BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's involvement with REAL CRIMES

**Posted by Davina** June 12, 2012 1:21 pm

I stumbled across this by chance whilst surfing the other day and it came as a real surprise to me. I had no idea that Sir Arthur had in real life been directly involved with two criminal cases.

ACD was a member of the lemon Crimes Club which was founded in 1904. This met regularly to debate famous criminal cases. He also wrote a series in the Strand Magazine on a History of Crime in 1901, entitled Strange Studies from Life.

He was however also directly involved in the following two criminal cases:
1. The case of George Edalji
2. The case of Oliver Slater.

ACD's involvement led to the establishment of the Court of Appeal in England and Scotland in 1907.

Some details about ACD's involvement and the cases can be found on this link:

www.westminsteronline.org/conandoyle/TrueCrime.html

Further details about the case of George Edalji can be found in the following link and Julian Barnes also wrote a Booker Prize winning novel called Arthur and George about it. For ACD this case was about racism.

www.westminsteronline.org/conandoyle/TrueCrime_GeorgeEdaljiCase.pdf

Further details about the case of Oliver Slater can be found on the following link. For ACD Slater was seen as a scapegoat for a crime carried out by another person who had the class and influence to arrange a cover-up. Slater was very nearly executed for a crime he did not commit.

www.westminsteronline.org/conandoyle/TrueCrime_OscarSlaterCase.pdf

To think that our very own Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was responsible for the Court of Appeal being established. No wonder Sherlock says that a man's life is at stake!

**Posted by Davina** June 12, 2012 7:23 pm

I have managed to find the BBC documentary on YouTube. It is in 6 parts but it is a really good, interesting, if disturbing programme. It also contains some information regarding Sherlock Holmes.

The following links seem to be playing up but, if you go onto YouTube and search for Arthur Conan Doyle real murder detective the parts will come up e.g. 1 6, 2 6 etc.

Part 1
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwhtakND4l

Part 2
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkVoelazRQ

Part 3
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG9ZVm2M0Ml

Part 4
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SlgMq9yV1c

Part 5
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgymu42RBB4

Part 6
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg5V-hSZ1vA

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** June 14, 2012 9:02 am

Awesome thankyou.

I've just ordered a copy of ACD's autobiography...looking forward to finding out more.

**Posted by Roger Oldfield** June 18, 2012 4:48 pm

Glad you've covered this, Davina. My book 'Outrage: The Edalji Five and the Shadow of Sherlock Holmes' (Vanguard) reviews all the evidence on Conan Doyle's investigations on George's behalf.

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Last edited by kazza474 (June 19, 2012 5:13 am)

**Posted by Roger Oldfield** June 18, 2012 4:52 pm

I'm the man on the bike in the BBC film on the Edalji case! Julian Barnes was supposed to be doing it, but he dropped out and they asked me. JB was supposed to be filmed driving into Great Wyrley, the scene of the crime, in his car. As a life-long eco-campaigner I did not want to, so they let me go on my bike!

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Last edited by kazza474 (June 19, 2012 5:13 am)

**Posted by Roger Oldfield** June 22, 2012 5:57 pm

It really did seem that Sherlock Holmes had come to life when ACD published his 20,000-word articles on the Edalji case in the Daily Telegraph in January 1907. The paper ran an editorial to that effect. The novelist George Meredith wrote to ACD to congratulate him on his articles: Sherlock Holmes, he said, 'had shown what can be done in the real life of breath'.

Over the following months this real-life Sherlock Holmes story was covered by papers around the world, from the New York Times to the Bombay Guardian, the North China Herald and many more.

Last edited by Roger Oldfield (June 22, 2012 9:54 pm)

**Posted by Davina** June 23, 2012 11:19 am

Are there any links to any of these old newspaper articles available? Thanks for the extra information Roger.

**Posted by Roger Oldfield** June 23, 2012 3:46 pm

You could try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_online_newspaper_archives to start with. There are others where you pay,such as
http://newspaperarchive.com. Infuriating that archives were not available online when I wanted to look at them! Spent years visiting libraries and archives round the country.

**Posted by Davina** June 23, 2012 4:20 pm

I imagined that would be the case. Need to find some time for some more research. Still, it is still easier now than it was years ago with so much available on the internet. Thanks for the links.