The evening times., 1898-10-20
MISTAKEN IDENTITY.

What Is called the mystery of the yell
low Mill Pond-the finding of the mutt
lated remains of a young woman near
Bridgeport, Conn..-has naturally turned
attention to the ssubject of the false
Identification of the living and the dead.
In this now celebrated case, the father
of a girl who was missing positively
identified the face of the dead girl as
that of his daughter, after long inves-
tigation. The dentist who had filled his
daughters teeth described the fl i-gs
of the teeth of the corpse exactly and
the feet corresponded perfectly. He
took the body home, only to be met By
his daughter, alive. This leads DR.. JUS
tin Herold to write to the Medical Rec
ord
Il venture to say that in very few
cases can positive identification be
made and sworn to. No less than ten in
nocent men have been labelled Willie
Tascot, and each identified positively
as the murderer of a Chicago million
aire-yes, identified by more than one
person; even the height, features. fiiling
Still each of these men turned out the
victim of circumstances. Men have b. en-
indicted for crime and placed on trial
simply because they were identified as
the guilty one, and In every case the
real culprit turned up later. Men have
been tried for murder, the supposed VIC
tim making his appearance, alive and in
court before the end OF the trial, as was
the case in the trial of Buckson in 1871.
A person may disappear mysteriously
from his or her usual haunts. A nude
body is found in the water; II Is idenu-
fed by certain marks. scars, tattooes,
and particularities of the teeth. Later,
the identified party makes his appe r
ance in the flesh How many persons
have taken part in their own wake. sim
ply through a mistake in identity? Re
Gently, in our own courts, the real cul-
prits have appeared and pleaded for the
release of others. imprisoned unJuStiy
through false identity. AT a time when
theft was punishable by death in En-
gland a man was hung as the criminal;
simply another case of false ident.fi fila-
tion
The mail coach case in France was
the cause OF the guillotining OF two per-
sons through false identification. 1t Is
not so very long ago that an officer IN
I
prisoner to the police court, ide. e.!tIflet
the wrong woman in court, and found
out his error only after the wrong wo-
man had been sentenced and committed
10 Jail In the same courtroom wlthn
twenty-four hours after, another pollce
officer identified as his prisoner man
who was sixteen years older than lNe
man he had arrested. A remarkable case
of deception in this city was that OF the
man who. believing his stepson dead,
found out. two years later. that ne hal
been living in the same house with nun
all that time, alive and well. Certainly
slap for those who identify by lea
lures only In July. 1897, the body OF
woman lay in the morgue; death was
caused by drowning. She was thrice
Identified each time falsely. A rev
wears since a woman identified each OF
TWO bodies as her husband. They looked
so much alike. and SO much Ike hef
husband that she did not know which
one to bury. In describing him 10 the
nolice. before these bodies were fouEd,
she said that her husband carried
small harmonica and peculiarly shd-eu
match box.
..Th. first body found had in its pock-
cts a harTnonica and q match box she
was preparing the body for burial wnen
another body was tished out of the wa
tor in the rockets of which were mar
monica and match box eXctly like those
found on the other corpse. She was de-
batting which body TO bury when an ac-
ouaintance told her that he had met her
husband at a parade. Her husband dld
not return, so she buried both bodies, TO
make sure that he received proper inter-
ment. in case either corpse was his.
woman and all her children identity a
l,.3,. tho r,,arpllp "A husband dnu fdtl-
err 4 wake is held, all arrangements Tor
the funeral are completed The woman
is summoned 10 the morgue, the funeral
IS stopped; she finds her husband at the
r,,org11e-another case of mistaken iden-
tity \ colored man returns 10 his nome
alive and we'll, after his wife had sup
posedIy buried him year before. lie
disappeared from home; body was
found in the water; 1t was identified by
his wife as his. it was buried, and $isl
insurance money was collected. IN Brook
lyn a boy absented himself from home: in
the meantime his parents buried the
body of a boy, thinking ii to be their son.
At dinner one evening, their missing boy
returned alive and well, and was warmly
greeted with a sound thrashing. Anoth-
er body with well-preserved features was
found floating in the river. 1t was posi-
lively identified by mother and son. The
Identification was complete, in that an
oId-time scar was found over the right
eye. After the body was buried, the real
husband and father returned alive to his
family.
In Tidy the following case is cited:
The body of an old man was found on
the bank of the Dee at Drumoak The
left ear and the first finger of the left
hand were wanting, the mutilation being
apparently of long standing. Two young
women claimed the body as that of their
father, who had been in the habit of
leaving home for weeks at a time, and
who had lost his left ear and left fore
finger On the return of the daughters
and friends of the supposed party from
his funeral, the boatman of ferry which
they had to cross asked them for whom
they were mourning, and on receiving
their answer laughingly informed them
that he had only half an hour before
ferried their father over, alive and well
which on reaching home they found to
be true"