Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1921-09-14
FICTION AGAIN FALLS SHORT.

Everyone IS tar1lllar with the Old saying thai
truth is stranger than fiction, Quite often this il
regarded as an exaggeration. Writers Of fiction
know it to be a fact. 1t is frequently stated BY fic-
ton writers that they find it necessary to use caution
in basing their stories on actual facts which have
come under their observation because if in telling OF
the story they appropriated the real facts they
would be ridiculed as sensational persons given to
impossible exaggerations. They find it necessary in
such cases to modify the actual facts in order to
bring their fiction within the bounds of credibility.
The murder committed the other day in Chica-
60 is one o 'thosc which, had an account Of such a
case appeared in a work OF fiction, it would have
been denounced as impossible and utterly u%nreason-
able. The first story told by the young man who
seems to have played the principal part in the muir
der of the two automobile statesmen was that he
had contracted for the purchase OF an expensive car,
had the machine driven to his mothers house, and
then lured the statesmen, one by one, to the base
ment, and as each appeared had held him up at the
point of a revolver, handcuffed him, and beaten him
to death; afterward disposing Of the bodies, one be-
ing weighted and thrown into the river, and the 9TH
|er buried in the earth floor of the garage. The young
fellow then drove off with the car taking his mother
for a ride. A murder committed in this manner and
under these circumstances could have been account
ed for reasonably on-the basis Of insanity. No other
condition would seem to furnish an adequate ex-
PLANTATION. But it now appears that three men were
involved in the crime and this disposes of the insan-
ity theory. Three men do not 60 insane all at once
in the same manner and join in the commission Of
a crime which requires considerable deliberation
and advance preparation. The fact now appears to
be, according to the published which
have been gained by the police from the accused
men. that the crime was committed by three men
for the purpose of gaining possession of an automo-
bile worth approximately $4,000, the purpose being
then to sell the machine and divide the proceeds.
We defy any writer of fiction to weave those facts
into a story and give it the appearance of probable
ity. The whole thing is one Of the inconceivable
crimes that are occasionally committed in. which all
reason seems to have been thrown to the winds, and
yet without that kind of mental aberration which
can properly be termed insanity. The manner in
which the crime was committed, brutal, in all it's
details, the negligence shown in disposing of the
bodies, and the utter improbability that a car of that
having been seen openly in the possession
of one of the criminals, could be disposed Of adyan-
tageously without throwing suspicion upon the
men, the nonchalance of the chief perpetrator in US
ing the car Immediately after the double murder to
take his mother for a ride, all constitute elements
which no writer of fiction would dare to- incorporate
IN a book because the combination is so utterly IRA
tional and unbelievable that the reader would imme-
diately pass it up as nonsense. Yet something sub
s%tantially as reported. has undoubtedly happened.
twist may be given to the confessions
hereafter there is the irrevocable testimony of the
mangled bodies which shows that something has
been committed substantially as reported. This is
one of the numerous cases which we run across in
which the actual facts far surpass the Imagination
of the most versatile writer.