The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-09-26
False Confessions Of Murder.

Mr.. Henry O. Lea's "Superstition
and Force" gives many remarkable in
stances Of false confessions of murder,
extracted by torture, and capital pun.
isbment inflicted in consequence there
of, followed by the detection of the real
culprits. Boyvin du Villars relates that
during the war in Piedmont, in 1869,
he released from the dungeons Of the
Marquis of Masserono an unfortunate
gentleman who had been secretly kept
there for eighteen years, in consequence
Of having attempted to serve process
from the Duke of Savoy on the Mar
quis. His disappearance having natu-
rally been attributed to foul play. his
kindred prosecuted an enemy Of the
family who, under stress of torture,
duly confessed to having committed the
murder, and was accordingly executed,
in town where Masserono himself
was residing. Godelmann relates that
monument in church in Upper Ger
many, representing man broken on O
wheel, commemorated case in which
two young journeymen set out together
to make the accustomed tour of the
country. One of them returned alone,
clad in the garments of the other, and
was suspected of having made way with
him. He was arrested, and, in the alb
sence of all other evidence, was prompt
ly put to the torture, when he confessed
the crime in all its details, and was ex-
ecuted on the wheel, after which his
companion returned. Another case
was that OF young man near Bremen,
whose widowed mother lived with O
servant. The son quarreled with the
man, who fled and took service at q
distance. His father, not knowing his
departure, accused the youth of MUIR
der; and torture speedily drew from the
latter full confession of the crime, in
cluding his throwing the corpse into
the Weser. Not long after his execu-
ton the serving-man reappeared and
was duly put to death, as also was his
father, to make amends for the blum
ders of the laws. Few, when once en-
gagged in such pursuit, could be ex-
pected to follow the example of the
Milanese Judge who.-resolved his doubts
as to the efficacy of torture in evidence
by killing favorite mule and allowing
the accusation to fall upon one of his
servants. The man of course denied
the ofense, was duly tortured, confessed
and persisted in his confession after
torture. The Judge, thus convinced by
experiment of the fallacy of the sys-
tenn, resigned the Office whose duties he
could no longer conscientiously dis
charge, and in his subsequent career
rose to the cardinalate. The mood in
which these untoward results were usu-
ally treated is illustrated in another
somewhat similar case, which was told to
Augustin Nicholas, at Amsterdam,
in explanation Of the fact that the city
was obliged to borrow headsman from
the neighboring towns whenever the
services of one were required for an ex-
ecution. 1t appears that young man
of Amsterdam, returning home late at
night from revel, sank upon door,
step, in a drunken sleep. A thief emp
tied his pockets, securing among other
things, dirk, with which, few min.
utes later, he stabbed man in a quar-
rel. Returning to the sleeper, he slip.
ped the bloody weapon back to its
place. The young man awoke, but be.
fore he had taken many steps he was
seized by the watch, who had Just dis.
covered the murder. Appearances were
against him, he was tortured, confessed,
persisted in confession aftor torture and
was duly hanged. Soon after, the real
criminal was condemned for another
crime and revealed the history of the
previous one, whereupon the States
General of the United Provinces, using
the ordinary logic of the criminal law,
deprived the city of Amsterdam of its
executioner. as punishment for a re-
suit that was inevitable under the sys.
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