New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-01-08
W4NTOy CRIMES.

Current news now and then almost seems to
bring a startling realization Of what have
seemed fantastic and impossible inventions.
Readers of Maupassant's grewsome Diary or
a Mailman" have shuddered at the thought OF
what might be, and at the same time have re-
assured themselves with confident declara-
lions that it is not Yet it does seem probable
that precisely such wanton criminals, commit
ting crime Just for the sake Of crime, are actu-
ally eXtant among US in this land and time. 1t
is upon such q theory that the occasional send
ing of poisoned candy and fruit as death
bearing gifts to unsuspecting persons is most
readily and reasonably to be explained In some
of these cases it has been possible to discover
or at least TO suspect perpetrator moved by
personal hatred or some Of the common motives
of murderers. but in most Of them the crime
seems attributable to nothing but wantoness,
and it is to be assumed the deadly gifts We're
sent by entire strangers who, through some
hideous moral perversion, simply wanted to
enjoy the sensation of having destroyed human
life the pleasure being heightened by the fact
that the victims were innocent of offence and
unsuspecting Of danger.
Appalling as this explanation of such doings
is, we must regard it as quite logical and as
differing only in degree and not at all in kind
from numerous we'll known facts. The COM
mission of perfectly wanton crimes of COM
Again and again in the last year or two men
and women in places of crowded resort have
had their outer garments cut and slashed, or
sprinked with corrosive acid filth, in a
deliberate and systematic manner. Again and
again pieces of property, public and private,
have been damaged and defaCed, in way
that could not in the least profit the perpetra-
tors of the deeds The persistent Disagreement
of the beautiful and sacred Maryland monu-
ment in Prospect Park will readily come to
mind as q case in point. These things are
done not for spite unless it be a general spite
against humanity. nor for profit unless there
be profit in the qualification Of depraved and
malignant passions They are done through
sheer wantonnesS, for love of destroying that
which is beautiful or for the pleasure of causing
others pain
Now such deeds differ from murder. but only
in degree. Thou shalt not steal and Thou
shalt not XIII ire items of the same code and
the distinction between the two forbidden crimes
is made by human commentators and not by the
Divine Lawgiyer. We do not say that every
thief would commit murder There are also
some murderers who would sc0rn to commit
theft. But the same spirit that moves n man
to cut holes il strangers garments for sheer
love of mischief and for the sake of being able
to eXult over the distress that stranger will
presently feel at discovery of the deed if carried
q little further might easily move him to send
poisoned candy 10 some entire stranger. for the
sake Of being able to eXut secretly over the
agony and woe that would thus come upon per-
sons entirely unknown to him. 1t is-a hideous
phase of human nature. on the border line be
tween mental and moral perversion presenting
one of the most trying Of problems to the alienist
and to the penolOgist