CAPTURE OF GRAHAM

Southland Times, Issue 24574, 24 October 1941, Page 7

CAPTURE OF GRAHAM

Sir, —I read the account of the death of Graham in your issue of October 22. I was not astonished that this man was shot down, because it was obvious that no other method of taking him could have been adopted without risking more human lives. But I was disgusted at the publication in detail of what amounted to a description of practically the execution of the demented fugitive. Was it the custom of the Press to publish the intimate details, down to the last gruesome convulsion, of men dropped from the scaffold? And did the Press publish eulogies of the executioner for doing his duty? Such paragraphs would, I think, have been almost parallel with these descriptions. I have seen something of that spiderweb line which divides sanity from insanity. I have spoken with one who has been normal one day, with years of normal life behind him. but who was quite unbalanced next day, with years of mental sickness before him. When the “news” of his “breakdown” went around, there was that accompaniment of intense interest which made it an item of “headline news” to his friends. The same intense interest makes reading of Graham’s finish highly excitingexciting to that streak normal -to humans of enjoying the tale of another’s misfortunes, that streak which makes for good journalism but poor humanity. GRACE.