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
``Let me come and tell you all. The time has come when things
must stop, therefore I feel that I must talk to someone. I have
lived a lie from the day I was born until now.''
After these letters she went on making false statements which
could readily be checked up. Nothing is any more curious in
Gertrude's case than the anomaly of her telling several of us who
tried to help her that up to the time of the given interview she
had not thoroughly realized how bad it was to lie, and how she
now felt keenly that she must cease, while perhaps at the end of
the very same interview a reaction to a new situation would
produce more fabrications. Personally I have seen nothing any
more suggestive of the typical toper's good resolutions and
sudden falling from grace.
The story of the forged check was fancifully embellished and ever
more details were supplied at pleasure. While this matter was
under investigation Gertrude stayed away from home several
nights, two of which have never been accounted for. She told
fairly plausible stories about going out of town, but she first
should have studied time tables to make them wholly convincing.
The mother, too, told that the girl had been out of town, but in
this she was caught, for it was found that Gertrude had been part
of the time with other relatives.
The main story of the check involved a man who worked in the same
office. She stated that he made an immoral proposal to her on
the basis of immunity from prosecution. After a couple of months
Gertrude got round to confessing that she alone was responsible
for the entire forgery and that her previous quite clever stories
were not true. Her main confession was made in the form of a
long letter written entirely aside from the influence of any one.
In this she also stated that she had stolen money and jewelry,
which was known to have been taken. There was no untrue self-
accusation, except that she may have exaggerated her own tendency
to falsify at a very early age. Naturally, in such a case as
this, even the latest confession must always be taken cum grano
salis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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