Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-03-26
AS TOLD In A DREAM.
Or. Hammond Discusses Curious
Phase Of Mental Alteration.
Tho Theory of the Existing Custom-The
Purpose of a Falss Cor fession-Nen-
tal Processes Leading Up toIt.
New rorh Msil and Express.


ofense is the best possible evidence OF
guilt that can be adduced. This view is
not only entertained IN the community at
large, but is held by the common and
statute law and enforced by numerous
judicial decisions. Thus Blackstone de-
clares that;
A confession of the prisoner taken out
of court bsfore magistrate or person
having competent authority to take it and
proved by two witnesses is sufficient to
convict him of treason.
In Tote Mr. Archer Ryland, the COM
mentator, states that:
1t appears now to be an established
rule that full and voluntary confession
by the prisoner Of the overt act charged
against him is of itself sufficient evidence
to warrant q conviction.
In other places Mr.. RYland reiterates in
still stronger language that the voluntary
coniessiARSRf s prisoner accused OF q
crime lent in the absence OF all
other evidence 10 justify his conviction.
In all works upon evidence, which l have
consulted, it is stated that no stronger
testimony of the guilt OF On accused per
son can be obtained than that which he
supplies of his own accord in the form Of
a confession made without constrsint,
without any promise OF reWSrd or I'M
munity and duly witnessed by competent
parsons.
The principle upon which the existing
practice in respect to confession appears
TO be based, is that the innate esgerness
Of msn TO preserve his life, his health,
his liberty, or his p opertY is SO over
poweriug that it is almost impossible
that he will say anything calculated to
put either OF these attributes in jeopardy
il he be innocent, and that consequently
when be does confess to the commission
of a. oEense the punishment OF which Is
death, mutilstion, Imprisonment or for
fixture of estate he must necessarily
speak the truth.
propose in this paper to show that 1t
is no uncommon circumstance for persons
to confess to having perpetrated crimes
of which they were either certainly or
probably innocent ard thst there are
forces in operation in the human mind
which nay prompt to the making OF
false confession even though by SO doing
life, liberty or property be put in danger.
Thus there is difficulty in the minds OF
some persons who exhibit no other evil
derce of mental alteration to discrimi-
nate between their thoughts or their
dreams and absolute facts. They brood
over some real or imaginary circumstance
until they bring themselves to believe in
its reality.
SELF ACCUSED.
Such person, for instance, reads in
the daily press of some shocking aur-
der that has been committed, the perpe-
traitor of which has escaped unrecog-
nized. He reads it in one newspaper and
in another and another, hears it talked
up among his companions, and begins by
wondering whether or not the murderer
will ever De discovered. He knows that
murders have been committed by per-
sons who at the time Were,in state OF
somnsmbulism, or who were suffering
from an epileptic paroxysm. Perhaps he
has himse I, in his youth, walked in his
sleep, or has had convulsion, as
his mother has told him. Sudden
" the idea strikes him that he may be the
guilty man. At first the notion is borri
Bile to him, but It's very horror renders il
attractive. He gees to the academy OF
medicine and reads up on the tsubjsct soi
epilepsy. There is scarcely disease es-
pecially of the nervous system OF which
any person at some time or other in his
life has not had one or more symptoms
The quaek medicine advertisers are fully
aware Of this fact and make full use of ii
to brighten the ignorant into the purchase
of their trash. Our incipient selt-accusel
has therefore no trouble in finding what
he is looking after, and
he goes home fully con-
WINGED that he has had an epileptic paroX'
ysm during which he may have been, a
murderer. The transition from posi-
bility TO q reality presents no difficulties
to his mind, and he ends by fully belleV.
Ing himself to be the murderer for whom
the police sre seeking. He visits the
place where the crime was committed
questions the residents Of the neighbor-
hood in regard to all the particulars, and
even interrogstes the police relative to
their plans for securing the murderer and
the secret evidence they may
have In their possession. At last sus-
picion is turned toward him and event
ually be Is arrested. The accounts ihat
he has read in the newspapers and the
gossip he has heard, that, regardless Of
his original idea that he had perpetrated
the crime during an epileptic fl and there
fore in state Of Unconstitutional
thst forces him to make atonement, he
confesses that he perpetrated the murder
and gives full and circumstantisl &C.
count of the crime. Inquiry soon, how
ever, shows that he could not by any pos
sibility have been the perpetrator, ard h
is therefore, after a few days, during
which the newspapers have given tht
most sensational accounts Of his brutality
and remorse. discharged from custody
Sometimes, however, the termination il
not so fortunate for the false confessor
Several years ego boy, Francis La
vile Kent, four years old, was fount
murdered in an clubhouse on his father
premises in England. The threat wa
cut to the bone, and there was wounC
in the chest which penetrated to tn
heat. The corpse was wrapped I'M
blanket which belonged TO the bed il
which the child SLEPT the night before,
piece Of flannel such as women some
times wear on The chest, was fount
under the body, and portion Of news
paper which had evidently been used TO
wiping bloody knife lay upon the floor
Nothing else was discovered calculated t
indicate the perpe rator of the deed, ant
even the ownership OF the piece OF tiAnne
could not be traced.
Before going to ped the night befor
Elf. Kent had seen that Gil the doors. ant