The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-03-10
By
Ed. 6RiNhAM

He made a clean breast of it ana
was hung.
This is what might be called the
scientific third degree" which has
been reduced to its ultimate conclu-
sion In France, There 1t is customary.
when enough clues have been LETT to
give the police a fairly accurate idea
of how murder was committed. to
reconstruct the crime" for the bene-
fit OF an arrested person thought to
h. the guilt che He rs taiscr, to the
scene, where police officials who have
carefully rehearsed their parts, exact
lN raRrpduce the murder as they con,
ceiNe 1t was committed. All its lurid
details are portrayed. including a lib
oral shedding of fake blood, dying
noatfs, conclusive twitchings, death
rattle, horrible fear on the face of the
victim, followed by the furtive. haunt
cd escape of the perpetrator of the
outrage 1t requires far more of an
iron will than that possessed by the
usual murderer to keep his nerve
while this is going on. and more than
one has then and there placed his
neck under the guillotine by offering
to tell all Ii he is only carried away
from the sight.
Confronting a supposed murderer
with the body of his victim Is one of
the oldest of third degree" meth
DDS, but the original reason for this
gruesome meeting has been forgotten
AT present II is arranged for the pur-
pose OF working on the superstitieas
sensfbiitties which are more or less
inherent In all human beings. Orig
inally the suspect was given the har-
rowing Job of touching the body. be-
cause of widespread belief that ii
the murderer touched the corpse the
wounds would bleed afresh In an
age when this alleged phenomenon
was accepted as n fact the few muir
derers who had the hardihood to put
hands on their victims without break
ing down scored great point in their
favor.
Deliberately frightening a confess
sion out of a murderer by artificial
means has more than once proved eff
fecttve with criminals of low intellec-
tual calibre. A few years ago a rape
and murder mystery in the South was
definitely solved by suddenly showing
the negro suspect. who was In dark
ened room, human skeleton which
tangled its joints In a most uneanny
manner and uttered sepulchrai warn
ings to tell the truth 1t proved too
much for the suspect. who fell upon
his knees. admitted he had been lying
and pleaded for mercy
l:dt the thiid degree is yet to be in
vented which will be consistently sue
cesafui against the Chinese or against
the Italian secret societies. Under
the tiercest questioning, and before
the most startling denouements. the
Chinaman maintains an utterly ex-
pressionless. flushless countenance,
always accepting verbal or physical
broWbeating with stoical Indifference.
When a Chinaman does appear to
weaken and give up facts incriminat-
Ing others of his race, 1t Is almost
impossible 10 learn whether he is
honest In his declaration or simply
using the law OF the. 'barbarians" to
punish 4 private or tong enemy with
out risk to himself.
The difficulty in making the third
degree work with Italians liz that
they fear the private vengeance of
their secret societies far more than
anything the American police dare do
to them The recent case in which
one of his co-conspirators turned
on Lupo. THE Wolf" and caused
him to be sent to the Federal peni-
Tertiary In Atlanta for thirty years
for counterfeiting was rare excep-
ton. The third degree has not fur
nished definite elew to the murder
err of Detective Petrosino. of the New
York force. who was shot down on
crowded street in an Italian CITY, al
though the New York police would
rather lay hands I'm him than amy
other Ave life-takers In America
The theory of the detectives in the
ordinary application Of the third de-
gree IL that a criminal almost inva-
riably has secret craving to confide