Conan Doyle for the Defense

7 hrs. 41 min.

Language Russian

Author Margalit Fox

Narrator Alexandra Maksimova

Description

In our time, few people know that Arthur Conan Doyle—the famous author of Sherlock Holmes detective stories—was also a well-known public figure, a defender of those unjustly convicted. Conan Doyle’s intervention helped soften the sentence of his friend accused of treason. It also helped restore legality in a loud case involving an Englishman of Indian origin who became a victim of xenophobia, and finally led to the release of Oscar Slater, who was found guilty of murdering a wealthy lady.

Sentenced to death—later commuted to life hard labor—Slater spent more than 18 years in prison, forgotten by almost everyone. Almost everyone, but not Arthur Conan Doyle. The writer managed to free Slater by conducting his own investigation, and his main weapons were observation and clear logic—the very things that brought his hero worldwide fame.

The book also tells about a man condemned to execution whose innocence was proven without modern methods of forensic science, and about a unique investigative method described in the Sherlock Holmes stories—and then applied to a real crime.

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