Pathology of Lying, Accusation, and Swindling: A Study in Forensic PsychologyHealy, William
Science
Pathology of Lying, Accusation, and Swindling: A Study in Forensic Psychology
Healy, William
Criminal psychology; Swindlers and swindling
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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