The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-04-27
THE STATE us no BLAME.


On the premise that Fred Bissell is
guilty of the fiendish murder of Edna
Dinsmore, the responsibility for the
crime would seem to rest squarely on
the shoulders of public authority, and
not on those of such a sorry wretch,
a moral pervert, mental misfit.
The state is at fault in the first in
stance because it lacks a law for the
sterilization of such creatures as Bis
sell had proven himself to be before
the outrage on the Topeka child &C.
Cured.
The state should see to it that once
a grown boy or man attempts a crime
of this sort against a little girl, he
should be rendered impotent to repeat
such a horrible offense.
Without such a law the state errs in
not providing much more stringent
punishment or restraint for crimes of
this sort
man who will permit his passions
to lead him to the preparation of such
a horror must be mentally deranged.
To allow him to enjoy his liberty
Is a menace to society
Unless there be steriIizat ton, he
should be incarcerated for life in an
institution for the insane, and espec-
tally if there be not specific laws for
such punishment for crimes of this
sort.
In the particular case of Bissell, the
state has extended a leniency to him
that is almost inexplicable.
1t borders on a criminal negligence
on the part of public authority.
His moral deficiencies began to dis
play themselves while he was still a
boy.
1t was necessary to restrain his in
cOrrigibility with a two-years' term i'll
the Boys Industrial school.
Two years of freedom and he was
returned to this institution, where he
was confined for another year for the
theft of money.
A few years later, and when he had
almost reached mans estate, he at
tempted an assault on a seven-year-
old girl, and was sent to the Hutchin-
son reformatory.
Had the state been equipped with a
sterilization law. this should have end
ed the care err of Bissell in the realm
of manhood.
sexual perversion and his unbalanced
mind.
But no effort was made to restrain
him permanently as an insane person.
and he left the Hutchinson reform
atory in due course of time.
Not long afterwards, he was sent to
the states penitentiary for receiving
stolen goods.
A habitual criminal of varied ten
denotes he had certainly become by
this time.
He wasn't treated as such, and his
confinement in prison for this offense
was not of lengthy duration.
And he was released only to COM
init homosexual crime against two
small boys.
For this unnatural act he was re-
turned to the states penitentiary
And regardless of his previous rec
ord, and the enormity OF this latter
offense, his sentence was for no more
than an indeterminate term of from
one to five years.
What did the state do then?
The state parole board and the gov
ernor of the state restored Bissell his
liberty after he had served something
over two years of this term.
Bisselrs record is black, indeed,
though it be that of a mentally de-
PRAYED and therefore irresponsible be-
ing.
But is his record any blacker than
that of the great state of Kansas for
the way it has handled him?
The state knew he was a danger to
society, and to society's choicest pos
sessions, its little girls and boys.
The state did not have the power to
sterilize this man.
It did have the power to restrain
him.
But in this, the state failed most
miserably to discharge its duty to its
people.
If Bissell is guilty of the murder of
Edna Dinsmore, the state itself is to