Omaha daily bee., 1902-02-09
BETRAYED By THEIR VOICES
False Tons Of Liars Readily Detected BY
Court s~tsnOgrGphsr.
THEORY PROVEN IN SEVERAL INSTANCES
Trained Sense Of Hearing DIstin-
guishes Between the True and the
False Witness-MOck HerOics
OF the Guilty.

"Any shorthand man who has been doing
court reporting for a long time can tell
almost infallibly by his sense Of hearing
whether a prisoner or a witness is telling
the truth" said a court stenographer who
has grown gray in making and TRANSCRIPT
ing pothooks In civil and criminal cases,
20 a New York Sun reporter. ut comes
from experience combined with the abnor-
NAL development of the sense of hearing
which all 6rst-rate court and parliamentary
photographers possess.
you know how abnormally the remain
ing senses Of blind folks are developed,
particularly their sense Of hearing. Well,
it's the same way with the court shorthand
man, after he's hammered away at that
sort of work for a good many years.
His ears become as sensitive to the
slightest infections and intonations OF
the human voice as a photograph roller;
there's a certain tremulous quaver in the
tone Of a man or woman who's lying in
court that the stenographer catches when
the shrewdest Judge, lawyer or Jurors quite
fail to catch It.
'when he's got his head bent over his
notebook he feels the Earring false note
IN the voice Of the liar every time. no mat.
ter how plausible and convincing the testt-
mony in itself may sound. So frequently
have l tested this idea in the past fifteen
years or so that I have come to accept
It as certain, when that almost indis-
tinguishable false tremolo Is absent from
the tone of a witness voice, that the wit
ness Is telling the truth.
"a few years ago I reported the trial
OF a young Harlem chap who was accused
of having sand-clubbed a Third avenue jew
eler In his store, and Of looting the estab-
lishment. The young fellow was good
looking, intelligent. with a face as franz
as an eight-day clock and an easy, candid
winning manner.
Appearances Deceptive.
II looked the young chap over before
the trial began, and l decided that the &C.
cusation against him. was outrageous
When the witnesses testified that they't
seen him coming out of the store 1 strained
my ears to catch the false information IL
their tones, but it wasn't there.
when the defense opened, the younl
man was permitted to 90 on the stand il
his own behalf. I was astonished to find
that his voice had the lying quaver in Il
right from the beginning Of his statement
Ellis words vastly ch~agrined the prose.
cution, but 7 knew that he was lying new,
ertheIess. He undertook to prove an alb
for himself.
"In confederation Of this. the married
sister testified that her brother had beer
at her apartment from 3 o'clock at night
taking dinner with her and keeping he
company In the absence OF her husband
Well. she was lying. too. She had that tell
tale false ring in her voice that c~onvince'
me Of this. despite her fine, frank face an,
her obvious responsibility.
faUNHA AA.s~ A4nwUa1 NAa .Ian0hAAa n
the end OF her testimony. i took luncheon
with the attorney for the prosecution.
"'well, what do you think of this cases.
he asked me when We sat down I CUES
vo don't land him, chr
Hes guilty I replied briefly. He wa
lying, and so was his sister
'The attorney for the prosecution looke'
me over out of the Sits of his eyes, but
didn't say any more. When court recon
vened he asked for an adjournment unit
next day. and the Judge granted It,"
ION the following morning he had
court the ~janitor Of the apartment hous
in which the prisoners sister lived. TIL
janitor testified that the prisoners siste
had not been in her fiat from noon unit
hate at night on the day Of the sandclubh
ing.
while the ~janitor was on the stand
detective walked into the courtroom wit
the loot from the jewelry shop. He ha
found 1t in a search Of the prisoners sis
ters apartment that morning.
''That settled the case. OF course IT
prisoners sister broke Town and confesse
that she had been endeavoring to shiel
her brother.
Played Her Part Well.
"over ten years ago in Chicago / m
ported the trial Of an actress. who wa
accused of having shot her husband. WI
was also her manager. She was an obscuI
star and scintillated with q one-nighi
stand road company Of the Ten Nighta
q Barroom' variety.
"she was indicted for assault with inter
TO kill. Her husband told his story. H
had no witnesses, but / knew that the ms
was telling the truth. as l took the note
despite the fact that he had a shifty ey
and a hang-dog air about him His volt
had the on-the-level ring,
1.-The woman was strikingiy handson
and a mighty smooth proposition. / new
saw her act, but she must have been pref