LETTERS REVEAL MORE ABOUT GRISLY MURDER

ARCHIVES can tell the story of everyday life – including the grisly side.

On December 21, 1908, wealthy spinster Marion Gilchrist was brutally murdered in her home on West Princes Street.

Her belongings were largely undisturbed with only a diamond brooch missing. Gilchrist’s maid, Helen Lambie left the home a short time before the murder to run errands, returning to find her employer dead.

Also living in Glasgow at the time was a man named Oscar Slater. A German Jew, Slater had an unsavoury reputation in the local community. Shortly after the murder, he travelled to New York. His ‘ quick’ departure to the States and recent visit to a pawn shop led the police to focus on him as the culprit.

Glasgow police travelled to New York, along with maid Helen Lambie and further witnesses to identify Slater. Glasgow Police did not have enough evidence to extradite him and Slater was informed that any extradition process would likely fail.

Lamentably, he chose to return voluntarily to clear his name. At his 1909 trial, he was convicted on circumstantial evidence with the key witnesses swearing they did not discuss the case on their return journey. Slater was sentenced to death, but this was later changed to life imprisonment.

However, not everyone was convinced of his guilt. Famed Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle, while he did not approve of Slater or his lifestyle, e x a m i n e d the evidence brought at the trial and proved that Slater could not be the killer.

Also doubtful was DetectiveLieutenant Trench of the Glasgow Police. He provided information to an inquiry by the Secretary for Scotland in 1914 which ultimately led to his dismissal and the upholding of Slater’s sentence. Trench died in 1919 and Slater served 19 years in Peterhead Prison.

In 1927, the recently

Scottish Court of Criminal Appeal was allowed to hear cases from before 1926 for the first time, and they duly heard the case of Oscar Slater.

The conviction was quashed in 1928 on the grounds that the judge had not directed the jury about the irrelevance of Slater’s previous character. Slater received compensation of £ 6000 ( approximately £ 300,000 today) He died in 1948 in Ayrshire.

We’re fortunate to hold correspondence between Slater and Conan Doyle as part of our records at Glasgow City Archives. They wrote regularly while