Globusz^® Publishing 

Summary: Case of a young man of 19, with already a long record of criminalism, who created much trouble for a court where a judge was keenly anxious to do justice. The fellow implicated himself in a sensational murder, but investigation proved this to be untrue. In other ways his word was found most unreliable. The question concerning his sanity could only be answered by stating that he was an aberrational type peculiarly inclined to criminalism, and therefore needed segregation, and that he was also given to pathological lying and self- accusation. From the legal and social standpoints it is important to note that the case represents a type, unquestionably abnormal, although the mental pathology could not be subsumed under the head of any one of the designated mental diseases.

The case of John B. was studied at the request of a judge who had continued the trial because of the manifest mental peculiarities of the defendant. We were told that his behavior varied much, that one day he would cry and apologize, and on another would show stupid bravado. As the judge stated, John had long been in disciplinary institutions and this had failed to do any good. The immediately peculiar features of the case were that while he was being held for vagrancy and robbery, John made a strong attempt to implicate himself in a murder case. In other words he was a self-accuser.

We found a strong young man of 19 years; weight 157 lbs., height 5 ft. 5 in. Very broad shouldered and deep chested, but slouchy attitude. Good color. Eyes bright. Varicocele. Somewhat defective vision in one eye. Well-shaped head--circumference 56.5, length 18.5 and breadth 16 cm. Thick, heavy voice. Appears dull and depressed, but energizes under encouragement. Other physical examination negative. Complains merely of headaches in left frontal region, but says he has had these only since last year when he was struck there by a beer bottle. Recently an excessive user of tobacco.

In the mental examination we found much of interest. When first seen he gave every appearance of being a mental defective, but by judicious stimulation he could be waked up to do comparatively good work in several directions. On the Binet tests, 1911 series, he passed all but one of the 12 year set; in that he followed the suggestion offered. On the 15 year old tests he did three out of five. The failures were on the memory span of figures and in the repetition of a sentence of 26 syllables.

By our other tests we also found him defective in verbal memory processes, even when he read the passage to be remembered. In working with our so-called construction tests, where his success depended not only upon planning with concrete material, but even more on the ability to profit by his failures, he did decidedly poorly. In handling the puzzle box, where above everything is required perception of the relationship of one step to another, he succeeded very rapidly. With the cross-line tests, which require mental representation of an easily remembered figure and analysis of its parts, he did very poorly, succeeding only after the third attempt in each of the two simple tests. This is a type of work that is especially easy for the normal person.

In our “Aussage” or Testimony Test we got a decidedly poor result. At first enumeration he gave only 8 items, and on cross questioning gave only 6 more. He denied seeing other objects plain in the picture, but contradicted himself somewhat on this. It is interesting that he took only one out of four suggestions, notwithstanding his suggestibility on the Binet test.

On school work he does altogether much better. He writes a good hand, reads fairly well, and promptly does a sum in long division. He claims to have reached the 6th grade. One difficulty in testing him was his prevailing lethargy. We constantly had to fight this by encouragement. Once he insisted he must give up the work because he had not had a smoke for an hour or so. Altogether, including his irregularities, we could not call him lower than poor in ability, possibly subnormal. He did not come within the limits of the feebleminded group. Just where to place him would depend upon what he perhaps could do under other more favorable conditions. So much for the tests of ability.

In studying him for aberrational tendencies there were positive indications. Most significant it was when, in the Binet tests, he came to the word “justice” and turned to the examiner, saying feelingly, “I don't know what that is,” and then burst into tears. Yet this was from a fellow who had offered to get himself into even worse trouble with the courts. He made much of his worrying about not having any home and not being the child of his so-called parents. His attitude was of sorrow and hopelessness about his whole situation in life. As seen again about two weeks later, still more evidences of aberration were found. He contradicted himself then in regard to his previous stories, in regard to his home life, denied he had made self-accusations, and very clearly did not remember at all accurately what he had previously told me. In fact, he evidently was not quite clear just who I was, although he had before been brought across town under the charge of a couple of officers to see me--an important break in his incarceration. He also told a different story from one he had told before to a certain official who now was present. He seemed rather mixed on a number of points, and this is all the more significant because he had been heartily afraid of being adjudged insane. Our diagnosis at this time was purely tentative as far as exact diagnosis was concerned. We stated that in our opinion he was an aberrational type and the practical point was that he should neither be allowed to go out in the community, nor be sent to a penitentiary, but rather to an institution for observation and perhaps for long detention. The jury found it necessary, as usual in such cases, to declare him insane.

The history of John runs as follows: From an evidently conscientious parent we learn of nothing significant in the family history. At birth he was said to be bright and healthy. He had diphtheria severely at 4 years. At 6 he started to school. He always got along well in his classes, but was very troublesome. At 11 years he began to run away from home. His father spent much time and money in going to various parts of the country for him, and at 13 years of age he was placed in an industrial school. He is the only child. He came home after 2 years, remained there for 3 or 4 months and then ran away once more to California. (His home was in the middle West.) He was returned by the police, sent to the industrial school for another year, and then again returned home. He stayed only 2 weeks before running away to New York. Coming back he got into some trouble and was sent for the third time to the industrial school. There he stayed until 6 months before we saw him. He was released once more on parole, stayed at home a week, and again ran away. It is reported that during his early time at the industrial school he was rather melancholy by spells, and at one time tried to poison himself. His relatives say he has a bad temper. He had typhoid fever at 14, but made a good recovery.

John has been known for years as a great liar, having told miserable stories about his parents, all of which were quite untrue. He has frequently mortified his father and mother by denying his parentage. The last time John was on parole he wrote more than one letter to police authorities in his home State, informing them he had been implicated in a serious crime. An officer at the reformatory institution had a letter from him purporting to be written from a penitentiary, stating he was sentenced there on a charge of robbery. When he was held in our city on a minor charge, he informed the police officials that he was connected with a certain notorious murder of which the papers had been full just previously. He was sent out with a couple of detectives who soon found he knew nothing about the actual facts, and that his alleged accomplices were innocent men.

In jail it is reported that he seems childish. He has to be locked up alone at times and then begs and teases to get out, but in ten minutes or so will repeat the bad behavior. He has stolen little things from others in custody and has attempted to dispose of his own clothes for a few cents. It is definitely reported that he has shown evidences of poor memory. From the institution where he previously had been so long, word comes that he was regarded there as not quite normal. John had been held in another city on a charge of rape, but without much evidence, for he was allowed to go. We could not find out whether he made self-accusations in that case.

In his story to us he complains bitterly about his treatment at the old institution, maintains he was head laundry man there, tells about his excessive smoking of late, denies his parentage, says the only friend he has is a certain church worker, maintains he did not have any home to go to from the industrial school, intimates he will commit suicide if there is any question of his being declared insane, says that he had earlier stolen things from home, tells of having spells when things get black in front of his eyes and can't see for a little while, says he wants to be sent to the penitentiary and wants to start right now serving his term.

All told, there was nothing so striking about this whole case as the extravagant tendencies towards prevarication. For years he has been lying to no purpose, although he has never been previously regarded as insane. Now he appears as an extreme self-accuser and as a fellow whose word can't be trusted from hour to hour. The lying, regarded as an aberrational tendency, is out of proportion to our findings of abnormality in any other sphere of mental activity, except perhaps the evidences of defective memory processes. One trouble in gauging his memory is, of course, the boy's prevarications, but one might argue that if his memory processes were as good as his other abilities he would make equal use of them.

Following our study and recommendation in the case John was found not guilty, but insane. Then being resident of another State, and, indeed, being on parole from a reformatory institution there, he was held over to the jurisdiction of that State, and placed in a hospital for the criminal insane. We have a full report from the latter place which is exceedingly illuminating. It appears that despite his first terror of being sent to an asylum he adapted himself to his new surroundings very readily. It is stated that he assisted with the ward work and spent his leisure time in reading and playing cards. He asked for work outside on the grounds and was regarded as a very courteous and genial patient. No evidence of delusional or hallucinatory trends could be obtained. He always seemed to be well oriented and conscious of everything going on about him. Emotionally he appeared somewhat subnormal inasmuch as he did not worry about his own condition, but said he was perfectly contented. (The latter, of course, to a psychiatrist would be significant.) He was a great talker and his stories were well listened to. John said that when he was indicted for robbery his lawyer advised him to feign insanity and as a result he had been sent to that hospital. (It is to be remembered that with us he made great effort to show off his mental powers at their best and evidently did somewhat better work than when later in the hospital.) He gave them a history of being somewhat of a cocainist and morphinist, of being a slick “pickpocket,” and of associating with prominent criminals, particularly “auto” bandits. He was boastful of his experiences, but sometimes admitted that he prevaricated. It is most interesting to note that he told a story of having concealed in Chicago some plunder--jewels, money, and so on--and was really taken to Chicago by one of theBoard of Visitors of the hospital to find the booty. It is hardly necessary to say it was not located. The last of the hospital report states, “Inasmuch as we were unable to prove that he had any form of insanity he was discharged.”

It is of no small importance for discussion of the relation between insanity and criminalism to know that there are such cases as this where the individual is unquestionably aberrational and yet does not conform in mental symptoms to any one of the definitive “forms of insanity.” They may be lacking in normal social control and in ability to reason, impulsively inclined to anti-social deeds and therefore social menaces, but, notwithstanding this, may not be classified under the head of any of the ordinary text-book types of mental diseases.

It is clear that for the protection of society a different notion of what constitutes mental aberration or insanity should prevail, so that these unusually dangerous types might be permanently segregated. It would really seem that just the findings which the hospital statement enumerates would convince one of this individual's marked abnormality from a social point of view and that his being at large was a grave undesirability.

The latest information concerning this young man is that he was being held in a Western city for burglary.

We should hesitate to make out a card of causative factors in this case. It is clear that the major cause in his delinquency was his aberrational mentality. What there was by way of causation back of this, our history, although obtained from an apparently conscientious parent, is too meagre for explanation.