The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-02
INITIATES DEATH AT WILL
HE DECEIVED THE JAIL DOCTORS
FOR FOUR MONTHS.
A Pennsylvania Boy Who Is a Puzzler to
the Physicians-He Stood
Every Test.

| Reading, Pa, Jan. lin Albert DEF
fenderfer, who lives at Hinkletown, the
| officers of the law have secured strange
character. He can throw himself into a
cataleptic state at will, can initiate mes
| merle subject perfectly, can appear as if
dead, can suffer needles to be thrust into
his body, can endure hot irons placed at
his feet, and can resist electric Shocks
the sudden dash of cold water, plunge
into ice water and other rough and I'M
usual treatment, all without wincing or
showing sign of life. He deceived the
Lancaster county officials for four months
so completely that he was transferred
from the jail where he was confined to the
hospital. Finally one night recently his
opportunity arrived and when morning
dawned the supposed unconscious cata-
leptic had disappeared.
Dieffenderfer comes from a good fam
lily. but when still lad few years ago
was sent to the Huntingdon reformatory.
There he excited unusual attention among
the boys by his imitation of death. He
could undergo about any sort of punish
ment and had such control of his nerves
that he could endure pain, and even tor
ture, without Wincing. He was on his
goou behavior, however, and was finally
released on parole and sent home to his
people in Lancaster county. He had not
been home long before he was suspected
Of being concerned in burglary. When
an attempt was made to arrest him he
wounded several constables.
Four months ago he was placed in the
~ pt Nav l.1- 11tn,
startled the jail officials by appearing as
If dead in his cell. They thought he was
In trance. He was seen to breathe, but
he could not be aroused No matter what
was done to him, with heat or with cold,
with needles or an electric battery, the
young man lay there, apparently uncon-
scious. The prison physician diagnosed
the case as seemingly one of catalepsy.
The attention of the court was directed
to the matter and a committee of three
physicians was appointed to investigate.
The physicians made a thorough and
rigid inquiry. Dieffenderfer stood every
test On the strength of the report Of
the committee the court ordered the lad
to be removed from the Jail to the hospi-
tai He remained there as remarkable
cataleptic patient until Nov. 20, when the
guard at a. m. discovered that he had.
vanished. With him went ale clothing of
been locked up. FIJI ~.aa
The, patient disappeared during howl
ing blizzard. For a time it was feared
that he had persisted in the mountains if
he had escaped while out of his mind.
For days nothing was heard from him.
Then he was found at the house of his
grandfather, John Mccarthy, of Hinkle-
town. The lad told the constable that he
had walked all the way from Lancaster
h ts RI fDf 1nrt hat hh h11 frl11 crp5
through the snow salone and unaided all
the way in his weakened condition; that
several times he. felt as if, he must drop
and perish in the cold, but that the same
will power which he had employed in
his game of 'possurn in Jail and hospital
had carried him through. In speaking of
his experiences while in custody, he said
he could not keep up the deception any
longer, as it was too hard on his nerves,
and that he was obliged to keep up the
semblance of death SO very long because
the attendants watched him so closely.
He is thin and pinched, yet he looks fairly
well in flesh because he invariably rallied
to consciousness at long intervals when
driven by hunger. yt
Those who know Dieffenderfer best say
he was not playing possum all the time.
His condition may not have been total
unconsciousness at all times and he
may have been conscious at intervals and
still kept up his appearance to deceive
those about him, all for a purpose, they
admit. When in a eataleptic condition
he is insensible to pain. 1t was nothing
for his arms to remain outstretched for
an hour while in a standing position.
Finally the muscles would relax and the
limbs would fall. The movement of his
heart and lungs is normal and the pa
tent can be fed for weeks through tube
leading into the stomach,