Fred Tronson is in prison for life. He will in all probability never be pardoned. He will never have an opportunity to commit another murder. But that does not restore the life of Emma Ulrich and it is small comfort to her friends and relatives. It does not in the least remove the blot upon society, which has allowed such a murder to be committed. Society should have taken him in hand twelve years ago. It should be further noted that Tronson had been before the Court at least once before he committed this crime. At that time had the Judge realized that he was dealing with an imbecile he might have sent the boy to an institution for the feeble-minded instead of simply ordering him to leave the town. Shall we learn the lesson and take care of the other Fred Tronsons who are now in our public schools and on our streets? CHAPTER IV THE CRIMINAL IMBECILE From the description already given it will be seen that Roland Pennington is very different from Jean Gianini. Both are imbeciles, but each is an example of a special type. Gianini is of a nervous, impulsive, irritable, loquacious type, fond of show and excitement, a braggart and a coward, with an excellent memory, a great reader--particularly interested in stories of excitement and crime. Pennington, on the contrary, is a slow, dull, relatively stupid boy, of poor memory and slow perception. While having made the fifth grade in school work, he has done it slowly and with not so much success as in the case of Gianini. He is not so much given to talk or to showing off; is somewhat addicted to drink and is exceptionally fond of playing pool. Gianini's confession is colored by his desire to show off and shine in the limelight; Pennington's, on the contrary, is a plain, unelaborated statement of the facts. He is driven to his confession, not by his desire to show off, but in self-defense. His colleague, March, is trying to throw the entire responsibility upon him in order to escape from any condemnation. In the face of this Pennington is prompted to tell his own story. He is not intelligent enough to make up a plausible story which would incriminate March and save himself. But in telling the facts as they occurred he incriminates himself quite as much as March, so far as the actual occurrences are concerned. His whole conduct, from the beginning of the crime until his arrest, is that of a dull, stupid person. He does not even wield the blackjack with intelligence, and after the man is killed by his comrade, he takes no precaution to save himself from suspicion, to dispose of the body or to clean up about the barn and remove the evidences of a crime. And finally, when it comes to a statement of the case, he apparently makes no attempt to shield himself, but acknowledges his part in it, although that part was, as a matter of fact, so slight that a little variation in his testimony would have thrown the entire burden upon March and relieved him from any complicity in the matter.