The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1910-06-02
LIGHT SHED ON CRIME
Mysteries of Murders Are Often
Revealed by Mems De-
sire TO Talk.
ESCAPES ARE NOT FREQUENT.
Detection Even Where Dark Deed
Is Cunningly Planned by the
Shrewd Perpetrator.

one or the StrangeSt features In all
the long history of crime, commented
upon by nearly all famous investiga-
tors, is the fact that something the
guilty person said or did was respon-
sible for the verdict of guilty, says
the Kansas City Star. Murders IVost
carefully thought out, plots conceived
in the mind of only one person, so
shrewdly and cunningly devised that
detection appeared impossible, have
been explained and their perpetrators
punished through the operation of an
irresistible impulse of conscience
which leads men in trouble to talk.
Few murderers have gone to their
graves without telling some one, some
where, the secret burden that bore
down upon them always
Harry Hayward, well-bred young
fellow of Minneapolis, was convicted
and put to death in 1895 for murders
of which none would have suspected
him had it not been for his unsought
confidence to his brother Adry before
the crimes were committed Prado,
the Paris murderer, put to death in
1888, was convicted by admissions
made in moments of confidence. John
Higgins of Adrian, Mich, wrote a
romance describing the murder Of
Lafayette Ladd, and was convicted OF
the crime. Carlyle Harris, in New
York. directed attention to himself by
involuntarily exclaiming: What will
become of me?" when told of the death
of his unacknowledged wife, whom, as
the trial and his subsequent admission
proved, he had poisoned. Harris was
a medical student. AS in the cases
of doctors who commit murder, he
might have been expected TO so do the
work that the cause of death would
be hard to trace, If not impossible.
But luck was against him, as well as
his conscience. He gave his wife a
box of pills, all of which, except one,
were harmless sedatives. BY chance
alone the fatal pill was not taken I'M
til after all the others had been used
and she took it the night Harris
called to see her.
One of the courtliest and most schol-
arly scientists in Buenos Ayres In
1894 was Prof. Beaurigard. He enter
tanned extensively and his invitations
were eagerly sought. His chef and
butler were from Paris. Attention
was drawn to the fact one day that
many of his distinguished guests
died soon after attending his dinners.
After fifteen had died autopsies were
ordered. and the discovery made that
I'm every case death had been caused
by yellow fever, typhoid or cholera
Some one remembered then that Beau
rigard had boosted that he could XIII
a whole city full without being detect
ed.
Beaurigard was arrested. When MS
butler appeared against him he swal-
lowed a drop of hydrocyanic acid
which he had carried in a capsule In
the hollow of one OF his teeth and
died. Suicide, in this case, was the
only escape. and the suicide was con-
fession. After his death it became
known that Beaurigard had amused
himself by giving his guests disease
cultures, or germs frozen in water.
which did not, of course, affect their
vitality.
When one gets down to the actual
figures the worlds murder record is
appalling. Statistics are lacking for
the period since 1906, but in the five
years preceding that time $4,000 per-
sons were murdered in the United
States. With the difference in popu-
lation considered. 1t is hardly fair to
compare England and Wales with this
country, but it is nevertheless note
worthy that in those two countries
only 81 murders were recorded in
1905, against $3.50 in the United
States Thinkers attribute this whole
sale slaughter in America to laxity
of the law and the innumerable loop
holes through which accused persons
find a way to liberty. The fear of
punishment has never served to keep
men-or women-from murder. Each
man believes himself smart enough to
leave no clew