‘The result has proved that he was not the guilty man, and this inversion of all sane methods upon the part of the police has given untold mental agony to himself and to his family, has caused him to undergo the ordeal of the double trial, three years of incarceration, and an extra year of police supervision. Apart from the misery which has been unjustly inflicted upon him, he has been unable to exercise his profession during that time, and has been put to many heavy expenses, which only the self-sacrifice of his relations has enabled him to meet. And now, though all these results have been brought about by the extraordinary conduct of the police, and the stupidity of a Court of Quarter Sessions, the unfortunate victim is told that no compensation will be made him.’

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As to the implication, still, that George Edalji had written the many outrageous letters received by his father, Sir Arthur insisted ‘I will undertake in half an hour…to convince any reasonable and impartial man, that George Edalji did not write, and could not possibly have written, those letters. Of that I am absolutely certain, and there is no room for doubt whatever.’ Conan Doyle did just as he promised, not through his own efforts, but in a much more convincing manner by seeking out the opinion of Dr. Lindsey Johnson, a handwriting analyst who had helped to prove that the famous treasonable letter attributed to the Frenchman Alfred Dreyfus was a forgery. This internationally renowned expert confirmed Conan Doyle’s own assertion, providing many detailed specifics to substantiate his findings, and concluding his comparison of the anonymous letters with Edalji’s own handwriting with the words, ‘Further examples are unnecessary, as, look where you will, you will find no points in common between them.’ Lindsey was equally as adamant that the letters were, in fact, written by the butcher Sir Arthur had already identified.

All of this evidence, however, was of interest only to the news press. The Home Office replied simply that a decision had already been reached, and that was that. No action was ever taken against the man Sir Arthur had convincingly proven was responsible for both the threatening letters and the animal mutilations–as well as for stealing the key to the local grammar school. The Law Society, showing markedly better judgment than either the police or the government, permitted George Edalji to resume his legal practice, but Sir Arthur’s great investigative success ended on a bitter note. The government bureaucracy, he concluded in disgust, is motivated by ‘a determination to admit nothing which inculpates another official, and as to the idea of punishing another official for offenses which have caused misery to helpless victims, it never comes within their horizon.’

A later biographer of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle rendered an even harsher verdict: ‘Doyle thought that the Home Office was insane to ignore the evidence he had placed in their hands; but in expecting reason and justice from bureaucrats his own sanity was open to doubt.’ Certainly, it was not the kind of ending a Sherlock Holmes fan would have expected.

This article was written by Richard Tames for British Heritage.

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