FAMOUS SLATER CASE

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2143, 8 May 1914, Page 7

FAMOUS SLATER CASE

HOME OFFICE INQUIRY. By 'Telegraph—Presi AGBOclatlon-CopyTicbt London, Mav 6. It is understood that the Homo Office [ Inquiry regarding tho case of Oscar . Slater, sentenced to death in 1909 for , the murder at Glasgoiv of a Miss Marion . Gilchrist, did not confirm the allegations of a miscarriago of 'justice. . Slater was sentenced to death on the -verdict of a majority of the jury. The sentence was commuted to penal servitudo for life. Several mysterious points in tho case have never been cleared up. The i only thing missing from .Miss Gilchrist's . flat was a brooch. In five days tho polico s issued two descriptions of tho man who i rushed from the flat directly after tho murder. The second description was that of a man with a crooked nose. Pour hours later a man told the police that this-de-scription tallied with Slater, who had pawned a . brooch. This was tho origin of the/hunt for Slater, but it was conclusively proved that tho brooch lie pawned was not the brooch stolen from Miss Gilchrist. Sinter was convicted on identification by Mifs Gilchrist's maid and a girl. It has been declared b.v Sinter's friends that the maid persisted for a fortnight in ft description that was not that of Slater; that there was a doubt whether tho other identifying witness did not i make a mistake in the date on which > she saw tho man; that thero was evidenco • that Slater was seen some distance away > at tho time Miss Gilchrist was killed; that the doctor who first saw the body was not called ns a witness; that Slater's departure fpr Liverpool and the United States on the nieht of tho murder was not a flight—as tho prosecution sugpested—but the carrying out of « plan long arranged. It appears that after tho verdict a juryman wrote to Slater's lawver. making a statement as to how tho verdict was arrived at. This letter was to have been.forwarded to the Secretary for Scot- . land with tho other new facts after a consultation with Slater, but the interj! view with tho. prisoner was refused.