS.
“Certainly I will write you”: AT to OS, March 20, 1922, NRS.
“We often think of you”: EL to OS, Aug. 15, 1922, NRS.
“My beloved Oscar”: PL to OS, Aug. 3, 1914, NRS.
from the lining of his coat: Hunt (1951), 187.
Years later, Adrian Conan Doyle: Hardwick and Hardwick (1964), 75.
An expansive Victorian villa: Miller (2008), 272.
“a butler…a cook”: Ibid., 381.
“The importance of the infinitely little”: Bell (1892), 10.
where he came under fire: Miller (2008), 331ff.
“From time to time”: Conan Doyle (1927), 13–14.
“It was not very difficult”: Conan Doyle (1924), 337–38.
“A dear friend”: Ibid., 338.
The authorities declined: Miller (2008), 322.
a nationwide network of two hundred thousand: Conan Doyle (1924), 331.
“Our drill and discipline”: Ibid., 331–33.
In 1914, after: Miller (2008), 323.
“Those who, in later years”: Ibid., 356.
“How thorough and long”: Conan Doyle (1924), 396–401.
By the 1920s, he had come to believe: E.g., Arthur Conan Doyle, The Coming of the Fairies (New York: George H. Doran, 1922). The evocative telegraph address of the Psychic Bookshop and Museum, an enterprise Conan Doyle established to disseminate spiritualist beliefs, was ECTOPLASM, SOWEST, LONDON. ACD to unknown recipient, n.d., 1929, on letterhead of the Psychic Book Shop, Library & Museum, ML.
At Windlesham, Conan Doyle: Miller (2008), 381.
But even in the opinion: Whittington-Egan (2001), 161.
“In vain I have waited”: AT to OS, Nov. 28, 1923, NRS.
“You write me in your letters”: OS to AT, Jan. 12, 1926, NRS.
“Max speaks often”: EL to OS, March 12, 1924, NRS.
“I have just come from the grave”: EL to OS, Sept. 8, 1924, NRS.
now worked in the prison carpentry shop: In a letter to his sister Malchen in early 1926, Slater wrote that he had been working as a joiner at Peterhead “for the last eighteen months.” OS to AT, Jan. 12, 1926, NRS.
“I don’t know if there is a Being”: OS to Samuel Reid, July 5, 1924, NRS.
CHAPTER 18: THE PURLOINED BROOCH
“After a careful analysis”: Quoted in Hunt (1951), 188.
“The big atmosphere”: Adrian Conan Doyle (1946), 29–30.
Conan Doyle got no answer: Hunt (1951), 188.
with whom he had been corresponding: Correspondence between Conan Doyle and Park is in the collection of the ML. The first known letter between them, from WP to ACD, is dated Sept. 25, 1914.
“You may take it”: Quoted in Hunt (1951), 188; italics in original.
On February 28, 1925: Ibid.
“I am directed”: Quoted in ibid., 188–89.
“I need not say”: Quoted in ibid., 189.
“You will be astonished”: Erna Meyer to OS, Sept. 15, 1925, NRS.
“I was astonished”: OS to Erna Meyer, Dec. 5, 1925, NRS.
“We have received”: Käthe Tau to OS, Jan. 24, 1926, NRS.
“Among other things”: OS to Käthe Tau, June 21, 1926, NRS.
As a series of government memorandums: E.g., British government memorandums, May 27, 1924; May 28, 1924; July 8, 1924; July 14, 1924, NRS.
“Apparently we cannot”: Ibid., July 14, 1924.
“Poor Slater told us”: WP to ACD, Dec. 1, 1927, ML. Park had met with Slater shortly after his release.
exchange of letters with Conan Doyle: The WR-ACD correspondence has been preserved at ML.
“This strange, self-tortured fanatic”: Hunt (1951), 190.
“Park was a remarkable man”: Ibid., 166.
he sent Park money: E.g., WP to ACD, Nov. 25, 1927, ML. Park’s letter reads in part: “I have your cheque for £25. You personally cannot be bled in this fashion. What you have done is incalculable; one of the finest things in British history. Personally, my chief trouble is the collapse of shares held by me in the best Mexican mines which have gone down….I shall not desert you, come what may, although I am struggling for existence now. The public, I hope, will c
ome to the rescue & do its belated duty to you & Slater.”
appeared in July 1927: Roughead (1950), lxii.
As Park pointed out: Park (1927), 90ff.
“Now that the whole world”: Ibid., 90.
The answer, he explained: Though Park did not quote directly from this document in his book, he did so in his correspondence with Conan Doyle.
Before he died: Toughill (2006), 189–90.
As originally worded: Ibid., 190–91; italics added.
“It is certain”: Conan Doyle (1927), 5.
“There is not one point”: Ibid., 6.
“Who is to blame”: Ibid., 10.
“Finally, we may ask”: Ibid., 14–15; italics in original.
“It is indeed”: Ibid., 18.
CHAPTER 19: THE GATES OF PETERHEAD
had begun to attach themselves: See, e.g., Jann (1995), 125.
In September 1927: Hunt (1951), 193.
“I have been going further”: Quoted in ibid., 193.
“Each day Palmer attacked”: Ibid., 193–94.
On October 23: Ibid., 195.
“one of the most dramatic”: Quoted in ibid., 195.
was widely presumed dead: In Conan Doyle (1927), 13, ACD erroneously includes Lambie’s name in a list of principals in the Slater case who had since died.
“It has been said and denied”: Quoted in Hunt (1951), 195–96.
“What a story!”: ACD postcard to the writer J. Cuming Walters, n.d., ML.
“She is in the streets”: WP to ACD, Oct. 31, 1927, ML.
Assisted by Palmer: Hunt (1951), 196.
“I, Mary Barrowman”: Quoted in ibid., 197–98.
“Oscar Slater has now”: Quoted in ibid., 199.
summoned in secret to Peterhead: Ibid., 199.
at 3:00 p.m.: Ibid.
CHAPTER 20: MORE LIGHT, MORE JUSTICE
“The best plan”: Quoted in ibid., 199.
“I am tired”: Quoted in ibid., 200.
At headquarters, he asked: Ibid., 201.
“Dear Mr. Oscar Slater”: Quoted in ibid., 200.
“Sir Conan Doyle”: OS to ACD, n.d. [autumn 1927], ML.
