The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-03
HOW CONFESSIONS ARE GOT
ALL CRIMINALS CAN NOT BE TREAT
ED THE SAME WAY.

His Patient, and Then Apply the
Test He Thinks DeSt-The Case of
Martin Thorn.
New York, July For man who
apparently has confessed so many times,
who has counter-confessed and has re-
pudiated previous confessions that he
might confess all over again, Martin
Thorn, the convicted murderer of the
miserable bath rubber, has been about
as close-moutned a prisoner as the po-
lice have had to deal with In n long time
1t is true that he could not keep his
mouth shut" and went out of his way
to tell his grewsome secret; even ap-
pointing a time and a place where he
might unburden his mind TO a friend,
but nevertheless, when the powerful
truth-wringng machinery of the Cen
trail Office was applied to him. he be-
came as dumb and uncommunicative as a
wax man, and wthetood the terrific
strain of the police rack smbborniy and
stolidly; displaying no more emotion or
fear under the exquisite torture than he
did when listening to the confession OF
the woman who helped him butcher
Guldehsuppe and betrayed him to save
her own neck.
The little Dutch BARRIERS remarkable
Indifference to detective wiles makes
pertinent the question. What are the
most successful methods of obtaining
confessions from prisoners suspected of
crime?"
The question was asked OF Charles
Heidelberg, zone of Byrne's old men,"
and one who in the days Of the ex-in-
spectors triumphs was conceded to be
one of the shrewdest and most success
full men in dealing with criminals and
obtaining Straight stories" from them.
What do l consider the best method
of inducing men to confessY' repeated
Mr.. Heidelberg, you might just as wen
ask me what method / considered most
successful in treating sickness. There
is no single formula that can be used
for all criminal cases any more than
there is any one drug or medicine that
will cure all diseases. You have TO treat
your man just as a physician does his
patient or a salesman his wou.d-be Gus
toner. Watch him. study him; find
out his strength and his weakness;
diagnose his case In your own mind and
then apply the treatment that you think
most likely from your own SNpSllEilGI
will prove successful
THE great mistake the public makes
in considering a criminal is that It looks
upon him as something abnormali pe-
ing modelled after a different pattern
than honest men. He undoubtedly is,
but he has the same passions, the same
weakne sses, and he Is susceptible to the
same treatment.
without going into the science of It,
bttt vi
everyday proposition, on which my live
hhood depended, | have gone on the
theory that crooks and criminals We're
not different from ordinary citizens, and
| have treated them as any man particu-
larly anxious to obtain information from
another fellow man would.
"If there is any one quality more than
another which a man should possess
whose business is to extort the truth
from men who have everything to lose by
telling the truth it is kindness. Gentle
ness and kindness will unnerve a man
quicker than anything else. Had Martin
Thorn had George McClusky, the present
head of the detective bureau, to deal with
instead of Stephen O'Brien, Thorn never
would have left police headquarters be-
fore he had told all he knew about that
Woodside murder McClusky Is a positive
genius in the art of applying kindness and
gentleness-and. / tell you, IL Is an art
You must remember that to make man
accept your hospitality chats the only
word 1 can think of to express my mean
ing) who does not want It and is afraid Of
il and Is bracing himself constantly
against It is a far different matter from
making an ordinary friend or acquaint-
ance accept It..
The soft insinuating ways of detec-
tives that you are always reading about
won't do any more than the stereotyped
smile viii. You have got TO have the
kindness in you IN order TO have It count
for anything; and in that respect the pres
ent head of the detective bureau Is, In
my opinion, without an equal. He literally
would have worn that stubborn little bar
Der out with gentleuess and worried him
with kindness, until he had him all used
up and ready TO break down. IL must be
magnetism simulated kindness would not
do The moment you place the handouts
on a man or lock him in a cell you have
aroused all his suspicious. He Is on his
guard against every thing-kindness as wen
as severity. That Is where O'Brlen failed.
He tries severity first, and, IL 1t doesn't
work. kindness.
"a man would be brought before him
and at once subjected to the toughest kind
OF bulldozing, threatened with the cleo
trlo chair, life Imprisonment; every last
disgrace-anything to terrfy and STAN
Dede him If the bulldoZing failed, as It
did nine cases in ten, O'Brlen would send
the man down TO the cells, and the next
time he got at him try soft and winning
ways But IL a tough job TO fool a man
on those lines when already you have
threatened him with death or imprlson-
ment He Is on to you.
"McClusky was one Of I3yrnes' pupils,
ana he uses the same methods. The old
chief never dreamed Of bulldozing a man
The first time he was brought before him.
He might have resorted to It after every
thing else had failed, but never at first.
/ have known both Byrnes and McClusky
to sit chatting with suspected men for
hours before abiding in any way 10 the
affair that had brought them there.
"Ehere Is q method, too, OF working the
thirty-ihrd degree orally on criminals that
Is generally successful. BY orally / mean
that the person is suddenly accused Of his
guilt when he Is least expecting II, instead
Of being confronted by an evidence Of 1t. /
have tried il any number Of times, and
rarely has It failed.
"A few years ago I was sent out to Iowa
Nv Evrupg 10 get n man accused OF fOrg-