"TRUTH SERUM."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 31, 6 February 1937, Page 10

"TRUTH SERUM."

EFFECTIVE DRUG. MOSCOW PRISONERS' CASE. EXPERIMENTS IN tT.S.A. The remarkable attitude adopted by ,thc prisoners who were tried at Moscow recently to the charges against them of plotting against the Soviet led to the suggestion that the men were under the influence of some drug which was affecting their will-power. Neither openly defiant nor cowed and broken, Radck and his companions gave blithe assurances of their guilt.

Dues there exist such a drug? The journal "Hygeia" told in 10:12 of one which, according to some who had ■ experimented with it, would cause persons under its influence to answer all questions truthfully. It was described by Mr. Calvin Goddnrd, director of the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory of Chicago, who named the drug as scopolamine. When modern methods were described of eliciting information from persons under the influence of such a drug, it must be remembered, Mr. Cloddard stated, that these were in reality that our forebears frequently employed. Many a State Secret had been divulged by imprudent gentlemen whose tongues had wagged a liit too much under the influenco of alcohol administered to them by solicitous friends with that very end in view. Spontaneous Truth. Credit must be given to Germany for the discovery of the useful part scopolamine can play in obstetrics to produce

•'twilight sleep." But its adaption to criminology was" first extensively exploited by Dr. Robert K. House, of Ferris, Texas. As an obstetrician, Dr. House found that patients apparently sound asleep under its influence might nevertheless be quite conscious of the import of question? asked them, and answer these fully and freely. The doctor found further that while" a subject is narcotised by scopolamine those areas of his brain which he must call to his aid it he wishes a fabricate a pretty —but untruthful—story appear to be in ill "high resistance" zone, and thie effect, combined with others, resulted ill lying becoming arduous, if not impossible, while the truth' escaped spontaneously and unchecked.

.. Members of the staff of the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory of Northwestern University, Chicago, conducted experiments with scopolamine ami a similar drug. In most cases the subject was not a criminal, but some respected member of society who bad volunteered to make the test' promising to lie consistently—if possible—in response to every question put to him. The usual procedure was for the subject first to prepare a list of questions to which he alone would be likely to know the correct answers, such as "What was my mother's middle name?" ''In what city was my father born?" He then wrote down tile correct replies and sealed them in an envelope. Jle resolutely determined to give a truthful response to none, and the drug was applied. The ability to tell falsehoods was found to wane rapidly, and the final response given to each question propounded was as a rule truthful in every particular. The drug was found to have the effect of stimulating memory, and cases were recorded of forgotten incidents and facts being remembered in detail. Murderers Confess. It was discovered that scopolamine yielded results of the utmost value in criminal investigations. A number of murders of a most brutal and revolting character bad been perpetrated over a period of many month,-, and finally n group of suspects was rounded up. "All were subjected to questioning under the drug. In every case in which the authorities had reason to believe the suspect guilty, save one, complete confessions were obtained. And yet they could hardly be termed confessions, for they were mere recitation* of stored up memories. Recovering from the effects, none had any recollection of the statements they 'had made, rut when eonfronted with these in written form, each broke down nnd signed a confession prepared after all influences of the drug had departed.

"The law moves slowly," the writer added, "but if it- really sicks the truth, the administration of scopolamine or some similar agent in order to elicit truth will eventually win acceptance/'