New Britain Herald Newspaper, June 2, 1928, Page 13

West, the Ohio “Split-Mind” Slayer. Leopold and Loeb, Now in lllinois State . Penitentiary for the Murder of Bobby Franks. [J “THE alienists pronounced him sane.” You read that in your paper last night. You may read it again three weeks from now, when another mur- derer is put under the microscope of science. Or it may have been: “The accused was found insane.” How, you may have asked, s this fact determined? Was the criminal given a physical examjnation? Is th€re in the { wizard world of science a machine which can photograph the brain and record its abnormalities” What are the tests given to determine a person’s mental status? To answer these questions and sim- ilar ones which you may have asked yourself, a special correspondent for this paper personally interviewed over a dogen eminent alienists. He asked them: “Exactly what do you do to find a 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 1ealize that the State’s decisian upon the mental status of a subject relies on three con- ditions: (1) If he is able to distinguish between right and wrong. (2) If he is able to judge of the nature and quality of his act, and (8) If he is able to con- sult counsel. There is, therefore, a very distinct line drawn by the State between sanity and insanity. Science does not draw such a line. According to psychiatrists, there are various degree: of insanity, and the cases which are most interesting and most perplexing are those of lesser de- gree, thc 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 a 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 go as far as to blame the ills of the whoie world upon these two perzons. It 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 complicates matters by com- mitting a 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 criminal’s illusions. Therefore, if he can pass the State’s sanity examina- tion, he is declared sane, and con- sequently guilty. But one particular scientist records himself as believing that the illusions of the paranoiac have so warped his mind that he is mentally unbalanced, and is not wholly responsible for his crime. He would, therefore, be a “border-line” case. In examining a 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 a twelve-year- old child—and of grown-up “morons”—is: Repeat 7 figures. Find three rhymes. Repeat a sentence of 26 syllables. Interpret pictures. Problem of facts. For a thirtecn-year-old child, or an adult with a child’s brain, the, following is given: % William Edward Hickman, Los Angeles Child-Slayer. Paper cutting ed triangle. “difference of meaning. Then there are tests to observe a person's moral sense. This s rather a simple matter. It does not require an alienist to determine if a person can distinguizh between right and wrong. It is true that the criminal type is no longer spoken of or recognized; there is, however, a type of per- son who does come under that heading. He is the person without any conscience whatso- ever. His creed is that anything he does is right providing he doesn’t get caught. Getting caught is the only wrong he knows. Such a person is utterly devoid of moral sense. His counterpart at the other extreme is the Puritan type. Then there must be investigation to find out about any special abnormality which the subject may have manifested. There are those suffering from what is known as a compulsion neurosis. It it frequently evidenced in persons who can- not resist, as they walk along the street, picking up every little scrap of paper they see. They realize it is *“‘crazy,” but they just can’t help it. Kleptomania is another form of the compulsion neurosis. If a person of this type were to commit a crime he would undoubtedly be a “border-line” case. Then there are persons suffering from “‘manic depressive psychoses.” These we see about us all the time. They - 5 Exvact‘ly How. e , George Remus, Pro- nounced In, Killed His Wife. o Bianca de Saulles, Killed Her Husband, Jack are the persons who experience extreme elation one day and are in the depths of despair the next. Not, of course, the ordinary change of mood of the normal person, but extreme changes—actuated by no ap- parent cause—are an evid- ence of this condition-—ex- treme elations one minyte and depths of despair the next. If such a person were to commit a crime he would, perhaps, be pro- nounced gane by law, and never- theless hfim that realm known by psychiatrists as the “border-line.” Such a person’s nervous condi- tion would be so completely de- Mrs. Ruth Brown Snyder, o ranged because of the extreme elation and erreuion of his moods that a merci- ful justice would not hold him com pletely responsible. The following dia- gram illustrates the progress of elation in such cases over a period of twenty- four hours: Another form of this mental disorder {8 cyclothymia. It is slightly different in that, where the manic-depressive goes to extreme moods, the cyclothymic spends perhaps eight or ten months alternately Just slightly above the line of normalcy, and slightly below in his moods, as illus- During the period that the cyclo- thymic is just slightly above normal, he does not experience elation exactly, but is in that constant genial mood where, in h!s office, for instance, a person meeting him would think him of rarely happy tem- erament. And then of a sudden he ecomes extremely quiet. He is entering into the other stage. He does not reach the depths of depression or despair mani- fested by the manic-depressive, but he is sad for no reason at all, he may imagine himself in ill health. The genial, hand- clasping man of previous days is gone and in his place is a serious, sad-eyed in- dividual. Such a man would be con- sidered a “border-line” by psychiatrists. An epileptic would also be considered m this class. Should a erime be committed during an epileptic “fit,” its perpetrator would, of course, be considered legally insane. But should the subject, in a period between such fits, commit a crime, and should he pass the State sanity re- quirements legally he would be consid- ered sane, although psychiatrists would not classify him as such. In determining the degree of insanity in ‘all these conditions, the subject's life ory is the most important factor. Everything in his life, from the day he was born, is taken into consideration. Also his ancestry, and the possibility of his having inherited an abnormal trend. Record is taken of when he learned to walk, when he learned to talk, how he learned to eat; every step in his child- hood—his relationship to his father, to Harry Thaw, Many Times Tested for Insanity. ses and his fellow pupils life, that arose with the persons. tory would c closely typew Emotional ances into cc - eration. As long as the criminal passes the three State tests he consider e d sane by law. i R e a e ot of Alienists' e and a com 5 made by “The Maniae Murderer,” Fantastic Conception by Harry Clarke for One of Edgar Allatt Poe's Famous Herror Storiea