Conan Doyle Fights Injustice and Prejudice

In 1908, Marion Gilchrist, a reclusive, elderly woman, was murdered in her home in Glasgow. Oscar Slater, a German Jew and a gambler who lived with a prostitute, was arrested, tried and convicted. He had the misfortune to pawn a brooch resembling one that was stolen from Gilchrist. The police were having no success finding the real killer, so they fastened on Slater in spite of his having an alibi.

Conan Doyle was brought into the case because Slater managed to smuggle a letter out of prison in 1925 asking for his help. The obvious prejudice against Slater gave Conan Doyle the excuse he needed to take up the case. Although he didn’t personally like Slater, he continued to pursue justice until Slater was released.

The case itself is interesting, but the best part of the book is the detail about the criminal justice system in Britain in the early twentieth century. The book details the methods of criminal investigation and the role prejudice and dislike of outsiders played in dispensing justice. The horrific prison conditions in Scotland are also discussed at length.

This is not a book about Conan Doyle although his activities to proved Slater innocent are the main story-line. The book is a detailed expose of the criminal justice system in the early days of the twentieth century. It’s fun to read about Conan Doyle, but the background descriptions are invaluable.

I received this book from Net Galley for this review.

Conan Doyle for the Defense tell the true story of the violent murder of Marion Gilchrist and the wrongful imprisonment of Oscar Slater for the crime, despite his clear innocence. Conan Doyle created one of the most famous detectives of all literature with his Sherlock Holmes. Yet less well known is that, thanks to Holmes' fame, Conan Doyle himself also occasionally stepped in on cases where he thought he could be of use. Oscar Slater's is one of those cases. The brutal murder of Marion Gilchrist in 1908 Glasgow was certainly worthy of Holmes himself- a rich, reclusive, elderly lady who lived in a nearly impregnable house was found beaten to dead in that home in the 10 minute window of time when her maid stepped out to buy a paper. Slater never heard of Miss Gilchrist, yet because he had pawned a brooch with a superficially similar description to one stolen at the crime scene he was named the killer. It didn't matter that the brooch had been pawned months before the murder (and its theft), that there was no way Slater knew of the brooch or the woman, that no eyewitness could agree on the man they saw in the neighborhood (or even if there was one or two men). Nor did it matter that almost as soon as they named Slater as a suspect the police knew he had to be innocent. Slater was arrested, tried, convicted, and jailed for nearly 20 years for a crime he couldn't have committed.

Margalit Fox tells the story from two angles: following Slater and the crime and following Conan Doyle's attempts to bring to light the farce of justice that was Slater's case. While overall the book is interesting, Fox never seems able to decide what kind of story she's telling. Is this a murder mystery where ominous statements and cliffhangers are needed at the end of every chapter? Is it a biography of two men who only met in person once, but had a deep impact on each other's lives? Is it a new literary critique of Conan Doyle's Holmes and his place in the canon of detective fiction? Is it a history of the development of forensic science and the criminal justice system of Scotland and England? Fox wants the answer to be: yes, it is all of those. The result is an interesting, though often rambling, Conan Doyle for the Defense- a story of crime that is probably more memorable because of the crime that happened after the murder- the criminally negligent (at best) railroading of an innocent man.

Although the draw of the story will be, for most people, Arthur Conan Doyle, and though Conan Doyle is on nearly every page of the book, he really had very little to do with the case as a 'case'. The actual murderer is never caught- although Doyle and others on Slater's side had their suspicions. Doyle does not produce the true killer and clear an innocent through any Holmesian insights. What he does that is remarkable for the time is to step above the reflexive prejudice against Slater as a foreigner, a gambler, a Jew, and a scoundrel. Unlike the judge, the jury, supposed 'eyewitnesses' and the general public as a whole, Doyle argued that a man was innocent until proven guilty and should not be a scapegoat for the police simply because they had no other convenient man on hand to blame. The case against Slater was not even built on a house of cards- solid if looked at in the right light. It was as solid as a house of Swiss Cheese. But, as Fox goes into repetitive detail to show, because Slater was Other and could be made to fit the image of the turn of the century bogeyman, he was convicted.

An interesting look into turn of the century British criminal justice and morals, Conan Doyle for the Defense is a highly receptive, not always well-written, slightly rambling account of a terrible miscarriage of justice and a stubborn writer's work to help champion the correction of that miscarriage. Despite this, it will be interesting to history lovers (and especially to lawyers) and interesting to those readers looking to discover more about the life of Arthur Conan Doyle.

I received this book through NetGalley for an honest review and I am happy to provide one.

I have followed the author's books as well as her career at the New York Times and anticipated a good read, I was not disappointed. This is a whip smart written book and a brilliantly researched true story.
The book relates the story of Oscar Slater and how he was railroaded for a murder he didn't commit. It chronicles the 23 years he served in a brutal Scottish prison and the unlikely allay he has in Conan Doyle, who ultimately secured his release.
There are a few themes interwoven in this true story. A terribly sad story of a life ruined by prejudice and the police run amuck. There is a highly readable history of the criminal justice system in England and Scotland in a period of time where forensic science was just beginning . How Conan Doyle, the man who invented Sherlock Holmes, applied Holmes' investigative techniques into the real life crime story of Oscar Slater in an effort to clear his name and earn his release from prison as well as a look into Conan Doyle's private life and his long lasting search for justice. It also is a surprisingly contemporary story about how the media and the government can profile, vilify, and legislate against an immigrant community to the extent, in this case, that an innocent man went to prison for 23 years. The wording used in 1905 against the Jews is very evocative of the news of today.
Following along with the twists and turns of this story was engrossing and entertaining and heartbreaking. It was a great read!

This is an interesting telling of Arthur Conan Doyle involving himself in the defense of a man wrongly convicted of murder. It is a little dry and a little repetitive, but still an account worth reading.

While Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created what is arguably the most famous fictional detective of all time, what is far less known are his own efforts toward seeing justice served. Conan Doyle for the Defense by Margalit Fox describes just such a case. This is the story of Oscar Slater and the murder he was convicted of: that of an elderly, wealthy jewelry collector, Marion Gilchrist.

Gilchrist was brutally beaten to death in her apartment, and a diamond brooch was stolen. When Slater was found to have pawned a diamond brooch, his fate was sealed, even though his proved to be a different one than that owned by the victim. This did not deter the police, however, from continuing to build their case.

A foreigner and a Jew like Slater living in Glasgow in this era was treated with suspicion from the outset. Add his interests in gambling, and the possibility that he was pimping out his girlfriend, and public opinion was very much against him. This was a time when Jewish immigration was on the rise, and with the addition of many poorer immigrants came wild accusations and categorizations of Jews as, “..traitors, swindlers, blackmailers, and perjurors.”

After introducing us to the crime, Fox offers background material on Doyle and his writings, not only Holmes but other novels and short stories he worked on throughout his early years. Holmes was not the original thinking detective, as Edgar Allan Poe created the character of Dupin many years prior. We also learn of Joseph Bell, a real-life instructor of Doyle’s and an inspiration for Holmes and his amazing powers of deduction.

Fox spends time detailing the method of “abduction,” where a crime has been committed and investigators seek a theory of the crime. This should have been the technique applied to the Gilchrist case, but of course the facts did not fit any theory put forth. The other method in vogue at the time was “criminology,” essentially profiling individuals based on origin, appearance, etc., with the thought that it can predict who would commit a crime. Slater was the victim of just this approach.

Doyle published his own account, The Case for Oscar Slater, in 1912, after poring over papers from the trial and interviews. He never saw the crime scene, and had only the records of others to draw on, yet he correctly deduced that the murderer was not after jewels at all but actually a will, a family squabble that became public 2 years later. After Slater has served his time and had his appeal, the relationship between Doyle and Slater takes an unfortunate turn. Doyle feels that Slater should behave like a gentleman, but he, as the author says, “...takes on a regrettable Pygmalion aspect.” In the closing of the book, the author, to my delight, refuses to speculate on who the murderer was after such a huge rift in time, but instead leaves the facts to speak for themselves.

There have been biographies of Arthur Conan Doyle before, but none quite like Margalit Fox’s Conan Doyle for the Defense. Looking at the true story about one specific incident in Doyle’s life in this book, Sherlock Holmes himself could be proud.

After the wealthy Marion Gilchrist was murdered in her home in Glasgow just before Christmas 1908, suspicion immediately covers Oscar Slater, a Jewish immigrant. Doyle himself is not without prejudice as he reflects the common wisdom of the time in his description of criminals in Sing Sing, “abnormalities of cranium or features which made it clear that they were not wholly responsible for their actions.” Moral, ethnic, anti-immigrant, and those same physical appearance biases and unreliable witnesses soon have Slater convicted and sentenced to hard labor in an inhumane Scottish prison. His cell had one 18” square window, a sleeping hammock secured to two walls, and a narrow iron table that folded down from one wall.

Slater is finally rescued by sending a message requesting Doyle’s intervention. On his release, William Gordon carries it out of prison in a tiny pellet note surrounded by a scrap of glazed paper to resist moisture, hidden beneath his dentures. Doyle would use Sherlockian methods to show the injustice of the conviction. When Slater was finally released, he had spent eighteen years, four months, and six days in his cell.

After an analysis of the case, Doyle wrote to the secretary of Scotland, “. . . I am personally convinced that Slater never knew that such a woman as the deceased ever existed until he was accused of her murder.”

The twists and turns, along with Doyle’s mental gymnastics as he solves the problem will entertain both lovers of Sherlock and his kind of mysteries and those whose leanings run to nonfiction and biography.

An interesting read. While I originally expected more information about Conan Doyle, I did not find myself very disappointed. A lot of information about the case, the time period, doyle, and society was encased in the pages of this work. I would recommend this to anyone interested in true crime, sociology, turn of the century studies, and readers of Conon Doyle.

An interesting look at the innocence project Conan Doyle involved himself in as well as an examination of society and the criminal justice system in late Victorian England. Well referenced.

This is a very thorough and interesting tale that encompasses Conan Doyle's life, Victorian sensibilities and prejudices, Victorian criminal procedure and criminal justice, and the life and trial of the eponymous defendant, Oscar Slater. From the blurb, I expected more of the latter and less of the former. What Fox has delivered is an exhaustive book that covers the first three topics in a lot more detail than the latter though. That's not necessarily a problem - I found the book very engaging and interesting as written, because those are all topics that interest me. But I can see where some reviewers felt like they were given a history book rather than a crime story... Still, I found it very enlightening, and clearly Fox did her homework...

Mystery and true crime readers, this is a double treat. A complicated story of police malfeasance, perjury, witness tampering, wrongful prosecution, conviction and imprisonment - and it's all true! Author Margalit Fox has crafted a narrative that explains the crime, the actions of the law enforcement and judicial persons involved in the arrest and trial, and how Conan Doyle came to be involved. But the book also grounds the entire case in the social milieu of the times, explaining the prevailing attitudes and prejudices that fed into the situation and resulting injustice.

Examples from various Sherlock Holmes stories are interwoven, along with quotes from other researchers and writers who have traced the threads of the story, remembrances of Adrian Conan Doyle and even copies of letters from the convicted man to his family and friends. Taken together, it paints a picture of a time when it was common for "the conflation of foreignness with criminality, a contrivance used to justify identifying, marginalizing, and punishing the convenient Other." Perhaps readers might even notice some similarities between the climate 100 years ago and that of today.

Highly recommended for those interested in legal history, murder mysteries, and all things Conan Doyle.

Very interesting and detailed account of the trial of a Jewish German who had been convicted of murder during Victorian England. It was Conan Doyle who researched the situation, and this is essentially his story. Very interesting, but not exciting, but enjoyable read!!

As a big Sherlock Holmes fan, I really enjoyed reading in this book about how Conan Doyle himself used some of the Holmes techniques to help solve actual cases. There is a lot about Doyle himself, but the book primarily focuses on a man wrongly convicted of murder who Doyle tries to free. Very interesting to learn about this aspect of Doyle, and also the state of police work in the late Victorian times.

This is the meticulously documented account of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's involvement in trying to free a man wrongfully committed to a life sentence for murder. Oscar Slater was a German immigrant in London, a somewhat shady and disagreeable character, so when a wealthy elderly woman was murdered, the police were happy to use circumstantial evidence against him to get him sentenced first to death and then to life. It became clear to many, including Doyle, that the evidence did not match the crime and that Slater was clearly innocent. Nonetheless, it took more than two decades to get him released from prison. Margalit Fox used this story to portray the criminal justice system in early 20th century London, as well as the prejudices and shortcomings of forensics at the time. Fans of Sherlock Holmes will be intrigued by Doyle's own approach to crime solving.

Let me begin by saying that I am a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes. I started reading the stories by Conan Doyle in elementary school (no pun intended). Jeremy Brett's portrayal… iconic! Robert Downey, Jr… broadened my appreciation of the character. Benedict Cumberbatch… be still my beating heart. Jonny Lee Miller… let's go back to iconic. All of these enactments have done one thing; they have perpetuated the myth that is Sherlock Holmes, the creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Writers write what they know. Yes, they extrapolate and exaggerate, but the essence of great stories is the truth of personal experience upon which they are built. Conan Doyle was no different.

The early 20th century was still heavily under the influence of the Victorian Era which was both a time of progress and industry alongside extreme poverty and class consciousness. This was a time of nationalism that singled out anyone who was 'other.' In CONAN DOYLE FOR THE DEFENSE, the term "convenient other" is prominent. If someone fit into that category, they were liable for whatever wrong the police might decide they committed. A "convenient other" was no more than a scapegoat, something with which we are all too familiar today.

This is as much a biography of Conan Doyle as it is an exposé of system that put an innocent man within steps of the gallows. As you may, or may not know, Conan Doyle trained and worked as a physician. His professor and mentor, Dr. Joseph Bell, taught him the value of keen, and minute observation, the one quality so admired in Sherlock Holmes. Thus Conan Doyle's medical training aided him in the creation of the great detective, and, by extrapolation, made him a keen investigator in his own right. Remember, the best stories come from what you know. From there, a little imagination allows knowledge to bloom into story.

This is a book for those who read true crime, or that read history, or who, like me, have been captivated by the myth that is Sherlock Holmes. To say that I enjoyed this book is surely not enough. I felt immersed in a bit of history and found new insight into the mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Fill in the blank:

Sherlock Holmes uses extraordinary powers of _______________ to solve crimes.

Answer: “deduction”, amirite?

Apparently not. He uses “abduction” (Kindle location 1215).

Abduction? Really? He kidnaps people? That can’t be right.

I understand that Sherlock, if he decided to kidnap someone, would undoubtedly have extraordinary powers, what with being so brainy and all, but abduction, as the average hairpin understands the word, is definitely not in the canon.

As it turns out, we have all been using the word “deduction” incorrectly all these years. Who knew?

Not only that, but law-enforcement personnel have been incorrectly using the process of itself in pursuit of easy arrests and swiftly closed case, reasoning deductively as follows:

-- All murders are committed by undesirables.
-- [name] is an undesirable.
-- Therefore, [name] committed [unsolved crime].

This good book has a long but interesting digression into the names and characteristics of various types of syllogisms like above, and hangs it all on an interesting true-crime story of miscarried justice, so is generally my idea of a good time. I enjoyed reading it.

Another long but interesting digression is the bigoted and baseless theories which passed for psychological profiling. I want to say that these theories are laughable, but they caused innocent people to go to jail and guilty people to go free, so I guess there isn’t really a lot to be jolly about. Still, a look at how the prejudices of another time deformed society and led to gross miscarriages of justice could, theoretically, aid us in looking with fresh eyes at the same problem in our era.

Arthur Conan Doyle is actually only a supporting character in this book, and disappears for a long time as our somewhat-less-sympathetic real-life anti-hero does long hard time for a crime he didn’t commit. When he finally appears, he keeps the unjustly-imprisoned man at arm’s length, seemingly because he correctly read character, to wit, he (the wrongly accused) was a difficult cuss and did his utmost to make his already sad situation even worse.

In short, a fun read by a good author, who has also written an interesting book about a completely different topic which I also paid for no money, read, and enjoyed, even though I wrote an ungrateful sorehead review at the time.

I received an free unfinished galley of the ebook for review. Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for their generosity.

Conan Doyle For The Defense is beyond words good.. I cannot wait for its publication date so I can recommend it to absolutely every reader I know. ~ The best part of Sherlock Holmes (or related stories!) is that you can feel yourself in the characters head, researching cases and putting that stunning deductive reasoning to use. The same can be said for Conan Doyle For The Defense, Ms. Fox you have done Sir Arthur Conan Doyle proud.

Most readers know of Sherlock Holmes and the author who made him famous — Arthur Conan Doyle. But Doyle was far more than an author — he was a trained Physician with a practice of ophthalmology and he was a consulting detective (ala Holmes) in his own right.

This book describes the work Doyle completed for Oscar Slator over nearly 20 years in order that justice would be done. But the book is far more –

* it is a biographical snippet of both Doyle’s and Slater’s lives
* a glance at the Scottish system of jurisprudence at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century
* it is also a survey of criminology as practiced at the end of the 19th century
* and it gives us a glimpse at the English penal systems during that same time

Margalit Fox has woven these various stories into a very readable tale that will enthrall both Sherlock’s fans, the reader of more traditional legal dramas, and the historian’s desire for more.

The book is fully documented (the last 30% of the book consists of references and notes). Though missing from my electronic ARC, the final book is said to be accompanied by maps helping the reader follow the character’s and the murderer’s path through Scotland and England. It is these added features, along with easy access to the Internet, which bring the book to life.

Though non-fiction, the book reads like a modern-day thriller. And that is what will make the book an inviting read to many 21st century readers.
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This review is based on a free electronic copy provided by the publisher for the purpose of creating this review. The opinions are mine alone.

This was a fascinating book. I was unaware that Arthur Conan Doyle helped solve real crimes, although it is not that surprising when one thinks about it. The Oscar Slater case was a good choice to examine Conan Doyle's investigative and advocacy skills, as the improper actions of the government were so great and the efforts to cover up the improper behavior so extensive. I liked that the author not only provided a lot of information about Conan Doyle's views, behaviors, influences, and actions, but that she used Conan Doyle and the Slater case to explore wider societal changes in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, advances in forensic science, changes in attitude towards criminal behavior and punishment, and other major changes in the late 19th and early 20th century. If you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes, want to know more about Arthur Conan Doyle, are interested in true crime stories, or are interested in criminology, forensic science, or similar subjects, this is a book that you will likely enjoy.

“Conan Doyle For The Defense” is a rather good, meticulously researched, true crime tale, but I can’t help thinking its title is a slight misnomer. This is more Oscar Slater’s story than Conan Doyle’s, but that’s about the only criticism I have. The author does an excellent job of transporting us to the time and place of the book’s events, enabling us to understand the events in context. A woman in Scotland is murdered, in what may or may not have been a home robbery. A Jewish immigrant who did not know the woman, is pursued, arrested, tried, and convicted of the murder, on no physical evidence, and a small number of shaky, contradictory eyewitness accounts. A famous author of detective fiction sees gaping holes in the case, speaks and publishes articles about it, and eventually becomes directly involved in attempts to overturn the conviction. I could see this book being adapted into a cracking good movie.

This is an excellent book and a must read for any Sherlock Holmes fan. The author explains very clearly the methods Arthur Conan Doyle used to solve the Slater case, which were the same used by Sherlock Holmes, and Conan Doyle’s medical mentor Dr. Joseph Bell. In addition, the Victorian cultural influences which guided what passed for criminal science were very interesting-I had thought Lestrad,e was an aberration included to make for more interesting stories. It seems based on the author’s research that he was typical.

Highly recommended!