Dodge City times., 1888-04-26
SELF-ACCUSATIONS.
Innocent Persons Confessing to
Criminal Acts.
Cases by No Means Uncommon-Self-De.
ceived-COnfounding Dreams with
Realities-Motives for Falso
Confessions.

Ipropose in this paper to show that
it is no uncommon circumstance fOr
persons to confess to having perpetrat.
ed crimes of which they were certain.
ly or probably innocent, and that
there are forces in operation in the hu.
man mind which may prompt to the
making of false confes sion. 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 eviden ce
of mental alteration to discriminate
between their thoughts or their dreams
and absolute facts. They brood over
some real or imaginary circumstance ce
until they bring themselves to believe
in its reality.
Such person. for instance. reads in
the daily press of some shocking MUIR
der that has been committed, the per-
petralor of which has escaped un.
recognized. He reads it in one news
paper and in another and another.
hears it talked up among his COM
panions. and begins by won !er-
ing whether or not tho MUIR
dercr will ever be discovered. He
knows that murders have been COM
mitted by persons who at the time
were in state of somnambulism. or
who were suffering from an epileptic
par"Xysm. Perhaps he has himself in
his youth walked in his sleep. or has
had convulsion. rs his mother has
told him. Suddenly the idea strikes
him that he may be the guilty man.
At first the notion is horrible TO him,
but its very horror renders it attract
i've. He goes to the Academy of Med
icine and reads up on the subject of
epilepsy. There is scarcely disease,
especially of the nervous system, of
which any person At some time or
other of his life has not had one or
more symptoms. The quack medicine
advertisers are fully aware of this
fact. and make full use of it, to fright
eli the ignorant into the purchase Of
their trash. Oar incipient self f-accuser
has, therefore. no trouble in finding
what he is looking for. and he goes
home fully convinced that he has had
an epileptic paroxysm. during which
he may have been 4 murderer. The
transition from possibility to q real
ity presents no di fficulties to his mind.
and he ends by fully believing himself
to be the murderer for whom the police
are seeking. He visits the place
where the crime was committed,
questions the residents of the
neighborhood in regard to all
the particulars. and even in
tcrrogateS the police relative to their
plans for securing the murderer and
the secret evidence they may have in
their possession. At last suspicion is
turned toward him and eventually he
is arrested. The accounts that 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 tit and
therefore in state of unconscien-
tiousnesS that forces him TO make
aiOnement he confesse, that he per-
pctrated the murder and gives a full
and circumstantial account of the
crime. Inquiry soon, however. shows
that he could not By any possibility
have been the perpetrator and he is
therefore. after few DAYS, during
which the newspapers have given the
most sensational accounts of his
brutality and remorse. discharged
from custody.
Sometimes, however. the ,ermlna-
ton is not so fortunate for the false
confessor.
Several years ago a bov, Fra lcis
Laville Kent, four years old was found
murdered in an ou,house on his
fathers premises in England The
throat was cut 10 the bone and
there was wound in the chest
which penetrated to the heart
The corpse was wrapped in
blanket which belonged to the bed in
which the child had slep, the night
before, Il piece of flannel. such rs
women sometimes wear on the chest,
was found under the body and por-
lion Of a newspaper which had evil
IDENTITY been used for wiping bloody
knife lay upon the floor. Nothing else
was discovered calculated to indicate
the perpetrator of the deed and even
the ownership of the piece Of flannel
could not be traced. Before gong 20
bed the night before Mr.. Kent had
seen that all the doors and windows
of the house were securely closed.
Tho housemaid in coming downstairs
that morning had found the drawing
room door and one of the windows
open. but as there was no evidence
of force having been used it was sup
posed that they had been opened
from the inside. There was NO evi.
dence whatever to fasten the crime