New Britain herald., 1928-06-02

Leopold and Loeb, Now in Illinois Stat.
Psnitsntisry for the Murder Of
Bobby Franks.
llTHE alenists pronounced him
sane"
You read that in your paper
last night. You may read it again three
weeks from now, when another muir
derer is put under the microscope Of
science. Or it may have been: 1.-THE
accused was found insane"
How, you may have asked, was this
4 physical examination? Is there in the
wizard world Of science a machine which
can photograph the brain and record it's
abnormalities? What are the tests given
to determine persons mental status?
To answer these questions and sim
liar ones which you may have asked
yourself, a special correspondent for
this paper personally interviewed over a
dozen eminent alienists. He asked them
Exactly what do you do to find .
murderer sane or insane? The gist
of their remarks has been set down in
the following article.
Before considering these remarks,
however, it is necessary to realize that
the States decision upon the mental
status Of . subject relies on three con-
ditions: lD II he is able to distinguish
between right and wrong. (2) If he IL
able to Judge of the nature and quality
of his act, and (8) If he is able to con-
suit counsel.
There is, therefore, very distinct
line drawn by the State between sanity
and insanity. Science does not draw such
liza %n sSyrb int ictr
there are various degrees of insanity, and
the cases which are most interesting and
most perplexing are those of lesser de-
gree, the so-called "border-line' cases.
It will be seen, therefore, that there is a
difference between those thought insane
by the State and those believed to be in
sane by scientific investigators.
Suppose, for instance, that person
is suffering from paranoia; he may have
illusions about two persons. Everything
that happens to him he blames on these
two. Sometimes he may 60 as far as
to blame the ills of the whole world upon
these two persons 1t would be an easy
matter to decide if he were to commit a
crime against one Of these persons,
whether or not he was sane. Obviously,
he would be insane--a paranoiac.> BUT
let US suppose that, having illusions about
A and B, he complexities matters by com
hitting = crime against c. Then the
case becomes difficult. The average per-
son-perhaps even some psychiatrists-
would declare that since c has no relation
to either A or B, the crime is dissociated
from the criminals illusions. Therefore
if he can pass the States sanity examina.
ton, he is declared sane, and con-
sequently guilty. But one particular
scientist records himself as believing
that the illusions Of the paranoiac have
10 warped his mind that he is mentally
unbalanced, and is not wholly responsible
for his crime. He would, therefore, be
4 "border-line" case.
In examining criminal for insanity the
most important part Of the investigation
is the study Of his life history. The reg
ular intelligence tests are, Of course,
given, except in cases where it is obvious
that the person is of normal intelligence.
The sort of intelligence test given to
determine the mentality of twelve-year-
old child-and of grown-up "morons"-is:
Repeat 7 figures.
Find three rhymes.
Repeat sentence Of rs syllables.
Interpret pictures.
Problem of facts.
For a thirteen-year-old child, or al
adult with . childs brain, the, following
is given: