The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-02-10
TRAIL OF CRIME
FROM ONE FAMILY
Charities Board Gives Striking
History of Virginia's Most
Degenerate Brood.
STATE SUPPORTS THEM ALL
Permits Detectives to Marry and
Cares for Them in Prisons
and Asylums.
STATE SUPPORTS THEM ALL

Astonishing facts are given In the
annual report of the State Board OF
Charities and Corrections regarding
family pronounced apparently the most
degenerate In Virginia. In his inves-
legations of crime and pauperism, Sec
rotary j. T. Mastin has unearthed tho
details. presenting them under the
heading. Tho Menace of the Feeble
Minded"
Because the State permitted mental
detectives to marry. the people of vir-
Einia are burdencd, ana nave been for
generations, with the public care of
this family. To-day the brood has Its
representatives In the State Peniten-
tiary, in jails. in insane asylums. in
reform schools, in aimshouseS in OBJ
jectionable resorts. and in institutions
for the care of destitute children. No
one of the name, far as could he
learned. has been able to rise above
medocrity.
Besides this. the family was for
years the terror and the financial bur-
den of the county in which it dwelt
1t was considered dangerous for a
stranger to pass through their com
munity. The very family name was a
synonym OF pauperism and crime. Yet
the state permitted them to increase at
Will.
Back TO Colonial Days.
II Is conjectured that this family
sprang from the criminals and paupers
Imported in Colonial times. Inasmuch
as 1t Is now certain that imbecilty.
the criminal tendency and the ten
dency toward Dauperism are inherited
traits. ii is probable that the ancestors
OF those people carried abnormal traits
in the germ plasm
History carries them back to n timo
When thcy lived in mountain hollow
and intermartIed among themselves
when two persons with the same de-
feet marry, all the children will in
merit the deficiency. Jt only one pa
hal ho ol,l
hcrit it, So that crime. pauperism and
feeble mindedness increased
one OF the strongest and most sue
cesStul OF the family WAS named John
IN ,9o' according to deed books. he
bought the interest of the other lcga-
tees OF his fathers estate. composed Of
twenty-five acres of mountain land He
Increased his holdings. accumulated
cohsioerable property, came out of tho
hollow and settled in the best com
munity in the county He left a farm
TO each of his children, but, handi-
capped by inherited disability, they
LOST IL all in n generation and were
driven back to the hollow.
Prosperous Farmer.
In more recent times another mem
per OF the family prospered. He bought
land outside the hollow. at last owning
three or four farms. He married bis
cousin high grade imbeoile, whose
people In addition Inherited an unus-
unl physical defect that resembles
congenital dislocation of the hip. max
ing us appearance when the victim
Is between fifteen and twenty years
old. The man was also carrier OF
mental defect. airce there was feeble
mindedness In his grandfather's fam
lily He himself, though prosperous
showed mental defect in lack of par
entail affection. When his afflicted
children became OF age he put them
out OF mis- home and allowed them to
be sent to the county almshouse All
the children were defective, and most
OF them were lame.
Here Are the children: Female imbe-
Gle. lame at fifteen. now in almshouse
at forty. never married. had one child
who died in infancy: female imbecile
In almshousc at thirty-scven. was
lame at sixteen, cannot walk; male
w-grade imbecile. died at twenty;
male. low grade imbecile, died in aims
house, female. now bfty years old, in
insane asylum, married hes cousin
The children OF the last mentioned
woman are thus described: Female,
aged thirty-five. married her cousin,
several children, about whom nothing
is known: male. defective. aged thirty,
committed to Jail at least twenty-five
times. served one term I'm pepitentiary
for housebreaking, drinks and Is sus-
pected of running a blind tiger; male.
imbccile, lame. aged twenty-five. In
mate of almsh house: female. imhecile,
aged seventeen, in almshouse. lameness
tust appearing. not married. had one
child.
These are the children and grand
children Of prosperous farmer with
imbecility In his veins. who was per-
United to marry. The state. - pointed
out by DR.. Mastin, pays the bill.