Adolf says he plays a very good game of checkers, that he had played much, but on trial he shows a very poor game, once moving backwards. When purposely given chances to take men he did not perceive the opportunities.

We asked him to analyze out for us a couple of moral situations, one being about a man who stole to give to a starving family. He tells us in one way the man did right and in another way wrong. It never is right to steal, because if caught he would be sent to the penitentiary and would have to pay more than the things are worth, and, then, if he was not caught, a thief would never get along in the world. The other was the story of Indians surrounding a settlement who asked the captain of a village to give up a man. Adolf thought if he were a chief he would say to give battle if the man had done no wrong, but on further consideration states that he would rather give up one man than risk the lives of many, and if he were a captain he would surely rather give this man up than put his own life in it. He thinks certainly this is the way the question should be answered.

On our "Aussage'' or Testimony Test Adolf gave volubly many details, dramatically expressing himself and putting in interpretations that were not warranted by the picture. Indeed, he made the characters actually say things. On the other hand, he did not recall at all one of the three persons present in the picture. He accepted three out of six suggestions and was quite willing to fill in imaginary details, besides perverting some of the facts. This was unusually unreliable testimony.

Our impressions as dictated at this time state that we had to do with a young man in good general physical condition, of unusually flabby musculature, who showed a couple of signs that might possibly be regarded as stigmata of inferiority. Mentally, the main showing was irregularity of abilities; in some things he was distinctly subnormal, in others mediocre, but in language ability he was surprisingly good. No evidence of mental aberration was discovered. The diagnosis could be made, in short, that the boy was a subnormal verbalist. His character traits might be enumerated in part by saying that he was aggressive, unscrupulous, boastful, ambitious, and a continual and excessive liar. In the exercise of these he was strikingly lacking in foresight. This latter characteristic also was shown in his test work. The abilities in which he was overbalanced gave him special feelings of the possibility of his being a success and led him to become a pathological liar. From the family history the main suggestion of the causation of the mental abnormality is in illness during developmental life, but neither ante-natal nor hereditary conditions are quite free from suspicion.

At the time of this first trial Adolf maintained a very smart attitude and tried to show off. He had succeeded in having two witnesses subpoenaed in order to prove that he did not hit his sister, but on the stand it came out that one of them was not there at all, and the other, who was a little girl, stated that she saw Adolf hit some one. Just why the boy had these witnesses brought in was difficult to explain. Perhaps he had the idea that some one ought to be called in every case, or perhaps he thought they would be willing to tell an untruth for him. His statement in court did not agree with what he had told us and was utterly different from what his sister stated. It came out that he had struck her on a number of previous occasions. It was shown clearly that the boy was a tremendous liar. The case was transferred to the Juvenile Court and from there the boy was sent away to an institution for a few months. After the trial his father said in broken English, "To me he never told the truth.''

Just after his release the family moved to Chicago and Adolf soon put himself in touch with certain social agencies. He found out where I was and came to see me, bright, smiling, and well. He had gained eight pounds during his incarceration. He wanted to tell all about his life in the institution and because we were busy said he would come the next day. He did not do this, but a few months later came running up to me on the street with a package in his hands, saying he was already at work in a downtown office and was doing well and going to night school. Five years more would see him quite through his law course. A few months after this he applied at a certain agency for work as an interpreter and there, strangely enough, some one who knew him in New York recognized him. He, however, denied ever having been in court and produced a list of twenty or twenty-five places where he worked and gave them as references. It is to be remembered that at this time he had already been brought up in court at least three times, that he had been on probation, and been sent away to an institution.

During the last four years we have received much information concerning the career of Adolf, although his activities have carried him to Milwaukee, Cleveland, St. Louis, and other towns, in several of which he has been in trouble. He has very repeatedly been to see us and we have had many opportunities of gauging his mental as well as his social development.

His family continued to live in one of the most populous suburbs of Chicago and Adolf maintains that his residence is there, an important point for his political activities which are mentioned later.

What we discovered in our further studies of Adolf's mental condition can be told in short. We have retested him over and over. (When he has been hard up we have given him money to induce him to do his very best.) There are no contradictions in our findings at different times. Once, in another city, in connection with his appearance in court, Adolf was seen by a psychiatrist who suggested that he was a case of dementia precox, but nothing in our long observation of him warrants us in such an opinion. His mental conditions and qualities seem quite unchanged in type during all the time we have known him, and instead of any deterioration there has been gradual betterment in capacities, certainly along the line of adjustment to environment. His wonderful ability to get out of trouble is evidence of these powers of adjustment, as is also, perhaps, his keen sensing of the utility of the shadier sides of politics and criminal procedure.

In work with numbers Adolf is still very poor. He is unable to do long division or multiplication, and cannot add together simple fractions. Addition he does much better, but even at his best he makes errors in columns where he has to add five numerals. He now can do simple subtraction such as is required in making change, but fails on such a problem as how much change he should get from $20 after buying goods costing $11.37. His memory span is only six numerals, and these he cannot get correctly every time.

After numerous attempts to mentally analyze our simple "Cross Line Test,'' with much urging and extreme slowness he finally succeeded at one time in getting it correctly. As stated above, this is a test that is done with ease usually by normal individuals 12 years of age. On our "Code Test,'' requiring much the same order of ability, but more effort, he entirely failed. For one thing, he has never known the order of the alphabet either in English, German, or French. Our "Pictorial Completion Test,'' which gauges simple apperceptive abilities, he failed to do correctly, making three illogical errors.

The result on the Binet tests are most interesting. From years of experience with them we ourselves have no faith in their offering sound criteria for age levels above 10 years. Adolf goes up through all of the 12-year tests (1911 series) except the first, where he shows suggestibility in his judgment of the lengths of lines. In the 15-year tests he fails on the first, but does the three following ones correctly. Two out of the adult series are done well—those where the definition of a word is required and the statement of political ideas. Two or three of his specific answers are worth noting: "Honor is when a person is very honest. It means he will never do what is wrong even if he can make money by it.'' "Pleasure is when everything is pleasant, when you are enjoying yourself.'' Adolf tells us that the king is head of a monarchy, he has not the power to veto, and he acquires his position by royal birth. In contrast to this he says the president is the presiding executive of a republic, he has the power to veto, and he gains his position by election. It is perfectly clear in this case, as in many others, that the Binet tests show very little wherein lies the nature of a special defect or ability. Adolf's capacity for handling language has grown steadily. He has been reading law and knows by heart a great deal of its terminology. In a short conversation he talks well and is coherent. The aggressiveness which is ever with him leads him to stick to the point. He has had very little instruction, his pronunciation is often defective and he does not know the meaning of many of the longer terms with which any lawyer should be acquainted. He speaks fluently and has now long posed, among other things, as an interpreter.

Our final diagnosis after all these mental tests is, that while he could by no means be called a feebleminded person, still Adolf is essentially subnormal in many abilities—we still regard him as a subnormal verbalist. Probably what he lacks in powers of mental analysis has much relation to the lack of foresight which he continually shows in his social career. His lying and swindling have led him almost nowhere except into difficulties.

Adolf has been steadily gaining weight, although he has grown only an inch and a half in these years. He is stout and sleek-looking and as flabby as ever. He has not been seriously ill during this time. Whereas before he used to be untidy in dress he now gets himself up more carefully.

The following are examples of Adolf's conversation and show many of his characteristics: (Soon after he came to Chicago we spoke to him of his progress.)

"The other day I met a fellow and he says, 'How long have you been in this country?' and when I says four years he says, 'You're a liar. There never was a fellow I ever heard of who got hold of the language and was doing as well as you are in four years.' '' A few months later he tells us he is selling goods on commission and descants on how much he can make: "That's 'Get-rich-quick-Wallingford' for you. There's Mr. A. and Congressman X., they started out from little beginnings just the same as me. I'm going along their line.

"Do you know I got sued by the Evening Star for libbel. That's what I got for testifying in that case. I tell you what I would like and that's vice investigation work.''

At another time: "Well, doctor, I am general manager for my brother's business now. He's got a bottle business. There's money in that, ain't there? I was down in court to-day. I tell you, there was a fellow who got what was coming to him. It was a case before Judge H.—assault and battery. He was fined $10 and costs—all amounted to about $30. Well, I had a little dog and I tell you I have a heart for animals just the same as persons. He kicked the dog and I told him not to do it and he says, 'You're a liar,' and then he ran down stairs and pushed me along the stones over there. I called the police and they did not come for about three quarters of an hour.

"I'm studying law. Taking a correspondence course. They give you an L.L.B. It's a two years work and you get all the volumes separately,'' etc. "Then we have a slander suit. A neighbor called my sister dirty names. I am going to file a $5000 slander suit. I would not let that man call names like that, and then he's got about $5000 in property.

"Some people are down on me, but I tell you I have been a leader of boys. We got the Illinois championship—you know, the boy scout examinations. There was an examination on leaves. I was their leader. I had 9 boys up and there were 117 leaves and every boy knew every leaf. Of course I told them or they would not have known. Some people are down on me for what I do for the boys, but I tell you I've been in court and I've made up my mind I will help other kids. Sometimes kids can be helped by talking to. Then there is me. I won the boxing championship this year.'' (At this period I enquire about his prowess and the recent encounter with the young boy who dragged him over the stones. With a blush he says he never was any good at real boxing or real fighting.) "I'm this kind of a fellow. If they let me alone I'm all right, but if they start monkeying with me something is going to happen. When you start a thing don't start it until you can carry it through. These people that started with me were not able to do that.''

Later it came out that the alleged fighting with the boy is all in Adolf's mind. He tells us, without noticing any discrepancy, that no complaint against this boy, who he said had been already tried and fined, would be received by the police authorities, nor will they issue a warrant.

Within the last year or two there has been almost complete cessation of Adolf's attempt to become a lawyer. At an earlier time he came to us with a speech written out in a book. He was going to recite it when a certain case came up in the Municipal Court. As a matter of fact we heard that the boy said nothing on the occasion. At various times we have heard of his getting mixed up in different ways in a number of cases. Once he succeeded in giving testimony in a notorious trial. His own account of his interest in the case is shown in the following:

"Doctor, you remember that X. boy and that Y. boy. Judge B. is going to try them. They are down in the S Station and they are going to stay there unless they sign a jury waiver and they can't do that. They are only 15 years old—I got their ages—it cost me $1 to get their ages and I am going to be there when they are being tried.'' (The statement of the ages is untrue.) "It ain't right to keep these boys down there. They look pale. They don't give them anything but black coffee. I'm going to represent them boys. You know, doctor, I'm working in three places now—holding three jobs. Two days in the week I work for the A's, two for Mr. B.—he ain't exactly my boss—and then for myself. The A's pay me $6, Mr. B. pays $3, and then I make $7 or $8 myself interpreting. I'm saving it up to go to law school. In three years I graduate. They are going to hold it up against them boys, their records, and I am going to deny it. It ain't right. I was talking to the detective that arrested X. and I says to him, 'Look here, you took the knife. What right have they got to take in one fellow without the little fellow?' I want to represent this case myself.''

Adolf has worked for law firms and aided at times as an investigator of criminal and vice situations. Occasionally he has been much worried about his own court record. He did not want it to stand against him. He thought he could get his sister to swear that he never quarreled at home. Shortly afterwards he served a short sentence for stealing from a law firm. Later he came in and said he had a job in the legal department of a large concern and that he had changed his name because he believed his old name was ruined. "I'm determined to be a lawyer. Ever since a little fellow I have wanted to be—ever since I have had an understanding of what the law means. I used to play court with the other little ones and talk about law.'' At this time he wanted a little loan. He had become particularly interested in philanthropic work and thought he could do something on the side about that—perhaps become a leader of boys, or help the unprotected in some way. Adolf was really employed now to investigate cases by some lawyer. About this time he had been wearing a badge, impersonating an officer of a certain philanthropic society.

For long this young man was concocting all sorts of schemes how he might work in at the edge of legal affairs, as an interpreter, a "next friend,'' an investigator, etc. More recent activities have taken Adolf away from the field of his first ambitions and he has tried to use his talents in all sorts of adventuresome ways. The accounts of his lying and impostures belong logically together, as follows.

During all our acquaintance with Adolf we have known his word to be absolutely untrustworthy. Many times he has descended upon his friends with quite unnecessary stories, leading to nothing but a lowering of their opinion of him. Repeatedly his concoctions have been without ascertainable purpose. His prevaricating nearly always centers about himself as some sort of a hero and represents him to be a particularly good-hearted and even definitely philanthropic person—one who loves all creatures and does much for others. Pages might be taken in recounting his falsehoods. Most of them, even when long drawn out, were fairly coherent. I remember one instance as showing how particularly uncalled for his prevarications were. After hearing one of his tales, we started downtown together, but missed a car. Adolf walked to the middle of the street and said he could see one coming just a few blocks away. Being doubtful, I a minute later went to look and no car even yet was in sight. Adolf sheepishly stared in a shop window. He never took any pleasure in his record of misdeeds. He was never boastful about them and indeed seemed to have quite normal moral feeling. But so far, none of his perceptions or apperceptions has led him to see the astonishing futility of his own lying and other misrepresentations.

Already this young man's court experiences we know to be very numerous and possibly we are not acquainted with all of them. Early we knew of his forging letters and telegrams and engaging in minor misrepresentations which were really swindling operations. Later his transactions have been spread about in different cities, as we have already stated. The young man borrowed small sums frequently on false pretenses. He has found the outskirts of legal practice a fruitful field for misrepresentations galore. For instance, at one time he stood outside the door of a concern which deals with small legal business and represented to the prospective patrons that he as a student of the law could transact their business with more individual care and for a less sum. He really succeeded in getting hold of the beginnings of a number of legal actions in this way. In one city he posed as the officer of a certain protective agency and posted himself where he would be likely to meet people who knew of this organization, in order to obtain petty business from them. We have heard that he has been a witness in a number of legal cases and has earned fees thereby. In Cleveland Adolf succeeded in starting a secret service agency and obtained contracts, among them the detective work for a newly started store of considerable size. This was a great tribute to his push and energy, but his agency soon failed. In St. Louis, where he stayed long enough to become acquainted with not a few members of the legal fraternity, he forged a legal document. A great deal was made of the case by the papers because of its flagrancy and amusing details. It seems Adolf had become enamored of a certain woman who was not living with her husband. The account runs that he urged his suit, but she refused because she was not legally free. Adolf replied that he would make that all right and in a week or two produced papers of divorce. These were made out in legal form, but it seems that he over-stepped the mark. The alleged decree stated that the fair divorcee must be remarried inside of a week. This seems to have aroused her suspicion, as had also some violence which Adolf had prematurely displayed. The young man was duly sentenced for the fraud.

Concerning punishments we can say that in the five years since he left New York he has served at least four terms in penal institutions and has been held to trial on one other occasion. This latter event concerned itself with Adolf's impersonating a federal officer. He made his way into a home under these conditions, just why we do not know. The case was difficult to adjust and was dismissed because no statute exactly covered it.

Perhaps nothing in his remarkable history shows Adolf's aggressiveness and peculiar tendencies any more than his political career. He had been voting long before he was of age and had even succeeded in getting a nomination for a certain party position during his minority, polling a considerable vote at the primaries. Following his defeat at election, which was at the time when the new party showed marked weakness, Adolf told us that he, after all, was only in the Progressive Party to wreck it. He felt that the leaders belonged back in the Republican ranks, and he thought he could help to get them there.

———————————————————————————————- Mentality: Subnormal verbalist type. Case 12. Man, 21 years. Developmental: Early illness with involvement of nervous system. Delinquencies: Lying excessive. Swindling. Stealing. ———————————————————————————————-



CHAPTER IV

CASES OF PATHOLOGICAL ACCUSATION

We include in this chapter pathological self-accusation as well as incrimination of others. In court work one sees many cases of false accusation, but few belong to the pathological variety. We have not considered those based upon vindictiveness, or self-defense, or where any other even slight, recognizable, normal gratification was at the bottom. We have tried to hold strictly to our definition. Selection of the cases for this chapter has been easier than discriminating those who are merely pathological liars in general. It is simpler to distinguish those who accuse others for the purpose of injury or self-protection, or those who make self-accusation under the influence of delusional conditions, than it is to decide upon similar distinctions in cases of mere pathological lying. Several authors, such as Gross, have noted false accusations made during a short period of early adolescence, or in connection with menstrual disturbance. Our cases corroborate these facts, but show also that extreme false accusations may be made by girls BEFORE puberty. Satisfactory knowledge of such cases is not gained by learning merely that the accuser is under temporary physical stress—it is to be noted that our material clearly shows that there is always more in the background.

The many cases observed by us of false accusations made, rarely, by the feebleminded and, more often, by those suffering from a psychosis, need not be mentioned here—they are obvious in their abnormality and have little bearing upon our immediate problem.

For the sake of illustration of the fact of pathological accusation Case 17 is given in this chapter, but in its mental aspects it belongs more properly under the head of border-line cases. In our final deductions this has not been counted as a mentally normal case.

CASE 13

Summary: An exceedingly important case from a legal standpoint. A girl of 16 years persistently, but falsely accused her own mother and her step-father of the murder of the youngest child of the family. Some apparent physical corroboration was found. The woman and her spouse were held from the inquest to the grand jury and later were indicted. They were in jail for four months until the case was finally tried, when they were discharged.

We studied Libby S. as a delinquent some eight months after her mother and step-father had been acquitted of murder. These unfortunate people had been held and tried almost entirely upon the testimony given by this girl. It goes without saying that they were very poor and not ordinarily self-assertive, and so did not obtain competent legal advice. We were naturally interested in this remarkable affair and were glad to be able to get at the truth of the matter and bring about forgiveness and reconciliation within the family circle.

Libby was now under arrest for stealing and for prostitution. Her statement to us was that she had been immoral and wanted to be sent away to an institution where she would be kept out of trouble. She had been working in a factory. Her mother and step-father were temperate and the latter was always good to her and to her brother. She told about being extremely nervous when she got to thinking about different things, and maintained that she worried so much at times that she did not know what she was doing. Later we learned from her of her little sister's death, of the fact that the child was not really her sister, and that her mother had not been married to her present husband until the time of the trial, although for long they had been living together. She added that she had been a witness five times in court against her mother and step-father. A younger brother had also testified against them to some minor extent. "We had to tell what we saw—we told enough lies as it was.''

Following the latter remark as a clew we went as thoroughly as we could into the details of the whole case. No report of the court proceedings being available we obtained what we could from the newspaper accounts. Obviously, however, much of these was impressionistic and unreliable. The coroner's physician testified to many bruises being on the body, and to the bottom of the feet being blistered. The report of what the police said at the inquest made anything but conclusive testimony. Even from that, the murder seemed highly improbable. It was shown that a physician was called to the child before she died, but did not respond. Libby testified at the inquest and later against her mother, stating that the child had been beaten and tortured in various ways. We also learned from other than newspaper sources that when Libby was waiting to testify, with her mother suffering imprisonment in the same building, the girl was nonchalantly singing ragtime songs in the court-house corridors.

The facts about the alleged murder of the five year old child as we could finally summarize them from various accounts, and after hearing the confession of Libby, are as follows. This child was an epileptic and had frequent attacks of falling, when she injured herself, once having fallen in this way against a hot stove. The little child engaged in extremely bad sex habits. Indeed, Libby herself had been somewhat involved with her in these. Once when she was ill hot bricks had been placed in the bed, and, while unconscious, her feet had been blistered. The child had also suffered from various other ailments, including a skin disease which left sore places and scars. When she died Libby first told a neighbor that the parents were responsible and this person referred her to the police. The false testimony began there and continued at the inquest, before the grand jury, and at the trial. Upon thorough final sifting of the evidence in court nothing was found in the least indicating that the child had died from mistreatment. The younger brother had been told by Libby to testify against the mother. There was no question but that Libby started and continued the whole trouble, but the unnatural fact that she was willing to make sworn statements jeopardizing her mother made her testimony have all the earmarks of antecedent probability.

The mother herself, in whom we gradually came to have full confidence, informed us that the dead child had an epileptic attack and was unconscious for several hours before she died. They lived on the outskirts of the city and it was bad weather, and although they sent twice for doctors, no one appeared. The child had been mildly whipped at times in an attempt to cure her of her bad sex habits. She had many sores from her skin trouble and these were by some interpreted as caused by beatings.

When under our observation, and during our attempt to analyze her career, Libby underwent a change of attitude and confessed thoroughly and definitely that the story about the murder was lies all the way through. For the sake of the poor little mother we had the girl make a sworn statement to this effect. It was of some little interest to us to note that the police account given in the newspapers about the little child being beaten with a rubber hose was derived from the story told by Libby. It was a wonderfully dramatic and pathetic scene when this woman met her daughter and the latter confessed to her lies and asked forgiveness. All the mother could say was, "Oh, the suffering she has caused me! But I do want her to be a good girl.''

From the girl's long stories to us we may derive the following points of interest. Before her confession she was very emotional on the subject of her little sister. She dwelled much upon her dreams of the child, but proved self-contradictory about the matter of her death, as well as about her own history. Even then she began telling us what a bad girl she herself was in various ways. She said, "I did not see Laura die, but I guess they did burn her up because her finger tips were all gone and her hands were all swollen up. Ma said she would burn her up if she did not quit wetting the bed. Yes, I used to worry about Laura awful. She always had been the trouble. I would have been a good girl if it had not been for her. I used to worry so fierce that I could not help from stealing and then when I stole I was scared to go back to my jobs. I had to have money and so I made good money by going with these fellows. I used to feel fierce about the money I took from my mother and used to put it back and then would say, 'No, I just must have it.' ''

This girl had been working at different factories and homes since her mother's trial. She confessed to thieving from stores. The stealing she had done at home was, it seems, long before the death of the little child. Libby made much of her mental states and of her dream-life in talking to us. "I like to go to nickel shows. I saw a sad piece once and if I feel sad now I think about it and it makes me want to go to my mother. I have a funny feeling about going home. I don't know what it is. At night I dream about it and something keeps telling me to go home. I want to go to an institution now and learn to do fancy work and to be good, and then I want to go home.''

Libby told us enough about her first father for us to know he had had a terrifically bad influence upon her. She also long associated with bad companions who instructed her thoroughly in the ways of immorality. She described attacks in which she felt weak and thought she was going to fall, but never did. (The young child in the family who had epilepsy was no relation whatever to her.) She knew that her mother had long been living with her step-father in common-law relationship, but insisted on what was undoubtedly the truth, namely, that they were temperate and very respectable people. Libby never gave us any explanation for her testimony against her mother, but acknowledged that she herself had been delinquent earlier.

The physical examination showed a normally developed girl: weight 108 lbs.; height 5 ft. 3 in. Well shaped head and rather delicate features. Her teeth showed a defective line in the enamel near the gums on the incisors and the cuspids. Bites her finger nails. Slight irregularity of the left pupil. Careful examination of the eyes in other ways entirely negative. Prompt reaction of pupils to light. No sensory defect of importance. Knee jerks active. Heart sounds normal, and all other examination failed to show defect. Complained of frequent headaches, but these were not of great severity. After information from the mother we felt that Libby's feelings of weakness and tremblings were probably of the hysterical variety.

During the period in which we had Libby under observation she showed more or less emotional disturbance, but even so we were able to assure ourselves that her mental ability was fair. We did not expect good results from formal education because in her case it had been very irregular. Many of our ability tests, however, were done well, but she failed where she was asked to demonstrate good powers of concentration and attention. We noted that she showed a very eager attitude toward her work, but was nervous about it. Always pleasant demeanor.

Most significant results were obtained on the "Aussage'' or testimony test. After viewing our standard picture she volunteered only 8 details in free recital. On cross-examination she gave 21 more, but no less than 7 of these were incorrectly stated. Then she accepted the 4 suggestions which were given her. This result from a girl of her age and ability was exceedingly poor.

We never found any evidence whatever of aberrational mental conditions. Our final diagnosis was "fair in mental ability with poor educational advantages.''

It should be definitely understood in considering this case that even to the time of our last interview with Libby, after she had acknowledged her own extensive prevarications, we had evidences of the unreliability of her word. In giving details she never made any special effort to tell the truth, whether it was in regard to the date of her father's death or any other immaterial detail. We were inclined to classify her as a pathological liar, as well as a case of pathological false accusation. Her traits as a liar and a generally difficult case have, we learn, been maintained during her stay up to the present time in an institution for delinquent girls.

From the fairly intelligent mother, who cooperated well with us, we obtained a carefully stated developmental history. During pregnancy with Libby the mother was run over by a bicycle, but was not much injured. The child was born at full term and was of normal size and vitality. Instruments were used, but no damage was known to have been done. Libby walked and talked early. A couple of times when she was an infant she had convulsions, but never after that. From 7 weeks until she was 3 years old there was constant trouble on account of some form of indigestion. For a time at that age she was in the hospital, but the mother was never told exactly what the trouble was. Her stomach was large. As an older child she was subject to fits of anger when she could not have her way. She never had anything that was suggestive of epilepsy. Twice she fainted, but once was when she came home half frozen one winter's day. At 11 years she had pneumonia. She menstruated at 14 years.

The heredity and family history in this case is of great interest. Libby's mother went to work for her first husband's family in the old country. At about that time this man's first wife died, but he had previously left her. He came of a good family, he was himself, however, a hard-drinking man. He left two children by his first wife with his parents and came to this country with Libby's mother. Here they lived in a common-law marriage relationship for many years, and two children (one of them Libby) were born to them. The man continued to be a terrible drunkard and was probably insane at times. He once bought a rifle to kill his family. He was notorious for his great changeableness of disposition. Sometimes he would be very pleasant, and then quickly be seized by some impulse when he would grind his teeth, become very angry, and use vile language. Even when sober he would go along talking to himself and people would follow him on the street to hear what he was saying. He threatened often to kill his wife. He deserted her at times for months together. He only partially supported his family and his wife worked as a washerwoman. She left him once, but later went back to him.

In evidence of the character of this man and his wife we have seen several statements from reliable people. The man's son by his first wife came to this country and lived with them. He found his own father impossible—a terribly bad man who was continually fighting at home. He himself urged his step-mother to break up the home on account of the way in which she was abused. He made a statement of this fact under oath. (It is only fair to say in this whole connection that these people all came from a part of Europe where what we call a common-law marriage is an ordinary relationship.) It was from the language of her father that Libby first gained acquaintance with bad sex ideas, we are assured by the mother. After a terrific time of stress Libby's mother was rescued from her miserable conditions by the man who later lived with her and finally married her, and who has supported her and been true to her ever since. He is a sympathetic man of good reputation.

Libby's maternal grandparents died early and her mother had to begin very young to support herself. All that we know of the mother's developmental history is that she had some sort of illness with convulsions once as a child and is said to have been laid away for dead. She has brothers and sisters who are said to be quite normal. She knows her own relatives and her first husband's, also, and feels very sure there has been no case of insanity, feeblemindedness, or epilepsy among them.

Libby's moral history is of great import. She became definitely delinquent very early in life. At 13 years she had already been in an institution for delinquent girls in an eastern State and the superintendent writes that she was notorious for disobedience, lying, and stealing. She was placed there twice, besides having been returned once after an escape. When she was 6 or 7 years of age she began thieving. She took things from her mother's trunk and pawned them. The child stole from the people's rooms where her mother worked as janitress. Later she was truant and associated with immoral girls. In Chicago she stole a bracelet and a ring from a down-town store, wearing the bracelet later. She took $15 from a neighbor's house. She went to saloons in company with an immoral woman, and at least on one occasion she had been drinking. At 12 or 13 she was known to be "crazy about boys,'' but probably was not immoral then. The mother insists that the girl, resembling her father in this, is most changeable in disposition. Long before the trial for murder her pastor had urged the mother to put the girl away in an institution, but the mother's heart was too soft. (It seems strange that all this evidence of the girl's own bad character and unreliability, which was readily obtained by us, was not utilized at the time when she first made the charges of murder.)

The mother's explanation of Libby's behavior is that it was spite work. However, that is, of course, unsatisfactory. The mother not long previously earnestly had warned the girl against pursuing her downward path and had stated she must be sent away again if she did not do better. Libby then was doing pretty much as she pleased, for the mother, who was all along a frail woman, sick much of the time, had really no control over her daughter. Another feature of the case that is interesting came out in the fact that Libby herself had neglected the little epileptic girl who died. When the mother was ill in bed Libby had refused to properly care for the child. To some extent she also engaged in bad sex practices with the little girl. Libby never gave us the slightest indication that her false testimony was incited by spite. Anyhow, she involved the step-father, who she always insisted had been very good to her. The motive undoubtedly is not so simply explained. A really deep analysis of the behavior could not be undertaken.

———————————————————————————————- Mental conflicts: About sex experiences Case 13. and own Girl, 16 yrs. misbehavior. Bad companions: Including father. Home conditions: Notoriously bad in early life. Heredity: Father alcoholic, brutal, and perhaps insane. Delinquencies: Mentality: False accusations. (Extreme case.) Fair ability. Stealing. Sex immorality, etc. ———————————————————————————————-



CASE 14

Summary: A girl of 13 during the last year or more had been lying excessively and in uncalled-for ways. She also obtained money by misrepresentations and had made false charges of sex assault against a stranger. To be thought of as causative factors were defects of environment and possibly heredity, markedly imperfect vision, improperly obtained sex knowledge, and a distinct mental conflict.

We were asked to study this Emma X. on account of the various social issues involved in her case. Her family found her beyond control; she had been expelled from school; by her false accusations she had created much trouble for the police in her home town; officials of a public welfare agency found her altogether difficult to understand. We obtained an account of the case from several sources, including the mother.

The trouble with her had begun about a year previously. She had been notoriously untruthful, and had forged a relative's name to the extent of obtaining $40—in small sums. Emma remained out late in the evening sometimes, and on three occasions stayed out all night. The first time this happened she came home scratched and untidy and told a sensational story which led to much newspaper notoriety. She said a man took her to the woods—this was in the summertime—and kept her there all night. A loafer in the town, who was arrested the next day, she positively identified as the one who had assaulted her. This man was later discharged in the police court, however, because he abundantly proved an alibi, and because by this time the girl's story had become so twisted that even the mother did not believe it. A physician's examination also tended to prove that no assault had been attempted.

After this Emma was known to sleep one night in a cellar coal-bin. In stealing and general lying she became worse until with a change of residence to an uncle's home she improved for a time. It was after a little backsliding that we saw her.

The mother frankly tells us that the girl's mind must be affected; otherwise how could she act as she does. Emma has complained frequently of headaches and of a little dizziness. She has lately been lonely for a sister who went away. For the last two years Emma has not seemed altogether well; she has been nervous. A time ago she had for a friend a girl who spoke too freely with men, and her mother stopped the companionship. This other girl has a sister in the Industrial School. Emma's mother does not know of any definite harm done by the companionship.

During the pregnancy with Emma the mother had a rather hard time for a while on account of the severe illness of another child. The pregnancy began when the mother was still nursing a baby. However, when Emma was born she proved to be a healthy and normal child. Birth was normal. No convulsions. First walked and talked at the usual age. She was a fat child until 8 years, and then, after an attack of pneumonia, she began to ail somewhat. At 10 years tonsils and adenoids were removed. The mother had no knowledge of Emma's defective vision. Emma started to school at 7 years, but at 13 had reached only the 5th grade.

There are 8 living children in the family; one died in infancy. There has never been much illness among them. Most of them did well in school. The family physician says the boys show a "queer streak,'' but nothing, evidently, at all well defined as compared with the career of Emma, whom he characterizes as a "moral pervert.'' The mother is a well-meaning, hard-working, moderately intelligent woman of about 45. She is said to be somewhat slack in her household, but perfectly honest. The father is desperately alcoholic and peculiar at times. It is not known that his aberrations are ever shown apart from his drinking. Years ago he was in a hospital for the insane for several months as an alcoholic patient. The trouble with this girl is said to have led him to drink again. Both parents were from immigrant families. It is positively denied that there are any cases of insanity, feeblemindedness, or epilepsy on either side. Some other members of the family are known to have better homes.

On the physical side we found a small child for her age; weight 81 lbs., height 4 ft. 9 in. Nutrition and color fairly good. Vision about 20/80 R. and 20/60 L.; never had glasses. Crowded teeth. High Gothic palate. Regular features. Expression peculiarly stiff with eyes wide open. Flushes readily. With encouragement smiles occasionally. Other examination negative. Tonsils, and probably adenoids, removed three years previously; formerly had trouble with breathing through the nose. Complains much of frequent frontal headaches. Says she gets dizzy often in the schoolroom.

Our "psychological impressions,'' dictated by Dr. Bronner, state that at first we found Emma very quiet and diffident, possibly somewhat shy and timid. At best she did not talk freely, only in monosyllables as a rule. She appears rather nervous. She says she thinks of lots of things she does not speak of. Emma smiles in friendly enough fashion, and later became more at ease, and more talkative. She was rather deliberate in work with tests. With concrete material she did better than with tasks more purely mental. She succeeds eventually with nearly everything, but is slow. She seems anxious to do well, but acts as if unable to rouse herself to any great effort. She is quite inaccurate in arithmetic, and only fair in other school studies. Emotions normal. In many ways appears normally childish. Her interest in fairy tales and in the type of make-believe plays in which she engages with her younger sisters seems mixed with her wonderment in regard to sex life. There is a distinct tendency to day-dreaming.

In reviewing the results of tests the only peculiarities to be noted are a definite weakness displayed in the powers of mental representation and analysis (she failed on Test X, usually readily done at 12 years), and a rather undue amount of suggestibility and inaccuracy in response to the "Aussage'' test (Test VI). The latter, naturally-to-be-supposed important test in a case where lying was a characteristic, showed a result that belonged to the imaginative, inaccurate, and partially suggestible type. Many details of the picture were recalled correctly, but a few were manufactured to order, and 4 out of 7 suggestions were accepted.

About the general diagnosis of mentality there could be no doubt; the girl had fair ability, but there had been poor educational advantages on account of extremely defective vision. No signs of mental aberration were discovered.

Our attempt to try to help Emma decide why she got into so much difficulty resulted in a most convincing discovery of beginnings. We found a keynote to the situation in asking her about the companionship which the mother had said she had broken up. It seems that Emma had for a year, quite clandestinely, been familiar with this family. She apparently now desired to reveal the results of the acquaintance. Long ago the older sister, at present in a Reform School, boasted of her escapades with boys. Emma states that she herself never talked of these topics with her mother, who had said that girls who don't do such things should not talk about them. But Tessie, the younger sister of the delinquent girl, says many bad words about boys. These words and ideas about them bother Emma much. They come up in her mind, "sometimes at night and sometimes in the day.'' She even dreams much about them and about boys. "I seen the girls do bad things with boys. It is in the dream, it was in the house, in the front room on the floor.'' Emma says she never saw it in reality, but Tessie had boys in their front room when she went there, and then came running out when she heard Emma coming. She wonders just what Tessie does. Boys never bother Emma, but all these ideas bother her. "Then I think that the boys are going to do it to me.'' In school she cannot study for this reason. "Sure, when I start to study it comes up. I just think about what she tells me, Tessie. She tells me she liked to do these things with boys.''

This little girl in the couple of interviews we had with her gave vent to much expression of all this which had perplexed her, and she really seemed to want help. She was very willing to have her mother told. She went on finally to say that the delinquent girl had taught her long ago about masturbation and that she thinks of it every night in bed. She can give no explanation of why she runs away and why she falsely accused the man. She says it was not true at all what she said about him. She thinks she would behave better if she were less bothered about the things which those girls taught her. Emma says she questioned a young woman relative who did not tell her any more than her mother did.

Regarding her diversions Emma says that she likes reading, especially fairy tales. She reads mostly Andersen's Fairy Tales. She enjoys dressing up as a grown lady and playing make-believe. She particularly likes to go to bed early and lie and imagine things. She imagines sometimes that she is grown up and married and has her own home and children.

The neglect, through ignorance, of the several genetic features of Emma's case was quite clear. The mother was made acquainted with the facts, which her little daughter then affirmed to her, and she promised to alter conditions. We insisted on attention to Emma's eyes and general physical conditions, on removal from neighborhood association with these old companions, on the necessity for motherly confidences, on watchfulness to break up sex habits, and on the development of better mental interests. Through relatives in the home town it seemed there was some chance to get these remedial measures undertaken.

A year and a half later we can state that a certain number of our suggestions were followed out. The mother gained a better understanding of the case and there were some, although not enough, environmental changes. The father's mental condition has been much better, perhaps because he has largely refrained from drink, and consequently family affairs are more stable. The girl herself is said not to be doing perfectly either in school or home life, but to be vastly improved. We have obtained no definite statement concerning whether she now lies at all or not, but it is sure that Emma has engaged in no more egregious types of prevarications and in no more false accusations. Competent observers think the case is fairly promising in its general moral aspects if environmental conditions continue to improve.

———————————————————————————————- Mental conflict. Case 14. Improper sex teachings. Girl, age 13. Bad companions. Home conditions: Lack of understanding and control. Father alcoholic, insane (?) Defective vision. Delinquencies: Mentality: False accusations. Ability fair. Runaway. Obtaining money by false representations. ———————————————————————————————-



CASE 15

Summary: Girl of 16, over a period of some weeks made extreme accusations against several members of her family. She gave detailed account of sex immorality, alleged drunkenness and thieving, and an attack on her own life. She had herself, it was found, begun delinquent tendencies. The family circumstances and her clearly detailed account gave the color of possibility to her accusations, but investigation proved some of them false, and all of a sudden, after maintaining for long a most convincing demeanor, she withdrew her allegations. Both before and since this episode she has given no marked evidence of being a falsifier.

We were asked to study this case by police officials who thought perhaps the girl was the victim of some delusional state. She appeared at the police station and informed them her adult brother had been thieving from the place where he worked. She lived with him. Investigation by detectives on the strength of her convincingly given details proved his innocence. When the brother appeared on the scene he said he had been intending to report her on account of her being away from home. She herself was then held in custody.

We found a girl in very good general physical condition. Well developed in sex characteristics and a very mature type of face. Outside of a somewhat enlarged thyroid and moderately defective vision, we found nothing abnormal. Weight 114 lbs.; height 5 ft. Notable was her strong features, deep set eyes, high, broad forehead and sharp chin.

Our study of her on the mental side led us to denominate her as having fair general ability. She had had poor educational advantages. We noted much irregularity on work on tests. She did comparatively poorly on anything that called for careful attention and concentration. This was especially notable when she was dealing with abstractions or situations to be mentally represented. Although she could do arithmetic up to simple division she made a bad failure in the continued process of subtraction as given in the Kraepelin test of taking 8's from 100. In the work on the Code, Test XI, she found it altogether impossible to keep her mind concentrated. In tests where perceptions were largely brought into play she did very well. We noticed that she was possessed of a very dramatic manner. She sighed frequently as she worked. She was very nervous, continually moving her hands and tapping the table. She was quite satisfied with her superficial efforts. It was very curious that we, as well as others, were able to note her apparent sincere belief in her own statements about her family. As she made them she looked the interviewer straight in the eyes; there was not a hint of evasiveness.

Her result on the "Aussage'' (Test VI) was very meager. She only recalled 10 details of the picture. On cross- examination she gave correctly 14 more items and was wrong on 3 of them. She accepted only 2 out of 5 suggestions offered and these were the most probable ones.

A full family history was never to be obtained. The best that we came ultimately to know was that her father and mother had been long dead and she had lived in institutions for years, then with a relative who was not at all a good person, and then with her brother and sister, whom she bitterly accused. These were people in decidedly poor circumstances and living in very congested quarters. Indeed, we were inclined to believe, finally, that crowded housing conditions with the necessary unfortunate familiarity with sex affairs and the like was largely responsible for her trouble. A few months prior to these events she had become acquainted with a girl who had drawn her into running away from home a few nights. During her unsettled home life she had seen a good deal of immorality in other houses, but had not been immoral herself. Conditions of squalor surrounded the whole situation.

Her accusations against her family as told to others, and reiterated to us, involved the drunkenness of her own father and mother. (We were never able to verify whether this charge against her mother was true or not.) Then she went on to allege extreme immorality on the part of her three sisters. She gave these in the utmost detail. (There is little doubt but that one of her sisters was rather free living before she was married.) She constantly maintained that she was the only virtuous one in the family and had withstood all advances. She then recounted much personal abuse and cruel treatment, and accused the brother and his wife of an attempt to poison her because they wanted her out of the way.

Her story was told in such detail, was so well remembered from time to time, and she presented such outward form of sincerity that experienced people were led to believe there must be much in what she said. On one occasion, under observation, she cried nearly all of two days because one good woman would not believe her statements. At least she said this was the reason of her tears. Her general behavior during this period of observation was perfect.

We found her hazy and somewhat incoherent about a number of the details of her life, but she had lived under such varied circumstances that this alone was not convincing of her insincerity. When we met her brother we were very sure that at least a part of her story was false. He seemed to be a very decent fellow and was really interested in her. Several months earlier he had trouble with her on account of her staying out late at night, and had threatened her. Then there was no more difficulty until her recent acquaintance with this other girl. He stated that he had been obliged to scold her very severely, and then finally she stayed away for five nights and wound up by going to the police station and making the accusations against him and the other members of the family. When the case came up in court she stated she wished to go back to live with this brother and admitted having continued misrepresentations about him and the others in the family since her acquaintance with this girl. It really was all false. She was placed under probation and the case has been, except for environmental circumstances, entirely successful. She is now a young married woman, and has had no further delinquent record against her.

Our investigation of the causation showed perhaps self- protection from punishment for her own behavior, but there was apparently much mental conflict about sex affairs and she had a very unfortunate acquaintance with such details, resulting partly, as she acknowledged, from her peeping through keyholes and so on. On account of her peculiar unreliability of statement and many quiet and staring periods, seen while she was under observation, we questioned whether she was not verging on psychotic conditions. However, all this tendency seems to have passed away.

———————————————————————————————- Adolescent instability. Case 15. Girl, 16 years. Home conditions: Defective through poverty and congestion. Early sex experiences and mental conflict about them. Reaction to own delinquencies, self protection phenomenon. Heredity. Mentality: Delinquencies: Fair ability, poor False accusations. advantages. ———————————————————————————————-

CASE 16

Summary: A motherless girl of 9 1/2 years, following her complaint of local symptoms, which proved to be due to vulvitis, accused her father and brother of incest. She was a bright child and normally affectionate, even towards these relatives. Her father and brother were held in jail for several weeks, but were dismissed at the trial because of the ascertained untruth of the charges.

As causative factors of her false accusations our study showed (a) her local irritation, (b) for which her father had treated her, (c) prior crowded housing conditions with her father and brother, (d) her lack of mother's control, (e) early and intimate acquaintance with atrocious sex knowledge and sex habits, and (f) recently becoming the center of interest in a group of friends made through her statement of the vileness of family conditions.

We were requested to study this case by the judge of the court in which the father and brother of Bessie M. were to be tried for the crime of incest with her. At a preliminary hearing the judge had felt that the remarkable statements of the little girl savored of untruth, and that the character sustained by the brother, in particular, was quite out of keeping with the grave accusations against him. The girl's charges, so clearly detailed, together with her local ailment, had proved thoroughly convincing to a group of women who had become interested in her. Bessie was evidently quite normal mentally and apparently affectionately regarded her only near relatives—this father and brother. Her story appeared thus entirely credible. The judge stated that he had been approached outside of court by these women, who in their righteous indignation were insistent upon the need of dire punishment of the outrageous conduct of Bessie's natural protectors.

We found a rather poorly developed little girl. Weight 64 lbs.; height 4 ft. 4 in. Bright, pleasant, vivacious expression. Attitude normal. High, prominent, narrow forehead. Head: length 19 cm., breadth 13 cm. Slightly asymmetrical frontal bosses. Snub nose; eyes fairly bright; ears asymmetrical in size—.6 cm. difference in greatest length. Thyroid palpable. Tonsils enlarged moderately. No sensory defect of importance. Strength good for size. Color only fairly good. (Results of gynecologic examination later.)

Bessie was given a wide range of mental tests, with the result that we classified her as being well up to the ordinary in ability. Indeed, considering her poor school advantages through frequent changes of residence she did very well in the subjects covered by formal education. Her memory processes and ability to testify correctly—in which we were naturally most interested—seemed, so far as we were able to test them, quite normal. Of a standard passage about a fire (Test XII), which she read once to herself, she recalled 17 out of the 20 items. A passage containing 12 main details (Test XIII), which was read to her in the usual way four times, she recalled with 2 details omitted. The "Aussage'' test (Test VI) was done very well indeed, with 17 items of the picture given correctly on free recital, and 5 rejections out of the 7 suggestions proffered. Bessie's conversation was fluent and coherent, her range of information was good. She showed fondness for the dramatic statement.

Her mother died in the old country when she was about four years old, and her father had immediately come to America, but had never established a home of his own. For the last nine months Bessie had been living with a woman, Mrs. S., who was deeply interested in her. Previously to this she roomed for about six months with her father and brother, and prior to that time she had been placed about in different homes by her father. After some months with Mrs. S. she complained of local pain and irritation. When taken to a physician, she said her father was accustomed to touch her, and her story involved incest by both her father and brother. After others had become interested in her case, the matter was turned into the hands of the police. It was notable that during this period Bessie's love of the dramatic was being fostered by her newly found woman friend, who was providing her with lessons in dramatic reading and taking her extremely frequently to moving picture shows and theatres.

When first seen by us, Bessie reiterated her story of sexual relations with her father and brother. As she had done with others, and with the judge, she went into almost convincing details. Her knowledge of such relationships was apparently complete. She informed us that she had caught "an awful disease'' from her father. She said that while rooming with them her sexual relations with her father and brother were nightly occurrences. They all slept in one bed.

A careful inquiry into Bessie's earlier knowledge of such things brought forth the most astounding account. One may say that this little girl had the most extensive acquaintance with many kinds of pervert sex practices that one has ever known in a young individual. She now said that the last ones who engaged in such things with her were her father and brother. Her experiences began at 5 years with a boy and a girl, and, she maintained, they had been very frequent ever since, up to within the last 9 months. A number of boys and girls were involved, as well as the men in two households where she had been placed. The practices she had engaged in were many, running all the way from self use of pieces of broom to normal intercourse, and both active and passive forms of pervert practices. It is unnecessary, even in this medical case, to go into details or to give her actual phraseology. It is sufficient to say that she frankly stated her early discovery of the pleasures of local stimulation and how she asked others to give it to her in various ways. Then she performed different perversions on boys and men. She told about observing sex relations between husband and wife in households where she had lived. She now says she had a disease before she came home to her father—a doctor had told other people previously. The men in two homes frequently had complete intercourse with her, she maintains, and gives description of it.

The credible substance of Bessie's long story elaborately told upon inquiry into her life history was that she certainly had had many sex experiences. When, in the light of these, it finally came to the question of the charges against her father and brother she said that it was really she who had been the instigator. When in bed she had begun playing with them. She described her method, learned before. She now says they did not have real intercourse with her, but the other men did.

The account of local physical conditions as obtained from several sources is as follows. Bessie was taken to a physician for vulvitis, etc., by some people before she came back to her father. During the period she roomed with her father he regularly treated her locally with a salve and a wash. The physician who later examined her for Mrs. S. found the parts so swollen that he could make no diagnosis of ruptured hymen, but took it for granted. After the father and brother had been in jail for some weeks the inflammation had subsided. (It is only fair to say that the father had clamored for a specialist's examination, which, he contended, would prove his innocence. Of course he was not aware of her earlier experiences or he would not have been so sure.) Then a competent gynecologist found that coitus had never taken place. The hymen was intact. This was at the time we studied the case. On the day of the trial, I with two other physicians examined the girl. It was found that a cotton swab about 3/8 of an inch in diameter could with difficulty penetrate the vaginal orifice. There was not the slightest evidence of any rupture of the hymen or of any vaginitis. So far as the "awful disease'' was concerned, repeated bacteriological tests over a considerable period failed to show the extensive vulvitis to be due to gonorrhea. It seemed much more likely that it was due to nonspecific infection following traumatism from the use of the various foreign objects which the girl told she had used. Perhaps it was partly the result of the perversions which, judging by her knowledge of them, had been practiced by others on her.

We were informed later that much indignation at our report to the judge was expressed by the crowd in attendance at the trial. The girl's first story was so well told that many had been irrevocably convinced of the utter guilt of the father.

The father himself, who was brought to us in the course of our study of the case, was rather a low type in appearance. He was a poor earner, evidently had earlier been alcoholic, a small whining figure with tears in his eyes. His appearance would prejudice against him. The brother, on the contrary, made an unusually good impression. He had the best of recommendations. His sister's first charges ought not to have been believed on the basis of his qualifications. There had been 5 children, 3 died in infancy. No history of any significance was obtained except that the development of Bessie had apparently been normal in all ways. Her mother was said to be normal. Both parents were evidently representative products of the underfeeding and generally poor hygienic conditions of the laboring classes in a large Irish city. There was unquestionably a great feeling of affection between the three. Indeed, Mrs. S. stated that it was the excessive kissing of the child by the father which made her suspicious. Bessie always maintained that both father and brother treated her very well and that she loved them much.

It seemed clear to us that Bessie never knew in the least the significance of the charges she so glibly made at first. Her mind had long been so full of these things, and their social import seemed so slight, that it meant no vindictiveness towards her loved ones to say what she did about them. She asserted to us later that she really did not know what she said to the judge at the first hearing. The case illustrated well the fallibility of a young girl's accusations coming even from the lips of a normally bright and affectionate daughter or sister.

For her own protection Bessie was given a trial in an institutional school. From there it was reported after a few months that her mind was found to be so continually upon sex subjects that it would be most advisable for her to remain long under the quietest conditions and closest supervision.

———————————————————————————————- Physical conditions: Local irritation. Case 16. Girl, age 9 1/2. Housing conditions: Crowded. Early sex experiences: Excessive and pervert. Parental control failure: No home, no mother. Delinquencies: Mentality: Serious false accusations. Good ability. ———————————————————————————————-



CASE 17

Summary: Boy of 16 years, not living at home, made false accusations of excessive immorality against his own family. These involved sex perversions, and he implicated even his own sister and brother, and alleged the connivance of his mother. The main complaint was against the step-father, who he also said was a professional thief. The improbability of such stories being told without good foundation led to much time being spent on investigating the case.

As possible causative factors of the unmitigated lying we found (a) defective heredity leading to (b) typical constitutional inferiority with the peculiar states of mind characteristic of the latter, (c) poor developmental conditions through early illnesses; (d) excessive bad sex practices on the part of the boy himself. Vindictive reaction to charges of delinquency against himself might be considered a factor if his false accusations had not been made without any such stimulus a long time previously.

(According to another classification this case belongs in our chapter on Border-line Types. It is retained here because it so well illustrates pathological accusation.)

John S., an undersized boy of 16, a pitiable specimen, when under arrest for vagrancy told such a heartrending story of home conditions, with assertions against family morality, that the judge and others were moved to indignation and an investigation was started. The general feeling was that no one who was not insane could make such statements about their nearest of kin without foundation in fact.

We found a poorly developed, but fairly nourished young fellow; weight 112 lbs., height 5 ft. 2 in.; good strength for his size. Stigmata: slight facial asymmetry, ears very long and narrow, dentition very irregular—one upper canine having erupted behind the central incisors. Tattooing on the chest. Vision defective, but how much so was impossible to estimate on account of corneal ulcer and general gonorrheal ophthalmia. Gait and attitude very slouchy. In contrast to general poor development, has already full sex development and much hair over body for his age.

On the mental side we found an excitable and talkative fellow, quite coherent, and giving in no way any indication of aberration by the form or trend of his conversation. He tells us he reached the 6th grade. He willingly works on tests and we note the general result as follows: Learning and memory processes, both for logical verbal and for meaningless associations, quite good. Perception of form, normal. Power of analysis of situations mentally represented, only mediocre. Associative processes, verbal, not normally accurate. Writes good hand. Simple spelling correct. Arithmetic correct for 4th grade. Tests for several other points hardly fair to register on account of defective eyesight. On one he failed because of not knowing the alphabet in order. Suggestibility extreme, as evidenced by testimony test. In giving report on the "Aussage'' picture, Test VI, he enumerated 12 items, 11 of them correct, on free recital. Then he gave 11 more details, all correct, on cross-examination, but he accepted no less than 7 out of 8 suggestions offered.

Information on current events is good, but on points said to have been learned at school is much mixed up. In giving responses to questions, he seized on any slight suggestion and adopted the idea. For instance, he said he had read the life of Napoleon, but could not remember to which country he belonged. When England was suggested he agreed to it. He then told various wrong incidents of Napoleon's life and death, also as suggested by the examiner. It finally came out that Bonaparte was an English nobleman who fought against France and Waterloo, was never defeated, and got sick in England. Then in the same way we get the information that this country gained its freedom from France, that Lincoln was president directly after Washington, and so on. John has read books from the library and various magazines, a considerable assortment. He knows almost nothing of even simple scientific facts, but is well acquainted with items gained from the newspapers and the theatres.

Going into his story, as we were requested, we heard at once about the cruel conditions at home. The boy's own father had been dead for ten years and up to within three years he had lived with a relative. While he was there letters indicated that queer things were going on at home, and the step-father was cruel to the other children. The mother was afraid to tell the whole story. When the boy came home the step-father at once began pervert sex practices with him, horrible things, and John found this man had been doing deeds of the same kind with an older sister and a younger brother. It seems the step-father also beats the children and has put this older girl out of the house. Recently he has left his wife.

When we go into John's own record, with which we had already made ourselves acquainted, he tells us he does not know what gets into him, but he has run away from home no less than eleven times. He works for a while, takes his wages and then stays at a hotel. He says he has been arrested several times on this account. His mother always telephones to the police about him and that is why he is under detention now. He wishes he were at home. The next day we went into more of the details which had been liberally sketched to the judge and other officials. We now learn that the step-father is a professional thief and that stolen goods he has taken are to be found in their home. He often leaves home and perhaps takes his wife's wages—she has to work out—and just now is again living at a hotel. The family have been informed by a physician that he is probably crazy.

On a later occasion the boy told my assistant that he wished to relate the whole story of his family. He then describes how the step-father even blackens the eyes of the sister and that he has long been immoral with her. It now appears that perversions began between this man and John some two months ago, never before that. The mother is there in the house all the time and knows about and permits the step-father's immorality with daughter and son. Cross-questioned afterward, the boy (evidently remembering what he said before) states these practices with him began the night he came home three years ago, but they had been going on with his sister before that. He knows this because his mother wrote and told him about it. His uncle wrote and told her to put a stop to it, but the step-father intimidates her with a revolver.

Our notes state that one afternoon when tests were being given him, John seemed to be in an excited state and often interrupted the procedure with talking. Seen in the hallway soon afterwards he waved his hand and insisted on telling more about home conditions and about what the officers would find if they went up there. On still another occasion he reiterated the same things, giving many details.

It was about this time that John was found to give strangely fantastic and childish accounts of circumstances with which he had been connected. We transcribe his story of a celebration at a school—it is a good example of his tales.

"They had it on Lincoln's birthday and on the 4th of July, too. The teacher did not believe that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. The children said, oh yes, he did. But they did not believe it. The children all hollered and said yes, he did. Then they all run up on the platform and got to fighting about it. The teachers would not believe that Lincoln freed the slaves till an old soldier came up there and told them yes, he did do it.'' I questioned him about this matter whether it was only a play they had, or were they in earnest. "Oh, all in earnest and they had a fight about it. The teachers would not believe that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and the children all run up on the platform and had a fight about it.''

Home conditions were next looked up by a court investigator and we came to know the mother and sister. Much to our surprise we found them to be quite self-respecting, entirely credible people of good reputation in the neighborhood. The mother is an honest hard-working woman and is exceedingly depressed about the career of this boy. The sister is a modest and unquestionably good, self-supporting, young woman. Not a word was heard against them in any way. In their distress they gave us the full story.

The parents were immigrants when young. The father died through an accident some ten years previously. The mother has kept track of the members of both families fairly well. She had a sister insane, said to have become so as the result of the menopause. The father himself had occasional attacks of epilepsy, but they were never frequent enough to hinder him working as an artisan. He was a very moderate user of alcohol. The mother has always been fairly healthy. Thinks she now has a cancer. There are no other significant points in heredity that she knows. There are three living children; a number of miscarriages came after John was born.

The pregnancy and birth were, normal. John walked and talked very early. Never any convulsions. At about two years of age he was very low with a complication of diseases. He was sick at that time for three months. Later he was operated on for rupture. The trouble with his eyes is of recent origin. When he was a young boy in school a teacher once told her she did not consider him right mentally.

There has been an exceeding amount of trouble with this boy. He was a great truant and reached only the 4th grade. When he was living with the uncle he caused much trouble, and the uncle warned her. He has run away from home twelve times, stays away perhaps two weeks at a time, and comes home ragged and filthy. He has had many jobs, but stays only a day or two at work. He steals in petty ways, takes money from home when he runs away. He is very lazy, but a great reader, especially of cheap novels.

Among the troubles with this boy is his extremely filthy talk. He has even lost one position on account of this. An aunt caught the boy in bad sex practices several years ago and told the mother. Neighbors, and earlier the school people, warned the mother that this was what was the matter with the boy. About a year ago John was found in a room with a man and other boys engaged in bad practices. The man was sentenced to a long term in the penitentiary on account of it.

Worst of all, the mother says the boy is the most malicious liar she has ever heard of. They have had a frightful time with him on account of this. For over two years John has been telling bad stories about the step-father. Recently he could not stand it any longer and left the mother. He was a good and rather strict man who took much interest in the children. He tried rewards with John, but this was of no avail. The boy has destroyed the home life, but she thought it her duty to try further with her own flesh and blood. The sister is in utter despair about what John has said concerning her. The younger brother also feels great humiliation. The boy has told his worst stories about them even in their own neighborhood.

After our investigation the boy was sent to an institution for delinquents where he could have the best of treatment for his ailments. The report from there after a few months was that he proved to be an exceedingly weak and vacillating type. He was notorious for being a boy that would do anything that was suggested to him. An outlook was kept for signs of insanity, but none was noted.

Over three years later we hear that John's character has not shown any radical change as demonstrated by his mode of living. He has served at least one term in a penal institution for adults. We do not know anything further about lying or false accusations in the case.

———————————————————————————————- Constitutional inferiority: Stigmata. Case 17. Mentality. Boy, age 16. Heredity: Father epileptic. Maternal aunt insane. Masturbation plus. Pervert sex experiences. Developmental: Much early illness. Delinquencies: Mentality: False accusations excessive. Dull from physical Running away repeatedly. causes (?). Stealing. Beginning psychosis (?). Sex perversions. Pathological liar (?). Vagrancy. ———————————————————————————————-

CASE 18

Summary: Little girl of 7 makes false charges of sex assault against boy in the same institution. She is later found to be an excessive liar and to steal.

Causative factors: (a) atrociously immoral home environment, (b) early sex experiences, (c) local irritation from active gonorrhea.

This case illustrates the fact that a young girl, who has had unfortunate sex experiences, especially if her mind is kept dwelling on sexual subjects through bodily irritation, is apt to take advantage of the stir which she knows she can make by her statements, and glibly make false accusations. The case offered no difficulties for study and can be presented in short as typical of a number of similar cases seen by us.

We were asked to see this girl a few days after she had been taken from very bad home conditions and temporarily placed in a good institution for dependent children. While there she had much upset the high-minded superintendent and her helpers by stating that an older boy in the place had sex relations with her.

She was a small, bright-eyed, vivacious child. General physical conditions decidedly good. No sensory defect. Well shaped head. Weight 55 lbs.; height 4 ft. Active gonorrheal vulvovaginitis.

On the mental side we found, although she spoke in somewhat broken English, an ardent conversationalist. With her many ideas about many subjects, she appeared decidedly precocious. We noted her also to be very defiant and self-assertive, and her tendency to lie without rhyme or reason was soon discovered. Her exact age never was ascertained, but undoubtedly it was about 7. She was in the 2d grade. At times when doing the Binet tests inhibitions would appear and she would give no answer at all even to some easy questions. Her positive responses graded her as 6 2/5 years, but undoubtedly she could have done much better had she so wished.

In her talkative way she used English very graphically, but with curious misuse of pronouns and a few other words. Considering the fact that her family spoke a foreign language at home and she had been but a short time in school this was not strange. Her lack of veracity was shown even in her assertions about her inability to understand English. At the first approach she denied her ability to do so, but later showed that she understood very well. This behavior was of a piece with her attitude shown in doing the Binet tests.

"Police bringed me. Don't know why. Cause my father run away, she don't want to stay with my mother. My father Austrian. Sometime my father talk Italian. Then God make him sick cause she talk Italian. My neck is sick. I go to Italian church and I talk Italian and God makes me sick.

"They bringed me home to-day, then they bringed me back here, then I stay here all along.'' (What is the matter with you?) "A big boy—up in school—upstairs—don't know his name. I came Saturday. She came Saturday. She came Sunday, too. When we come to listen to music then she gave to me that disease.

"Papa is bad. She run away. She run away. She take from my mama $12—all the clothes. She got another lady. Is that your lady? Why do you write? I could write better than you because I go to school all the time. I never take money. I Catholic and Catholic can't tell lie. Well, I going to tell the truth now. I found it in bed, in paper inside. Then I give it to teacher and then I give it to nurse. I never tell lies.''

Before we had seen her this child had given some sort of description of a big boy in the institution who she said had assaulted her. There was no such person there, but her vehement statements caused much disturbance. Later she denied this to us and accused somebody at her own home. She came from miserable environment, as may be surmised from the fact that her father was a deserter and probably immoral. On account of her unreliability nothing could be done in the way of prosecuting the offender. We always felt it a possibility that some member of her own family was guilty and that was the reason she had told so many different tales about it. An owner was not found for the money which she had stolen. The person from whom she said she had taken it had not lost it. She took it under conditions when she had no chance to spend it. Her excessive lying was a continual source of trouble as long as she was kept in this institution. She was long treated in a public hospital for her gonorrhea. Since then she has been lost track of. It is interesting in this case to note that the child maintained that she belonged to a church, which made it impossible for her to tell lies. We have heard almost exactly this same assertion on numerous occasions. It is clearly made by way of affirmation when the offender covertly feels the need of bolstering up false statements.

———————————————————————————————- Early sex experiences. Case 18. Bad companions. Girl, age 7. Physical conditions: Local irritation. Home conditions: Father immoral and deserter. Heredity(?): Father as above. Delinquencies: Mentality: Stealing. Fair ability. Sex. Lying. False accusations. ———————————————————————————————-



CASE 19

Summary: Girl of 18 made accusations to officials that a lawyer for whom she worked had been immoral with her. About the same time it was found that she herself had been stealing and lying about other matters. Later, when there was reiteration of the charges, a physician's examination showed that she had not been immoral. Some months afterward she went to other officials and insisted she ought to go to a reform school. A year still later she did have sex experiences and contracted venereal disease. Her succeeding record is totally different. For several years now she has been a young woman of thoroughly good character.

In its progress, after extended exhibition of exceedingly erratic conduct, to complete stability now long observed, this case is of considerable interest. It was after some months of effort on the case by experienced social workers that we were asked to study this girl. We found no difficulty in rapidly becoming intimately acquainted with her conditions and troubles.

Physically she was a normally developed young woman of distinctly good strength, but slouchy attitude. In expression rather dull and pleasant; laughs much in rather childish way for her age. Weight, 110 lbs.; height, 5 ft. 2 1/2 in. No sensory defect. Good color.

Mentally we gave her a wide variety of tests with the result, in general, that she did well on them. She had left school at 14 years when in the 7th grade, but had not forgotten what she had learned. Her arithmetic was done very well indeed and she wrote a very good hand. The tests, which brought her abilities in many directions into play, were done almost uniformly well. Her memory processes were distinctly good and showed her capacity by her remembering logical connections as well as details. Her casuistic responses which were asked for in two moral situations, verbally presented, Test XXI, were rather vacillating, but evidently sound. It was easy for her to appreciate the intricacy of the situation.

On the "Aussage'' experiment, Test VI, out of 15 details given as remembered from the picture just seen two were imaginary, and of 9 more items given on cross-examination two were erroneous. Her account as given was functional, not at all enumerative as in the usual childish fashion. Out of 6 suggestions proffered she accepted 4. This was a poor result for a person of her age. Her range of information was normal. Her interests while at home had been very simple; for instance, she had not been allowed to read novels nor go to theatres. In all our work on tests and in our several interviews with her we never discovered any signs of aberrational tendencies. Her social conduct furnished the only evidence of erraticism.

This young woman's mother, who is said to have been a normal person, died a few months before we knew her daughter. She had long been ill and consequently had had very imperfect control over her daughter all through adolescence. The father had been dead for several years previously; he was a storekeeper in a small way, fairly educated and non-alcoholic. No other family history of importance was ever forthcoming. There was only one other child in the family, a younger brother, who was quite normal. Outside of bronchitis during infancy it was said this girl had never had any serious disease. In the last few months there had been much complaint about suffering at the menstrual period. Menstruation began at 13 years of age and was said to have been regular until seven months or so prior to the time when we first saw her. However, this latter statement was made by the girl herself and at this stage her word was not particularly reliable.

When we began study of this case we were put in possession of the following notes made by an unusually competent social worker, extending over the previous nine months. Attention was first drawn to her when she was living with someone who had offered to give her a home while her mother was mortally ill in a hospital. She then had clothing and trinkets the possession of which she could not satisfactorily explain. It was discovered that she was lying. It was about this time that the girl told her friends that she had been immoral, and accused a man for whom she had worked of being responsible for her downfall. She had also been flirting with a married man who had been talking to her about eloping with him. It was learned that she stayed all one night at a downtown hotel, but probably alone. Further investigation showed she had stolen a considerable sum of money from an acquaintance and also a watch. Then a physical examination was made and a certificate given that the girl had not been immoral.

Much trouble was taken about the case in the ensuing year, the notes naively say, "object being to see if the girl could not be reclaimed.'' She was given an unusually good opportunity with a sterling family. She made much trouble for them and others who were interested in her. Her mother died early in the period. On a number of occasions she left her place and stayed away all night, sometimes walking the streets. On one occasion she is reported to have gone to a certain agency, looking as if she had been recently intoxicated, and appealed to be sent to a reform school. She was taken in by the police on one occasion. We first saw her after she had been living in this good home for several months.

At the same time we studied her physical and mental conditions we attempted to make some analysis of her self-orientation. She maintained then that her main trouble was because she had got mixed up with this married man. She declared he threatened her. (This was very likely from what was discovered about his character.) She had very good words for the officials who had helped her so much. She told us how she had stolen a matter of $100 or so. When we questioned her about her early accusations she said that she did tell a lot of lies when her case first was looked into. "I thought they were too inquisitive. I thought if I told them a few lies they would leave me alone. Everybody has to know everything. I forget half of what I'm to say. I don't know why I stole that watch. I would have brought it back home if he had not taken it on me. I never told anybody that I wanted to go to the reform school. I was afraid to go home because I was afraid I would get a good scolding. I think I have told all the truth to the officers since the first. I was ashamed to tell it, that's the whole truth. That's the truth, there was no one with me this other night. I did not meet a soul I knew. I went out to the South Park. I had never been there before. Where I have been living they would not let me go out anywhere. I had to stay there Sundays and all the time. When I got out I was worse than a wild calf. Maybe if I went out oftener I would not be so bad. I am here now because I went to the police station and told them I would not go home. It was late and I was afraid to go home. I had stayed out on the street all night. One night I went home and it was all dark and I was afraid to ring and I stayed on the street all night. I was on the street all the next day too. I went to the cemetery. Late that afternoon I met a young man and stayed talking to him and a detective came along and told us we shouldn't stand there. I never did anything bad with any man. I never said so. A visiting nurse told me the dangers of life. My mother told me I should be careful. Oh, I worked for that lawyer before my mother died. I worked for him about two weeks and he did not pay me what he owed me. No, he never did me any harm. A man came along with a lady from that office and he asked me some questions and I was so scared because I thought they were going to lock me up. I guess that was the question maybe and I said, yes, but I did not know just what it was.''

It was after this that the girl gave much trouble because of queer little trickery concerning some insurance papers, and about losing some money. Her friends wasted much time in the endeavor to get these matters adjusted. The family she was with thought she was very childish for her age.

Our opinion as dictated at this time was that the girl was physically and mentally all right, but that she showed a decidedly childish reaction towards the world and was very suggestible and unreliable. We knew many more facts about her which proved these points. Our judgment set down was that she was an unstable adolescent with possibility of showing very different characteristics inside of a year or two. We noted she had a weak type of face.

She was seen four months later, after a period of having run away twice for several days at a time. On inquiry she maintains she was impelled to do it by her own feelings of restlessness and general dissatisfaction. She thought the people with whom she lived were very nice and only strict as they should be. There was some question raised about this time about the periodicity of her impulsions, but except for her own statement that it was just before her menstrual time, nothing definite was proved. On the last occasion she did pick up with a young man and was immoral with him. She stayed out in a hallway all night. A venereal disease was then acquired. This was speedily treated in a hospital and the girl was found another place. Three years have elapsed, and during the time this girl has continued under the observation of one of her old friends. She has remained steady and trustworthy, and shows no tendency whatever towards untruthfulness or evasiveness. She has lived in one good home for two years and the people are deeply attached to her.