Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-09-03
SELF-CONVICTED.
Cases Where the Prisoners Supplied
 the Evidence

s It is one of the most remarkable l facts in the history of crime that many
 daring and clever criminals have been
 their own successful detectives and | have brought about their conviction by acts of almost incredible stupidity. l An amusing case of this kind occur
 red a few weeks ago at Rochester, when a finely developed young fellow presented himself at the local police court for admission as a constable. While he was being medically examin- Fed it was noticed that his feet were of 1 quite abnormal size-in fact, the only feet that could compare with them
 were owned by a burglar who was very much wanted by the Rochester police, and copy of whose footprint 1 they had. A reference to the foot print confirmed the suspicion that per l haps the burglar and the would-be constable were the same man after all, and the candidate was arrested on the spot, with the result that he confessed he was none other than the converted burglar. ~..
 In another recent case a young swindler who had robbed his employ CTS at Budapest succeeded in evading the police and making his way to the island of Lussinpiccolo in the Adri- atic, where he promptly signalized his escape by having his photograph taken. A copy of the photograph was seen by police agent, who at once arrested its original and brought his little holiday to very early conclu sion At the recent Northumberland As sizes miner was charged with break ing into the premises of an Amble tradesman. While regaling himself from the tradesman's larder, he had taken bite out of pat of butter, a bite which proved fatal to him; for a plaster cast of his mouth was produced in court. and it was demonstrated that his teeth fitted exactly into the indentations left in the devoured pop- ton of butter.
 Tn another case which occupied the attention of a Yorkshire jury a few months ago a burglar owed his con- viction to a momentary literary curi- osity. During his midnight explora- ton he entered the library of the clergyman in whose house he was an uninvited visitor and Whiled away a few moments by taking down a book from it's shelf and turning ovev it's pages. Unfortunately, he left evidence of his taste in the form of dirty thumb mark in the book, and this. sEextra Illustration proved to be an exact copy of the thumb-mark of well-known criminal, who was prompt Iy arrested. That little weakness for literature cost the burglar seven years rest from his labors in other mems houses.
 But police records are full of such cases, where man has cunninglyy con- ceived and successfully executed crime, only to ''give himself away by some idiotic act of which child could scarcely be capable. When iCourAasier had murdered Lord Will liam Russell one of the first things he did was to take part of his spoil, wrapped in brown paper, to Madame Piolain, the mistress of the hotel where he had served as waiter, and absolutely the most dangerous person in London for bis purpose. Of course, with a woman's curiosity she opened the parcel and recognized from it's de- scription the stolen property and Cour voisier paid for his stupidity with his life.
 Wainwright, the famous murderer of Miss Lane, might have escaped de- lection if he had not insanely left the parcel containing the body of his vic tim exposed to the curious gaze of stranger while he went in search of a cab; and Miller, when he vacated the railway carriage in which he had foul " murdered Mir. Briggs, left in it his hat with the makers name inside-a hat which his landlord had purchased for him shortly before. And, as anoth- CT sample of his folly, he had given his landlords little daughter a. jewel ler's cardboard box on which were the name and address of the very man to whom he sold his victims watch.
 When the murderers of M. DeIaha- che. at Ia Glorie Dieu, near Troyes, ransacked his safe and carried away his gold, notes and securities, they contemptuously threw back into the safe small notebook for which they had no use. 1t proved very useful to the detectives, though; for it contained the numbers of all the stolen notes, and was the instrument of the mur- derers' capture and conviction.
 Tn notable Indian case some native burglars, when plundering a wealthy banker and pawnbroker, took away a pod of musk and buried it with the other spoil in their encampment. The powerful odor of the musk, however, penetrated the soil and led the police infallibly to the place where the plum der was hidden; and in other recorded cases the smell of spikenard and of opinm, which burglars have not been able to resist, has led just as surely to their undofng.
 When, some time ago. a man in Michigan killed his wife in their bed room, and explained that the deed had been done by an unknown ruffian who had entered through the window, he had quite overlooked the fact that the window was nailed down and had clearly not been opened. As a matter of fact, he had actually removed one nail and left the other. But perhaps the most remarkable example of crim- inal folly was furnished by the mur-