The Criminal Imbecile: An Analysis of Three Remarkable Murder CasesGoddard, Henry Herbert
Science
The Criminal Imbecile: An Analysis of Three Remarkable Murder Cases
Goddard, Henry Herbert
Crime -- Case studies; Murder -- Case studies; Offenders with mental disabilities -- Case studies
And assuming that on the morning of the 28th day when the defendant was
brought to Poland he was taken to a house of a Justice of the Peace and
was taken into a room by the Deputy Sheriff and told that he was
suspected and was accused of being a party to the crime. That after he was
completely stripped of his clothing he stated to the Deputy Sheriff that
he had gone to school to the deceased and had trouble with her at school
and wanted revenge and that he had met her the day before near the Post
Office and asked her to go up to his house and see his folks about having
him go to school again, and that the deceased told him that she would go
the next night. That the next night he did meet her near the hotel and she
said that she was ready to go up. They walked up the street, and when they
got near his father's house, the defendant told her that his father did
not live there, that they had moved up the hill, that he then stated in
detail how he committed the crime and disposed of the body and what he did
with the wrench and the knife. That he said, "You would not think any one
could do a job as quick as that." He said he supposed they would talk
insanity, but he was not any more insane than the Deputy Sheriff was, and
he did not want them to talk about it.
He also said, "Gillette got the chair, didn't he?" and upon the Deputy
Sheriff replying, "Yes," the defendant said, "He had no reason to kill the
girl, but I did; I wanted revenge."
That at the same time the defendant signed a sworn statement before the
Justice of the Peace, in which he stated that he went to school to Lida
Beecher, and had trouble with her and wanted revenge; that he was not
afraid, and when he got home, he was just as happy as he ever was, and did
not think anything about it, as he thought he had revenge; that at the
time he made these statements he was cool and quiet and spoke connectedly;
that he was not nervous or excited.
Assuming that the defendant had not attended the Poland school since
February or March, 1913, and that while there he had studied under the
deceased for about one year, and that during this period the only
punishment he had received from the deceased was a seat facing the wall
with his back towards the other pupils, and was occasionally sent upstairs
to the Professor of the school for punishment. And that the deceased had
always manifested a friendly interest in him, was mild, kind, gentle, and
good to him.
And further assume that when he left school, he was in the sixth grade.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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