Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-03
A Possibility That Prenatal Circum-
stances Are Responsible for
Many of the Convicts
JESSE JAMES POWER EXPLAINED.
Confidence Sharps Say They Experience
the Same Exhaustion After Turn
Trick That
A HTPEOTIZER HAS APTER HIS WORK.
The Blame for Much Crime Placed bya Thinker and
Student on Society ITSELF

theory was encountered by a DIsPATCE
reporter, yesterday. He was seated under
tree near the Western Penitentiary. lookins
fIedly at the gray sandstone wall, anC
watching the weary guards as they passed
with their guns, up and down the spact
between the watch towers. He believed
criminality, in most cases, a disease. He
had made crime and its causes his life:
study, and he adduced peculiar reasons tc
prove his theory. The burden OF hi:
thoughts were as follows.
''only few days ago met a gay man
from Atlantic City. He was roundly ours
ing the fact that Camden was no longer the
Gretna Green where sighing swains OF
mercenary adventures could coax their
iusmorstas to harness themselves for life to
men who might possibly prove to be, as was
the fellow who spoke, q scamp and a
rascal.
81 did not know who the young lady was,
and it is not probable 1 ever shall, but,
knowing the character Of this man, had she
been a relative of mine 1 would have
thanked fortune she had escaped his
clutches. Thief, burglar, confidence man
some, fine conversationalist-evena q wit at
times-he was q type of the highest of his
class.
SOME OF THE THEORY.
"While musing over the fate of the young
girl had she married that man, formed
resolution to seek by other than personal be-
lief to prove theory which have held for
many years. While in this talk do not
propose to expound tine whole of this theory,
will endeayor to throw such light on the
matter as may be gotten from authorities
conveniently at hand.
81 may be mistaken, but my experiep ce,
while it counts but little, all points to the
fact that the majority of criminals are the
of:springs of hastily-made or Unmatched
marriages. What L mean by that is this:
A young girl, thoroughly honest herself and
springing from a generation of honest peo-
will marry an Unbalanced, criminally-
lded man, and their children will, in a
iority of cases, be what is known as
minals in the eyes of the law. But, to
Ie student of humanity, or to one
who has looked beyond the act and sought
may have branded him as a criminal, and
series of which acts may have subjected
him to many terms of imprisonment at diff
terent periods during his life, the rigor of
which Imprisonment and the disgrace at
tached to it seemingly brought no abate-
ment Of his desire to pursue criminal ways,
might the true motive be found in the fact
that being the product of a marriage in
which neither judgment nor reason had a
governing influence, he was but the natural
result with an Unbalanced mind-in other
words, insane.
ITO illustrate nv meaning more fully and
plainly, permit me 10 relate story:
"a few days ago, while seated in gen.
tleman's Office, poorly clad but neat and
clesnly dressed woman came in and asked
that the gentleman assist her son. She was
about 80 years of age, with strongly-marked
Scotch-Irish features-a face that anywhere
would have been pronounced that of an
honest, hard-working woman. Such was
Mrs. McNally, the mother of Owen Nc
Nally, at present an inhabitant of the ALE
gheny county Jail on many different charges,
The prosecution of which will result in his
being sent to States prison, where, if am
rightly informed, be has already served two
or more terms of varying lengths. The
gentleman related her story to me as follows:
HER LIES STORY.
zone of the daughters of respectable,
well-to do family, whose brother and sisters
had married well, unfortunately formed an
oft vaBa Ao
well, in whose family there had for several
generations run strain of criminal and in
sane blood. She married him, hoping, as
lnRny others have hoped, to reform him and
make him steady, upright man.
''The Irish have a saying that what is
bred in the marrow will come out in the
bone 1t proved true in this case. Her
husband proved himself unable to provide
suitably for her and her children. Her sis
ters did well in the world, and the compari-
son between her own condition and theirs
often awakened in her poignant regrets and
useless Iongings for fine clothing and hand
some jewelry, which had been hers previous
to her marriage. 1t is remarkable fact that
the children born during the period oflonging
aad depression, just described, are to-day
criminals, convicted many times for purloin-
ing the same articles craved by the mother.
The son will enter house, passing money car |
lessly by, will don a ine-looking coat and |
vest, and eagerly adorn himself with an
Odd-looking ring or other piece of jewelry, |
and then strut out among the public to be |
admired and praised for his tasty get-up. |
Not lazy, simply having an overweening |
desire for fine raiment and fashy jewelry.
Another child, daughter, has been ar |
rested, according to police authorities, with |
clothing so arranged that she could con- |
veniently shoplift handsome velvets, rich |
silks and beautiful ostrich tips with which i
to adorn herself.
deeply interested in the story and think |
ing might possibly secure confirmation |
OF my pet theory that all so-cslled protes- |
sional criminals are insane, I requested |
her, or rather succeeded in inducing !
her to relate TO me some in |
stances in the boys early history. At 8 |
years of age he committed his first crime. |
At 6 he willingly accompanied his mother |
50 the Mayors office in Allegheny for the |
purpose of being sent to Morganza, and from |
that day to this, some 20 odd years, his life |
has been passed in various prisons with short |
intervals of freedom. During all that period |
he never broke lock or carried a burglars |
tool, but, like q mischievous jackdaw, |
or magpie, he would sneak into the resi- |
dence of some citizen, and appropriate some |
thing to adorn himself with, and of which |
he might grow tired in 10 minutes or 10 |
days, and then give away or sell at the near
est pawnbrokers, as the mood took him. 1t |
is even stated that when in prison he would |
steal the shoes or the leather which was |
used in their manufacture, and carry them |