Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-07-25
DUPRE HAS MIND OF CHILD
OF TWEL We, SAYS WOMAN
PSYCHOLOGIST AFTER TEST
Miss M, N, Mason Among
Those Who Seek Commu-
tation for Man Who MUIR
dered Detective Walker

Frank DuPre, sentenced to death for
the murder OF Pinkerton Detective
Irby C. Walker, through a Binet.
Simon intelligence test and that
her report Classics DuPre as a
"high-grade moron, with the intelli.
gence of child twelve years. elev.
en- months old, and the moral con.
seriousness of one even younger"
It is understood that Attorney
H. A. Allen, of DuPre's counsel, will
Governor Hardwick with his Glenn
ency plea.
The test was MADE on Thursday
and Friday of last week at the Full
ton county tower, where DuPre is
held pending action on the motion
filed several days ago for a modera,
ton of the supreme court decision
affirming his death sentence.
4 Miss Mason says she made the
test from a purely scientific and
humanitarian standpoint and not
from one Of morbid curiosity.
His basic age was eight years,
which means that he had to be taken
back to the tests of an eight-year-
old child before a year could be
found in which he stood all the tests
Of that age" states the report.
ITO hang Frank DuPre would be
as great a crime as hanging child
unGer the age of consent" declares
Miss Masons report. "But as long
as we have not sufficient institution.
al facilities for caring for such cases
in Georgia, he should be kept in
confinement until the solons real.
ize what feeble-mindedness means
and establish an institution for the
feeble minded.
Definition of Moron
Frank DuPre had no more reali-
zation than a 12-year-old child or
what murder meant to the other fell ;,
low, or even what hanging may
mean to himself. He actually does
not want his case appealed to the
supreme court of the United States;
says he would rather be hung than
to stay longer in Jail. believe he
considers himself the hero of a very
thrilling tale of adventure and that
he would actually be rather disap-
pointed if he were not hung!'
The report of Miss Mason con-
tains an analysis of certain factors
in DuPre's childhood and school life.
and certain phases of his character.
as revealed in the intelligence test,
which she says establishes his mo-
ronity.
She declares her investigation dis
closed lack of social adaptability in
school life an inability to compete
with normal fellows in the businesS
world; the fact that he was easily
influenced and incapable of rational
judgment a lack of moral control.
the absence of imagination ard an
inability for self-criticism in the in
telligence tests-all of which she
says are factors which indicate mo-
ronity.
She quotes Terman the psycholo.,
gist, is his denition of moron, as
follows:
"a feeble-minded person is one
who Is incapable, because of mental
defect existing from birth or from
an early age of competing on equal
terms with his normal fellows or
OF managing himself or his affairs
with normal prudence"
Sums Up Analysis
-
factors indicating moronity, the
psychologist declares:
Taking into consideration the
fact that DuPre had a criminal
career Of only twenty-one days
that he had, up until his mothers
death, been under good influence;
that he was the tool of an ex-
perienced band Of criminals; that
the sexual instinct and that other
instincts of adolescence-love of ad-
venture-played large part in his
being persuaded to be their tool;
that this band of criminals planned
the entire coup for him; that he
had no intention Of killing anyone
the pistol was only a part of the
regalia of a dime novel banditJ;
that he was made drunk before
hand-and you have in a nutshell
the tale of morally irresponsible,
predetermined boy, allowed by a
Negligent society to go around I'M
guarded and uncontrolled, Wreak.
ing vengeance on the society that
had neglected him, and that was
thus accessory to the murder
Miss Mason prefaces her report
with the statement that she was
induced to make the Binet-Simon
test through increasing interest in
the interviews credited to DuPre.
Before reading these interviews,
L was led to suspect that DuPre
was subnormal in mentality by the
stupidity shown in his behavior be-
fore he was caught" the report
states, land subsequently, my sus-
picions were directed towards GER
tain signs Of mental deficiency in
the remarks credited to him.
Insanity in Family
AS to proofs of Frank DuPre's
moronity," states the report, mot
only do the tests show that 1ompar.
ed with other normal human beings,
he can do only the things that the
average twelve or thirteen-year-ol3
child can do but a history of his
life points to the same thing"
In another part of her report Miss
Mason states: "In Frank DuPre's
case, there has been insanity on both
SIDES of the family and a great aunt
who died at the age Of fifty, had
the mind of n ten-year-oId child all
her life. When feeble -mindedness
occurs in family, it always is ike
ly to recur, though it may skip a
generation or two. The faint of in
sanity would in itself be sufficient
to upset the equilibrium so delicate
ly balanced in border line cases and
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