The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-12-06
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN, DirectOr,
Washington, d. G.
KILLERS AT LARGE.
washington, d. G.

KILLERS AT LARGE.
| Washington, D. c., Dec. Zone
/ evening about o'clock three women
sat chatting in the parlor OF a house
in Springfield, Massachusetts. when a
man entered the room by a rear win
dow and, without any preliminaries,
demanded money. He wore a black
SLOUGH hat, black handkerchief over
the lower part of his face and a re-
yolver in u holster at his side.
The terrified women screamed. He
told them to be, quiet or ne would
| kill them. One of them screamed
| again, whereupon he shot ner thru
| the heart, killing her Instantly. Then,
after some more flourisnes of his
weapon, and without having taken
any booty, he went away.
| This astonishing crime led after
! long search, to the arrest or one Bert
ram G. Spencer, who confessed not
only to this murder but also 10 a long
series of mysterious burglarIes which
had terrified Springfield. They we're
most peculiar burglaries. They we're
committed usually early in the even
F! ing when detection would seem almost
/ certain. In some cases nothing was
taken and in most cases only articles
of little or no value.
Spencer was tried, and after a long
wrangle among specialists as to
whether he was sane, he was con-
demned+o death and electracuted.
One man at least was not satisfied
with this trial. He is L. Vernon
Briggs, Il well known specialist in
| 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 a de-
fective> all of his life, that any COM
petent specialist in mental disease
could have diagnosed him as a man
who was dangerous at large. Further
more. he realized that this country
must contain many thousands of men
like Spencer who are directive, who
are a menace to other persons and to
themselves. and yet are allowed to
run at large. In these opinions he
has the support of many other psy-
chiatrists-
Life Story of a Killer.
In order to prove his case, DR..
Briggs made an elaborate study Of the
life history of Spencer, and also of
those of two other convicted muir
derers-of Czolgosz, the man who
murdered President Mckinley, and OF
one RichesOn. These three studies
he has embodied in a book entitled
The Manner of Man That Kills.
This book, and especially the part of
it that deals with Spencer, is an alb
Solutely convincing demonstration of
the doctors theory that most men who
kill are defective men, that If studied
by specialists when in school, they
could nearly all be recognized as de-
fectives and handled in such a way
that they would not be a menace to
society and to themselves, and that a
large part of the enormous expense
of our courts, police systems, and
penal institutions. could thus be saved
in addition to the great saving in life
and property
Doctor Briggs shows that Spencer was
defective in intelligence from child
hood, that almost all of his immediate
relations on both sides showed some
signs of mental defect, many of them
having been downright insane. He
further shows that Spencer was long
known to many of his daily associates
as a queer" man, and that it was well
recognized by them that he was sub
jkct to outbursts of temper almost
without cause in which he could not
control himself. In one of these out
bursts he almost killed a boy with a
hammer.
Yet this man Spencer, who was
recognized by ordinary laymen as a
dangerous man, and could have been
identified by scientists at any time
after his seventh year as a potential
murderer, was not only allowed to run
a
the faint which had come down to him
thru the generations Had he not been
convicted of the murder which ended
his career, he would almost certainly
have been set free to murder again
and to continue propagaing his kind.
And the United States of America is
full of men like Spencer.
Having demonstrated what manner
of man it is who kills, and how easy
it generally is to identify the muir
derer before he murders, Doctor
Briggs proceeds to give some informa-
ton as to what our system of leaving
detectives at large costs the taxpayer
He shows that in ssachusetts, $16,-
900, 900 or 40 per cent of the state
budget in 1921 was spent for the care
of defective. dependent and delin-
quent classes
Courts for AIadmen.
In addition to this, 1t must be re-
membered that the criminal courts
are engaged almost wholly in the
business of trying detectives, putting
them in i&il and turning them loose
again. The trial of Spencer cost the
state of Massachusetts between S25,-
600 and 100000, according to DR..
Briggs.
Remember. too, that our expensive
police forces are engaged chiefly in
keeping track of these detectives, cap
turing them only to be released again,
playing an endless and futile game OF
hide and seek with madmen
This. enormous burden which the
taxpayer carries, and which is COM
parable only with the burden of in
ternational armament, is in a sense
the least of the evils of our system OF
handling crime. The worst evil of IL
is that we are breeding detectives
steadily, so that the problem grows all
the time, and the blood of the nation
is Vitiated by defective strains eVeYv-
where, as the examination or men for
the draft convincingly showed.
What is needed to remedy this situa-
ton is well known to students of the
situation, and has been carried out TO
a certain extent in some states and its
practica bility proved. Each state
N,lIS a. ueIon Wllcn