72 CASE HISTORIES 



boy and said his wife was dead. After the armistice he went back 

 to work for the same contractors whom he had suspected of 

 persecuting him before by giving him all the hardest jobs. Soon 

 the other men began to kid him and say, " Own up, Purdy, that 

 you're a f ellationist," and that " broke him all up." He became 

 much upset, and was brought here a second time. 



Sex life' When about ten years old he was sleeping with his 

 mother's sister and rolled against her in bed. He had an erection 

 and was making copulative movements in his sleep when she 

 waked him by pushing him away. He masturbated once or 

 twice a week throughout adolescence and then slowed down, but 

 revived it again in the army. In the reform school he committed 

 pederasty once and allowed fellatio. An older fellow offered him 

 some much coveted tobacco if he would allow pederasty. He re- 

 fused but consented to allow coitus inter femora from behind. 

 They were caught and accused of pederasty, and this lengthened 

 his term. 



A few weeks after he was pardoned at the time of his father's 

 death his mother sent him to have an interview with her con- 

 fessor, a man she respected greatly, in hope that the priest would 

 exert a good influence on her wayward boy. But the priest after 

 praying with him took him to a bedroom and began to play with 

 him sexually. He was unable to accomplish pederasty but did 

 coitus inter femora. The shock to the boy was extreme. He 

 knew such things occurred in penal institutions, but to find that 

 a priest of the church did them was a blow. He reasoned that 

 if this respected man did them, so must the rest of the clergy. 

 All priests and preachers were hypocrites, and the church which 

 to him had been the holiest thing in life now became despicable. 

 He pictured the poor " with their noses to the grindstone to earn 

 money to support the gold cross whose priests were rotten. And 

 if the priest would seduce me under the cloak of religion, 

 wouldn't he try to seduce my mother also?" (He showed great 

 emotion in recalling these memories.) After this experience he 

 never felt the same again either towards the priest or his mother. 

 He was disgusted with him and her and himself, with his 

 brothers, with everything and everybody. It was in this state 



