In addition to writing the popular Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was also an amateur armchair detective himself. The case of Oscar Slater touched him and encouraged him to investigate. Slater was convicted of murdering an elderly woman in Scotland. Slater was innocent--it was pretty obvious. The prosecution had no evidence and was forced to browbeat some eyewitnesses into identifying Slater. Conan Doyle worked hard to free Slater, spending his own money on a legal defense, and after almost 20 years in prison Slater was released. Not so much of a happy ending, though--Conan Doyle thought Slater should reimburse him out of the money he got from his wrongful conviction, and Slater felt Conan Doyle was rich enough not to miss the money he fronted him and didn't see any reason to pay him back. The real killer was also never discovered. It was a sad case all the way around.
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