The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1916-12-02

M..A WA NucHN you we're DlCkeu up Dy Ine
AN/A IA police as a suspected murderer.
hN\ lnasmuch as you would have no
acquaintance, 1t would be very
hard for you to prove an alibi.
30 nkely as not the police, being quite as eager
to give evidence of their alertness by securing a
conviction as to get at the truth and secure ius-
dce. would give you what they call the third
degree"
According to a writer in the New York Herald.
with the third degree the public is well ncouaint-
Gu through short stories, articles, novels and the
drama, but there has developed of recent wears
a test more grimly nerve racking. more crush
ing and relentless-the silent third degree"-
TO the study of which penologists and psycholo-
gists are giving much time and thought. In the
opinion OF some 1t Is more unjust than the older
form or bullying questioning Others declare
tnat II is a true test-one which wrings the truth
from the subject more certainly than all the oues-
uonlng In the world, and he goes on to explain
how the silent third degree works:
The Mcnamara Case.
one of the most notable cases of the practice
OF the silent third degree was in the Los Anpe-
les Times dynamiting case. James B. McNomara
was on trial. The prosecution had developed n
strong case against him, but the mans nerve
was wonderful.
1t was Samuel L.. Browne, chief of the Los An
geles secret service bureau, who directed the
grueling daily presentation of Witnesses who
spoke not, nor were spoken to, but who merely
MED into the court room, caught the eve of T. r.
Mcnamara, shot him a glance of recognition and
then' unquestioned by counsel for either side, left
the room.
Women with whom Mcnamara had associated
hotel clerks who had seen him register under
1alse names. cabmen who had driven him to
places where detectives contended he had met
teilow conspirators in the dynamite plot-all
these were marshaled by the secret service men
and paraded before the prisoner.
Vividly, realistically, almost as If with a NOV
ing picture him, each step In the accused dyna-
mlter's journey from indianapolis to Los Angeles.
each stage of development of the plot, was called
TO his mind, and, what was worse, there was the
suggestion that the prosecution knew all. Every
time three or four witnesses who J. P. Mcnamara
knew could testify damagingly against him en-
tered the courtroom and bowed to him In recog-
milton the thought was crushingly impressed upon
his mind that another step in his career was
known.
One of these silent witnesses was the mail clerk
who had time and again handed mail to McNa-
mara at the general delivery window and had
known him as J. B, Bryce. Imagine the effect on
the guilty man when he saw that the mail clerk
recognized him.
There were cabmen who had driven Mcnamara
about, and one of them had quarreled with him.
Finally a woman, plain and rather stability
dressed, white and timid, was ushered into the
courtroom. She sat in one of the front seats and
gazed at J. B. Mcnamara.
How the Silent Third Degree Works.
That woman had sold him wrapping paper In
her store, and in her presence he had wrapped
sticks of dynamite in 1t.
AS the supreme test, the crushing denouement,
Mcnamara was confronted by the last living per-
son who had seen him before the dynamite ex-
plosion. 1t was the bartender who had sold McNa-
mara a drink just before he slipped through the
swinging door of the saloon back into Ink alley
and placed the dynamite which destroyed %
lives.
"In tell you what this silent third degree
does. It wakens a mans conscience. That's the
underlying principle that makes 1t effective" said
George s. Dougherty, formerly in charge of the
New York police detective bureau. Look here,
I'll tell you how II works.
"a man is arrested for a grave crime-murder
perhaps. He sees no witnesses when he is ar
rested. He is at bay, desperate, fighting for his
liberty and maybe for his life. He steels himself
and throws about him an armor of bravado or I'M
concern or taciturnity. His nerves are like steel
fbers, and you can't shake them. If you should
bully him he would become sullen and r~esistive.
If you should threaten he would become defiant.
He might be open to reason, but suppose he were
not.
"When he Is a~rraigned before a magistrate
there may be several witnesses there whom he
recognizes and who, he knows, will recognize him.
When he has been first arrested he has told his
mother and his wife and his friends that he is
innocent. The lie means nothing to him then, but
when he sees all these witnesses who are con-
nected with his crime Ia different ways ne begins
to realize that he may be forced to admit his
guilt and that these persons are going to make
him out a liar before the friends and relatives
who have stuck by him. That is the beginning
Of the break, and 1t reaches q type of man you
can't bully or hoodwink into a confession"
Setting Stage for Geidel.
On July q, 1911, William Fl. Jackson. a broker
OF New York, was found murdered In his room at
the 1roquois hotel. In the heart of the club dis
ltrict' of New York city. He had been beaten and
strangled and a bottle which had contained chic
reform was found on the premises.