Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/crimecriminalsOOchririch Photo, by IV. J. Root, Chicago. "IAN MACLAREN" (The Rev. Dr. John Watson). A TYPE OF THE NORMAL LOOK, FEATURES AND CONTOUR OF HEAD. Crime and Criminals- BY u. u J. SANDERSON CHRISTISON, M. D. Formerly of the New York City Asylums for the Insane, Black- well's Island and Ward's Island, Etc. Author of "Normal Mind," "The Evidence of Insanity," "Drink and Disease," Etc. ^ OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO THE W. T. KEENER COMPANY 1897 GENERAL COPYRIGHTED 1897 BY J. S. CHRISTISON. PREFACE. PREFACE. Last winter I contributed a series of articles to the Chicago Tribune under the caption of "Jail Types," which were so favorably noticed, both in Europe and America, that my friends have urged their appearance in book form. With some typographical corrections, the articles are here presented in their original text, with a num- ber of additional sketches. While they do not constitute a systematic treatise on the subject of criminology, they present the points of most importance in a form and style intended to attract and interest the general reader, who will find much to reflect upon in the line of duty as a member of society at large. The subject necessarily contains unpleasant things, but which must be frankly discussed to be understood and properly dealt with, for they are matters of much public and private concern. The cases here given are warnings not only to the prudish and prurient minded, but also to the young 198463 4 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. and the old; to parent and child; to the citizen and to the State. The use of photographs does injustice to nobody, and can harm none, while they add distinctness to the text. It will be observed that I make three essentially different classes of delinquents, viewed from a psy- chologic standpoint, viz. : the insane (defective in reason); the moral paretic (defective in self control); and the criminal proper (defective in conscience). This classification I first presented by an article in the Chicago Law Journal, of April, 1896, which article was copied by the Law Times, of London, England. . For those who wish to give the subject a more extended study, I hope soon to present it in a systematic form, covering the whole field in its anatomic, physiologic, psychologic and sociologic bearings. I am greatly indebted to Mr. Wm. A. Pinkerton for the use of photographs, and to Dr. E. S. Talbot for the use of his plates of abnormal jaws. J. Sanderson Christison, 215 Dearborn Avenue, Chicago, June, 1897. CONTENTS. Frontispiece — A type of the normal look, features and contour of head. Preface ^^. 3-4 Introductory .^B 7- 9 An Epileptic — crime, arson 9-12 Last Report of Crime in New York 12 Types of the Degenerate Jaw 14 Types of the Insane, the Moral Paretic and the Criminal Proper — crime, murder 15-22 An Alcoholic Somnambule— crime, larceny 23 Prendergast, the Assassin 27 Cases VII and VIII — crime, provoked murder 31 Brain of the Beaver 36 A Negro " Hold-up "—crime, murder 37 B'rains of an Idiot and a Sheep 42 Sexual Perverts. ... , 43 A Female Inebriate 51 Degeneracy Among the Negroes •. 55 A Female Colored Thief and Opium Fiend 56 A Female Thief and Inebriate 61 An Aged Female Shop-lifter 63 A Young Female Shop lifter , 62. Brain of a Magyar Robber . . 72 A Young Pickpocket 73 A Professional Safe-blower 79 A Young Burglar 85 Baron Shinburn — the Prince of Burglars .... 86 A "Bank Sneak" 88 Two Unruly Prisoners 89 (5) O CRIME AND CRIMINALS. Brain of a Servian Murderer 92 Crime's Cause and Cure — A General Consideration of 93-101 A Suggestion on Prison Treatment 104 The Brain Centres 108 The Brain Convolutions no Brains of Non-criminals 111-113 Brains of Criminals 114-115 Ears 117-118 INDEX TO LEADING QUESTIONS. The Purpose of the Inquiry 7^9 Method of Examination 67-68 Classification of Delinquents 15 Insanity 15-18 Moral Palsy 20, 31-32 Criminality '79 Heredity as a Factor in Crime 23, 93-95 Loss of Parents as a Factor in Crime 96 The School as a Factor in Crime 98 The State as a Factor in Crime 99-103 The Treatment of Crime 104 INTRODUCTORY Crimes are now nearly five times as numerous as f^orty years ago, according to the statistics of incarcerated criminals in the United States. How is this to be ac- counted for ? How much is due to the machinery of our penal system, and how much to other conditions in our civilization ? It is quite evident the question demands serious and systematic consideration on the part of those in author- ity and also on the part of the public, which must co- operate in all measures for its protection and well-being. Like every other subject, it must be given attention — every aspect must be viewed which has a bearing on the individual, both as an animal and as a responsible being. The medical aspect of crime has of late been receiving a considerable and increasing consideration on the part of physicians and other humanitarians, on account of the frequency with which crime is associated with mani- fest bodily or brain disease. Indeed, the more the ques- tion is studied the more frequent is crime, at least in the habitual form or ' ' repeater" cases, seen to be a disease, or rather a symptom of disease, and where it cannot be exactly regarded as such, it is the result of bad or defect- ive education. This does not argue in favor of irresponsibility, for, as individuals, as communities, or as states, we are, in one v 8 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. way or another, responsible for every disease that flesh is heir to. Science shows that responsibihty often runs in intricate and far-reaching hnes, and where, on a su- perficial view, we would centralize it in the individual, a better understanding distributes it to more than one and often to many persons. With prison inmates the forms of head and the ex- ipressions of face in the great majority of cases will be seen to differ in some respects from the normal type, conditions which indicate something in the possibilities or dispositions of their possessors. They may be in- herited or acquired, while education either runs counter or adds to the stock. From all this we perceive a rational basis for charity, and can understand why it is justly the chief of all Christian graces. As going to indicate something of the extent to which disease is concomitant and causative to crime, official reports show that no less than one-third of all convicted murderers in England are sooner or later adjudged insane after conviction. In New York state the proportion is one-sixth, a difference not due to personal factors. This allows the presumption that insanity existed in these prisoners prior to their conviction, because insanity is so extremely slow and insidious in its development into so gross a form as to be recognized beyond a doubt, except when it is due to certain accidental causes. It is proposed to present a series of criminal types in brief description of the individual character and past history. While, for obvious reasons, many particulars will be omitted, none will be left out that are essential to CASE I. 9 the purpose of the description. Each description will be given as the product of an examination of two or more hours' length made in private and supplemented by other inquiries. The articles will be simply illustra- tive and somewhat explanatory in a general way and the types will be selected from various institutions. CASE I— EPILEPSY— ARSON. The first case considered is that of an epileptic, and arson is the crime charged. Epilepsy has many causes and many forms. Some persons have the convulsions with little, if any, apparent mental disturbance, while in others the nervous explo- sions, so to speak, produce a much greater effect on the mind and may even take the form of furor or insanity. At the Elmira Reformatory 1 1 per cent, of the prison-0 ers had epilepsy or insanity quite strong in their family/ histories and many more had bad heredity in other respects. The following is a type of the most unfortunate kind of unfortunates — those who are liable to commit crime. They are always morbidly and excessively irritable and are quite sensitive to the fact that they have fits, and they usually hide the fact as far as they can, which is a practice not without some reason. This case has twice been a patient in an insane asylum, entering the first time at nine years of age and he has spent most of his life incarcerated. He is now twenty-two years old and had only left an lO CRIME AND CRIMINALS. asylum a few months before he was arrested for arson. When he left the asylum he had neither father, mother, nor friend to help him, and he was discharged under his protest. His mother died of consumption some months before and his father was too poor and far away to give him help. His only lot was to seek oi t odd jobs in the neighborhood to gain him shelter and food. He tarried in this irregular way for several months and finally tramped off in search of greener pastures. He had been a week with his last employer when he set fire to the barn. Just previous, the same morning, he had been to a saloon not far away, where he drank whisky, but does not know what possessed him to commit the crime. He says his employer had treated him meanly, which is not at all unlikely, for such creatures are commonly treated without proper consideration. But whether this was so or not, he probably would not have committed the arson had he not been the sub- ject of a mind perverted by the epilepsy and with all its morbid possibilities, making him not only irritable, but a dangerous person. He has the habit of reading the New Testament and saying prayers much of his time. In his cell almost every night he has a spell of inco- herent muttering in French and Latin and of a religious composition. At times he is quite "ugly" in disposition to his cell-mates, and sometimes they are afraid of him. His mother died of consumption and his father, he says, is a good man, attending church, and neither ^moking, CASE I. II chewing nor drinking, and he wishes he was Hke him. But it seems, as he remarked, that he cannot do better. His eyes have a pecuHar, uncertain, and indistinct look, while his face has a dusky hue and glum expression. His head is somewhat smaller than the average, and CASE I— GEORGE PERRY. while not typically normal, it has no features worth mentioning. His general condition of body is low and coarse, the heart sounds having the nervous muffle, and his stomach region is easily distressed by pressure. His grip is weak, although when excited to violence, he would probably have great strength. His cellmates said 12 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. that as a rule he was as he appeared to me, a demented but orderly person. Found insane by a jury in Judge Tuthill's court December 13th, 1896, and sent to the criminal asylum at Chester, 111. CRIME IS INCREASING FASTER THAN THE POPULATION. New York, Feb. 23, 1897. — It has been discovered that New York has grown wickeder in the last ten years. ' The annual report of the Board of City Magistrates made to-day shows that the population of the city has in- creased 33 J per cent, in the last ten years, while crime has increased more than fifty per cent. Nine magistrates tried 112,160 cases, held 73,537 defendants, and dis- charged the other 38,623. While the total number of arrests for all offenses has increased 50 per cent., there has been an increase of nearly 90 per cent, in felonies. In 1886, 4,171 persons were charged with felony. In 1896, the felonies reached 7,021. Of this number the female prisoners more than kept pace with the general average, increasing from 412 in 1886 to 722 in 1896. Seventy-two women tried suicide in 1896, while only 25 did it in 1886. The increase of attempted suicides among the males was from 64 in 1886 to 147 in 1896. Ten years ago eight female burglars were captured. Last year the number was sixteen. Last year 1,219 males were charged with burglary, against 697 in 1886. Under ** homicides," woman reached the limit in 1895, when 19 cases of murder were charged to her account. Last year she was charged with ten cases, against 168 CASE I. 13 by men. In arraigned for 1897. 886, eight women and 106 men were homicide." — Chicago Tribune, Feb. 2^, OF THE UNIVERSITY Of THE DEGENERATE JAW. Dr. Eugene S. Talbot, of Chicago, who is a high authority on the human jaw, regards all deformities of the upper jaw as being either "V" shaped or saddle shaped, or modifications of these two types. Figure i. A type of the common normal upper jaw. From plate by Dr. E. S. Talbot. Figure 2. A type of abnormal upper jaw. "V" shaped. From plate by Dr. E. S Talbot. Figure 3. ' > A type of abnormal upper jaw. Saddle shaded From plate by Dr. E. S. Talbot CASES II, in AND IV. 1$ CASES II, III AND IV— MURDER. INSANITY, MORAL PALSY AND CRIMINALITY. All so-called criminals may be divided into three great groups — viz.: (i) The insane, (2) the moral paretic, and (3) the selfish, or criminal class proper. A criminal may become a moral paretic and a moral paretic may become a criminal, while both tend toward insanity. An insane person is also more or less of a moral paretic and may be induced by delusion or by suggestion (per- sonal or external circumstances) to commit crime. The insane subject is chiefly at fault in the power of discern- ment; the moral paretic is chiefly at fault in the power of choice; and the selfish individual or criminal proper lacks in first principles, which constitutes the basis of love in the humanitarian sense. It so happens that the last three persons executed in Chicago'" were examples of these three classes, Windrath representing the insane. Fields the moral paretic, and Mannow the criminal. I shall here describe them in brief that an idea of the fundamental differences may be made more evident by contrast. But first a few words on insanity. As before stated, the fact that one-third of all murder convicts in England sooner or later become insane and that the proportion of life convicts in New York State who become insane is over one-sixth are facts which lead to the presumption that almost all such cases were in some degree insane at and before their conviction, * This article appeared in the Tribune, Nov. 30, 1896, l6 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. though undetected at that time. This goes to show that insanity among criminals is much more frequent than our legal guardians seem inclined to believe. If for a moment we consider the chief qualities of the mind we will recognize them as included in perception, reason, and will, and it can further be observed that each one may become more markedly deficient than either of the other two at the same time. Thus we can have a great variety in the exhibitions of abnormal mind. But by the term insanity we do not include all affections of the mind but only such as involve the derangement of reason to such an extent that the individual cannot be reasoned out of an idea which is unquestionably wrong when viewed in the light of relevant principles and par- ticular facts suitably presented. / We have grown to regard the term insanity to imply a if fully irresponsible state of mind. But insanity may exist either in a fixed or fugitive form so that it is often difficult • to decide upon the question of its existence at a particu- lar time. Even in a chronic form of insanity a delusion is not always manifest and indeed may be secreted and denied or it may even exist in a sort of latent state only to break forth under particular circumstances. However, there is usually enough concurrent evidence in the demeanor, the physical condition, and the history of the subject to establish a basis for an opinion. The many suicides so surprising to intimate friends of victims indicate something of the frequency with which the delusional state exists without being discovered. While insanity is not in reality a disease of the mind, CASES II, III AND IV. I 7 but rather, of the brain, it may appear remarkable that the brain should so often present no evidence whatever of disease in persons who have died while insane. But when we observe the fact that some of our worst cases have periods of quiet and comparative normal reason, alternating with spells of furious mania, we cannot be / CASE n— WINDRATH. A type of the neurotic look. much surprised to fin(J that insanity is due to a functional disease of the brain, rather than organic defect, and that gross injuries to that organ are not essentials. \ Indeed, on Blackwell's Island, New York City, where I made many post-mortem examinations of the brain at the almshouse, the workhouse, and the insane asylum, I more frequently found gross defects, such as wasting and l8 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. fatty softening of the gray matter of the brain, to exist among the old paupers than among the inmates of the asylum. There are almost all conceivable forms of insanity indeed, as various as are personal peculiarities. But the insanity found among the crime committing class seems to differ somewhat, as a rule, from the types of our private and charitable institutions. Sometimes mania and melancholia alternate in the same person for a prolonged period, and even a form of dementia may play in with them at times. Sometimes a case is found where at least two of these conditions of mind coexist in the same individual. In the insane, action is chiefly the product of subcon- scious reasoning, which is dominated or influenced by a delusion in the form of a principle or a particular inci- dent, such as a hallucination or an illusion. Case II. — As regards Windrath, I shall only refer to that part of the evidence of his insanity which cannot be disputed, as I was one of the medical witnesses in the case at the trial. In the order of importance they are: First — "He raved to the very last," as the Evening Post aptly stated. Second — His statement to attendants, when they charged him with shamming on the morning of his exe- cution, that " he guessed it was all up with him anyhow, and that he had fooled them so long he might as well keep it up," or to that effect. Third — No evidence of shamming was ever produced. CASES II, III AND IV. 19 Fourth — His pulse was during a spell of excitement 120, and a week later it was 60. Fifth — He was working enthusiastically in his cell at times on the problem of perpetual motion, which had been his fad since boyhood, though his education was CASE III— FIELDS. A type of the moral paretic look. against it. He made very artistic drawings of a very ingenious mechanism. Sixth — When he was a patient at the Dunning Hos- pital for the Insane he had delusions of sin, which are not likely in a shammer, and when he was discharged it was as ''improved " on the records, and not as cured. I may here also mention that no crimes had previously 20 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. been established against him, and his sentence of execu- tion was based entirely on circumstantial evidence."^ Moral paresis or palsy coexists with insanity more or less, but may exist without it, and therefore it is not necessarily associated with any delusion fixed against reason. It is simply an abnormal weakness of the will, or rather a loss of self-control, which represents want of brain tone. The subject may know a particular act is wrong, but is unable to refrain from doing it under special exciting circumstances or provocation. In other words, he is subjective to suggestion either from feeling of passion or external influences, such as association may induce. Moral palsy in one form or another is extremely common, and in its worst degree — such as, for example, in some cases of inebriety — the will is so far destroyed the individual is simply the creature of circumstances for the time being. The inhibitory powers of the brain are weakened by disease produced by some form of self-in- dulgence born of bad example or an inherited proclivity. Some individuals become so weak-minded as to be fatuous, while in others the integrity of the knowing and reasoning self may coexist with some special failing. It is the borderland of insanity proper, and heredity, in- juries, fevers, and ailments of all kinds may give rise or contribute to it. But self-indulgence is the usual and chief cause favored by circumstances. Case III. — Young Fields, the negro who was executed last spring, was a type of the moral paretic. He was a * See review of this case in the Journal of the American Medical Association, May 29, 1896. CASES II, III AND IV. 21 hotel porter, lived with a woman with whom he had a drunken quarrel in a fit of jealousy in which the one assaulted the other, when he seized a lemon-squeezer, which happened to be at hand, with which he struck her on the head. From the blow she fell and he made every effort to revive her, but she never recovered. CASE IV— MANNOW. A type of the criminal look. He was a simple-minded creature, ruled almost en- tirely by his animal instincts, which he frankly admitted he indulged without curb. At first he resorted to stupid lying in his wish to save himself. He had an open countenance and a genial disposition, which was almost childish. He became resigned to his fate, buoyed up by religious ideas, and went to the gallows, supposing that 22 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. his execution was just, because the woman was dead and that it would make him right with the Ahnighty. Case IV. The criminal of criminals is an individual who, with the power of discernment and the power of choice, has no conscientious scruples with reference to truth, justice, or economy when in conflict with a selfish purpose. He has no restraint but the fear of being deprived of his liberty, and in his ideals he has no incentive to right-doing. The details of Mannow's history are yet fresh in -the public mind. He went to the gallows evincing a mixture of bravado and cowardice, and without any sign of re- pentance, although he had admitted his own guilt, murder and robbery, and asserted the innocence of Windrath. He had a penitentiary record. (I spoke with Mannow but did not have the opportunity of examin- ing him. He shot the cashier of the West Chicago Street Railway Company while committing a midnight robbeVy in the company's office. Windrath was supposed to be his accomplice but he was convicted on very weak evidence.) CASE V. 23 CASE V— ALCOHOLIC SOMNAMBULE— LARCENY. Mind molds matter, while matter conditions mind by its inherent limitations. This principle prevails every- where in the natural world in one way or another. The formative power or metaphysical substance which gives form and development to the body, is mind in its earliest action, utilizing the various energies provided for its ser- vice. Thus mind and body run parallel to each other in range of development and power to accomplish. In other words, the one grows with the growth of the other and strengthens with its strength, so that what affects the one must influence the other. Thus every physical peculiarity has a background meaning, indicates a latent energy or aptness, or else an active proclivity. But it is in every-day evidence that a fortunate educa- tion will produce the best character in spite of the physical deformities we call degenerate stygmata. Ex- ternal features do not indicate the moral character, though they must always represent energies which, if not well directed, will run wild. It thus would seem that environment explains heredity, and that, strictly speak- ing, nothing is inherited but specie characteristics. Our earliest surroundings contain in either gross or subtle' form all that the personalities of our parents represent, whether latent or active, secret or manifest. Added to this come the more extended surroundings and experi- ences of childhood and later life. Thus some evils are inherited, so to speak, which are hard to place, but 24 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. when they exist in parents we have htiie doubt of their main source. ~ Inebriety is the commonest of morbid conditions associated with crime, and according to the statistics of inebriate asylums over 30 per cent, of their inmates had heredity as a factor. As a disease, strictly speaking, inebriety is not inherited, but the inducing factors of physical and moral instability seem to arise from early influences. The drink habit of the inebriate starts in many ways, but most commonly in youth and often in childhood. Step by step periodical excesses increase in number and severity until the individual's character is changed, the power of resistance lost, and the brain irreparably damaged. Case V is an inebriate accused of larceny. He is a mechanic, 54 years of age, of medium height, and light build. He has been a widower for many years and has one son, who lives abroad. When seen he was in a nervous tremor and his look was anxious, partaking somewhat of a wild stare, 2s if on the verge of delirium tremens — an experience he has several times had. In answering questions he usually repeated them before replying. He said he began to drink when a boy at home. His father was a hard drinker, reformed for a number of years, and again fell a prey to the habit. Owing to his father's dissipations his mother had to do washing to support the family, but finally she also be- came a victim of drink. She was a woman of generous disposition. He has a brother who drinks hard, but a married sister is an abstainer. Aside from an attack of CASE V. 25 typhoid fever he has been free from ordinary ailments excepting insomnia and loss of appetite, which he has frequently experienced during the last ten or fifteen years. His tremor of body and demented manner indicate a serious condition of his brain, while his stomach, liver, kidneys, and heart tell cf their hard usage. Yet, not- withstanding all this, his fairly abundant hair is un- changed in color. He has seen many troubles and has made many decisions and efforts to reform himself. He does not believe in the "gold cure" and so has not tried it. He has ''dropped" into mission meetings at times and says he prays every night. The point of peculiar interest in this case is that he disclaims any knowledge as tj how became in possession of another person's overcoat, which he was found wear- ing. He is evidently a man with naturally a good dis- position, industrious, and of honorable habits, and my testing on the point in question convinced me of his claim. Inebriety is frequently the cause of crimes as of other strange acts cf which the subjects are not conscious. On such occasions the condition of the mind may be a form of insanity cr else a form of the hypnotic state, like the "sleep-walking" state, in which the subject has all the appearance of knowing what he is doing. Sub-conscious reasoning is going on, and suggestions have an influence they would not have in the conscious state. The in- dividual is another personality, so to speak, for the time being. This condition is due to starvation of the brain from loss of sleep or food, or both, added to some such irritation as alcoholic drinks produce in such cases. 26 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. Some persons are prone to this with but Httle dissipation. As in epilepsy, the discharge from the irritation seems to make for the higher centers of the brain rather than the lower centers and spinal cord. As an illustration of the difference in the personal factors and the effects of the same ordeal on different persons, three typically healthy instructors at the Uni- versity of Iowa recently tried the experiment of going without sleep for ninety hours, with the result that by the second night one of them had a delusion which per- sisted and became stronger until he got sleep, while the other two experimenters had no such experience. [This case developed delirium tremens within a day or two after I saw him, but recovered before his trial at which I gave the opinion as above stated, and the jury rendered a verdict of " temporary insanity " in Judge Sears' court, Dec. 22, 1896.] SLEEPWALKER CUTS OFF HER HAIR. Janesville, Wis., March 10. — Miss Lulu Reeder had a fine head of hair, twenty-seven inches long, of which she was very proud. When she got up she was greatly surprised to find that during the night she had been re- lieved of her tresses. They were cut off close to her head. When the family went downstairs the mystery was solved. Lying on the floor of the sitting-room was the hair with the shears lying on top. Miss Reeder had been walking in her sleep and cut off her own hair with- out knowing it. — Times-Herald, March 11, iSpy. CASE VI. 27 CASE VI— ASSASSINATION. Prendergast who, at the age of 26, was executed in 1894 for the assassination of Carter H. Harrison, mayor of Chicago, was much Hke other regicides in his mental condition. Although coherent in patches, as Dr. H. B. Favill remarked at the trial, he could not rationally con- nect means with ends in his own plans. He could not perceive the inadequacy of his own abilities for his dominant purpose, which were totally out of all propor- tion and fitness for the end in view. Although nothing but a hired newsvender and a fanatic on the single-tax question, he demanded to be made corporation counsel to the City of Chicago, to insure certain "reforms" particularly the elevating of the railway tracks within the city. To deny his demands' was, in his view, to be an enemy to the people and to God, and therefore it could be no crime to destroy the main obstacles. Like young Caserio who assassinated Carnot, President of France, he avoided female society and had neither a chum nor an accomplice of any kind. Both had much religious fervor and were absorbed in political studies which they were unfitted to grasp, and both came from well-marked neurotic stocks on their fathers' sides. Guiteau, the slayer of Garfield, had much the same erratic disposition. During Prendergast's last trial I examined him privately in the jail. He had a set countenance which was mild but immobile or stolid in expression, and unresponsive to thought change in conversation. He had occasional 28 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. twitchings of single muscles, while there was a more or less constant fine tremor of the whole face. His voice had a lack-normal element, and his pulse also betrayed a neurotic condition in its lack-tone indications, while his temperature was three-fourths of a degree above the normal. Yet his demeanor was superficially that of CASE VI— PRENDERGAST. Photograph taken in the County Jail by Dr. E. S. Talbot. quiet self-possession, and the conditions of the examina- tion were common-place and wholly free from irritation, thus showing that his abnormal symptoms were deep- rooted and of slow growth. He had an abnormal look and a stiffy bearing while he was frank, pertinent and fairly free in replying. I had no doubt of his insanity, V OP THE UNIVERSITY CASE VI, 29 although I did not testify. Nor did any of the dis- tinguished neurologists of Chicago (such as Drs. Sanger Brown, Church and Dewey) have any doubt that he was insane. The testimony of the uninitiated in matters psychologi- cal, seems to have received the greater respect from the CASE VI-PRENDFRGAST. Photograph taken in the County Jail by Dr. E. S. Talbot. jury. Even the jail guards (who are so used to the tricks and lies of prisoners that they are prejudiced against the truth) were called to the stand to give their opinion that he was not insane as they also did in the Windrath case, a practice favored by the fact that, as Lawyer Trude remarked in behalf of the 30 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. State, the Supreme Court of the State had decided that a layman, such as a farmer, is as competent to give an opinion on an alleged case of insanity as is a physi- cian. Such a view makes a farmer a naturalist and a star-gazer an astronomer. Would-be regicides have usually died with conclusive evidence of insanity. Passanti, who attempted to kill Humbert, King of Italy, is now in an asylum in the last stage of dementia. CASES VII AND VIII. 3 I CASES VII AND VIII-MURDER. Among ''occasional" criminals there are many individ- uals whose mental condition at the time of criminal act lies somewhere en or near the foggy fringe of insanity. The distinguishing points are: (i) The mental disturbance is but transitory, only lasting a few hours at most; (2) the frenzy is due to an emotion seemingly pat with the occa- sion but excessive in degree; and (3) there are no un- founded delusions fixed against reason. The chief background cause of this condition is phys- ical — a nervous instability which may be inherited or acquired, but often both. It may be acquired through an accident to the head, or a sickness, or some habit of dissipation, whether secret or frank. The condition is that of an unstable brain state which, owing to the par- allelism which exists between mind and body, renders the subject liable under special exciting circumstances or provocation to completely lose his self-possession or normal will and become controlled by an impulse or emotion to do an act which he afterwards deplores, and which he, perhaps, hardly realized at the time. An added factor may be a cumulative predisposition from repeated irritation along a special line until the frenzy or furor results in what in some cases may be defined as a capturing circumstance. The great prevalence of such a condition in some de- gree or other does not alter the fact that it is a men- tal irritability due to a morbid physical state which too L 32 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. often is inherited, at least in part, and from which the subject cannot escape without an assistance which often lies beyond his vision or his reach. In scientific terms, the inhibitory power of the brain is defective, which is the physiologic equivalent for enfeeblement of the will. This is moral paresis, of which there are about as many forms and degrees as humanity has failings or perversions. In this subdivision of delinquents the most pronounced cases are found among the most marked degenerates — those whose form of head and feature differ most from the normal type. Such are commonly the output of 4he social gutter, and, although they may acquire skill in some particular occupation and in their habits seem comparatively sober, orderly and industrious, they are , but little influenced by the higher sentiments of human- ity, and their incentives to live are but little more than those of sensual feasting. They usually possess the common sentiments of right and wrong, but, as a rule, their social field is narrowed by ther controlling perver- sions, their self-indulgences, favored by a low environ- ment, and the absence of a satisfying final purpose in life. Within the last few months the following two illustra- tive cases of rather extreme types came under my notice, viz. : John Wolker and Matt Rollinger, both recently sent to the penitentiary, the first for life and the other for fourteen years. John Wolker is a German, fifty-two years of age, and a carpenter by occupation. He is of medium height and CASES VII AND VIII. 33 rather lean in form. By his first wife he had two children, whom he boarded out in care of a sister prior to his sec- ond marriage. He had been boarding with his second wife for some time before he married her, and it seems the union was not born of any sacred spark, but was rather a matter of mutual convenience. During the three or four years they lived together, many quarrels CASK VII— JOHN WOLKER. arose, with jealousy and distrust growing stronger, chiefly, it appears, on the part of the wife, who, unlike Wolker, is a robust person. Finally, one evening, while he was partly under the influence of whisky and beer and frenzied by his wife's conduct toward him at the time, he took an old pistol he had kept for s» long time and discharged it in the 34 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. direction of his wife and her two little girls, mortally wounding the one who had been his pet. When he told me his story he had frequent spells of hysterical sobbing, suddenly breaking down and as sud- denly resuming, but evidently intense in his feeling. He declared he would gladly die for the child's sake, and that he. did not realize what he was doing at the time. He pleaded guilty, and the judge sentenced him to life imprisonment instead of execution, owing to his evident mental weakness. As the testimony in court was one- sided, I am precluded from here discussing the case fully. (But I am perfectly satisfied he is naturally a harmless individual in the absence of great provocation. This was the first charge of a criminal offense against him. Matt Rollinger is a Luxemberger, thirty-four years of age, married, three children, and a cabinet-maker by oc- cupation. Boarding at his house was a man whose in- timacy with Mrs. Rollinger gave rise to rumors which reached his ears, and finally he became convinced of their truth. One morning after witnessing more than he could withstand, he sallied forth in the early twilight, partly attired in female garb, and with pistol in hand lay in wait for the exit of his enemy. While the light was still dim he saw a form approaching which he thought was the man he wanted. He fired and the man fell dead. He had killed his friend and neighbor and not the object of his fury. He was arrested for murder and at his trial it was shown he was in a bewildered and frenzied state of mind when found on the spot the next moment. CASES VII AND VIII. 35 He is a stolid and childish creature with a harmless disposition except under great provocation. His mistake and confinement seemed to add a melancholic and de- Imented condition. But he had the reputation of being a peaceable, industrious and skilled mechanic. He is short in stature, but robust in build. The top of his head is flat — a condition which is said to be al- CASE VIII— MATT. ROLLINGER. ways associated with a weak intellect. On good author- ity I am told some of the jurymen remarked that if he had killed the man he intended to, he would have been acquitted. It seems they did not feel it would be safe to free him at once, and they saw no other course open than to return the verdict of fourteen years in the penitentiary. 36 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. ,g^p??PX ^ '^rf^i B^p," , ?!.- ^ "^ ■■-■/^^l RBMf / -.ir^'"^ Si'Uft View \ / THE BRAIN OF THE BEAVER. From Cassel's Natural History, Vol. IV. CASE IX. 37 CASE IX— MURDER. Last year (1895) more than ten thousand murders were committed in the United States, which is more than one-fifth of the total deaths in the Federal army during the whole civil war, which lasted nearly five years. Of all civilized countries the United States has the highest murder rate, while India has the lowest. Many so-called murder cases are accidental; some are due to assault without intent to kill, while others are premeditated and intentional. The latter two classes may be subdivided according to the mental status of the assailants — that is, the presence of such factors as irrita- tion, moral palsy, delusional state, murder intent, crim- inal indifference, and other conditions. Case IX, which I am now to describe, is a lad of the common negro t>pe. He is 17 years of age and of| average height and form. At 2 o'clock one morning he struck a man on the back of his head with a piece of gas pipe, for the purpose of stunning and robbing him. The victim fell, but immediately recovered his feet and yelled, which so frightened his assailant and the two accomplices that they immediately fled. The assaulted man, who kept a fruit stand in the neighborhood, died within twenty-four hours. The prisoner, who took fright at his victim's yell, re- turned to his room and went to bed, but did not sleep that night. For a waek longer he served at his usual business, which was that of peddling **winnies," mostly 38 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. among the saloons, between the hours of 8 p. m. and I to 3 a. m. This arrest is his first, and he says he can hardly un- derstand why he committed the crime, as he was receiving a dollar a day seven days in the week from his employer, for whom he worked during the several months he (the prisoner) had been in Chicago. But he had three asso- ciates, one being a woman, all of whom lodged together and had been out of work for some time. At times pre- vious, the project of "holding up" somebody had been discussed by them, because considerable of that busi- ness was being done in the city, so that, after a social drink of beer in their not over-aesthetic apartments, the three lads sallied forth for game, it being arranged that our present subject should deal the blow while the other two attended to the robbing. The prisoner was born and reared in a city in a cotton state, his father dying when he was a small child and his mother when he was I2 years old, after which he was cared for by an older sister. He can neither read nor write, and has chiefly been employed as a porter in hotels or saloons attached to them. He admits having all the common vices except chewing tobacco. His mother was a member of a Methodist church and so are his sisters and brothers, who, he says, are all good people and doing well in far-away Southern States. He believes in a God and a future state of rewards and punishments, and says he used to enjoy religious preaching. Says he realizes he has gradually been drifting from bad to worse, and thinks his pre- CASE IX. 39 dicament is a great lesson to him if he can ever get hberty. His features are of the ordinary negro coarseness, and his look is serious and anxious, but can hardly be called very hard. For a number of years he experienced dizzi- ness on stooping, but otherwise he has always been in CASE IX-SCOTT PRICE. good condition, roughly speaking, as at present. His general nerve tone is somewhat below par. He is blird in the right eye from an old injury. The psychological aspect of our subject is that of weakened will and increased suggestibility, with a blur- ring of the moral precepts of his early instruction. He has been excluded from helpful influences of good litera- 40 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. ture and parental interest, because of his inability to read and the early death of his parents, and thus the evils of his associations have had the advantage. Exam- ple and association are far more powerful than precept with the young and the thoughtless. Sensualities have been in him bridled by little more than "job-keeping" influences and the absence of op- portunities, and so, though still in his formative stage, his mind has been losing ground instead of normally gaining in strength and balance. Long befcre the com- monest signs of mental derangement are evinced, the will is being palsied and the range of thought narrowed through the creeping injury to the brain. At his age the brain is vigorous and the mind active and keen. It is not so with him. He simply has the cunning and alert- ness of the weak, from the experiences of hard knocks. He is chiefly a product of his later environments, to which he is a "suggestible" subject. In his case the subtle evolution of degeneracy, or, rather, of its acquire- ment, does not extend to its grosser manifestations. To say he is low, ignorant, and stupid is simply admitting that he is an abnormal being, a diseased person. It must appear from the facts as I have related them that his mind is below ordinary acuteness. To illustrate: The fact that he had no urgency, such as starvation, to impel or induce him to commit such an outrage for the purpose of robbery, and the fact that the object assaulted was a person upon whom he could only expect to find a few dollars at the most, together with the fact that the assaulted person was the keeper of a street cor- CASE IX, ner fruit stand in his own neighborhood, is evidence of defective thinking of a degenerate nature. Sentenced May 26, 1897, in Judge Ball's court to be hanged June i8ih, 1897. [Respited for 30 days by the Governor as we go to press] 42 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. THE BRAIN OF A SHEEP. SIDE VIEW OF THE BRAIN OF A MICROCEPHALIC (LITTLE BRAIN) IDIOT. [FROM TUKE.] CASES X, XI AND XII. 43 CASES X, XI AND XII— SEXUAL PERVERSION. Perversion of the sexual instinct assumes many forms, 1 according to the peculiarities of the individual, associa- tion, accident or disease. It is found in all grades of [ society and is associated with all degrees of intelligence in both sexes. The sexual instinct being provided for the perpetuation of the species can only be rightly ex- ercised within very narrow limits owing to the far-reach- ing importance of its physical and moral results both upon the individual and society. It is an instinct which normally comes into play only when the individual has arrived at a state of independence — at an age of responsi- bility when he and she have the physical and mental qualifications to earn a livelihood and take care of themselves in a social way if properly ''brought up." I By this time it gradually becomes a prominent factor in the social disposition. But in the absence of morbid habits and thoughts, it only quickens feeling and adds to the motor power in a general way. The exercise of the sexual system in its special function is at best a sacrifice of individual capital to numerical extension or social gain. And it is presumable that Nature has provided that no individual shall be normally impelled to perform a sexual act of any kind, where the degrading of character or ! energy is a necessary result. Virtue, vigor, valor and ' victory usually go hand in hand. The sexual act is at no time necessary for the best of health, for a feeling of urgency is but a symptom of a needed correction — a 4\ CRIME AND CRIMINALS. djlinquency elsewhere — in personal habits and thoughts. Sexual passion is commonly the product of thought generated in a less than normally balanced state of the mind, for while in the best balanced individual it is the keenest, it is also in the most completely subjective state, evoked only by the proper thoughts in a fitting relation- ship. A functional excess being in itself an abuse is in effect a perversion, although it is not commonly regarded as such. Sexual perversion, as an abnormal form of sexual gratification is indicative of an abnormal habit of mind. In its commonest form "self abuse" it often originates in childhood through example or the suggestion of lewd adults, and not infrequently it arises from undue attention to the special organs, owing to an irritation or excitement resulting from morbid excretions, worms from the rectum, irritating clothing, etc. This often ex- ists with an inherited nervous irritability associated with nocturnal incontinence of the urine. Unreasonable restraint upon enjoyable general exercise, especially of a proper social character, is a condition strongly conducive to morbid introspection in the child and its consequent evils. The sexual passion once formed, and associated with instability of the nervous system, inherited or ac- quired, is liable to become dominant and ruinous. In the most pronounced cases of the less common forms it is almost invariably an ingraft on bad inheritance from neurotic stock. In some cases it is more a feature of in- sanity than a cause. Such a case as that of Alice CASES X, XI AND XII 45 Mitchell at Memphis, who recently killed her chum, Freda Ward, when she learned Freda was to marry a young man instead of herself, is essentially one of intellectual aberration. The Chicago letter-carrier, who in 1895 shot his chum in the open street because of lost affection, had previously been a patient in an insane asylum. Charged with rape three times and convicted twice. Age 56 years. Short stature and small head. Because of the predominance of the mental factor in such cases the recommendation (by friends) of fornication has usually proven disastrous. The operation of desexing has not only proven to be one of the most fatal opera- tions ventured, but as a rule the cases that survive only become mental wrecks with the old desire remaining. OF THE UNIVERSITY 46 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. The milder forms of sexual perversion, of one kind and another, are probably more common than generally sup- posed. One German physician is said to have met with over 600 cases. Under proper treatment a cure usually results in a comparatively short time, but it is not to be looked for from that class of physicians who make wild claims for a mercenary object. Case X. The following case is now in the penitentiary serving a sentence of fifteen years on a charge of rape. He is now 40 years of age, but has already served several years of his sentence. He has a quiet, frank manner and mild countenance, and prior to his arrest was a foreman in a machine shop, earning $1,500 a year because of his ex- ceptional skill, which he has also demonstrated in the machine shop of the prison. His skill seems to haye been intuitively acquired, for he remarked that he " never learnt his trade, but just went right at it." It seems he spontaneously began the habit of self- abuse at 1 1 years of age and has failed to stop it ever since, although married three times. Says he was always retiring in his habits and bashful, as also was his brothers, and took but little inter- est in the common sports of boyhood. Lewd con- versation always disgusted him. He evinced a great desire to be cured of his weakness as he is anxious " to become a man yet " and accomplish some advance in his chosen line. His unfortunate habit has several times rendered him insane, once when 23 years of age and living with his first wife. This spell lasted five weeks, CASES X, XI AND XII. 4/ during most of which time he was too demented to attend to his meals when called to them by his wife. Since he entered the penitentiary he had to be sent to an insane asylum for three weeks for the same cause. A sister was at one time sent to an insane asylum and his mother also had peculiar mental spells, though never sent to an asylum. Thus it is evident he is from neurotic stock, which largely accounts for his spells of insanity and his failure to arrest his habit. His general health is good and he had no noteworthy physical abnormalities. He is fond of reading books on his business and the higher class of novels. Says he never took any stock in re- ligion because he knew so many hypocrites, but believes in a God and a future state. He claims the charge against him was untrue and maliciously concocted by his third wife and the alleged victim, who he says was only a foster daughter of his, as his first wife gave birth to her six months after marriage. Whether his story is true or not it has been found that about eight cases in every ten charges of rape have been subsequently found to be false either by confession or more evidence. Girls about puberty who come from neurotic stock often have pecu- liar imaginations of a sexual nature and sometimes make and maintain charges of a plausible form, but which are untrue in the main point Case XI. The following illustrates a more aberrant form of sexual perversion, the case being recently nar- rated by two eminent London physicians. It is a gentle- man 60 years of age, who had an exceptionally brilliant career both at college and in his profession until some- 48 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. thing happened which retired him to comparative soh- tude with the companionship of an old man-servant and his family. In his early college days he drank sot- tishly, at times, but always alone, yet it was not until after his retirement that his debauches became compli- cated with manifestations of sexual perversion. At intervals of a few weeks he would leave home sudden- ly without notice or preparation and be found later at some disreputable haunt surrounded by youths of the lowest class and the most abominable propensities, making him- self liable to criminal prosecution. After one of these debauches he was examined by two eminent alienists, but they failed to discover in his conversation any evi- dence of his mental defect or disorder. He was rational, courteous, gentlemanly and impressed one as being a man of acute intellect and a thorough man of the world. He was neither excited, nor depressed, nor suspicious, nor irritable, nor confused, nor did he display any men- tal peculiarity. But his habit of writing numerous letters to his associates in vice, letters of the most revolting description, in which he described in the plainest terms and with the most unctuous delight, the practices in which he and they were accustomed to indulge. Many of these letters were openly lying about the differ- ent parts of the house where anyone could see them. He also appeared wholly insensible to the turpitude of his conduct, though he was fully sensible to the danger of his being prosecuted by the law for his vile acts. A third peculiarity was the astoundingly voluminous character of his correspondence, which was well CASES X, XI AND XII. 49 written, grammatical, coherent and pertinent to the subject. Some months after he had been declared insane, he was the subject of a trial before a chancery judge, who declared his insanity proved up to the hilt, although the only additional fact of consequence proved at this trial was that the patient had allowed a young lad to obtain a great influence over him and had not only given the lad large sums of money, but had placed himself largely under the lad's control and ordered his conduct much as the lad directed him. — [Journal of Mental Science, Jan- uary 1896, p. 9.] Case XII. A young man was sentenced to imprisonment with hard labor for indecent habits toward boys. In boyhood he fell over a staircase and injured his skull. He was picked up in unconsciousness and bleeding from the ears. Since that time his mother noticed a change in his conduct. He became a confirmed masturbator and early showed an indifference to the society of the opposite sex. A few years ago he began disgusting habits with boys and acquired a perverted feeling toward women. His misery increased when he learned the police were inquiring about him and he obtained poison to kill himself. In despair he went to a metropolitan physician and told him part of his story. The result was he became a voluntary patient in an insane asylum, but was later arrested and removed by the police for his previous indecent practices. Owing to the legal view of insanity he was convicted and sentenced to punishment. 50 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. His father was an inebriate and died young. His only sister was most immoral, but his only brother remained respectable. CASE XIII. SI CASE XIII— INEBRIETY. The intoxicated person, like the lunatic and the crimi- nal, is anti-social, that is to say, his conduct is against the peace and good order of society, either in a negative or a positive way. For this reason he is liable to receive a fine or imprisonment as a ** disorderly." The remarkable hold that the drink habit obtains on some persons has been strikingly illustrated by two notorious cases across the water, Ellen Sweeney and Jane Cakebread. The former has been convicted in Swansea, Wales, 279 times ; and the latter, now past sixty years of age, has been convicted in London, England, 288 times for drunkenness. All city prisons have their inebriate re- peaters, and, as I have stated elsewhere, women are much more prone to "repeat" than are men. To a certain extent alcoholic drinks have much the same effects on all persons. Exact methods of experimenta- tion demonstrate conclusively that in the excitement stage of "drink," the thoughts are really slower, while the individual thinks they are faster than before, and also while he thinks he is stronger he is actually weaker than he was before. Its effect in producing a change of ideas by disconnecting their finer associations, accounts for this imposition on the subject. The excitement from the first glass is due to paralysis, in some degree, of the complicated check- ing apparatus which usually controls instinct, im- 52 CRIME AND CRIMINAL?. pulse and thought. While "drink" causes disease, a diseased condition, inherited or acquired, very often in- duces to " drink," and thus the one evil begets the other. In habitual drunkards there is a nervous instability de- veloped, w^hich, with some form of demoralization, turns the habit into a second nature. Many victims of drink are naturally quite honorable, owing to their education ai d beliefs. Just the other day I was accosted on the street with a very polite '*how do you do, doctor," by a neatly attired, respectable looking, middle aged woman. I recognized her as a person I had met a few weeks before in a police station, the hospitality of which she had been forced against her will to accept. I had been told she was an "old timer" through drink, but otherwise a respectable and honorable person. She had been brought to the police station at intervals, usually short, for about twenty years. She is now forty-three years of age, and, although stout and strong looking she has several physical infirmities, an increasing dropsy being one. She is a laundress by occupation and was never married. She has a slight Scotch accent and mannerism but her face is distinctly Hibernian. It seems her parents moved from Ireland to a Scotch mining village, twenty miles from Glasgow, where she was born. Her parents were Roman Catholics, industrious, orderly and kind, and for the most part temperate in the use of drink. At festive times, such as Christmas, it was common for them to drink "a little too freely," and indulge the children with CASE XIII. 53 some also. She was brought up a strict Roman Cath- olic, attendmg none but a school of that church, and as there was only one such school for three parishes she got but little schooling, owing to the distance and the weather. She says she has always believed in her early religious precepts. A type of "the tough" inebriate and abandon. Twenty-four years of age. When nineteen years of age she came to Ameri- ca, accompanied by another sister and an older brother, and at once became a laundress, though she has since been, off andon, occupied at housekeeping. She says it is now nineteen years since she first got badly intoxicated, which resulted from a generous act on 54 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. the part of her lady employer, who insisted on her tak- ing a drink because she was "working too hard." At first her drinking habit seemed to be induced by as- sociation and a desire to be sociable, but gradually she got to drinking alone. Bourbon whisky is her usual "drink," two "drinks" of which will make her "feel happy," as she says, for a little while, and then she soon feels wretched. For the past six years she has observed that three glasses of whisky has a * ' crazing effect" upon her, making her do things she is ashamed of afterwards. At these times she will visit her friends and places she would not enter in her sober senses. After a hard drinking spell, she usually experiences such an intense aversion for drink, so that, as she says, "nothing can hire her to take a drink." She has been in the bridewell twelve times that she can remember, and in the police station many times more. She says her debts don't exceed $3.00, and she seems to have but little difficulty in se- curing work when she is sober. At Duxbridge, four miles from Rigate station, in Eng- land, there is a farm colony open for inebriate women. It is composed of cottages to accommodate six persons each and a medical attendant, but the present capacity of the colony is only for fifty persons. They are prop- erly classified and given dairy work, gardening, fruit raising, etc., to engage them as much as possible in the fresh air. It is reported a great success and is regarded as marking a step in advance for inebriates, as did the Elmira Reformatory for the criminal classes. CASE XIV. 55 CASE XIV— ROBBERY. Since the Civil War, insanity has made great strides among the negroes, as also have consumption, scrofula and most so- called diseases of civilization. In i860 Georgia had one insane colored person to each 10,574 of the population, but in 1890 the proportion was one to 943. Consumption, which was once hardly known among the colored people, is now proportionately nearly three times more frequent than it is among the whites, while scrofula is still more prevalent. Insanity, consumption and scrofula are closely allied diseases as may be inferred from the fact that in eight of the large North American insane asylums, an average of 27 per cent, of their inmates die of chronic lung diseases. But this fact is somewhat explained by the enforced monotony, the confinement and the close association of asylum inmates, while the other fact is partly explained by the incapacity of the servile nature to cope with the perplexities and evils of a complicated civilization. According to Pitt Dillingham, in a recent number of the Yale Review, the negroes of the South are rapidly quitting their farms to become hired men. Thus we have a greater proportion of colored delinquents due to an imposed de- generacy which lowers the brain tone and renders them subjective to fortuitous and unfortunate circumstances Yet there are many bright exceptions who exemplify what sound precept and judicious patronage can accom- plish for beings of rudimentary s'mplicity. 56 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. Mr. Geo. R. Stetson, of Washington, D.C. , has shown [Psychological Review, May 1897] by experiments on one thousand school children that the blacks are about as good at memorizing as the whites and only average about one and a half years behind the whites in school attainments. Case XIV is a female robber of the most vicious char- acter and a type of what is known in police circles as the "strong arm " or female " hold up," who mostly op- erate in dark or degraded spots and live in the neighbor- hood of the Harrison street police station, the vilest locality in Chicago. She is a negress, 24 years of age, V X)f medium height and robust build and form, with very , coarse facial features atid Skin, giving her a libidinous \llook to a brutish degree. Her eyes have a peculiar leer land their whites have a striking sheen, showing forth an intensely lecherous nature. Her first attitude, at our meeting, was that of utter abandonment, declaring that she would not give up her career if she could. In conversation she was entirely unreserved, quick to perceive and prompt and emphatic in leply, while an undercurrent of emo- tional activity pervaded her manner. She has been nine years in criminal life, eight of which she has been high- way robber and everything vile that goes with it. Her mother died of consumption when she was 4 years of age, and a year later her father, who lived in an In- diana city, sent her to live with a widowed aunt in Chicago, a devout Christian woman who did washing for a living. Her aunt sent her to both secular and Sunday CASE XIV. 57 day schools until she was twelve years of age. At four- teen years of age she entered the employ of a well-to-do family, having the charge of two small children. Here she was frequently given a dollar to spend for the chil- dren when out with them, and got in the habit of keeping part of the money for herself. CASE XIV. Thief, abandon, and opium fiend. On one occasion she kept the entire amount and when called to account for it, she failed to explain or ask for- giveness and so left her situation somewhat indifferent about the matter. She was afraid to return to her pious aunt and had no other situation in view and so she deliberately started "on the town," as she said. She had previously fallen to the wiles of a man. 58 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. About a year after she started "on the town " she began the use of opium, smoking and eating it. Another female inmate of her abode told her its use would bring luck, so she spent a day in a " hop joint " smoking opium until night came. On leaving the place and only a few doors from it she met a well dressed man who accosted her, she says, and whom she engaged in conversation and in a few moments she induced him to enter a saloon at hand, going into it by a side hallway. Here she observed his money when he paid for the "drinks" and so, when they re-entered the hallway, she detained him by conversation and quietly relieved him of his purse, con- taining $625 and experienced no farther trouble about the theft, for the reason, she presumes, that the well dressed man's " respectability " was worth more than the money. Thus, she thought, opium brought her luck, and so she has indulged in it ever since. This success was the beginning of more active, systematic, and daring robbery practices. But she did not always fare so well in her efforts. Less than a year ago she met a man under the Twelfth street viaduct near State street and got him inter- ested. He was an object of unusual interest, as a side pocket in his trousers was noticed to be guarded by a safety pin which she soon released, but when she secured the contents of his pocket she was compelled to throw them behind her victim so as not to be detected by him. This act scattered the "greenbacks" and also called his attention by their noise. Both made a rush at the money, she escaping with $530. The vie- CASE XIV. 59 tim reported to the police and through his description of her she was arrested by two detectives. She denied the charge and finally, she says, the officers said to her " Now B — if you will do the right thing by us we will, do the right thing by you." The affair ended by her giving them $200, for which the detectives got rid of the complainant and she escaped punishment. She has been arrested a vast number of times for robbery, assault and disorderly conduct, and has usually escaped sentence when she had money. She has been six times in the bridewell and from ten to twenty times in the county jail. Her thefts have been mostly of money, being afraid of the convicting power of other articles. Her present imprisonment is for assaulting a female associate in a fit of jealousy over a colored male gambler they were both supporting. She was the only child and in her fifth year her mother died of consumption, as also did most of her relatives. Her father, who was a slave, is still living, and she says he has held the same position for 53 years. Like her aunt in Chicago, he is a pious, temperate and industri- ous person and a member of a Baptist church. She says she thought when a child she would like a ** sporting" life because those in it were well dressed and seemed to have such an easy time. But she thinks there must be an end to her course although she doesn't see anyway out. She believes in God and a future state of rewards and punishments. She has been in the habit of reading sensational novels, and although she has used opium constantly for eight years and has been deprived of it for 6o CRIME AND CRIMINALS. the past several weeks, she suffers no distress in anyway now, and is known as the "Topsy" of the prison be- cause of her pecuhar and Hvely antics occurring from time to time. She says opium makes her bolder to act out a plan, which means, scientifically stated, that like most so-called stimulants, it dulls the finer sensibilities and so releases the baser desires, which are restrained by the ordinary conscious state of mind or circum- spection. She thinks if she had remained with her father she would have been all right. Her head is of common size and shape, but her body tone is bad, as revealed by her heart sounds and her depraved appearance. THE ANALYSIS. (i) Inherited defect of nerve tone indicated by very coarse appearance and consumption on her mother's side. (2) Early loss of parental care. (3) Evils of bad locality acting in childhood. (4) Somewhat indifferent care by a "very" re- ligious guardian. (5) Bad influence of sensational novels. (6) Probable injudicious consideration by employers. (Employers have the responsibility of moral guardians to a certain extent). (7) No distinct moral precepts, and consequently the exactions of rectitude were irksome in the presence of allurements to a so-called "easy life." (8) Once started "on the town" rapid progress to utter abandonment. CASE XV. 6 1 CASE XV PROSTITUTION. Case XV is a woman who deserted her husband in another city five years ago. She is now thirty-three years of age, received but Httle school instruction when a child and says she never reads anything, and that all she cares for is her living and company. She is of me- dium height, rather stout, and has a wild, coarse and vicious appearance, a sample of the most abandoned female offender. When I questioned her in prison she was prompt and outspoken but suspicious, with a coarse, loud voice and an emphatic emotional manner. For a number of years she has spent most of her time in prison for different charges, and is noted for her violent temper and conduct, when no language is too vile for her to use and nothing too strong to resist. She is a German and came to America when seventeen years of age. Later she married an artisan, whom she deserted on account of quarrels and a mother-in-law making " things too hot for her." When she came to Chicago she had no money and so took to "the street" and robbery to obtain her living. She says she has stolen as much as $171.00 from the pocket of a victim, and claims that whenever she is arrested with money she can buy her freedom. She is a heavy drinker of whisky and says that when a child her parents gave her beer to drink three times a day. In prison she frequently vents her fury at the most kindly and considerate of matrons, without any 62 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. apparent provocation. When asked what her religion was she replied she was a Roman Catholic, and emphati- cally asserted she believed in that religion yet. Six months later I was visiting a police station when she was brought in intoxicated and bleeding from a face wound, which I undertook to dress. After a little con- versation in a sympathetic way, I remarked that she looked well enough to go to church, and I then pro- ceeded to open up her religious feelings, when the fact became quite evident that she was deeply conscious of digressions from her originally strong religious convic- tions, though probably vague, and that she now felt herself in a hopeless fix. Such is one of the "hardest" cases in w'nat is known as the ** levee" district in Chicago. She evidently suffers from "alcoholic brain," begun in childhood by her parents giving her beer. CASE XVI. 63 CASE XVI— AN AGED SHOPLIFTER. According to statistics, as woman encroaches upon man's sphere, she becomes more and more Hable to be- come insane or to commit crimes. In the Baltic prov- inces of Russia, where women commonly share the occupations of men, their delinquencies are particularly numerous, whereas in Spain, where women are much more domestic, crime is very small. The proportion of criminal women to criminal men in France is about i to 4, in England i to 5, and in the United States i to 12. According to Marro, their age of maximum criminality is thirty-five, while it is ten years less for meirt Women are much more liable to relapse than men. In England, 40 per cent, of the women sent to prison had previously been convicted ten or more times. Girls are about twice as liable to relapse as boys. The following case has been a "repeater" for many years and is now in the penitentiary. She is sixty-eight years of age and has served sentences in the penitentiaries of Blackwell's Island, Sing Sing, Joliet, and probably elsewhere. This is her third term in Joliet. She has also served several sentences in the Cook county jail. She is one of a gang of fourteen or more habitual thieves, some of whom own considerable real estate in Chicago, supposed to have been acquired from the profits of robberies. I first met Bertha while she was serving a jail sentence now more than a year ago. When she was asked what 64 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. brought her there she broke into tears and declared she "couldn't help it." Six or eight months later she was under arrest again at the Harrison St. police station for her usual crime, shoplifting, and at which time I had a long talk with her in private. "Bertha" came to America from a German village when she was sixteen years old, and on board the ocean ship she met a man whom three months later she mar- ried. He was a tinsmith by trade and only a few years older than herself. They lived sixteen years -together when they separated, and he was later killed by a fall from the roof of a house he was working on. She recalls as her first theft the stealing of a pocketful of nuts when ayoung girl in her native village. It seems that a few minutes after the theft she was * 'conscience smitten" on passing one of the public statues of Christ, which she says are quite numerous in that part of the country. On looking at the statue's face she felt its eyes pierce her with condemnation of her act, whereupon she threw away the nuts. Excepting this act, she says she was a good girl while in Germany. The village she lived in in Germany was Roman Catholic, and here and there, at short intervals, were statues of Christ in the little public squares or open places. Her mother died two years before she left Germany and her father was assassinated. She is one of a family of six sisters and three brothers. She claims she was first introduced to systematic thieving by a female acquaintance in New York who had lots of nice things and seemed to have a "good time " by thieving in stores. Says she knows perfectly well that CASE XVI. ' 65 it is wrong to steal from anybody, but that if she didn't "go down with the dogs she wouldn't come in with the police," or, in other words, the need of money and the influence of association. She declares that she prays every night but hasn't been to a church since her last time in the penitentiary. Says a church would fall on CASE XVI. her because of her wickedness if she should enter one. She seemed greatly impressed with a priest who visits the jail because of his expression of sadness at seeing her return to jail. Says **his words pierced her like lightning." She told the judge when he sentenced her that he could hang her if he chose. I have not the slightest doubt of her sincerity. 66 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. During my interview with her she frequently heaved a deep sigh and once exclaimed to herself, oh dear ! oh dear ! She is a keen, robust and vigorous woman for her age, and evidently of a passionate disposition. She admits drinking freely at times, but denies having other vices. She says that if she had her liberty and her choice she would return to her native village, where they have free homes for old people. The gang she has been operating with, range in their ages from eighteen to forty-five years, two sons of one of her sisters being engaged in selling the goods stolen. Claims she never stole from poor people. She is now in the Joliet penitentiary, and several of the other leaders of her gang have also recently been taken to the same pla'X. CASE XVII. 6^ CASE XVII— A YOUNG SHOPLIFTER. The value of an examination depends much upon its method and manner. The first step is to render the prisoner subjective. This is done by a kindly manner of greeting, expressed in look, word, tone and gentle bearing, which will usual- ly preposses the subject so that a reserve attitude, if present, is soon dispelled. This effect is enhanced by privacy of interview, a brief statement of a laudable pur- pose, and the promise of confidence as regards name. At first the inquiries are of a general nature, but perr- sonal, gradually leading to special points, first indirectly touching upon them, all the time keeping up an unin- terrupted, but, for the most part, easy questioning, varied from time to time with short discussions for the purpose of arresting thought in a particualar direction, and deciding points. Talking has to be done when indications of "side thinking" show the disposition to fabrication. In other words, the subject's mind must be kept in control, and directed both inward and outward without his realizing the fact at the time. The process is not so much a con- trolling of the subject as it is the prevention and detec- tion of deliberate lying or exaggeration. The ground of inquiry is again more or less covered by sallies through side and back doors, so to speak, for the purpose of testing, then a physical examination made. The brighter subjects are more accessible and reliable 68 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. than the commoner, the simpler, or the half-crazy, and while an examination might seem to a bystander com- monplace and even stupid, it will always succeed in getting many facts by admission, and some as clear by inference. I have no hesitation in saying it is possible in a half hour's examination to learn more about character through the light of physiology and psychology than is ordinarily done in a whole lifetime of intimate personal association. Case XVII is a young woman, single, 20 years of age, and a native of Chicago! For the last three years she has adopted -the life of a thief, her specialty being shop- lifting. She has been in the bridewell four times and in the county jail four or five times. She has a decidedly pleasant and rather intelligent face, with a tinge of the "fly" expression, blended with caution, and even sug- gesting a trace of modesty. She is a trifle over average brightness, is well formed and plump, and has a frank and sociable disposition. She began crime early in life. When her mother sent her to buy cabbages she would steal the cabbages and keep the money, not because she never got any spending money, but because she wanted more. At 10 years of age she stole $2.60 in dimes and nickels from a cup in the pantry of a neighboring woman, who kept a candy store. At 1 1 years of age she stole two watches, one the day after the other, in a down-town department store. At 12 years of age she borrowed $5 in her mother's name, but without her knowledge, from the wife of a neighboring saloon-keeper, on the plea that it UNIVERSITY OF CASE XVII. 69 was required to save a brother's membership from lapsing in a beneficial society, her father being away from home at the time. Her father died in 1889 of dropsy at the age of 49, and her mother in 1 892 of cancer, at the age of 52. Up to the time of her mother's death she remained at home and attended school, being two terms short of graduating. She was now 17 years old, and says that because she could not get along with her brothers she left home and joined a girl schoolmate in systematic thieving. Her parents were strict Catholics, but her father would drink "a little too much" two or three times a year. She says she was always the ** wild child of the family," in /O CRIME AND CRIMINALS. which there were five bothers and three sisters, two of the brothers being older than herself. The others attended Sunday-school willingly, but she disliked it, and would play truant on an average of half the time. But she has never doubted as to God, a future state, and rewards and punishment. She never read novels or much of anything else. Speedily she and her schoolmate pal became associ- ated with a number of more experienced thieves, male and female, and for a while she lived with one of the men recently tried for the Marshall murder. She thinks she must have stolen over three hundred times, mostly from crowded stores, with an occasional chance at pocket-picking. Such articles as jewelry, ornaments, silks, dress goods, jackets, and even hats were the most common objects of attraction. She was usually accom- panied by another woman or man, and would slip the articles under her cape or some other convenient gar- ment she would wear. The stolen articles were sold to some of the many "fences" in town. Like Case XVIII she says the business of stealing does not pay, as money gotten quickly and easily, goes rapidly. Although she at first said stealing was all right if one did not gel caught, yet she has often felt her course must come to an end soon. But as she does not know what kind of legitimate work she can do and thinks she is shut off from procuring an acceptable situa- tion, she does not see her way out of her present course. She has no communication with any members of her CASE XVII. 71 I family, and is under obligations to other crooks, who ' seek her company. She says she has several times concluded to stop, when some one would come along and suggest another job. She has enjoyed good health since childhood, but her heart has a weak and nervous tone, evidently a long standing condition, and she is troubled with cold feet and hands. She is easily affected by alcoholics and so as a rule she drinks but little. She has a well-shaped and medium fair head. The case described is summarized as follows: THE ANALYSIS. (i) Defective nerve tone, inherited, as indicated chiefly by early waywardness, the peculiar tone of heart, cancer in mother, etc. (2) Injudicious parentage, presumably by father's occasional drinking to excess and severities of mother exercised without due reasoning with the child. (3) Evil association at school prevailing. (4) Loss of controlling interest of both parents at a critical age. (5) Probable harshness of older brothers. (6) No restraining principles or moral precepts rationally inculcated and made distinct; consequently — (7) Evil propensities favored by bad association. (8) Later, fascination for the bright and daring male thieves. ^2 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. Ju.H Brain of Boza a Magyar, descended from a noted family of robbers, and was condemned for robbery. In prison he was good natured. Fif- ty-three years of age. {Fi-otu Prof. Benedikt, of Vienna.) CASE XVIII. 73 CASE XVIII— PICKPOCKET. Comparatively few habitual criminals are "all around criminals " — ^that is, the majority of them have special- ties in which they excel, or, at least, practice more or less exclusively, as they are most frequently known to follow particular lines, and are seldom caught in others. It has been said "there is honor among thieves," but it seems to be a kind of honor with which circumstances have much to do, much the same as with their thefts. However, some of them do have a sort of pride which seems to grow with their habits and success. An amusing story was told me by one of the oldest and best detectives in Chicago, who, for certain reasons, has kept in touch with an old-time confidence man for the last twenty years, a man who plies his "vocation" mostly outside the city. This confidence man regards Sunday as sacred and a day for worship, so he rests from his professional labors on that day, to attend church and teach a Sunday-school class in a suburb of Chicago. One day, at an out-of- town railway station, just as he was about to practice his game on some unwary object of interest, a young man, one of his former Sunday-school pupils, suddenly approached him with a genial "how do you do," which had the effect of spoiling his "business" on that occasion. Case XVIII, a pickpocket, is a young man 22 years of age, single, under medium stature, and of a light build. 74 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. He has a rather bright countenance, of a gay aspect, and more expressive of ready wit than of a meditative dis- position. His eyes are keen but restless, and while he could not be called nervous, his motions indicate an un- conscious sense of restraint, as if he was of active habits and constantly "on the go." His manner and make-up indicate alertness and agility, his perception is quick, and his will is prompt, while his disposition is frank and sociable. His body tone is good, as indicated by the rhythm of his heart and his general appearance. His head is well shaped and above the average size. He has never been sick since he was a babe. There is nothing whatever about him that a physician could call abnormal, yet the above de- scription is not exactly that of a well-balanced person. He differs from the normal individual much as the precocious child, tinged with a restless disposition, differs from the standard type. He has evidently "grown up" that way as a product of something that has constituted his environment, which, as before stated, includes what is called heredity. It is an instability that antagonizes sustained attention and meditation. The precocious child is usually an abnormal creature, and, as a rule, sooner or later loses in the race with the standard or well-balanced child for the attainment of the higher accomplishments, as much, if not more, than it excelled in the petty accomplishments of childhood. In fact, precocious children are liable to insanity. These facts suggest that there is an inwoven fiber, so to speak, of instability in the nervous organization of CASE XVIII. 75 those we cannot regard as exactly diseased nor as ex- actly normal, and which is most marked in some persons, but in others shades down towards the normal. In other words, there is a subtle constitutional flaw which arti- ficial environment has favored or fostered. Our present subject is a notorious thief of a petty CASE XVIII. order. He has been three times in the bridewell, three times in the county jail, and has been arrested on suspicion times almost without number, owing to a standing order for his arrest at sight. He admits he has picked from fifty to a hundred pockets and claims he has confined himself to that line of crime. His mother is living and keeping house for him and his 76 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. brothers. She is in good health, but his father died five years ago as a result of his being " held up " one night. His father was a temperate, industrious and church- going person, as is also his mother, who, he says, has always treated him *' right." He has three living brothers, but a sister is dead. He was born in Chicago and attended school, both church and public, being graduated at the latter. On leaving school he sold newspapers and for several years held light jobs in different offices. Then he and his brothers started a business for themselves at which he sometimes cleared $25 a week. It was about a year after his father's death that he be- gan to start out "lively" with ''hard" company. The first time he picked a pocket he was arrested. It seems he boarded a West Side street car which was crowded, saw a purse projecting from the pocket of a woman standing on the platform, nabbed it, and im- mediately left the car while it was in motion. He walked down to the next corner, when he saw the shadow of a detective approaching from behind to arrest him. He made a rush down the street and at the same time threw the stolen purse over a fence. He was caught and the purse found. It contained 25 cents. He was discharged for lack of prosecution. His first experience, though a failure of the worst kind, only had the effect of deciding him to be more guarded in the future, for his conscience didn't ''bother him." He soon after got to "operating" with gangs of three and four working together, one of the gang CASE XVII. TJ picking pockets while the other three closed in upon the victim so as to hide the "operator's" hands and dis- tract attention if necessary. Even small boys go in groups pocket-picking. In discussing the inducing conditions which led to his practice of picking pockets, he thought that, although he was none too good to do it before, it was all the re- sult of association, as thieving was not a natural pro- clivity in him. His locality brought him in contact with those who made money that way and they seemed to have a good time. Some of these thieves are almost ' 'crazy, " he says, with the fascination that seems to be in the risk of getting caught and making a good "catch." They are con- stantly on the alert and think of hardly anything else. He claims he never stole a watch nor pilfered from poor people. At his own legitimate business, in which he employed others, he frequently cleared $25 a week, and did not require to give it much personal attention, so that he was at liberty to engage in picking pockets. Six months ago he determined to break from the habit and be good, but the police had to arrest him on sus- picion. He was once in the Harrison Street Police Station for ten days before he was booked with a charge. But putting one thing with another, he says, it doesn't pay, and there isn't much money in it at the best. But he has most of the time felt he might as well keep on at it as long as he has to be arrested anyhow, although, in reality, he would like to reform. From a reliable source I learn he has been a pick- y^ CRIME AND CRIMINALS. pocket from childhood, as have also his brothers. His parents ignorant, but industrious and orderly. THE ANALYSIS. (i) Slight inherited instability, expressed by restive movements in composed situation. (2) Somewhat indifferent parental care. (3) Loss of paternal influence at a critical age, pro- bably followed by increased laxity on the part of the mother, who depended largely on him for her support. (4) No purpose in hfe ever seriously considered, and consequently. (5) Bad associations and example had a successful influence. (6) No trade learned. (7) His nervous energy, which is rather above the common proportion, as shown by form and size of head, ran wild. (8) Once used to being arrested, he becomes hardened to public opinion. CASE XIX. 79 CASE XIX— A SAFE BLOWER. As no mortal can be perfect, and as no rational being is wholly dead to conscience, so no one is absolutely all ^ood or absolutely all bad. Were it otherwise than this, personal responsibility could not be attributed to the most constant and worst enemies of society. Where weakness does not explain wickedness, the psychology of criminality is a question of the nature and degree of the perception of first principles — the cloud- ing or aborting of conscience. For in the knowledge of right and wrong there is a vast difference between an in- telligent perception of the **why and wherefore " of a rule or a dogma and the mere knowledge of its existence in common usage. The one kind of knowledge con- tributes to personal character and disposition, while the other is nothing but a flimsy fence, a meaningless form so far as the individual knows. In other words, there are many degrees of knowledge. As all men are fundamentally the same, conscience — which is the product of cosmic impressions and universal experiences — is a monitor assured to all and is in all alike, wherever Nature has been heeded. It becomes dull or distinct according to the environment — the nature of precept and the force of example. Thus a child grows up to choose the right or the wrong just as conscience is made weak or strong, until finally it may become lost to all but purely selfish ends — all true sense of right. 8o CRIME AND CRIMINALS. In this way criminal character may be formed while the individual, through cunning and conformity to com- mon usage, may keep within the social circle. But with the less gifted or the less wary it turns out otherwise, as, sooner or later, their plans fail and they are captured as criminals. The differences between a Napoleonic ruler, a peculating Alderman, a commercial knave, and a midnight burglar are only differences of ability and of opportunity. Since the development of the confirmed criminal im- plies a slowly induced perversion of the natural process of individual evolution, he cannot, strictly speaking, ba regarded as a normal person, even if he has no palpable physical defect, for badness of character cannot be a cor- relative of organic soundness, owing to the mutual dependence of mind and body. The abnormality is a background condition too deep and subtle to be made manifest to the senses. Though some of the worst criminals dissipate but little in the ordinary ways, yet that subtle abnormality within them stamps their countenance and demeanor by what may be fittingly called the delinquent shadow. When con- trasted with the really normal personality — the man of strict moral integrity or even the good man with a per- sonal failing — the symptomatic evidence of the criminal personality will be discernible to the discriminating observer and pyschologist in spite of his best looks, tact, and affability. By Mr. W. A. Pinkerton I am told that the most desper- ?ite criminal is the night burglar, who, ninety-nine times CASE XIX. 8i in a hundred, will shoot to kill. But the safe-blower is, as a rule, not murderous and requires extensive mechan- ical knowledge. Highwaymen are usually hoodlums. Case XIX is a safe-blower now serving his third term in the penitentiary at Joliet. He was selected for me by the physician and the chief supervisor, the latter having been an officer in the penitentiary for over twenty CASE XIX. years. These officers regard this prisoner as one of the brainiest and smartest now in the prison. The examination was strictly private. After explain- ing to a certain extent the object of my visit and prom- ising secrecy of name, cigars were lighted and a conver- sation launched. He is now 46 years of age, but his first 82 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. experience in the penitentiary life was at 19 years of a^e. He is rather tall, but lean in form, with hair turned half gray. He is fluent in speech, with a smooth and rather soft voice and a perfectly self-possessed bearing, which betrays the deliberative habit of mind. He was never married. He was born in New Hampshire, where his father was a clockmaker, having a comfortable home, surrounded by orchards they owned. At 1 1 years of age the family moved to Chicago, his father having died nine years before. He had not been in Chicago many months when the celebrated Dwight L. Moody conducted him to the police station for disorderly conduct in the vicinity of the old Moody Church. He was discharged in half an hour. He attended a public school more or less until 14 years of age and also a Methodist Sunday-school for about a year, but ''didn't believe anything in it." From 14 to 19 years of age he worked partly in a grocery and partly at printing. At 19 he was arrested in a saloon in the old North Side market place in company with another young man, charged with stealing a watch, the pawn ticket for which was found in his possession, but which he claims he in- nocently received from an associate who, he says, was also perfectly innocent in the matter. For this he was sentenced to five years in the penitentiary, serving three years and eleven months. In the prison he learned cigar-making, and after his release he applied for a job of packing cigars for a cigar- CASE XIX. 83 maker in quest of help. His application seemed prom- ising until he told where he learned the trade. Althoug^h he offered to work two weeks on trial for nothing if he proved unsatisfactory his offer was declined. Until his next arrest he worked at odd jobs of printing. His second arrest was a year later, for being an accom- plice in an attempted burglary, the two other confeder- ates escaping in a wagon they had secured to carry off the booty. There was no evidence against him except that he was across the street at the time and was known to be an associate of the other two, with whom he was in reality in league. He was given to understand that if he pleaded guilty he would be discharged. He did so, but the Judge, he claims, broke faith with him and sentenced him to seven years in the penitentiary. But the detective in the case secured his pardon within ten months. After his release from prison this time, an old school- mate loaned him money to open a cigar store, in which he did well for six months, when a man whom he cm- ployed as an outdoor agent took out a number of un- stamped boxes, and this caused the confiscation of all his goods by the United States Government. He afterwards found reason to believe it was a "put-up job" by a detective. "Later on he was six months in the beer pump busi- ness, but since 1877 he has been exclusively a burglar and a safe-blower, at times securing a few thousand dollars by such operations. He has usually had an ac- complice, and says he has had a ''pretty good time 84 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. mostly," and only committing burglary when funds get low. He is now serving an eight-year sentence for safe- blowing in an outside town, and expects his liberty next September. He says he knows burglary is wrong, but thinks the only difference between himself and a com- mercial knave is that he is out and out a robber. He says he feels he would like to go off by himself to raise vegetables or poultry so that he could get a chance to rest his mind and think right. He has always regarded the Bible as a made-up story, and does not believe in future punishment, although he thinks there may be a future state. He volunteered the statement that Christians were the best people, the most charitable, and the most reliable. His parents were Unitarians, but his mother was not particularly religious. He has a liking for scientific reading, such as Tyndall's works. His mother died two years ago at the age of 78, and he is the next to the youngest of nine children. All his family have been remarkably healthy. He has never been sick, except with pneumonia in prison three years ago. His physical condition now is good, but his general tone has evidently suffered from his career in prison experience. He has all the common vices; began drinking when young. THE ANALYSIS. (i) Early loss of paternal care. (2) Indifferent care by widowed mother with a large family. CASE XX. 85 (3) Weak or defective religious and moral instruction. (4) Bad home locality and associates when a lad. (5) Prison record cripples effort to secure work, and thus discourages. (6) More imprisonment for imperfect cause hardens him to society; consequently. (7) A superior mentality with a blurred conscience confirmed in crime. (8) Present mental unrest — moral light wished by him. Case XX. Perry Bennett is a lad of 19 years of age, of short, slender form, and of a quiet retiring demeanor. Is said to come from a respectable family. Being an accomplished pianist one of his schemes was to play music agent among private residences, when he would make his observations for a night visit, making a note of the door lock, and, if possible, securing a wax cast of the key. About three years ago he was caught boring a hole over the lock of the basement door of a saloon for the purpose of turning the key. At another time he entered the Holy Name Cathedral to steal the silver. But to his great surprise as soon as he stepped upon the altar the cathedral blazed forth its electric lights, and simultan- eously caused a bell to ring in the priest's residence ad- joining. In a moment a priest entered, and he was captured. He was sent to the Pontiac Reformatory, but escaped soon after incarceration, but was captured within a S6 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. month. On one occasion while he was handcuffed to another prisoner and awaiting transportation he secured permission to pick up a hairpin lying near him on the floor, ostensibly to use in his ear. With the hairpin he unlocked his handcuff, but did not release himself until CASE XX. the moment he should have stepped into the police wagon, when he made good his escape. He is now in a Missouri penitentiary, and is wanted in numerous cities. His associations have always been with the respectable class. Case XXI. Baron Shinburn, alias Maxmillian Shin- burn, is called the king of burglars by Mr. Pinkerton, CASE XXI. ^7 who is the agent for * ' The American Bankers' Asso- ciation." By the burglary of banks in America he secured over $1,000,000, then went to Belgium and started a silk factory, and later he secured the title of Baron. Through CASE XXI. horse-racing he soon lost all, and returned to America to his old ways. He is now in the Auburn penitentiary. He is 56 years of age, and a German by birth. He at one time worked in a lock factory. 88 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. CASE XXI— A PROFESSIONAL " BANK SNEAK." Forty-eight years of age. On on3 occasion he succeeded in stealing $10,000 in gold, has served sentences in Massachusetts, Canada, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and California. He CASES XXII AND XXIII. 89 CASES XXII AND XXIII-TWO UNRULY PRISONERS. At a recent visit to a penitentiary I requested the dep- uty warden (who has been an officer in the penitentiary for over twenty years) to pick out two prisoners who, in his opinion, were the hardest cases in the penitentiary. Case XXII. One case he selected was a man about 33 years of age, a farmer, unmarried, and sentenced for I 5 years for an alleged attempt to kill a sister in a family quarrel. He was, at the time of my visit, under disci- pline for some disorderly conduct in the prison, as he was trailing a heavy iron ball attached by a chain to one of his ankles. His face features were pale and thin, his eyes keen, and he had a peculiar expression and mannerism which betokened a subtle neurotic condition with great irritability of temper. He was evidently living on the borderland cf insanity from inbred qualities, that is to say, he is not so bad in his moral disposition as he is morbid in his physical fibre — his brain reactions. Case XXIII. The other case was a man of 45 years of age and unmarried. He had previously been a con- vict in the same prison, and is now in for life for assault and robbery. Like the other prisoner, he had a peculiar appearance, but due chiefly to the peculiar ashy white skin, which was unusually dry and roughened on his face and neck and indicating a centric neurosis — a morbid brain. He is a type of the lowest grade of the fiendish 90 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. and cold-blooded criminal, having the appearance of sanity. He was never higher than a common laborer. His father died in the w^ar, and he left his mother to become a cowboy in the far West when he was 26 years of age. He went to school some when a lad, but has since never read a book and seldom a newspaper. He CASE XXIII. is the oldest of four brothers and three sisters. Says he was told his mother died of a broken heart twelve years ago. Says he usually worked in stables or serv- ing masons or bricklayers, but when out of work and money he was, he says, too proud to beg and had to rob. For his last crime he armed himself with a wooden club, then entered the small workshop of a CASES XXII AND XXIII. 9 1 stranger, to whom he dealt a stunning blow on the head, when he robbed him of his watch and money — a few dollars. As showing something of his peculiar mental condition, a severe self-inflicted injury to hisrigh foot was in evidence. He had recently been confined in a soli- tary cell with his hands fastened through the bars of the cell door for a certain number of hours daily, a disci- pline intended to bring the most unruly prisoners to their senses. The only article of furniture in the cell was a board to sleep on, which he used to hammer his foot, for the purpose, he says, of wounding it so as to create sym- pathy or pity for him in the hearts of the prison officers. But in this it seems to have proven a failure. I did not make a thorough examination of these two pris- oners, as my object was simply to see what an intelligent and experienced prison official regarded as the worst crim- inals — the hardest cases. In my opinion, both of these prisoners are half insane (to speak roughly) and quite unlike the pure out-and-out or professional criminal whose policy and behavior are deliberately shaped to gain the good will of prison officials. 92 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. Brain of Perudinacz, a Servian peasant. Killed his son who had ad- vised him to live temperately. He was 60 years of age. — {From Prof. Benedikt, of Vienna.) CRIMES CAUSE AND CUKE. 93 CRIME'S CAUSE AND CURE. In preceding articles criminal types have been described which are representative in the most common conditions of the groups they illustrate. Each case has been carefully depicted after a thorough examination, which in most cases was covered by an interview with that veteran and astute detective, Andy Rohan, who represents the police depart- ment at the state's attorney's office. As I shall here only treat the subject in a suggestive and fragmentary man- ner, I must be excused for the appearance of dogmatic brevity. The cause of crime is fundamentally a question of heredity, environment, and purpose in life, and when these are considered remedial measures become evident. /Heredity, as I vie^w^-it, is but another name for envir- onment in the earliest stage of the individual's existence — the inweaving, so to speak, of vital force during the embryonic mutations of development and imparting organic stability in varied degrees. It does more: The physiological factors of parental peculiarities (parts of the personal equation) become in one way or another anatomical in the child. Infinitely more sensitive is the plastic tissue of the embryo than is the wax cylinder of a phonograph, so that thoughts and impressions, both conscious and subsconscious -^- perceived and unperceived — through OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 94 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. their subtle physiologic correlatives, must give results whicli gross conditions do no explain. Thus, strictly speaking, nothing is inherited, as being directly transmitted, except specie characteristics, w^hich are just as unalterable as are any laws of nature in the evolution of a definite purpose — the progress of a coor- dinate plan. The axiorrr that precisely the same result can only fol- low precisely the same conditions applies equali^ to physiology and physics. Thus the molding factors\of an inferior mother by the bettering influences of a supe- rior father, or other associations, may impart to her progeny qualities higher than her own level, and vice versa. And thus it is that in the most plastic stage of existence the foundations of vitality are laid, the power to survive implanted, likeness fashioned, bent or talent given. It must be borne in mind that mass is not strength and that resemblance is not reality. In the vito-chemical process of embryonic physiology, parental energies are both transmuted and transposed in the evolution of the compromise offspring, giving to it stability and form, so that, all things considered, what we call hereditary devi- ations from the normal are simply the products of the environment of the individual prior to the age of his deliberate choice. At birth a inew environment is [added, the sense$ are awakened by the rhythmic variations of the unii^ersal forces, such as heat, light, sound, etc., with pain to point to danger. Here education begins — in the cradle — with crime's cause and cure. 95 rational or indifferent care, the care that in one way or another makes " the child the father to the man." la a vague way reasoning begins early in the infant, and at two years from birth a child has been known to have acquired 475 words, or as many ideas of matter and motion. Nursery lies and fictitious rhymes engender fear, distrust, and later on, deception, with false pride, the mother of most crime. From this springs much of the prevailing egotism of the present day, which would induce most men to steal rather ^an beg. And just as in midlife tumors arise from ei^ibryonic flaws, so the unforeseen crime of manhood nmy have been thoughtlessly coached in the infant's cradlye. In moral character as with organic form — " Like genders like; potatoes tatoes breed; Uncourt^y cabbage springs from cabbage seed." f~t I --. '■^■- "P-f'^^ -ty( 'r: But this does not imply that delinquency in the child shall be precisely the same in form as that of a parent, for often it is/quite different, just as different forces co-oper- ating produce a result more or less different from any one of the agencies operating. Observation demonstrates that it is no misfortune to be born poor, but it is a great misfortune to be born badly and reared unwisely. The child, as an involun- tary visitor to this mundane sphere, is nothing more and and nothing less than its environment — all that goes to comprise parental personalities, both physical and moral. From these the infant potentialities — its capacities and proclivities — are derived, and which bend, broaden, or 96 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. break to a more extended environment. Thus, when reason reaches the stage of general principles — the why and wherefore of life and its relations — the moral eye of the child may be blurred and its instincts perverted by a vicious environment — an environment which misdirects thought and installs habits which preclude the free and natural acquisition of moral light, of purpose and duty. The normally assured intuitions are a prerequisite and foundation for all rational conduct — conduct which is at once conservative, progressive, and satisfying in purpose. This early aborting or blurring of conscience is made evident by a careful examination of boy "repeaters," though not in all cases, for some are simply moral pare- tics who succumb to the force of particular circumstances against the dictates of conscience, which is sometimes quite distinct in them. Among the most constant conditions in the history of ' ' repeater " criminals is the early loss of one or both par- ents. This factor exists in over two-thirds of all such cases, and in almost all of the many cases I have examined I have found evidence of either neurotic o^Mudicious par- entage. But it would seem that the ^^HjUpy even an indifferent parent is better than none a^^^where there is nothing to substitute. If a parent, especially a father, is not a total wreck he will usually try to have his child do better than himself, and not infrequently his own misconduct but serves the child as an illustration and object lesson rather than an example to follow. In such cases the child is more influ- enced by the benign outside agencies, and thus may CRIMES CAUSE AND CURE. 97 develop into a striking contrast to its parent and become a model citizen. As regards the heredity of criminality, as such, the Australian colony of former criminals and their children is a complete answer in the negative, for it is a well- ' known fact that it constitutes a community which is as well behaved as any other in the state. As nature has planted with every organ or talent a desire for its use, so the instincts of children call for exercise of all kinds. Where considerate care is denied the child perversions of instinct arise with one evil beget- ting another. A child carefully studied will evince its talents by its procHvities, and if favored within conserva- tive limits it will develop to its highest satisfactionjand for the best service to society. Much of the failure of life is due to inaptness for the occupation enforced or coerced upon the individual. Another of the most frequent conditions observed in the history of the criminal is bad outside associatiojos^-^ Even children of orderly families succumb to this power when weak in moral precept and home example. The child and the average mortal are much^iven to imitation, which is a product of the communal tendency engendered in the absence of original self-thought. To a certain extent the habit is imposed by civilization. Note the children of parents who taught and trained them with the kindness they require and have a right to receive, along lines of common sense and Christian pur- pose, with no whipping or show of distemper, and there you will not only find manifested the strong family tie of 98 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. love and affection, but a character on which surrounding evils have little effect except that of illustration — that of repugnance. It is often said that parents have tried "everything" to cure a child of evil propensities. But how have they -trie^.? It is my observation, as it is the observation of authors of the greatest acumen and experience, that rhost commonly, habitual criminals are the offspring of neurotic parents, and quite frequently, hysterical mothers. And just as men of mark and genius are usually the offspring of parents with strong characters, so the strays and under- brush of society are most commonly found to be the offspring of weak, vacillating, hysterical or neglectful mothers. Next to family evils in their influence are the evils of the public school system, which too often have unskilled, and, in some way, distorted teachers, who exact alike from children of unequal energy and unequal aptness, and who have to sit restively in seats which have neither fitness to their heights nor their forms. Under the influence of fear or undue emulation the child will silently endure much more than is good for it. Between the exactions of the schoolroom and the privations of home the lot of tlie city child is usually hard and often destructive to its future well being. By the present school system, nervous troubles are often produced and oftener aggravated by insidious evils. As indicating something of the extent of child damage by school exactions, it has been found in some city schools that over 50 per cent, of advanced scholars had defective crime's cause and cure. 99 eyesight, while countty school children were almost entirely free from such defects. But to insure a thorough reform a physician should be attached to every school to examine and classify all pupils, place teachers fitly, and in a general way advise. Such evils as I have mentioned have a demoralizing influence much beyond their appear- ance, for overtaxation of energy begets a nervous irrita- bility with its moral correlative — instability of disposi- tion. The commonness of evils do not make them normal conditions. \ . While the public school system is not an unmitigated blessing, the evils of organized society are more marked in other directions. Dark and filthy streets do not sug- gest personal cleanliness nor inspire respect for law and order in those most in need of good example — those who are weak in character and blind to the main object of life. Nor are exhibitions of official grabbing and dishon- esty exemplary of good, to say nothing about the hypoc- risy of a state which acknowledges God by engaging a chaplain and winks at wily ways. The police force has to deal with but a small propor- tion of crime, as it cannot reach beyond its powers and its own intellectual level, and thus it is left to deal mostly with creatures of unfortunate birth and education, and who simply fall short of the ethical standard of the soci- ety which directly and indirectly is largely responsible for the very delinquencies it condemns. That attitude of society which treats the criminal as a sort of wild animal, only to be caged and farther brutalized, is itself a criminal attitude which has brought more expense and less security. lOO CRIME AND CRIMINALS. How can society expect ^ood from evil, or love for hatred? As the whole is no better than the sum of its parts, it is evident that the greatest good to the individ- ual is the greatest good to society and that our present system of treating the criminal only makes from bad to worse. We talk about justice and punishment. But who can administer justice in the form of punishment ? "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth " might be an even exchange between two demons with equal degrees of malice towards each other. But do two wrongs make a right ? And where is the even exchange or the reparation for a crime, in flinging the criminal into prison for a fixed period or for life, to be harnessed like a brute and often bullied by officials no better than himself ? In the scales of justice, if such could be found, there is every reason to believe that often more merit exists in the poor wretch we have helped to make and hanged than in the inhabitants of some of our princely palaces. For much the same reason that great men (as differing from good men) are often not responsible for their great- ness, criminals are very often not responsible for their crimes. The abnormal is as natural as the normal, just as decay is as natural as growth. What is attractive to one is not attractive to another, because they have not the same incentive, the same criterion — the same moral view. A pure minded, unselfish person is commonly regarded as a mild sort of lunatic. Look at present day politics! There is just as much sense in kicking the rock we CRIMES CAUSE AND CURE. lOI Stumble on as there is in punishing for a crime. The criminal, if such he be, is no better, but rather made worse, and if we do not exterminate or cure, we only tem- porize with the evil. A large proportion of discharged •prisoners become *' repeaters" simply from the fac^ that they do not have a fair chance to become anything else, or because they are in no way reformed. As a preventive of crime punishment is simply a noto- rious failure. It reforms neither child nor man, if they are in need of reform, though it is often an incident along the line, and if they are not in need of reform, they can atone for their acts in a rational way. He who is incapa- ble of reform is simply an irresponsible being.. BFf the Tact Ts the ihcapaYity lies in our metfiods. The penalties of Nature are all \n the line of remAdy when properly considered. God hates no one^ — for hatred is a condition V)f personal imperfection. All thingsV^onsid- ered, society is invariably the Ibser by the system\of im- prisonment Rurely for the saka of punishment, and no wrong is everXmade right by it. \ Our system dealsXwith the crime rathW than the criminal, ignoring the factVhat all men are only equal before God, since it requires\ an all-seing eye to\place and measure responsibility, ev^n when it is knownWho did the act. \ We hang alike him who has a blurrkd conscience, perhaps the fate of his birth, and him who^uffers from the w6^kness of the flesh, as is the old song: The hot\est horse will oft go cooV The CCTolest will show fire; The friar will often play the fool, The fool will play the friar. I02 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. The cases I have described in previous articles revealed the great diyersity in the iiwital, moral, andN^hysical condition of oar so-called criminals. Thus whileSsociety must have lawk to secure order\it should excluae the delinquent only tQ correct and restore them. The severest and only just penalty that can be inflicted on any criminal is a full realization of the nature of his crime, which involves a reform of his character. This can only be secured by education — an education for moral light, right relationship, first principles. In other words, it is a religious question, view it as you may. A satisfying final purpose must be found in order to insure right character and a desire for the proper conduct. Not- withstanding all the facts of degeneracy and their deprav- ing and crippling moral effects, the power of the mind over the body needs no demonstration to any ordinary observer. Ideas rule the world, and the most religious have the most force, right or wrong. Thus, while physical health is a question of conduct, real character is a question of belief. But belief is brought about by the presentation of ideas of a certain nature, number, and order, which must be adjusted to individual needs. When we see what study and care can do for the mute, the blind, the imbecile, and the idiot, there need be no discouragement about finding ways and means to meet the needs of those who are vastly more amenable to remedial measures. The responsibility of the State in the treatment of those it deprives of liberty is a great responsibility, car- rying with its wrong a reflex curse in many fold measure. CRIME S CAUSE AND CURE. 103 The indeterminate sentence law is a step in the right direction — the scientific direction — but it requires a scientific appHcation to a radically reformed system before it will operate to advantage all around. In conclusion, I must say that the whole treatment of prisoners,! guilty or innocent, from the\time of arnest to the time bf trial, which \s sometimes Vnany monMis, is nothing snort of being a barbarous disgrkce to a civilized State. HAw long will those who are in\position to act and those wno ought to vote\ be chargeable^ with the crime or disease o^continued indifference to the wrongs in\our present police system ? iour^^^ 104 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. A SUGGESTION ON PRISON TREATMENT. While it is generally supposed that the pulpit is pro- claiming less of hell than ever, it is evident that the State quite firmly believes in some such doctrine, while it ignores the law of love. This is apparent by the way it treats delinquent members of society— its crippling, hardening and brutalizing process which it calls punish- ment in the name of justice. It does not seem to re- gard justice as a question of exact science of which no mortal can know enough nor have the wisdom required to administer punishment equitably in any criminal case. Nor does the State recognize the fact that the scientific justice of the Creator unerringly makes hell wherever there is desert, no matter what the State may do. The State also ignores the fact, in its methods, that aside from the prosecution and persecution of many innocent citizens, it does a great injury to society in manufactur- ing a large number of habitual enemies by its prison treatment, for sooner or later most of its prisoners re- turn to freedom, a very large proportion of which again return to prison. It is a notorious fact that an ex- prisoner is commonly regarded by the police as a '* sus- pect " and a good subject for prey when nobody else can be found. And this not without some reason — the reason above stated. Present state treatment^ from police arrest to prison A SUGGESTION ON PRISON TREATMENT. IO5 discharge is the greatest cause of the crime which is brought to public notice. It is quite evident to me, at least, that the State should abandon the idea of punishment, as such, and adopt measures more just to society at large, by turning out of its prisons better citizens than they receive. The normally disposed individual, the individual who has a correct view^ of relationship, so far as it goes with him, and who naturally desires to conform to it in lines of truth, justice and economy, becomes an object of medical interest when he commits a crime. But the really criminal individual, the person selfish by nature, who has no regard for truth, justice or economy when in conflict with his desires, presents a more purely psycho- logical problem in the question of his treatment. Thus, professional skill, medical and psychological, should be called into service in classifying and indicating requirements and the final testing of attainments. I need hardly say that as regards the personnel of prison officers, no man should be employed to be in habitual contact with prisoners who is not imbued with Christian (mark the word) principles, and not merely the vague notions called humanitarian. Personal example is a most important matter, and the best disciplinarian, as a rule, is continuously manifested good- will. Many of the younger men who are sent to the peniten- tiary at Joliet (for example) have learned no trade and have no opportunity of learning any there, for they are put to special jobs and kept at them, such as special work on a shoe or a chair, or a saddle, and as they become I06 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. more useful in the particular simple operations they are compelled to adopt, they are kept at them by the con- tractor who pays 50 cents or so a day to the State for their labor. Such profitless monotony is a serious in- jury to the prisoners, while it is doubtless a great snap for the contractors. The prisoner, after the expiration of his five, ten or fifteen years sentence has simply had whatever good qualities he before possessed, ruined for life. There is nothing to appeal to the good that is in him, or to soften his hardness of heart when that exists. His whole existence is slavery of the m^st damnable kind. He has nothing to live for there, though he may still have some sort of hope that slowly and silently clouds. But should there be ten or twenty industries of the commonest kind from which he can choose to adopt one as a trade to be learned, and you also open a debit and credit account with him from the start with the un- derstanding that his cost of keep will be charged against him, and that he will have to wipe it out by his earnings and proficiency, and after which a certain surplus will be credited to him and delivered with his discharge, you will not only create a rational incentive for the exercise of his abilities, but by degress inspire him with laud- able ambitions and a normal interest in life. He will not only leave the prison more or less morally, but financially protected against former temptations, and will be far from likely to become a repeater. By such treat- ment you may almost make a man out of a brute, supplemented by other well directed special educational, A SUGGESTION ON PRISON TREATMENT. IO7 moral and religious agencies for which you have now gained his sympathetic interest because of your mani- fested interest in him. Finally, I repeat that only the Creator can and does punish every criminal justly, while the State by attempt- ing to punish the criminal only succeeds in punishing society for its usurpation of a prerogative which is strictly one of Omnipotence. Man is but a creature, and for that reason, usurpation (selfness) is the funda- mental element in every real crime. io8 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. THE BRAIN. L. H.— LEFT HEMISPHERE. R. H.— RIGHT HEMISPHERE. THE BRAIN CENTRES. The brain is the tool of the mind, and when certain parts of it are diseased or defective, the mind has les- sened or lost control of those organs which have their THE BRAIN. IO9 nerve centralizations in the parts affected. This is shown by many post inortem examinations on persons who were previously affected in one or more functions of the body; and also by stimulating or irritating certain parts of the brain of living lower animals and observing the effects. An enfeeblement or defect of the mind is due to a de- fective condition of the brain, precluding the free action of the mind, and death is simply the severance of all relations between mind and body. The "localizations" marked in the above figure are not always affected when the functions or the organs named are affected; but as a rule, when these particular parts of the brain are found diseased the organs or functions named were also affected. This difference is explained by the fact that most parts of the brain have paths of communication with other near and remote parts of the brain, and so are more or less dependent or sympathetic. But there is no strict line of separation between one "localization" and another, so that it is more correct to regard these "localizations" as centralizations. The mental faculties continue free in action with either hemisphere alone, if healthy. Some large, slowly evolved tumors in no way manifest their presence owing to the gradual adjustment or compensation which follows the gradual growth of the tumor. Many idiots have medium and even large sized brains, and differing but little from some common forms. But owing to a deficiency in the number and quality of the I lO CRIME AND CRIMINALS. f gray matter cells and also a deficiency in their "associa- tion" or connecting fibres of the brain, due to an embry- onic flaw, causing arrest of development, the mental faculties are narrowed in range and feeble in action. ^ Some few idiots are *' gifted" in a special way, for example, "Blind Tom" the musician. Such "gifts" are presumably the effects of exclusiveness induced by an inequality of defect among the brain centres. Dr. W. W. Ireland -reports (Tuke's Dictionary of Psychological Medicine) the case of a girl 12 years of age with a brain weighing seven ounces, while Dr. Levigne reports (Medical Record, June 22, 1895) the brain of an imbicile which weighed 70J ounces. R. H. — Right Hemisphere; L. H. — Left Hemisphere. THE CONVOLUTIONS. Brain convolutions express something which is not yet understood. The lines in the figures presented, indicate the fissures where the convolutions infold. It will be \ seen that in details they differ in every brain, non- \ criminal as well as criminal, just as face features do. ^ Quite often brains of non-criminal persons deviate \ greatly from the ordinary normal type. I The general outline of head and brain may be racial I or national in type. Some barbarians have finely formed heads and brains corresponding. Prof. Benedikt regards an excess of fissures in the brain as a fundamental defect and common in criminals. But he regards caime as resulting from the mental con- THE BRAIN. I I I dition as a unit, its particular form of expression being determined by social circumstances. It will also be observed that the brain is comparatively rich in convolutions in the sheep, w^hich is an animal noted for its lack of mental resources; whereas, the brain of the beaver, an animal noted for its mental re- sourcefulness, has no convolutions whatever. Shinat Right side view of a common normal brain, somewhat to show relationship. — {From Quain.) Parts drawn apart I 12 CRIME AND CRIMINALS. Left side view of the brain of a Venus Hottentot.— (/^row Debierre. Brain of Gauss, the celebrated mathematician Left side view. {From Debierre.) THE BRAIN. 113 Left hemisphere of a non-criminal white man.— {From Leidy.) Left hemisphere of a non-criminal black man. — {From Leidy.) CRIME AND CRIMINALS. Brain of Maglenov, a Servian who murdered a relation through re- venge. Slightly developed intellect. As a prisoner he was good na- tured. He was 40 years of age. — {From Benedikt,) Brain of Faezuna, a Gypsy and confirmed thief. — (/"row Bcnedikt ) THE BRAIN. 115 Brain of Madarasz, a Sclavonian, habitual thief. He was finally condemned for burglary. He twice escaped from prison. He was 43 years of age and was of a sweet and fawning disposition in prison, but treacherous and cowardly towards his overseers. — {From Benedikt .) CRIME AND CRIMINALS. THE DEGENERATE EAR. The form of the ear, Hke the form of any other organ, indicates something of the potential factor of ancestral origin, while its degree of tonicity indicates an active factor in the individual's condition. Ear forms have not yet been studied sufficiently to impute, with certainty, any particular value to any particular form, although some forms are quite frequently observed with much the same associations. Abnormal forms, of any kind, at least show that we are not all equally talented and so not equally fitted for the same sphere of action. Some people, therefore, as naturally go down, as others naturally go up under the same exactions. But the ear is very sensitive to emotion as it is bu( little influenced by the will, and thus it may betray emotion when no other part of the body does. TYPES OF THE COMMON NORMAL EAR. THE DHGENERATE EAR. 117 ^br:a^ OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO 50 CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. 3cr24 \m\} KC.C .U -'":? APR 1 4 :^UU4 *>0t- 29 1 343 FEB 4 1948 '49 MarSu''*--^ ■- P -. lbV52Ff 1952 LU ^S0ct'55Gp 00710 1 955 ttf ^)%vi fil^ J L--^ WAY 4 19B^ 9C0DP'' 263an'62P LD 21-100m-7,'40 (6936s)