Gross Indecency
On April 5, 1895, Oscar Wilde was holed up at the Cadogan Hotel, in London, torn between fleeing the country and facing a parlous fate. Spurred by his sometime paramour Lord Alfred Douglas, known as Bosie, Wilde had brought a libel suit against the Marquess of Queensbury"Bosie's father"who had publicly called Wilde a sodomite. But the plan backfired disastrously. During the trial, Queensbury's lawyer threatened to pr…