The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1924-08-28
PYROMANIAC SET
OVER 100 FIRES
unassuning New York City Youth
of 26 BIames Dual Person.
ity for His Craving.
HELD FOR LUNACY BOARD
Ex-5ank Clerk Who craved Excite
ment Held-"Never Caused Any
Deaths" He Says. Blaming Mania
on Meningitis.

New York. A self-styled DIR.
Jekyn and Mr.. Hyde"-an unassum-
ing youth Of twenty-six- blandly con-
fessed to the police that he had caused
more than one hundred incendiarg
fires on Manhattan Island in the last
few months Just to see the fire en-
gines in action"
1T was a lot of fun he explained
with smile, ito stand in front Of
burning house and know that the peo-
PIE running from the place so madly
didn't know that the one who made
all the excitement was right there
looking at them"
The prisoner, George C. Gustow,
former bank clerk and son OF a
patent attorney, was held for examina-
tIon by lunacy commission to be
appointed by court. 1t will be his
second experience with alienists, for
he was incarcerated in Bloomingsdale
and Middletown Asylums from 1915
to 1919 after his arrest for series
OF incendiary fires he started as boy
OF fourteen years.
Gustow's arrest followed months OF
work by police and fire officials, who
sought him as New York's worst fire.
bug" Bafied by the absence of any
apparent motive for the remarkable
series of incendiary fires, the authori-
ties had no clue to the pyromaniac's
identity until CUSTOM was seen at an
Amsterdam avenue fire and recog-
pized as man with limp who had
been seen TO leave the flaming build
ing just before the blaze was discoV-
cred.
Taken to the police station, he ad-
mitted the authorship of two letters to
Fire Marshal Brophy, in which he had
written that "the man who is setting
all these fires is person of dual
personality and very shrewd person.
He will never be caught"
It was to this dual personality"
which he attributed to an attack OF
spinal meningitis which he suffered in
1914, that CUSTOM credited his fear
some mania for the sight of blazing
buildings and the subsequent excite
ment caused by the arrival of fire ap-
paratus and fighters. The mania over
powered him at odd times, he said
Ordinarily he led the usual existence
oil youth OF his age. But when his
second" personality took possession
of him, he declared, he became an
other persona iend who prowled
the streets seeking houses to burn.
He displayed no hesitancy In his
strange recital
Il had always liked to see fire en-
gines go by" he said, after having
told of the illness to which he attri-
butes his Or. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
personality. But l never happened
to be right there when fire started.
So | began to make fires start so
could see the firemen at work |
didn't do it very often them was
fourteen-because took a lot of time
studying how not to get caught"
But he was caught, he explained
. simply, and his four-year residence at
an asylum for the insane ensued.
But | wasn't cured when they re-
leased me in 1919" he said Il had
just spent my time thinking out new
ways Of setting fires so they couldn't
catch me. l don't think any profess
sional frebug ever thought he knew
better how to set fire and not get
caught at it than l did"
He explained that he also had
planned how not to hurt anybody"
He told the authorities earnestly that
he never caused fire which resulted
in death. He explained that he
craftily started his blazes in untenant-
ed dwellings and lofts or in such
places in tenanted houses that all oc-
cupants would be certain to escape
the consequences Of his acts. Never
had he carried with him combustibles
as do other professional frebugs. ne
explained with an air Of pride.
81 always had a newspaper with
me-" he continued. you can start a
mighty big blaze with newspaper,
it you know how"