Baltimore Lawyer Relates Facts in Celebrated Case (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
Rabbi Eleazar P. Phillips of the Garnethill Synagogue, Glasgow, was the man who guided Oscar Slater to his freedom after a period of 18 years spent in the Peter-head Prison. Rabbi Phillips met Slater at the prison gate and took him to Glasgow where it is expected the Jewish community will provide for the needs of the released man.
Ramsay MacDonald and many members of parliament voiced the demand that a public inquiry be instituted to establish Slater’s innocence.
Slater was convicted in 1909 of the murder in Glasgow of an aged woman, Mrs. Marion Gilchrist, and sentenced to be executed. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment two days before the day set for the execution because of agitation based on doubt as to his guilt.
A few days ago Mary Dannermen, who was a fifteen-year-old errand girl and one of the chief witnesses against Slater, signed an affidavit saying she had not meant to identify Slater positively as a man she saw running away from the scene of the crime, but had been influenced by the Prosecutor.
Interest in Slater’s case was revived by the recent Sacco-Vanzctti agitation.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
