INTERVIEW / SHRABANI BASU
“It’s no coincidence that the police seized on the odd-looking boy from the only Indian family in the village”
Ellie Cawthorne: The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer tells the story of a bizarre crime which led to a major miscarriage of justice in Edwardian England. Can you introduce us to the case?
Shrabani Basu: In 1903, a small mining village in the Midlands called Great Wyrley was suddenly subjected to terror. Horses and cattle were being mutilated in a gruesome crime that horrified the villagers – someone was slashing the stomachs of animals and leaving them in the field to die. This happened with increasing frequency for six months. The police didn’t have a clue why, or who was responsible.
At the same time, strange anonymous letters were circulating, pointing towards one family, the Edaljis – the only Indian family that lived in the village. Suspicion for both the horse maimings and the sinister letters began to turn on the eldest son, George – the “Parsee Lawyer” of my title. At the time, George was a 27-year-old solicitor working in Birmingham. He was awkward and shy, didn’t have too many friends and was known for having strange, bulging eyes.
The police needed someone to blame for the horse maimings, and so they zeroed in on George – an outsider who didn’t quite fit in. George claimed he had absolutely nothing to do with it and that he’d never touched a horse in his life. But he was arrested and put on trial. Within 55 minutes the jury decided he was guilty, and he was imprisoned.
