If this book shall help the lawyer to make a more successful defense of the imbecile criminal, the judge to dispense justice to this much misunderstood class of high grade imbeciles, and society in general to realize its responsibility for the mental defective, it will have fulfilled its mission. H. H. G. RESEARCH LABORATORY OF THE TRAINING SCHOOL IN VINELAND, N. J. CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE v CHAPTER I. THE CASE OF JEAN GIANINI 1 II. THE CASE OF ROLAND PENNINGTON 42 III. THE CASE OF FRED TRONSON 65 IV. THE CRIMINAL IMBECILE 83 V. RESPONSIBILITY 94 VI. THE PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMINAL IMBECILES 100 APPENDICES A. GIANINI CASE. HYPOTHETICAL QUESTION PROPOUNDED BY THE DEFENSE 109 B. GIANINI CASE. HYPOTHETICAL QUESTION PROPOUNDED BY THE PROSECUTION 131 C. GIANINI CASE. DEFENDANT'S REQUEST TO CHARGE 139 INDEX 155 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS JEAN GIANINI _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE ROLAND PENNINGTON 42 FRED TRONSON 66 THE CRIMINAL IMBECILE CHAPTER I THE CASE OF JEAN GIANINI "We find the defendant in this case not guilty as charged; we acquit the defendant on the ground of criminal imbecility." Such was the verdict by the jury of the Supreme Court of Herkimer County, New York, on May 28th, 1914, in the case of the people _vs._ Jean Gianini, indicted for the murder of Lida Beecher, his former teacher. The prosecution and, at first at least, the majority of the citizens of the community held that this had been a carefully planned, premeditated, cold-blooded murder of the most atrocious character, committed with a fiendishness seldom seen among human beings. It was, on the other hand, claimed by the defense that the boy was an imbecile, that he had only the intelligence of a ten-year-old child, that he did not know the nature and quality of his act, and that he did not have any true realization of the enormity of his crime. For some reason unaccountable to a great many people, the jury accepted the view of the defense.