"THE MANNER OF MAN THAT 



KILLS" 



A Review 



THIS' is "the history of three crimes 

 which might have been prevented, 

 crimes which were inexcusable 

 and a disgrace to our country. Society 

 here punished the person it created. 

 The original fault was the fault of 

 society. Society, upon whom rests 

 the responsibility, should be arraigned 

 at the bar of Justice and put on trial 

 and convicted instead of its product." 



Bertram G. Spencer terrorized 

 Springfield, Mass. for nearly two 

 years, beginning in June, 1908, with a 

 series of burglaries which had no ap- 

 parent motive. In the course of one of 

 them he shot and killed a young 

 woman. He was finally caught, and 

 committed for observation to a hospital 

 for the insane. All the alienists who 

 examined him pronounced him a defec- 

 tive from birth. His history from 

 childhood itself showed that he was not 

 a safe person to be at large in the com- 

 munity. But he was allowed to go 

 unguarded until for two years he 

 gratified his longing for sensation by 

 daring burglaries and in a crucial 

 moment lost control of himself and 

 committed a murder. 



After being kept in the hospital for 

 about a year he was returned to Spring- 

 field for trial, as the result of what Dr. 

 Briggs considers political influence, 

 and was convicted and put to death. 



The second case with which Dr. 

 Briggs is concerned is that of Leon 

 Czolgosz, the so-called anarchist who 

 shot President William McKinley at 

 Buffalo in 1901. In connection with 

 the trial of this murderer, "no thor- 

 ough, scientific investigation or study 

 had been made of his mental or physical 

 condition previous to his arrest." Pub- 

 lic opinion demanded speedy ven- 

 geance, and there was apparently little 

 desire on the part of the authorities 

 to be "embarrassed by facts." Allan 

 McLane Hamilton, an alienist who 

 was called to Buffalo to examine the 



prisoner, was not allowed to make an 

 examination, but he was permitted to 

 attend the trial, and in his Autobiog- 

 raphy declares, "I really do not think 

 that in all my experience I have ever 

 seen such a travesty of justice." 

 Shortly after the execution of Czolgosz, 

 Dr. Briggs undertook an investigation 

 of the case, which satisfied him that 

 "President McKinley was killed by a 

 diseased man, a man who had been 

 suffering from some form of mental 

 disease for years. He was not medi- 

 cally responsible and in the light of 

 present day psychiatry and modern 

 surgical procedure, there is a great 

 question whether he was even legally 

 responsible for the death of our presi- 

 dent." 



Rev. Clarence V. T. Richeson, the 

 third of Dr. Briggs' subjects, was the 

 pastor of a Boston church who fur- 

 nished cause celebre to the newspapers 

 in 1911. He "was, I think, the only 

 man ever executed in Massachusetts 

 without a trial. He was a victim o* 

 hysteria with delusions, hallucinations, 

 amnesic periods, and delirium. He 

 had exhibited signs and had had 

 attacks of this disease for years, had 

 been recognized as mentally unsound 

 by several physicians who advised 

 specialists in mental diseases to attend 

 him. Still, he was allowed to 'carr>^ 

 on' until his acts resulted in the death 

 of a young girl in this state." He 

 eventually confessed, and was exe- 

 cuted. 



The life histories of these three men 

 are given at great length. In spite of 

 some tiresome irrelevant detail, they 

 make reading of such interest that 

 almost any devotee of the stories of 

 crime turned out by professional fiction 

 writers would find them worth while. 



The judicial killing of such men as 

 those described is a rough and cheap 

 sort of eugenic procedure, from which 

 the race in the past has undoubtedly 



' The Manner of Man that Kills, by L. Vernon Briggs, M.D., director of the Massachusetts 

 Society for Mental Hygiene. Pp. 444, with 19 illustrations. Boston, Richard G. Badger, 1921. 



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