by Margalit Fox
It was empowered to hear: Hunt (1951), 202.
On November 16, 1927: Ibid., 203.
It passed into law: Ibid.
supporters hired Craigie Aitchison: In 1929, Aitchison (1882–1941) became the first socialist to be appointed Lord Advocate for Scotland, the post held during Slater’s original trial by Alexander Ure. Aitchison’s son and namesake (1926–2009) was a distinguished painter.
“Many lawyers rated”: Michael McNay, “Craigie Aitchison Obituary,” Guardian, Dec. 22, 2009. (The subject of the obituary from which the quotation is drawn was Aitchison’s son and namesake.)
The appeal of Oscar Slater: Ibid., 208–9.
in the same courtroom: Ibid., 208.
a five-judge panel: Ibid.
the Sunday Pictorial newspaper: Ibid., 217.
“In these circumstances”: Quoted in Hunt (1951), 212.
wiring the participants: Ibid., 213.
“I think his brain”: Quoted in ibid., 213.
“I was in a mood”: Quoted in ibid., 213.
“I am very anxious”: WP to ACD, Jan. 27, 1928, ML. Italics added.
“This woman will die”: WP to ACD, n.d., ML.
“This woman”: Quoted in WP to ACD, Dec. 5, 1927, ML.
“Wiping her suds-covered hands”: Quoted in Whittington-Egan (2001), 176.
“I wish to put a denial”: HL open letter, Dec. 18, 1927, NRS.
“Lambie will go down”: WP to ACD, Dec. 19, 1927, ML.
Slater’s appeal resumed: Hunt (1951), 213.
Dr. Adams had died: Roughead (1950), 312.
“He expressed a very strong”: Ibid., 315.
John W. M. Pinckley: Ibid., 319–22.
“Was it possible”: Quoted in ibid., 320–22.
“For three days”: Quoted in Hunt (1951), 216–17.
rulings on four points of law: Ibid., 220–26.
Slater was seen: Ibid., 220.
“It cannot be affirmed”: Ibid., 226; italics added.
“It was some moments”: Ibid.
“I Oscar Slater”: Quoted in ibid., 226.
“Dear Sir Arthur”: Quoted in ibid., 226–27; italics in original.
Conan Doyle, who was grateful: Ibid., 227.
“My own connection”: Quoted in ibid., 227.
CHAPTER 21: THE KNIGHT AND THE KNAVE
“I can quite understand”: Quoted in Hunt (1951), 231–32.
On August 4: Ibid., 232.
“a disreputable, rolling-stone of a man”: Conan Doyle (1912), 43.
“A Liberal Imperialist”: Otis (1999), 98.
“eating out his heart”: Conan Doyle (1924), 226.
“the easy reading”: Van Dover (1994), 30.
“Lest I do you”: ACD to OS, Aug. 9, 1928, ML.
“You seem to have taken leave”: ACD to OS, Aug. 14, 1928, quoted in Hunt (1951), 233.
“Early in the proceedings”: ACD to the Empire News, May 5, 1929, quoted in Hunt (1951), 235–36.
In September 1928: Telegraph, Sept. 14, 1929, ML.
“Let him call me”: Daily Mail, autumn 1929 [precise date illegible], ML. Also quoted in part in Hunt (1951), 236–37.
“Making money[!]”: Daily Mail, autumn 1929 [precise date illegible], ML. Also quoted in Hunt (1951), 237.
“Oscar Slater shook hands”: Daily Mail, autumn 1929 [precise date illegible], ML.
Conan Doyle responded: Evening News, Sept. 13, 1929.
In October 1929: Hunt (1951), 238.
“At the time”: Conan Doyle (1930), 445.
“Big-Hearted, Big-Bodied”: Quoted in Martin Booth, The Doctor and the Detective: A Biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur, 1997), 170.
“I have had many adventures”: Quoted in Adrian Conan Doyle (1946), 7.
On July 7, 1930: Miller (2008), 476.
EPILOGUE: WHAT BECAME OF THEM
a view shared by some later writers: E.g., Costello (1991).
Other observers have pointed: E.g., Toughill (2006).
a ring of professional thieves: E.g., Whittington-Egan (2001).
a murderous collaboration: E.g., Ted Ramsey, Stranger in the Hall (Glasgow: Ramshorn Publications, 1988).
“Miss Gilchrist must have been killed”: Roughead (1929), lix; italics added.
“I see no prospect”: Conan Doyle (1930), 446.
She returned to Scotland: Whittington-Egan (2001), 179.
She died in Leeds: Ibid.
Mary Barrowman, who: Ibid., 316–17.
“Many years after the trial”: House (2002), 180.
Barrowman died in 1934: Whittington-Egan (2001), 316.
Arthur Adams, seventy-three: Ibid., 314. Adams was found dead, of natural causes, in his home on Jan. 3, 1942. He had last been seen alive on Dec. 31.
In a noteworthy turn of fate: Ibid., 315.
In 1969, a Glasgow magistrate: Grant (1973), 58.
In 1999, however: Whittington-Egan (2001), 266.
“Scotland’s gulag”: Quoted in Scraton et al. (1991), 65.
“Will Wed a Kaffir”: “Will Wed a Kaffir, Says Oscar Slater,” New York Times, Nov. 28, 1929, 21; reprint of Associated Press article datelined London, Nov. 27, 1929.
after his estranged first wife died: Whittington-Egan (2001), 195.
he was briefly interned: Ibid., 197.
Unable to abide the name: Ibid., 198.
“With the war over”: Ibid., 197.
on July 27, 1942: www.ushmm.org/online/hsv/source_view.php?SourceId=7133.
Slater’s sister Phemie: Database of Holocaust victims, www.holocaust.cz.
his beloved sister Malchen: Ibid.
By Margalit Fox
Conan Doyle for the Defense: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, a Quest for Justice, and the World’s Most Famous Detective Writer
The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code
Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind
Death Becomes Her: Selected Obituaries by Margalit Fox (a New York Times ebook)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MARGALIT FOX is a senior writer at The New York Times. As a member of the paper’s celebrated Obituary News department, she has written the Page One send-offs of some of the best-known cultural figures of our era, including the pioneering feminist Betty Friedan, the writer Maya Angelou, and the children’s author Maurice Sendak. For her work at the Times, she received Front Page Awards from the Newswomen’s Club of New York in 2011 and 2015.
Fox is also the author of Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind (Simon & Schuster, 2007) and The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code (Ecco, 2013). That book, which chronicles the decipherment of the mysterious Bronze Age script known as Linear B, was selected by The New York Times Book Review as one of the best books of the year and received the 2014 William Saroyan Prize for International Writing.
Her work is prominently featured in The Sense of Style (2014), the bestselling guide to writing well by Steven Pinker. In 2016, the Poynter Institute named Fox one of the six best writers in the history of The New York Times.
Fox holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in linguistics from Stony Brook University and a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She lives in Manhattan with her husband, the writer and critic George Robinson.
Facebook.com/conandoyleforthedefense
Twitter: @margalitfox
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