CONFESSION ON FILM

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 97, 21 October 1935, Page 7

CONFESSION ON FILM

AMERICAN POLICE RUSE

Six young murder suspects wert trapped by their vanity into making a cinema newsreel in New York recently. It proved their undoing. The psychological effect of being posed and questioned was that they confessed to the crime. " - A few days earlier a Tube ticket clerk was brutally murdered while trying to save his cash-box" from bandits, who escaped with'£4o in small coins (says the "Daily Telegraph"). Six men were quickly arrested, but long questioning did not make theni reveal their .complicity in the crime. Finally, New York's brilliant Dis* trict Attorney, Mr. William Geoghan, hit upon the idea of appealing to their vanity and asked his prisoners whether they would not like to make a newsreel for the American public. All eagerly agreed, requesting' permission to tidy themselves up and brush their hair. In the Attorney's office a complete newsreel crew with two cameras and lights awaited them. Under adroit questioning, with the camera recording every word, they blurted out the detailed story of their crime. Apparently not realising the damning evidence they were making against themselves, they eagerly competed for the chance to talk and seemed highly pleased with the attention they were receiving. One of ; them, known as "The Duke," suddenly pointed at one of his accomplices named Bolognia and accused him of firing the fatal shot. Bolognia eagerly interrupted: ''I shot him," he admitted gleefully. "First I slugged him with my gun, and then, when he started to fight, I let him have it through the heart." All. the prisoners were immediately charged with first-degree murder. The film will be offered in court as evidence.