Pathology of Lying, Accusation, and Swindling: A Study in Forensic Psychology — John Shaqi
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
A month or so later this friend was called up by the director of
a religious home for girls in Chicago, who stated that Inez had
just come to them and had been taken seriously ill. Advice was
given to discount her symptoms, but she was sent once more to a
hospital. Here she produced more blood as if from a pulmonary
hemorrhage and more symptoms were recounted, but the doctors
decided after careful examination that she was falsifying. Her
illness ceased the minute she was told to leave the hospital.
Matters were serious, for Inez was now without home, money, or
relatives. She was once more taken under protection and greater
effort was made to trace her family. They were discovered
through letters containing remittances sent by Inez herself from
Iowa, after years of silence. Much of her career was soon
brought to light. By this time, we may note, several observers
had insisted that from a commonsense standpoint the girl
certainly was insane.
While affairs were being looked up, Inez conferred with us from
time to time. She started by telling a thoroughly good story,
the general import of which was the same as she told months
previously, but there were differences in many details. In the
first place she still insisted she was 17 years old and gave us
an exact date as her birthday-- this was in response to the mild
suggestion that she might be considerably older. Since her
letters, although showing very good choice of words, were
incorrectly punctuated, we inquired further about her education.
She said she had received 18 credits in a noted girls' seminary
in the south, but later reversed this and stated she had very
little education. She told us her experiences of the last few
months when she had been introducing literary works in the towns
of Iowa. She had done well for a beginner at this, we found from
other sources, but had made misrepresentations and had talked too
freely, against her employers' wishes and advice. Finally she
had sent in forged orders. This was quite unnecessary, for her
salary was assured and sufficient, and her employers had regarded
her as an extremely promising representative. In Iowa she was
receiving mail under two different names; she still found it
convenient to represent herself sometimes as Agnes W. In her
peregrinations she had again made close friends with some
substantial people, who found out, however, in short order that
she was untruthful, and her chances with them were at once
spoiled.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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