The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1905-08-11
STRANGE
CONFESSIONS

BY JOHN F.. GETTING.

q
aRJO MAN who has not made some
study Of the subject can fully ap-
preCiate the almost barbaric h~arshness
Of the sD-Called sweatbOx methods Of
forcing confessions from alleged Grim
iHalS. o does the average citizen
realize how ready prisoners sometimes
are to confess TO crimes which they
did not commit or to tell OF imagined
crimes which never took place at all.
said Attorney John H. Geeting assOci-
ate counsel for the striking teamsters
ii the federal court proceedings and
associate editor of the American Grim
NAL Reports, the latest volume Of
which contains a number OF remarll&-
bic cases on criminal confessions.
"If YOU can imagine yourself thrust
into a coal black cell, not allowed to
see a friend, visited only by a grua-
yOi"ed man In uniform who shoves you
some bread and water and keeps in
forming you that you might as well
tell the truth. you may get some idea
OF the frame of mind to which an ig-
norant mar out Of the gutter may be
reduced and how a confession. true or
otherwise, may be wrung from him, -
he continued. Mr.. Geeting then relat-
ed the story Of two of the most re-
maskable American cases On record Of
false confessions.
Both were cases of supposed muir
der and the confessions in both in
stances contained all manner Of cor
rot0ratiye details. One Of the cases
happened In Illinois, the other in Yer
mont, and both prove the dangers
which surround the acceptance of a
confession Of crime. In the Vermont
case two brothers named Jesse and
stephen Boorn Quarreled with a mar
called Colyjn while the three were
picking stones in a field. a witness at
q distance saw GOWN strike stephen.
and then saw Stephen knock GOWN
down with a club. From that time
COlyin was seen by no one.
"Colvin had been in the habit of abb
senting himself for long periods from
the community. and scant attention
was paid to his disappearance for some
time.
There were suspicious that the
missing man had been murdered. arts
ing from the fact OF the quarrel, and
from contradictory statements made
by the Boorns in regard 10 Colyin's
disappearance, hut little was thought
Of the matter -Four years afterward
one of the B0urns told a third person
that they had put Colyin where po-
totoes would not freeze, this peculiar
phrase being the first co]rroborative
link of the final confession.
THE Boorns remained unmolested
by the law until six years after Col
Wins disappearance. when their uncle
had a dream. He dreamed that Col
wins ghost came to his bedside, de-
clared he had been murdered, and indi-
Gated the spot where his body lay. The
dream was repeated three times, and
the uncle finally caused a search to
be made at the place. A horse had
formerly stood on the spot, and under
the house was a hole four feet square
made for the purpose of burying po-
iatoes.
THE pit vas opened and a large
knife. a penknife and a button found
in II. Mrs. Colvin accurately de-
scribed these articles previously to
their being shown to her, and after
she had seen them declared the large
knife and the button TO have belonged
to her husband Careful search was
made for the body, but it could not
be found Finally, on the strength of
the dream. Jesse was arrested After
his arrest pieces of bone were found
In q hollow stump, two bits of which
were identified as human toe nails,
While the Others were declared by
several physicians to he human al
though on this there vas difference
CT cxper' opinion.
There did not seem evidence
enough on which to hold Jesse and he
vas on the eve Of discharge from Jail
y hen he made a full and complete CON
fsssi0n Of the crime, He declared
taat his brother stephen killed Col
vim and that he, Stephen and their
father then pit the body in the potato
collar
"He added that the body had been
lurg afterwards taken up and flung In
the river. brt that his father had put
some bones in q stump.
immediately on tnts confession
Stephen was arrested. and both he
aud Jesse were brought TO trial ThAn
came still another smazing feature az
THIS amazing case, stephen confessed
as well as his br%ther. stephen CON
fesklou heirg quite o lerethy written
aee4ms.1t sigp-l By himself and de-
setting the crime with elah ration oil
'e ~ W this confession stephen as.
q tsi taat after he hal strlcS Cows.