Arizona republican., 1921-12-10
By Frederic J. Haskin

WASHINGTON, D. C., Dec. S.-One evening about s o'clock three women sat chatting in the parlor of a house in Springfield, Massachusetts, when a man entered the room by rear window and, without any p1.elimin- aries, demanded money. He wore black slouch hat, black handker- chief over the lower part of his face and a revolver in a holster at his side.
 The terrified women screamed. He told them to be quiet or he would kill them. One of them screamed again, whereupon he shot her through the heart, killing her in stantly. Then, after some more flourishes of his weapon, and with out having taken any booty, he went away.
 This astonishing crime led. after a long search, to the arrest of one Bertram G. Spencer, who confessed not only to this murder but also to a long series of mysterious burglaries which had terrified Springfield. They were most peculiar burglaries. They were committed usually. early in the evening when detection would seem almost certain. In some eases noth- ing was taken and in most eases only ~ articles of little or no value.
 kOpCICCA WAS u ctA-h eAAeNh N~ AS--o wrangle among specialists as to whether he was sane, he was con- demned to death and electrocuted.
 One man at least was not satisfied with this trial. He is L. Vernon Briggs, a well known specialist in mental disease. He was convinced, by what he had seen of Spencer and what he had heard at the trial, that Spencer was a defective. He further believed that Spencer had been de- fective all of his life, that any com- potent specialist in mental disease could have diagnosed him as a man who was dangerous at large. Fur thermore, he realized that this coun- try must contain many thousands oi men like Spencer who are defective who are a menace to other persons and to themselves, and yet are al- lowed to run at large. In these opinions he has the support of many other psychiatrists.
 Life Story of Killer
 In order to prove his case. Dr Briggs made an elaborate study oi the life history of Spencer. and alsC of those of two other convicted mur- derers-of Czolgosz, the man whS murdered President Mckinley, and O one Richeson. These three studie; he has embodied In a book entitled "The Manner Of Man mat hlllS. This book, and especially the part o it that deals with Spencer, is an ab solutely convincing demonstration O the doctors theory that most mel who kill are defective men. that l studied by specialists when in schoo | they could nearly all be recognized | defectives and handled in such wa | that they would not be menace t | society and to themselves, and that l large part of the enormous expens | of our courts, police systems, an penal institutions, could thus b saved in addition to the great savin in life and property.
 Dr. Briggs shows that Spencer wa defective in intelligence from child
 hood, that almost all of his immediat relations on both sides showed som
 signs of mental defect, many of ther having been downright insane. H
 further shows that Spencer was lon
 known to many of his daily asso ciates as a ''queerh, man, and that l was well recognized by them that h
 was subject to outbursts of tempe
 almost without cause in which h