The damning link for Oscar Slater had been a happenstance exchange for a crescent shaped diamond brooch to a pawnbroker. Marion Gilchrist was found murdered in her home, and the loss of hundreds of items stolen, many brooches of topaz and pearls valued at £3,000. And Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s friend was sentenced for nearly 2 (Two) decades in Scotland yard for the pawning of just 1 (One) of them, for a paltry loan of £20… Prior to conviction, the man had absolutely no knowledge of Miss Gilchrist’s existence, yet he served the time for her death… meanwhile, who got away with her precious jewels? 

Nearly ever bone of her face and skull were smashed. The trial is just like that of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the death of an old baroness and the getaway with her jewels. Only nobody was ever caught, and only Doyle’s dear friend Slater was convicted for it… and Doyle spent much of his career as a writer levying for support of Oscar Slater, who was consigned to work in the quarries and could have no visitors, not even his mother that he loved so much. They exchanged letters but Slater was convicted for his crime on arbitrary forensics; 

“With criminology as their primary tool, the Glasgow police knew that they could never use it to prove Slater’s guilt. But they could use it, masterfully, to construct his guilt.”

So as Sir A.C.D. Became the Stephen King writer of his age, he was met with resistance on every front; despite his diagnostic powers which were attributed to his medical-school teacher Dr. Joseph Bell, is was 20 years before Slater would be free… and owing to this, letters between them were warm and appreciative, but Slater was already beat, and ungrateful… #sherlockholmes #sirarthurconandoyle