CHAPTER VI

THE PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMINAL IMBECILES

In the foregoing chapters we have discussed the problem involved in these murders from the standpoint of the law in order to show that even under the law, as it now exists, such persons are not guilty of murder in the first degree. In the present chapter, we propose to discuss the matter from another standpoint and from a different angle. It is not now a question of responsibility or of some kind of justice to be satisfied. Let us face the practical question of what is to be done in these cases.

After all, what we want is protection for society. We cannot have innocent people killed in accordance with the whim of the irresponsible. These imbeciles have killed innocent members of society. What shall the living do to prevent these particular persons from repeating the crime and to prevent other imbeciles from ever committing such a crime? This, of course, involves the whole problem of punishment or the treatment of the wrongdoer. Upon one thing everybody is agreed--we must make it impossible for these persons ever to do such a deed again. The surest way to accomplish this is to destroy them. Dead men commit no crimes. Society feels safe when a desperado is killed. If we can agree upon this solution, the problem is easily solved and further discussion is unnecessary. But society is not at one on this question. We are already seriously debating the question whether any wrongdoer should ever be officially executed. Indeed, many States have already decided that they should not be, and imprisonment for life has replaced capital punishment.

It is somewhat difficult to draw a line of distinction between the persons involved in these crimes and the so-called responsible murderers. It certainly is no great loss to society if Tronson is put out of the way. The same is true in varying degrees of Gianini and Pennington. It may be very successfully argued that the matter of responsibility is a fiction and that all persons should be treated alike, either all executed or none executed. Nevertheless, at the present time, we do draw the distinction, and many feel that the person who has full power over his action, who knows the nature and quality and wrongfulness of his act, should be executed, while those who do not know should not be executed.

If we take the latter view, the question still remains, What shall be done with these criminal imbeciles? The alternative to capital punishment is incarceration for life. Here at least we find a distinction between these persons and the normal intelligent wrongdoers. Of all persons in the world, the criminal imbecile should be placed in custody under conditions that will forever make it impossible for him to repeat his offense. The man who commits murder in a fit of insanity may recover from his insanity and be a useful citizen for the rest of his life. The man who commits murder under a strong impulse of anger or in calm meditation as the result of perverted reasoning may recover normal reasoning and be a useful citizen. This is not true of the imbecile. He will never recover; he will never have more mind than he has now; he will never be free from the danger of following the suggestion of some wicked person or of yielding to his own inborn and uncontrolled impulses. It will never be safe for him to be at large. This is so obvious that it is highly probable that the imbecile once committed to life custody would never be released, and even that there would never be any attempt at such release. When these facts are understood, the public will undoubtedly be satisfied to have such persons imprisoned for life or committed to an institution for mental defectives, where they will be constantly guarded and prevented from doing injury.

This was well brought out in the case of at least two of the persons described in this book. In the case of Jean Gianini, the lawyer made emphatically plain that there was no desire on the part of the defense to procure the complete liberty of the defendant. John F. McIntyre, the counsel, stated clearly to the jury that he had no desire except to save the boy from the electric chair, a punishment which he considered unjust. He even went so far as to state that if at any time in the future efforts should be made to secure the release of this defendant from any institution to which he might be committed, he himself would make as strenuous an effort to have the boy kept in custody as he was now making to save him from the electric chair. Apparently this made a deep impression upon the jury and went a long way toward helping them to return the verdict that they did. On the other hand, in the case of Roland Pennington this point was not made so clear, and the jury and the prosecution did not realize that the defense only wished to save the boy from execution and would be quite content with a verdict that would result in his being incarcerated for life. An institution for feeble-minded would seem at first glance to be the logical place to which such a person should be committed. But no one need seriously object to commitment to a penitentiary or a state prison. Perhaps, in view of the fact that an imbecile has committed crime, that he has, as one may say, begun a habit in that direction, the state prison is the proper place for him, because here he can be absolutely controlled and saved from any future acts of this kind. This is precisely what happened in Tronson's case.

We are learning in these days that the old adage, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," is something more than a witticism. These are days of prevention--in medicine and in morals. The most important part of our problem is yet to be discussed. It is true we must come to some decision as to what is to be done with these persons who now infest society and who, because of their imbecility which is unrecognized, may become criminals. But vastly more important, because more far-reaching, is the problem of how to prevent imbeciles from becoming criminals. We may save the Gianinis and the Tronsons and the Penningtons from murdering any more people, but how much better if we save them from killing anybody. No one of these persons had, probably, any more instinct to kill than have you or I. As children in years they were harmless and innocent. They could have been cared for and led into paths of harmlessness if not of usefulness. All of them could have been recognized as mental defectives long before they arrived at the age when they committed crime. As dull and backward children at school, they were at once suspicious characters. Attention was called to them. Careful examination, such as is now possible, would have revealed the fact that they were mental defectives and as mental defectives were potential criminals. Then was the time that they should have been carefully guarded and watched and saved from an environment that would lead them to prey upon their fellows. If we wish to save our teachers from the possibility of being murdered by their pupils or our daughters from being killed by their wooers or business men from being struck down by the blows of feeble-minded boys, we must be on the watch for symptoms of feeble-mindedness in our school children. When such symptoms are discovered, we must watch and guard such persons as carefully as we do cases of leprosy or any other malignant disease. For fear that some one should feel that these are rare and exceptional cases, let us remind the reader that the best estimate and the result of the most careful studies indicate that somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 per cent of all criminals are feeble-minded. Whether this holds for murderers is indeed not known. But many persons acquainted with feeble-mindedness recognize from the newspaper descriptions of murders that many of the murderers are feeble-minded.

These facts certainly warrant us in taking seriously the problem of the feeble-minded and the criminal imbecile.

One thing more. Careful studies have shown beyond the peradventure of doubt that at least two thirds of these mental defectives have inherited their defect; in other words, that they belong to strains of the human family whose intelligence lies below that which is required for the performance of their duties as citizens. This points to a further precaution necessary in looking toward the ultimate prevention of feeble-mindedness and the solution of a large part of our prison problem, and that is the prevention of the further propagation of this race of defectives. If it is true--and there is every evidence that it is--that children are daily being born of such a mentality that it requires the attention and thought of an army of normal people to prevent their growing up into criminal lives and that all of the best efforts can never make them able to take their place in society as useful citizens, then it certainly is our duty to see that such children are not born. How this is to be accomplished has not yet been worked out in detail. The colonization and segregation of all such people in institutions where they will not be allowed to propagate is one solution that is proposed. The other is by surgical interference, to render such people physically incapable of propagating. Probably both these methods and still others must be utilized to help solve this problem.

The intelligence of men is often measured by the amount of foresight that they have. The little child has little or none, as is also true of men of low intelligence. There are men who can look forward and plan their affairs for a few months in the future, others who can look forward a few years, still others a lifetime, and a few who can look forward into the coming generations. We shall demonstrate a high degree of intelligence if we look not only to the amelioration of present conditions in our prisons--which _must_ be done; not only to the removal to more suitable environment of those persons who are unjustly confined because of their irresponsibility--which ought to be done; if we not only see to it that from now on persons who come before the court, either juvenile or adult, are first studied to discover whether they are mentally responsible or not, which is of utmost importance; but if we go still farther and put forth efforts to determine how many and which of the children who are in the public schools to-day are mentally defective and therefore need care; and going still farther, if we have studies made and laws passed that shall, as soon as possible, lead to the reduction in the birthrate of these mentally defective individuals. A certain amount of feeble-mindedness we must expect to have with us for long years to come, because there will be sporadic cases and cases due to accident. But feeble-mindedness as related to crime may be exterminated in a few generations if we will but use our intelligence to attack this problem at its root.

APPENDIX A

GIANINI CASE

HYPOTHETICAL QUESTION PROPOUNDED BY THE DEFENSE

Assuming the following circumstances to have been established by the evidence in this case:--

That the defendant was on the 5th of December, 1897, born in the City of New York; that his father was Charles A. Gianini, who also was born in said city, and the paternal grandfather of the defendant was born in the said city and the paternal great-grandfather of the defendant was born on the south slope of the Alps in the republic of Switzerland.

The defendant's mother was born in the City of New York, her maiden name being Sara Cecelia McVey. That the defendant's mother was married to his father when she was about twenty years of age; that prior or previous to the said marriage she was bright, vivacious, stylish, and accomplished in music; that shortly after her marriage she began to become untidy in her appearance, morose, depressed, and indifferent.

At the time of the birth of the first child (Charles), to-wit, on the 13th day of November, 1891, about eleven months after her marriage, she was suffering from melancholia as the evidence in this case discloses.

Assuming that the child, Charles, lived to be but seven years of age and during his lifetime did not learn to speak, but merely made guttural sounds; that he did not walk, but moved about when seated on the floor, pushing himself sidewise, and finally shortly before his death tottered about. His death occurred when he was about seven years old. That he ate gluttonously and his death was due to asphyxiation, choking due to taking in trachea foreign matter while vomiting contents of an overloaded stomach.

Assuming that after the birth of Charles his mother's melancholia continued, she became indifferent to her child, took no care of him, and said that while she wanted to die, she was going to live forever; that she also said she thought that her face was black and that she was a negress, that she would not go into the street because she was black.

Assuming, too, that she became addicted to the use of liquor, first lager beer and subsequently whisky and brandy; that she made pledges, administered by priests, only to be broken. That at times she would brighten up, and during one of these periods, namely, July 12, 1894, a second child, called Catherine, was born, which child still lives.

Assuming that thereafter she began to drink again more than before; that for eight months preceding the birth of the defendant she was drunk a great many times, that she was found in a drunken stupor, that she was brought home in a drunken condition by detectives, on which occasion she had with her her second child Catherine. That about six months before the birth of this defendant his mother was drunk, that the seventh month before the birth of this defendant she was drinking, and on one occasion threw her husband's books out of the window on an adjoining roof, during a rain storm. And in the eighth month before the defendant's birth she drank and the same condition prevailed.

Assuming that from the June before the defendant was born, which was on December 5, 1897, she was attended by Dr. Charles N. Weeks of New York City, and he found her depressed, morose, and in a melancholic condition most of the time, at times hysterical; that she would refuse to talk to him, for one half a day at a time; that she would refuse to answer questions, that she would pay no attention to questions, and that she was also inclined to stare right past him; that she would weep; that she paid no attention at all. At times the pupils of her eyes were dilated, at times contracted, their expression at times was wild and sometimes vacant. These conditions continued during the time Dr. Weeks was treating her. He prescribed bromide for her liquor and the same condition continued after the birth of the defendant.

The general appearance of the defendant's mother was untidy, and these conditions remained unchanged after defendant's birth. That when born the defendant was poorly nourished, under weight, weighed about five pounds, and was inclined to be emaciated; that at the time of the death of the first born (Charlie), to-wit, on the 21st day of March, 1899, she was again observed by Dr. Weeks, and then she was absolutely indifferent as to the conditions so far as the boy was concerned; showed no grief, and her general condition was such as he described at the time he was treating her.

And assuming that after the birth of the defendant he was a bottle-fed baby, not nursed by his mother, and when about a year old placed in the care of Mrs. Leigh, with whom he remained until he was about six years old. That the defendant's mother died on June 3, 1899, in a Sanitarium, known as St. Anne's Retreat in the City of New York, the cause of death was meningitis, alcoholic heart failure.

Assume that up to the time the defendant was five years of age he didn't speak, and made sounds which resembled yells. Assume that about 1906 or 1907 the defendant's father took him from Mrs. Leigh's, he was then able to talk and walk, and for several weeks he was taken care of by Mrs. Hoberg and from there was taken to Lady Cliff Academy on the Hudson, where he remained for one term. While there he usually appeared dirty, but seemed to be making some progress.

In 1907, assume when the defendant was ten years of age he went to live in the Bronx, where he lived for two years and attended school during this period. At one time he took two little girls to a piece of woods and started to take their clothes off, and when asked why he did it, said he was going to play Indian and that Indians were naked.

On one Sunday afternoon he was observed in a group of children eating mud pies, and the children were calling him "Loonie" and were telling him to eat another one.

During these two years that the defendant lived in the Bronx he was observed to tease children. He would take a little boy's wagon and run away with it. He would take his hat and throw it over a neighboring fence. He would take the caps of girls and toss them over fences, pull their curls, take away their hoops when they were rolling hoops, and take the ball away when they were playing ball. He would do these things quite often. On one afternoon he was brought home with a gash on his right temple. It was bleeding and at least one inch in length. He stated that he had received it from a fall from a stone wall while he was playing "thief." On another occasion he chased a young girl who was stopping at the house around the room with a table knife because she was trying to correct him because he ran home from school without her. He did not attempt anything against that girl again, although she remained in the room the balance of the day.

In 1910 defendant's father moved from the Bronx, to Poland, and brought the defendant with him, and the defendant attended the Poland School which he entered in April of 1910, and there remained until February or March, 1913. After leaving school defendant worked in a knitting mill in Newport from about the first half of April until the second half of May, 1913, when he ran away and went to Ilion. At Ilion he was found working by his father and Mr. Frank Newman wiping dishes in the hotel. He was then taken home. In the middle of August, 1913, the defendant again ran away, this time to Albany, and stated that while he was there he had been shot at two or three times by a policeman and was arrested. From Albany the defendant again went to Ilion, where his father and Frank Newman again found him at the same hotel, and when he saw them, he said that they were "swindlers."

At another time the defendant ran away to Herkimer, in the summer of 1912, and he stated that he had gone to the moving pictures. He said that he went to the store, the Poland Union, and bought a can of beans and a bunch of bananas for his trip to Herkimer. He left in the afternoon and did not return until the following afternoon, when he said that he ate the bananas going along the track before he ate the beans because he was afraid the bananas would melt. He said he ate the beans at night, opening the can with a nail, and ate them with a nail.

On another occasion in Poland he chased his sister with a table knife although she had not done anything to him. In the summer of 1910 the defendant was at Morehouseville, and one day while there he was fishing at the stream that passes in front of the Mountain Home, when the flies and the punkies were biting very fiercely. He stood down there in his bare legs and bare head fishing and the flies biting him until the blood ran down his face and neck and legs. He was fishing there for fully an hour, and when asked if the flies had bothered him, he said "No."

In 1911, when the defendant's father's stepmother was in Poland, the defendant was overheard to say to her, "Why didn't you marry my father, I would like you better than this stepmother."

When the defendant was fifteen years of age, in the month of September, 1913, the defendant's father had him committed to the St. Vincent's Industrial School for juvenile delinquency, presided over by Christian Brothers, where he remained for about six months, coming home in February.

A few weeks before the commission of the alleged crime, he was observed to be quarreling on Main Street in Poland with two very small children.

At the age of sixteen years, in the early part of March, 1914, the defendant was noticed playing with a toy railroad car and building some tracks with some little irregular pieces of wood. He was also observed to play tag with children apparently from two to four years younger than himself.

In the early part of 1912, the defendant's father observed that he was practicing masturbation.

The defendant's father thereupon slept in the same room with him in order to watch him. The defendant continued this practice until the time he left home in the spring or summer of 1913 and admitted that he did it frequently.

Assuming that on the 25th day of March, 1914, Mrs. Ethel Beecher and the deceased Lida Beecher met the defendant at the Post Office in Poland, and the defendant asked the deceased when she was coming to see his father, and that she replied that she did not know, and the defendant said, speaking impatiently, "Aw, I don't believe that you intend to come at all; you will wait until the summer time and go home and then it will be too late." That they spoke about school, and the deceased said to the defendant that it would be better for him to wait until the beginning of another term because he would be behind the other pupils in his work; that on another occasion, on about the middle of February, 1914, the defendant came on an errand to get yeast to the place where the deceased and Mrs. Beecher were boarding and the defendant then said to them that he wanted to get away from Poland, and would rather be in New York in the Great White Way; that he thought he would like to act in moving pictures as he did not like his home and he hated his father, and would not care to be a "sod-buster"; that the deceased asked him whether he would like to return to school, and he said that he would, but that his father would not let him; that he never stole but once in his life and that was twenty-five cents from a lady in New York, and she had given him twenty-five cents to buy some candy and he bought the candy and ate it himself. On the same visit the defendant asked Mrs. Ethel Beecher if there was a state prison in Rochester, and she told him no; he wanted to know if there was not some sort of a reform school there. She said that there used to be, but that the reform school had removed to Industry, and he asked what the reform school was like at Industry and she told him that the boys lived in cottages under the care of a matron, a man and wife generally, and that was as much as she knew about it. The defendant said he would like to be there and asked her about the state prison at Auburn and different prisons, what the sentence was and whether they had an electric chair or whether they hung. The defendant told them that they worked awfully hard at Sing Sing. The defendant also stated on that occasion that his father used to thrash him for stealing apples that other men put him up to stealing.

Assuming at the time Mrs. Ethel Beecher and the deceased and the defendant were talking together, that the deceased told the defendant that she thought he would like to go in the country to work on a farm and asked him why he did not continue his school work another year; and that her tone was kindly and her whole deportment towards him on that occasion was such as to incline one to believe that she desired to help him and to well advise him; and that the defendant's conversation concerning prisons and industrial schools was such that it caused them to laugh, at the time; and that on other occasions when the defendant was with the deceased her conduct towards him was always kindly and that she was kindly and generously disposed towards the defendant and showed considerable interest in him.

Assuming that on the 27th day of March, 1914, at about quarter after seven the defendant was observed on the street in Poland with some children, with whom he had been seen at different times playing hide and seek and tag and I spy, and that he caught hold of the toque of one of the little girls and pulled it down over her face and that he poked another one of the little girls in the back and that he called a girl by the name of Grace Palmer, "Palmer House," and said, "Leonard is the proprietor, isn't he?" and kept calling her Palmer House, and that he was snowballing the girls, and that while he was engaged the deceased passed him on the street and said, "Hello, Jean," and that he then joined her and shortly afterwards was seen to come back with the deceased, going up the road towards Buck Hill. That later in the same evening, at about ten minutes to eight, he returned home, showing no trace of excitement or nervousness, and that he received some books of wall paper to be delivered to a neighbor and that he took these books and threw them so that they fell with a noise on a neighbor's veranda and was seen running near the railroad station and later returned home in the vicinity of eight o'clock, showing no trace of any agitation, excitement, or nervousness. That he took off his shoes, put on a pair of slippers, went to bed, and slept quietly all night. That on the following morning he reported for work at Sam Hutchinson's as usual, worked for about twenty minutes doing his chores, ate his breakfast, and nothing unusual was observed about him.

Assuming further that he was seen going along the railroad track in the direction of Newport; that he met two men, one by the name of Smith, and that he shouted, "Hello, Smithy"; that later he was spoken to by a man named Sweet at Newport on the railroad track about four miles from Poland, and that when Sweet caught up to him and asked him where he was going, he said to Herkimer to see a moving picture show; that he had stolen a dollar from his father; that he accompanied Sweet to Autenrith's store and while there the murder of the deceased was talked about in his presence and that he ate peanuts and smoked a cigarette and asked where they had found the body and stated that he had gone to school to her; and subsequently was taken back to Poland by one Frank Newman, and thereafter was turned over to the Sheriff of Herkimer County and one of his deputies.

Assuming that on the 26th day of March he asked an acquaintance by the name of Morris Howe, a boy of fifteen years, if the deceased came to get her mail nights, and said that he would get even with her; that on Tuesday, March 24th, he told a man by the name of Estes Compo, with whom he was working, that the deceased had tried to send him to school and that if he had a revolver he would kill her, and asked this same man if he had read of a murder down South, of a colored man killing a white girl and laying it on the superintendent of a factory and that the man was sentenced to the chair and the colored man confessed the crime; that on the preceding night he had been in Compo's room, where he saw a revolver and a knife, and on the following day he said if he had a revolver, he would kill the deceased; that about a week before the 27th day of March, while defendant was working for Sam Hutchinson, he told a boy he would some day put an end to the deceased.

Assuming that between the hours of seven and eight o'clock on the night of March 27th, 1914, Miss Beecher was killed at a dark and lonely spot on the Buck Hill road and that she had come to her death by being struck on the head with a monkey wrench and had been cut repeatedly to the extent of about 24 times with a knife in various parts of the body and that she was dragged from the place where she was killed to a clump of willows near the road and that her umbrella and hat were found the following morning in the road and that by following the track where her body had been dragged over the snow the body of the deceased was found.

And assuming that on the morning of the 28th day when the defendant was brought to Poland he was taken to a house of a Justice of the Peace and was taken into a room by the Deputy Sheriff and told that he was suspected and was accused of being a party to the crime. That after he was completely stripped of his clothing he stated to the Deputy Sheriff that he had gone to school to the deceased and had trouble with her at school and wanted revenge and that he had met her the day before near the Post Office and asked her to go up to his house and see his folks about having him go to school again, and that the deceased told him that she would go the next night. That the next night he did meet her near the hotel and she said that she was ready to go up. They walked up the street, and when they got near his father's house, the defendant told her that his father did not live there, that they had moved up the hill, that he then stated in detail how he committed the crime and disposed of the body and what he did with the wrench and the knife. That he said, "You would not think any one could do a job as quick as that." He said he supposed they would talk insanity, but he was not any more insane than the Deputy Sheriff was, and he did not want them to talk about it.

He also said, "Gillette got the chair, didn't he?" and upon the Deputy Sheriff replying, "Yes," the defendant said, "He had no reason to kill the girl, but I did; I wanted revenge."

That at the same time the defendant signed a sworn statement before the Justice of the Peace, in which he stated that he went to school to Lida Beecher, and had trouble with her and wanted revenge; that he was not afraid, and when he got home, he was just as happy as he ever was, and did not think anything about it, as he thought he had revenge; that at the time he made these statements he was cool and quiet and spoke connectedly; that he was not nervous or excited.

Assuming that the defendant had not attended the Poland school since February or March, 1913, and that while there he had studied under the deceased for about one year, and that during this period the only punishment he had received from the deceased was a seat facing the wall with his back towards the other pupils, and was occasionally sent upstairs to the Professor of the school for punishment. And that the deceased had always manifested a friendly interest in him, was mild, kind, gentle, and good to him.

And further assume that when he left school, he was in the sixth grade.

Assume that he had frequently been detected in telling lies, that he had spoken of hatred of his father, that he manifested no affection towards him, referring to his father as "Old Man" and "Him." That on the morning of the 28th when he was being brought back to Poland by Newman, Newman stated to him, "You have got something beside skipping out now staring you in the face," to which he replied, "They can't give me but ten years"; he used no words, when informed it might be a long time, that expressed fear or fright; and when he was informed that he had murder staring him in the face, he acted no different than ordinary.

That less than a year before the birth of Charles, the first child, the defendant's mother suffered from an attack of diphtheria, for which she was treated by Dr. Quinlan.

Further assume that in the summer of 1910, at Morehouseville, while quarreling with a little boy named Arthur Jones, the defendant said he would go up to his father's room and get his hunting knife and kill him.

That while the defendant was at St. Vincent's Industrial School for juvenile delinquency, at work in the laundry, he told Mr. Minor that if his father didn't get him out in February, he would burn his father's buildings when he got out.

Now, doctor, assuming all these facts to have been proven in this case, from your experience in the treatment of and knowledge of imbeciles and idiots, from your skill and expert knowledge, can you express an opinion concerning the mental condition of Jean Gianini at the time of the killing of Lida Beecher, on the 27th day of March, 1914?

By Mr. Thomas: If the Court please, I object to the question as improper in form and that it concludes with assuming all these facts to have been proven in this case, and that it is not an inquiry which can be properly permitted to be put to the witness here. That, in addition, it does not correctly state the evidence, and that especially this part of the question is improper--"That she showed no grief, and her general condition was such as he described at the time he was treating her," referring to Dr. Weeks, and further it assumes incorrectly the time that the defendant encountered Miss Beecher, near the Post Office on the 27th day of March, 1914, which is stated here to be about a quarter after seven.

By Mr. Hirsch: What time do you say it was, Mr. Thomas?

By Mr. Thomas: The proof varies from seven to seven six. And it is incorrect in assuming facts not established upon the evidence, that he cut her repeatedly to the extent of about twenty-four times with a knife; and in those respects to which I have called your Honor's attention, the question is improper, in that it assumes facts not proven, that it is improper in form, and the concluding paragraph, with reference to which I have called your Honor's attention, is improper and incompetent; and that the question is incompetent in that it does not call upon the witness to express an opinion as to the knowledge of the defendant of right and wrong, or his knowledge of the nature and quality of the act in killing the deceased.

By Mr. McIntyre: That is a question, if your Honor please, which was passed upon yesterday.

By the Court: I suppose it is preliminary to some extent, as far as this information is concerned.

By Mr. McIntyre: It is precisely the same as yesterday, but the question has had some additions.

By the Court: Was that indicated by the last part of it?

By Mr. McIntyre: Yes, sir.

By Mr. Thomas: He should be asked, "Can you now form an opinion assuming all these facts?"...

_Q._ Now, Doctor, assuming all these facts contained in the hypothetical question to have been established by evidence in this case, from your experience in the treatment and knowledge of imbeciles and idiots, from your knowledge and skill as an expert, can you express an opinion as to the condition of Jean Gianini at the time of the killing of Lida Beecher on the 27th day of March, 1914?

Same objection

By the Court: Objection overruled. He may answer.

_A._ I can.

_Q._ What is your opinion?

Same objection.

By the Court: I think it should conform now to the language of the statute, shouldn't it?

By Mr. McIntyre: Well, I have, your Honor; I first asked him if he could express that opinion. Now if he doesn't express an opinion that comes within the provisions within the statute, why then of course his opinion is incompetent in this case. Now let's look at the code. Will you give me the section, please?

Section 1120.

"Offense committed by an idiot or lunatic. An act done by a person who is an idiot, imbecile, lunatic, or insane is not a crime. A person cannot be tried, sentenced to any punishment, or punished for a crime while he is in a state of idiocy, imbecility, lunacy or insanity, or is incapable of understanding the proceeding or making his defense. A person is not excused from criminal liability as an idiot, imbecile, lunatic, or insane person except upon proof that at the time of the committing of the alleged criminal act he was laboring under such a defect of reason as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing or know the nature of the act as wrong."

By the Court: Well, now, my suggestion is why not embody that in your question.

By Mr. McIntyre: That is the second question, your Honor....

_Q._ I asked you what was your opinion concerning his mental condition.

_A._ That he is an imbecile.

_Q._ Now, Doctor, assuming that all the acts recited in the hypothetical question to have been established by evidence, to be true, in conjunction with the physical and mental examination made by you in the County Jail on the 17th day of May this year,--from your experience and your knowledge of imbeciles and idiots, in your opinion was Jean Gianini at the time of the killing of Lida Beecher in such a mental condition as to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing or that the act was wrong?

By Mr. Thomas: I object to it as improper in form and copulative.

Objection overruled.

_Q._ Your opinion, Doctor?

_A._ He was not in such condition.

APPENDIX B

GIANINI CASE

HYPOTHETICAL QUESTION PROPOUNDED BY THE PROSECUTION

_Q._ Doctor, kindly assume that the defendant had been a pupil taught by Lida Beecher in the public school at Poland and harbored against her a desire for revenge because she had punished him; that he stated to people of his acquaintance that he would get even with her; that on Tuesday, March 24th, 1914, he stated to a man with whom he was working that if he had a revolver he would shoot her; that several days previously he had this wrench, Ex. 45, in his possession and stated to a man who asked him what he was going to do with it, that he had use for it; that he met Miss Beecher, who was a young lady about twenty years old, five feet three inches in height, weighing about 126 pounds, wearing upon the head this cap, Ex. 26, and as an outer garment, this raincoat, Ex. 29 (showing to witness), Wednesday, March 25th, 1914, about seven P.M. in the Post Office at Poland, Post Office in the village of Poland, the location of which is indicated on this map, Ex. 1, to which I now call your attention (indicating); walked with her and Miss Clark, a teacher, from the Post Office along Cold Brook Street to a point on the southerly side of the street opposite the residence of James D. Countryman, the location of which is also shown on the map at a point to which I now call your attention (indicating), and that during that walk the defendant asked Miss Beecher when she was coming up to see his father, and upon receiving the answer that she did not know, said, "Aw, I don't believe you intend to come at all; you will wait until summer time and go home and then it will be too late"; that on the following evening, Thursday, he again met Miss Beecher at or near the Post Office and asked her to go up to his house and see his folks about going to school and she replied that she could not that night, that she was going to prayer meeting, that she would go the next night; that on the following day, Friday, he provided himself with the knife, Ex. 48, for the occasion, and with the intention of killing her, sharpened it for that purpose; that he met Miss Beecher about seven P.M. on the evening of Friday, March 27th, near the Post Office and walked with her along the south side of Cold Brook Street to the foot of Buck Hill, which Buck Hill road is also shown on this map, a distance of 2006 feet; that they then proceeded together along up Buck Hill, he getting her to accompany him by telling her that his father lived up over the hill, had moved up there two or three weeks before; that they went on part way up the hill, and Miss Beecher hesitated and said it was farther up than she thought it was, she did not think she would go any farther, and the defendant said to her, "It is not but a little ways farther"; that when they got to a point on the hill distant about 4198 feet from the Post Office, she hesitated and said, "It is dark and I see no houses, no light, don't think I will go any farther, will write your father a letter in regard to this school matter"; that as she stopped he stepped back of her, hit her on the head with this monkey wrench, Ex. 45, which weighs 2 pounds 7-15/16 ounces, which I now show to you, he at that time having as an outer garment this coat, and wearing this shirt, Ex. 49, which I now show to you; knocking her down, he hit her twice with it after she was down; that when he first hit her with the wrench, she did not cry out but moaned; that he then threw the wrench up over the fence on to the top of the bank, about 35 feet; that it was so dark he could not see; took the knife, Ex. 48, and as she was lying on the ground, hit her with it several times to be sure to finish her, inflicting punctured wounds, one on the back of the neck just below the hair line 3/4 of an inch in length, one on the left side of the neck about 1/2 of an inch long, cutting a hole in the external carotid artery 3 inches above the bifurcation of the common carotid artery; that he then grabbed the body, which was face down, by the right foot and dragged it across the road under a barbed-wire fence, down the hill back of a bush to the swale; that he took hold of the right foot because he did not want to get blood on his hands so that his finger prints could be taken; that he ran immediately from the body to the Buck Hill road and came out on to it a few rods nearer Poland than the point where he dragged the body under the fence, ran down the road some distance, and a team or sleigh came along and he stopped running and waited until after that team got by him; that he reached his father's house, which is shown on this map, Ex. 1, and the location of which I call your attention to (indicating), at 7:30 and would have reached it sooner if he had not fallen down four or five times on the way home; that he went into the house and put the knife, off from which he had wiped the blood in the snow, in the pantry drawer; that he was sent on an errand to the house of Thomas Owens, on Cold Brook Street, which is also shown on this map, Ex. 1, to the location of which I now call your attention (indicating), to return some books of samples of wall paper, and to give Mr. or Mrs. Owens a one-dollar bill and a soap order, to which it was pinned; that he ran down the street, threw the books on to the veranda floor near the kitchen door, ran down Cold Brook Street to South Main Street, and tried to get the freight train which passed south on the M. & M. railroad; that he ran back to his father's house and arrived there a little after eight, took off his shoes, put on his slippers, read the newspaper a little while, and went to bed; that he arose about six o'clock the next morning; left his father's house, went to Sam Hutchinson's, by whom he was employed, and whose residence is also shown on this Ex. 1, at the location to which I now call your attention (indicating), went to the barn, assisted in doing the chores, went in to breakfast, said nothing, left there the coat, Ex. 41, which was then substantially in the same condition as it is now, and to its condition, especially on the back, I call your attention, and this being the coat which he wore the evening before, which I now hand to you and call your attention to (indicating) the condition of, put on another coat, and started down the railroad track towards Herkimer, which is on the line of the New York Central and Hudson River railroad, and some fourteen miles from Poland, intending then to go away from Poland; that he was apprehended at Newport, a place distant about four miles from Poland and between there and Herkimer, and brought back in a cutter by Mr. Newman, whom he had known for several years; that on the drive from Newport to Poland Newman asked him if he had heard what happened at Poland, and defendant replied he hadn't; when asked if he had seen anything of Miss Beecher the night before, said he had not; when asked by Newman if he had heard that Miss Beecher was murdered or killed, defendant said, "No," and on Newman's saying, "They are looking for you for it," defendant said, "They can't give me but ten years, can they?"; that as they drove into the village of Poland and turned from South Main Street into Cold Brook Street, near the Post Office, there were some rigs coming down the hill, and defendant said, "They are coming off the hill with her now"; that in the afternoon of the same day he voluntarily made, signed, and swore to the following statement with reference to the matter.[3]

State, Doctor, basing your reply upon the hypothesis stated in the question, whether or not, in your opinion, the defendant, at the time he struck Miss Beecher with the wrench, understood that he had no right to do it?

Mr. McIntyre: Don't answer. We object to the question in that it only recites the revolting details of the alleged crime and that when the question was being propounded to the witness upon the stand, counsel for the State exhibited the knife, the wrench, the coat, the hat, and other things in evidence in rather a dramatic way before the jury.

We object to the question upon the ground that it does not contain all the essential features in this case bearing upon the crime.

We object to the question upon the ground that the hypothetical question fails to include the condition of the defendant's mother at the time of his birth; it fails to include the fact that the first child was an idiot during his lifetime; it fails to disclose the conduct and deportment of the defendant from the time of his birth down to the commission of this crime.

We submit respectfully that the hypothetical question is a garbled statement of that which has transpired during this case and can have but one effect--to bias and prejudice the minds of the jurors. And I submit it is incompetent, immaterial and irrelevant and improper, in addition.

The Court: Objection overruled.

Mr. McIntyre: Exception, sir.

_Q._ Have you got the conclusion, the concluding portion of my question in mind?

_A._ Would you repeat it?

_Q._ Yes. State, Doctor, basing your reply upon the hypothesis stated in the question, whether or not, in your opinion, the defendant, at the time he struck Miss Beecher with the wrench, understood that he had no right to do it.

_A._ I cannot get any evidence from the facts recited there to enable me to determine.

_Q._ Well, can you determine from this question an opinion as an expert?

_A._ No, I cannot.

APPENDIX C

GIANINI CASE

DEFENDANT'S REQUEST TO CHARGE

I

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that, in determining the guilt or innocence of the defendant of the offense charged in the indictment, the jury are to consider only the evidence of the case and are to disregard any statement made during the course of the trial, by counsel or the Court, and are not to be influenced or governed by any expression of opinion or action of either the Court or counsel for defendant or the people.

II

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that the jury are not to be influenced, in the consideration of this case, by any comment or expression of opinion in the newspaper reports of this case, and they must disregard any statement or comment contained in any such report, if same has in any way been brought to their attention.

III

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that, in considering this case, after its submission to them, the jury must proceed upon the presumption that the accused, the defendant herein, is innocent of the crime charged in the indictment and that it is necessary for the commonwealth to overcome this presumption by evidence to convince them, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant is guilty of the crime charged against him in the indictment.

IV

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that, in consideration of this case, the jury are bound to act and proceed upon the presumption that the accused is an innocent boy, and this presumption must continue throughout the trial.

V

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that, the defendant being charged with the crime of murder, the commonwealth is bound to prove every and all the essential facts necessary to constitute this crime beyond a reasonable doubt before the jury can convict the defendant of the crime charged in the indictment.

VI

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that, upon the whole case, if the commonwealth has failed to prove all of the facts beyond a reasonable doubt, the defendant is entitled to be acquitted.

VII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that the burden in this case rests with the commonwealth, from the beginning to the end of the trial, to establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, every fact essential to the conviction of the defendant, and if the commonwealth has failed to prove such charge beyond a reasonable doubt, the defendant is entitled to an acquittal.

VIII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that the unintentional killing of a human being by another without motive, intent, premeditation, is neither murder nor manslaughter.

IX

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that the questions of deliberation and premeditation, intent and motive, are purely questions of fact, to be determined by the jury from the evidence alone.

X

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that if the jury cannot say, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant was sane at the time of the commission of the act, and cannot say whether, at that time, he was sane or insane, the defendant must be acquitted.

XI

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that if, at the time the defendant committed the act charged against him, upon seeing the deceased, he was thrown into a state of mind from which he was deprived of his understanding, so as to be unaware of the nature and quality of the act he committed, or so as to be unable to distinguish between right and wrong in reference to that particular act at the time of its commission, this defendant must be acquitted.

XII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that, although sanity is assured and presumed to be the normal and natural state of the human mind, when imbecility is once shown to exist in a person, it is presumed to exist and continue until the presumption is overcome by contrary or repelling evidence proving sanity.

XIII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that if defendant was deprived of his reason at the time the act charged against him was committed, and which resulted from a settled and well-established mental alienation, or from the pressure and overpowering weight of circumstances occurring before and at the time of the commission of said act, the said defendant is legally irresponsible for it and must be acquitted.

XIV

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that if, at the time of the commission of the act, the defendant was under the influence of a diseased mind, and was really unconscious that he was committing a crime, this defendant must be acquitted.

XV

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that the insanity of the defendant need not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

XVI

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that the jury, in considering this case, are bound to act upon the presumption that the accused, the defendant, is innocent, and should endeavor, if possible, to reconcile all the circumstances of the case with that of innocence.

XVII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that the burden of proof rests with the commonwealth in this case, from the beginning to the end of the trial, and the commonwealth are bound to prove that the defendant committed the crime charged in the indictment beyond a reasonable doubt, otherwise the defendant is entitled to be acquitted.

XVIII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that the jury must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt, from the evidence of the case, of the sanity of the defendant at the time of the commission of the act charged in the indictment, and if the people fail to establish the sanity of the defendant at the time of the commission of the act charged in the indictment, this defendant cannot be convicted of any crime and is entitled to an acquittal.

XIX

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that the law does not require that the insanity, imbecility, or mental aberration which absolves from crime should exist for any definite period, and only that it existed at the moment when the act occurred.

XX

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that if the insanity, imbecility, or mental aberration which absolves from crime operated at the moment that the act was committed, that is sufficient in law to absolve from guilt, and this defendant cannot be convicted of the offense charged in the indictment, or any other offense.

XXI

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that the commonwealth must satisfy the jury beyond all reasonable doubt, that, at the moment the act alleged in the indictment was committed by the defendant, he had reason, perception, and understanding sufficient to enable him to discern right from wrong, and that if he had not, it is the duty of the jury to acquit this defendant.

XXII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that if the jury believe that the defendant did not suffer from any mental aberration which would absolve him from punishment for the act charged in the indictment prior to the commission of the act, or subsequent thereto, but that such state of mental aberration did exist at the moment when the act occurred which the defendant stands charged with, this defendant cannot be convicted of the crime charged in the indictment, or any other crime, and must be acquitted.

XXIII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that if there is a reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury as to whether the act charged in the indictment was committed by the defendant while he was unable to discern between right and wrong, or if the evidence is equally balanced as to this, so that the jury cannot safely and conscientiously determine whether the killing of the deceased was intentional, or was committed by the defendant while he was unable to discern between right and wrong with respect to the act, then this defendant is entitled to the benefit of that doubt and entitled to an acquittal.

XXIV

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that if it finds that the defendant is of a mental age of under twelve years, he is presumed to be incapable of the commission of crime. (_Refused_)

XXV

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that if it finds that the defendant is of a mental age of under twelve years, he is presumed to be incapable of crime and that presumption is not removed by proof that he had sufficient capacity to understand the act charged against him and know its wrongfulness, except by evidence that satisfied the jury beyond a reasonable doubt. (_Refused_)

XXVI

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that if the jury finds that the defendant is of a mental age of under twelve years, the evidence that he understood the nature or quality of the act charged against him and knew its wrongfulness must be strong and clear beyond a reasonable doubt.

XXVII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that it must find that the understanding of and the capacity for committing a crime is measured not by the chronological years of the defendant, but by the strength of the defendant's understanding and judgment. (_Refused_)

XXVIII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that if the jury find that the defendant was of a mental age of under twelve years, he was incapable of committing the crime charged in the indictment, unless the commonwealth has made strong, clear, and convincing proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was capable of discerning the difference between right and wrong or knew the quality and nature of his act. (_Refused_)

XXIX

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that the burden is upon the commonwealth to show that the defendant has intelligence and maturity of judgment sufficient to render him capable of harboring a criminal intent.

XXX

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that if no motive has been established for the crime, the jury must regard it as important in its bearing upon the question of the defendant's mental condition at the time of the commission of the act charged against him.

XXXI

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that if the commonwealth have established merely a slight, trifling, and inconsequential motive for the commission of the act charged in the indictment, they should regard it as important and give it more consideration in connection with the question of the defendant's mental condition.

XXXII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that the commission of the crime charged in the indictment by a child of tender years from its very nature raises the question of abnormality of the defendant's mind and in the absence of clear, strong, and convincing evidence on the part of the commonwealth, it must conclude that the defendant's mental condition was such that he did not understand the wrongfulness of his act or understand the nature and quality of his act.

XXXIII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that evidence of the want of a rational and reasonable motive on the part of the defendant for the perpetration of the act charged in the indictment is to be considered by the jury as strong corroboration of the fact of his mental irresponsibility.

XXXIV

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that the perpetration of the act charged in the indictment without any apparent motive or object, but against every motive which would appear to be naturally influential with the defendant, that they must at once inquire whether or not the defendant was of sound mind and take into consideration with the other evidence of this case that he was not of sound mind, the absence of sufficient motive must lead them to conclude that he was of unsound mind and could not distinguish between right and wrong or know the nature and quality of his act.

XXXV

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that the absence of a clear and convincing motive in itself is evidence of an unsound mind.

XXXVI

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that if the defendant acted without any reasonable or rational motive or object, but against every motive and object, which it would appear should have been influential with him, that fact in itself raises a presumption that the defendant was of such unsound mind that he could not distinguish between right and wrong or know the nature or quality of his act.

XXXVII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that they have no right to presume a motive from the mere commission of the crime and have no right to speculate, guess, or surmise or supply any motive for the commission of the act charged in the indictment.

XXXVIII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that the failure of the commonwealth to call as witnesses Drs. Maybon and Palmer, who made examinations of the defendant, to testify as to his mental condition, raises the inference that if they had been called as witnesses, they would have testified adversely to the commonwealth in respect to the defendant's mental condition.

XXXIX

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that from the failure of the commonwealth to call as witnesses Drs. Maybon and Palmer, who examined the defendant, the jury may infer that they would have testified that the defendant was a high-grade imbecile who was laboring under such defect of reason as not to know the nature and quality of the act of which he is charged in the indictment or not to know the act was wrong at the time it was committed.

XL

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that from the failure of the commonwealth to call as witnesses Drs. Maybon and Palmer, the jury may infer that had they been called they would have testified unfavorably and adversely to the commonwealth, especially in the absence of any explanation made under oath as to why they were not called.

XLI

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that if the jury acquit the defendant on the ground of insanity, in that event the jury should specify in its verdict that it acquits him on the ground of insanity.

XLII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that if the jury acquit the defendant upon the ground of insanity, it will become the duty of the Court to order him committed to a State Asylum.

XLIII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that if the jury acquit the defendant on the ground of insanity, in this case such insanity will mean imbecility, and that as imbecility cannot be cured, it will become the duty of the Court to order him committed to a State Asylum for the rest of his actual life.

XLIV

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that the denial of the several motions made by defendant's counsel throughout the trial, and the rulings of the Court upon objections, and refusals by the Court to charge as requested, are not to be taken as any expression of opinion on the part of the Court upon the facts of this case, but are only rulings upon the law, about which the jury has nothing to do.

NOTE. Requests XXIV, XXV, XXVII, and XXVIII, the Court refused to charge.

INDEX

Abstract ideas, lack of, in morons, 98.

Actions after crime, Gianini, 25, 27. Pennington, 50-52. Tronson, 76-78.

Alcoholism, 110.

Barr, Dr. Martin W., statement of, 86.

Beecher, Miss, annoyed by Gianini, 23.

Binet tests, and school experience, 35, 38, 54. use of, in Gianini case, 32-35. in Pennington case, 53. in Tronson case, 80.

Capital punishment, 101.

Cause of Gianini's condition, 39-41.

Causes of feeble-mindedness, 39.

"Charity" in Binet tests, 34.

Children, testimony of, 90. actions of, 94. suggestibility of, 63.

Code quoted, 128.

Colonization, 107.

Confession, Gianini, 4, 9, 10. Pennington, 44, 53. Tronson, 67-80. characteristic of imbeciles, 16, 29. childishness of Pennington's, 55, 56. not necessarily true, 17. why Gianini made a, 15.

Confessions compared, 83, 90-93.

Courtroom, conduct in, 30, 67, 92.

Coward, the imbecile, 23.

Cretinism, 40.

Crime, details of, Gianini, 122, 132. Pennington, 47. Tronson, 74.

Criminal imbeciles, what should be done with, 102.

Criminals, 50 per cent feeble-minded, 106.

Defense in case of, Gianini, 2, 5. Pennington, 43. Tronson, 66.

Delinquencies, previous, of Gianini, 7, 37, 115, 116. of Tronson, 68, 69, 82.

Display, love of, 29.

Experts, qualifications of, 85.

Feeble-mindedness, causes of, 39, 106. may be exterminated, 108.

Feeble-mindedness in family, Gianini, 40. Pennington, 87.

Finger prints, 26.

Gianini, Jean, case of, 1-41. actions after the deed, 25, 27. attitude of Miss Beecher toward, 7, 119. disregards counsel's warning, 30. evidences of pride in deed, 16-19, 29, 123. facts as established by testimony, 3. incidents in life of, 113-125. indifferent to crime, 10, 29, 120, 125. interest in stories of crime, 26, 118, 121, 123. mentality of, 13. mother of, 40, 109-112. previous delinquencies of, 7, 37, 115, 116. stories about, 31, 113. teased little children, 32, 116, 119. threats made by, 121, 125, 131.

Great White Way, 117.

Hypothetical question, defense, 109-126. prosecution, 131-136.

Idiot, defined, 12.

Imbecile, career of an, 54.

Imbecility defined, 11. not curable, 102.

Imbecility, defense of, Gianini, 2, 5. Pennington, 43. Tronson, 66, 80.

Imprisonment for life, 89, 101, 104.

Indian, Gianini plays, 23.

Insanity in relation to crime, 102.

Instinct to kill, 105.

Institution for feeble-minded, the logical place, 104.

Intelligence, tests of, admitted into court, 2, 32-35, 53, 80.

Interest in crime, Gianini's, 26, 118, 121, 123.

Jail, attitude in, Gianini, 30; Pennington, 55. examined in, Gianini, 29; Pennington, 53, 56.

Jealousy of March, 53.

Liberty of defendant not desired, 88, 103.

McIntyre, John F., 103.

March, convicted, 43. convicted upon Pennington's testimony, 90. Pennington's relation to, 55, 56, 64.

Masturbation, 117.

Melancholia, 110-112.

Mental defectiveness, inherited, 39, 106. recognized early, 105.

Mentality of, Gianini, 13. Pennington, 53. Tronson, 66.

Money as motive, 57.

Moron, defined, 11. abstract ideas lacking in, 98.

Mother of Gianini, 40, 109-113.

Motive, Gianini's, 4, 20-25. March's, 53. Pennington's, 53, 56-60. Tronson's, 76, 80.

Pennington, Roland, case of, 42-64. actions after the deed, 52-53. conduct at trial, 92. confession, 44-53. disregards lawyer's caution, 55. mentality of, 53. relation to March, 55, 56, 64. testimony against March, 43, 90, 92. trial, 43.

Preparations for crime, Gianini, 6. Pennington, 47. Tronson, 70.

Prevention, 82, 87, 104-108.

Propagation, prevention of, 106-108.

Psychologists, testimony of, 32, 53, 66.

Punishment for criminal imbeciles, 88, 100-108.

Quality of an act, meaning of, 96.

St. Vincent's School, 7, 116.

School, failure in, sign of mental defect, 37. Gianini case, 35-37, 124. Pennington case, 54. Tronson case, 66.

Segregation, 107.

Sexual theory of Gianini's crime, 20.

Society, duty of, 82. protection for, 100.

Speech development retarded, 113.

State prison for the imbecile manslayer, 89, 104.

Sterilization, 107.

Stories about Gianini, "Indian," 113. "Soup and safety," 31. "Strap oil," 32. teased little children, 32, 113, 116, 119. "Thief," 114.

Suggestion, discussed, 61-63. Pennington, victim of, 56-64.

Superintendents as specialists, 88.

Testimony of, children, 90. experts, 85. Pennington against March, 43, 90, 92. psychologists, 32, 53, 66. witnesses, 3-8, 18, 31, 35-37.

Trial, Gianini, 1, 30, 31. Pennington, 43, 92. Tronson, 66, 67.

Tronson, Fred, case of, 65-82. actions after the deed, 76-78. confession of, 76-80. mentality of, 66. previous delinquencies of, 68, 69, 82.

Types considered, of imbecility, 83. of feeble-mindedness, 12-14.

Verdict, Gianini case, 1, 2. Pennington case, 43. Tronson case, 66.

Witnesses, children as, 90.

Wrench asked about, 7.

Printed in the United States of America.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See prosecution's hypothetical question--Appendix, pp. 131-138.

[2] See Gianini Case, Defendant's Request to Charge, Nos. XLII, XLIII, Appendix, p. 153.

[3] For statement see p. 9.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Criminal Imbecile, by Henry Herbert Goddard