Summary: An exceedingly important case from a legal standpoint. A girl of 16 years persistently, but falsely accused her own mother and her step-father of the murder of the youngest child of the family. Some apparent physical corroboration was found. The woman and her spouse were held from the inquest to the grand jury and later were indicted. They were in jail for four months until the case was finally tried, when they were discharged.

We studied Libby S. as a delinquent some eight months after her mother and step-father had been acquitted of murder. These unfortunate people had been held and tried almost entirely upon the testimony given by this girl. It goes without saying that they were very poor and not ordinarily self-assertive, and so did not obtain competent legal advice. We were naturally interested in this remarkable affair and were glad to be able to get at the truth of the matter and bring about forgiveness and reconciliation within the family circle.

Libby was now under arrest for stealing and for prostitution. Her statement to us was that she had been immoral and wanted to be sent away to an institution where she would be kept out of trouble. She had been working in a factory. Her mother and step-father were temperate and the latter was always good to her and to her brother. She told about being extremely nervous when she got to thinking about different things, and maintained that she worried so much at times that she did not know what she was doing. Later we learned from her of her little sister's death, of the fact that the child was not really her sister, and that her mother had not been married to her present husband until the time of the trial, although for long they had been living together. She added that she had been a witness five times in court against her mother and step-father. A younger brother had also testified against them to some minor extent. “We had to tell what we saw--we told enough lies as it was.”

Following the latter remark as a clew we went as thoroughly as we could into the details of the whole case. No report of the court proceedings being available we obtained what we could from the newspaper accounts. Obviously, however, much of these was impressionistic and unreliable. The coroner's physician testified to many bruises being on the body, and to the bottom of the feet being blistered. The report of what the police said at the inquest made anything but conclusive testimony. Even from that, the murder seemed highly improbable. It was shown that a physician was called to the child before she died, but did not respond. Libby testified at the inquest and later against her mother, stating that the child had been beaten and tortured in various ways. We also learned from other than newspaper sources that when Libby was waiting to testify, with her mother suffering imprisonment in the same building, the girl was nonchalantly singing ragtime songs in the court-house corridors.

The facts about the alleged murder of the five year old child as we could finally summarize them from various accounts, and after hearing the confession of Libby, are as follows. This child was an epileptic and had frequent attacks of falling, when she injured herself, once having fallen in this way against a hot stove. The little child engaged in extremely bad sex habits. Indeed, Libby herself had been somewhat involved with her in these. Once when she was ill hot bricks had been placed in the bed, and, while unconscious, her feet had been blistered. The child had also suffered from various other ailments, including a skin disease which left sore places and scars. When she died Libby first told a neighbor that the parents were responsible and this person referred her to the police. The false testimony began there and continued at the inquest, before the grand jury, and at the trial. Upon thorough final sifting of the evidence in court nothing was found in the least indicating that the child had died from mistreatment. The younger brother had been told by Libby to testify against the mother. There was no question but that Libby started and continued the whole trouble, but the unnatural fact that she was willing to make sworn statements jeopardizing her mother made her testimony have all the earmarks of antecedent probability.

The mother herself, in whom we gradually came to have full confidence, informed us that the dead child had an epileptic attack and was unconscious for several hours before she died. They lived on the outskirts of the city and it was bad weather, and although they sent twice for doctors, no one appeared. The child had been mildly whipped at times in an attempt to cure her of her bad sex habits. She had many sores from her skin trouble and these were by some interpreted as caused by beatings.

When under our observation, and during our attempt to analyze her career, Libby underwent a change of attitude and confessed thoroughly and definitely that the story about the murder was lies all the way through. For the sake of the poor little mother we had the girl make a sworn statement to this effect. It was of some little interest to us to note that the police account given in the newspapers about the little child being beaten with a rubber hose was derived from the story told by Libby. It was a wonderfully dramatic and pathetic scene when this woman met her daughter and the latter confessed to her lies and asked forgiveness. All the mother could say was, “Oh, the suffering she has caused me! But I do want her to be a good girl.”

From the girl's long stories to us we may derive the following points of interest. Before her confession she was very emotional on the subject of her little sister. She dwelled much upon her dreams of the child, but proved self-contradictory about the matter of her death, as well as about her own history. Even then she began telling us what a bad girl she herself was in various ways. She said, “I did not see Laura die, but I guess they did burn her up because her finger tips were all gone and her hands were all swollen up. Ma said she would burn her up if she did not quit wetting the bed. Yes, I used to worry about Laura awful. She always had been the trouble. I would have been a good girl if it had not been for her. I used to worry so fierce that I could not help from stealing and then when I stole I was scared to go back to my jobs. I had to have money and so I made good money by going with these fellows. I used to feel fierce about the money I took from my mother and used to put it back and then would say, `No, I just must have it.' ”

This girl had been working at different factories and homes since her mother's trial. She confessed to thieving from stores. The stealing she had done at home was, it seems, long before the death of the little child. Libby made much of her mental states and of her dream-life in talking to us. “I like to go to nickel shows. I saw a sad piece once and if I feel sad now I think about it and it makes me want to go to my mother. I have a funny feeling about going home. I don't know what it is. At night I dream about it and something keeps telling me to go home. I want to go to an institution now and learn to do fancy work and to be good, and then I want to go home.”

Libby told us enough about her first father for us to know he had had a terrifically bad influence upon her. She also long associated with bad companions who instructed her thoroughly in the ways of immorality. She described attacks in which she felt weak and thought she was going to fall, but never did. (The young child in the family who had epilepsy was no relation whatever to her.) She knew that her mother had long been living with her step-father in common-law relationship, but insisted on what was undoubtedly the truth, namely, that they were temperate and very respectable people. Libby never gave us any explanation for her testimony against her mother, but acknowledged that she herself had been delinquent earlier.

The physical examination showed a normally developed girl: weight 108 lbs.; height 5 ft. 3 in. Well shaped head and rather delicate features. Her teeth showed a defective line in the enamel near the gums on the incisors and the cuspids. Bites her finger nails. Slight irregularity of the left pupil. Careful examination of the eyes in other ways entirely negative. Prompt reaction of pupils to light. No sensory defect of importance. Knee jerks active. Heart sounds normal, and all other examination failed to show defect. Complained of frequent headaches, but these were not of great severity. After information from the mother we felt that Libby's feelings of weakness and tremblings were probably of the hysterical variety.

During the period in which we had Libby under observation she showed more or less emotional disturbance, but even so we were able to assure ourselves that her mental ability was fair. We did not expect good results from formal education because in her case it had been very irregular. Many of our ability tests, however, were done well, but she failed where she was asked to demonstrate good powers of concentration and attention. We noted that she showed a very eager attitude toward her work, but was nervous about it. Always pleasant demeanor.

Most significant results were obtained on the “Aussage” or testimony test. After viewing our standard picture she volunteered only 8 details in free recital. On cross-examination she gave 21 more, but no less than 7 of these were incorrectly stated. Then she accepted the 4 suggestions which were given her. This result from a girl of her age and ability was exceedingly poor.

We never found any evidence whatever of aberrational mental conditions. Our final diagnosis was “fair in mental ability with poor educational advantages.”

It should be definitely understood in considering this case that even to the time of our last interview with Libby, after she had acknowledged her own extensive prevarications, we had evidences of the unreliability of her word. In giving details she never made any special effort to tell the truth, whether it was in regard to the date of her father's death or any other immaterial detail. We were inclined to classify her as a pathological liar, as well as a case of pathological false accusation. Her traits as a liar and a generally difficult case have, we learn, been maintained during her stay up to the present time in an institution for delinquent girls.

From the fairly intelligent mother, who cooperated well with us, we obtained a carefully stated developmental history. During pregnancy with Libby the mother was run over by a bicycle, but was not much injured. The child was born at full term and was of normal size and vitality. Instruments were used, but no damage was known to have been done. Libby walked and talked early. A couple of times when she was an infant she had convulsions, but never after that. From 7 weeks until she was 3 years old there was constant trouble on account of some form of indigestion. For a time at that age she was in the hospital, but the mother was never told exactly what the trouble was. Her stomach was large. As an older child she was subject to fits of anger when she could not have her way. She never had anything that was suggestive of epilepsy. Twice she fainted, but once was when she came home half frozen one winter's day. At 11 years she had pneumonia. She menstruated at 14 years.

The heredity and family history in this case is of great interest. Libby's mother went to work for her first husband's family in the old country. At about that time this man's first wife died, but he had previously left her. He came of a good family, he was himself, however, a hard-drinking man. He left two children by his first wife with his parents and came to this country with Libby's mother. Here they lived in a common-law marriage relationship for many years, and two children (one of them Libby) were born to them. The man continued to be a terrible drunkard and was probably insane at times. He once bought a rifle to kill his family. He was notorious for his great changeableness of disposition. Sometimes he would be very pleasant, and then quickly be seized by some impulse when he would grind his teeth, become very angry, and use vile language. Even when sober he would go along talking to himself and people would follow him on the street to hear what he was saying. He threatened often to kill his wife. He deserted her at times for months together. He only partially supported his family and his wife worked as a washerwoman. She left him once, but later went back to him.

In evidence of the character of this man and his wife we have seen several statements from reliable people. The man's son by his first wife came to this country and lived with them. He found his own father impossible--a terribly bad man who was continually fighting at home. He himself urged his step-mother to break up the home on account of the way in which she was abused. He made a statement of this fact under oath. (It is only fair to say in this whole connection that these people all came from a part of Europe where what we call a common-law marriage is an ordinary relationship.) It was from the language of her father that Libby first gained acquaintance with bad sex ideas, we are assured by the mother. After a terrific time of stress Libby's mother was rescued from her miserable conditions by the man who later lived with her and finally married her, and who has supported her and been true to her ever since. He is a sympathetic man of good reputation.

Libby's maternal grandparents died early and her mother had to begin very young to support herself. All that we know of the mother's developmental history is that she had some sort of illness with convulsions once as a child and is said to have been laid away for dead. She has brothers and sisters who are said to be quite normal. She knows her own relatives and her first husband's, also, and feels very sure there has been no case of insanity, feeblemindedness, or epilepsy among them.

Libby's moral history is of great import. She became definitely delinquent very early in life. At 13 years she had already been in an institution for delinquent girls in an eastern State and the superintendent writes that she was notorious for disobedience, lying, and stealing. She was placed there twice, besides having been returned once after an escape. When she was 6 or 7 years of age she began thieving. She took things from her mother's trunk and pawned them. The child stole from the people's rooms where her mother worked as janitress. Later she was truant and associated with immoral girls. In Chicago she stole a bracelet and a ring from a down-town store, wearing the bracelet later. She took $15 from a neighbor's house. She went to saloons in company with an immoral woman, and at least on one occasion she had been drinking. At 12 or 13 she was known to be “crazy about boys,” but probably was not immoral then. The mother insists that the girl, resembling her father in this, is most changeable in disposition. Long before the trial for murder her pastor had urged the mother to put the girl away in an institution, but the mother's heart was too soft. (It seems strange that all this evidence of the girl's own bad character and unreliability, which was readily obtained by us, was not utilized at the time when she first made the charges of murder.)

The mother's explanation of Libby's behavior is that it was spite work. However, that is, of course, unsatisfactory. The mother not long previously earnestly had warned the girl against pursuing her downward path and had stated she must be sent away again if she did not do better. Libby then was doing pretty much as she pleased, for the mother, who was all along a frail woman, sick much of the time, had really no control over her daughter. Another feature of the case that is interesting came out in the fact that Libby herself had neglected the little epileptic girl who died. When the mother was ill in bed Libby had refused to properly care for the child. To some extent she also engaged in bad sex practices with the little girl. Libby never gave us the slightest indication that her false testimony was incited by spite. Anyhow, she involved the step-father, who she always insisted had been very good to her. The motive undoubtedly is not so simply explained. A really deep analysis of the behavior could not be undertaken.

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Mental conflicts: About sex experiences      Case 13.
                   and own                  Girl, 16 yrs.
                   misbehavior.
   Bad companions:  Including father.
      Home conditions:  Notoriously bad in early life.
          Heredity:  Father alcoholic, brutal, and
                      perhaps insane.
Delinquencies:                          Mentality:
False accusations.  (Extreme case.)        Fair ability.
Stealing.
Sex immorality, etc.
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