WOMEN CRIMINALS.

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18777, 27 October 1932, Page 11

WOMEN CRIMINALS.

STRANGE PSYCHOLOGY. MEDICAL MAN’S CONCLUSIONS. After having had more than thirty years' service as a doctor in the Paris Police Force, and in one of Fiance’s most famous gaols, during which time he has had over 1,000,000 women under observation, Leon Blzard, the principal medical officer in the famous St. Lazare Prison in Paris, finds that criminal “heroines” do not belong in most cases to the lower classes, but that those women are in many cases, well educated. Because of his position he was able to make the acquaintance of all the feminine celebrities of tlxe world of crime and to ascertain the motives that actuated some to oommit murder. Out of the huge number he observed he states that not all were actual criminals. v Mme. Steinhell, whose trial for murder was a great sensation In pre-war days, was, a remarkably *, cultivated woman. It is a curious ’fact that while the number of sordid crimes Is less than It was before the war, those due to passion have Increased to a very large extent. Up to 1914, the number of women accused of murder who were detained at the same time never exceeded three. A year ago It rose to 22—a record figure. This Is the lamentable result of what Is called the

Emancipation of Woman. Out of the 22, 18 used the revolver and only three the lcnife to dispose of a male companion. The twentysecond, an old woman, was exasperated hy the conduct of her husband, who repeatedly came home drunk, and she hit him on the head with a bottle. Passion, jealousy, desertion, and 'hatred —the four acts of the tragedy known under the name love —were the motives in 19 of these cases. In only three was it a question of money only. Though they did not belong to the best society, these criminals could not invoke poverty as an excuse, it must not be supposed that women of this kind are half-mad. When spoken to they are surprisingly gentle. They are just the ordinary middle-class people, and they discuss their own crimes without any particular show of emotion. “I saw red," or "I was crazy,” or ‘‘if I had only knowml’ are the phrases they use. Sometimes they shed a few tears, recover themselves and remark: “Well, what’s done can't be undone, and I hope I shall be let off lightly." Lady Owen was an excellent instance'of the inability of women to explain why they lapse Into crime. She reminded one more of a little girl than an assassin—a little girl who had tried to take a life. Mrne. Steinheil and Mine. Bessarabo were prisoners of quite another type. The former was a woman of the “double face" typo, sometimes very calm, sometimes terrible, remarkably heaulll'ul, extremely intelligent, and well educated. The motives of (lie terrible crime of which she was accused have remained very lilllc known, which fact resulted in her aecquiltal. Without a doubt both

Money and Passion Infllenced Her. The case of Mine Bessarabo, who had written some quite readable novels, was still more curious. Piic killed her husband for money, packed bis body hi a trunk, and sent it off by train. * I observed both Mmo Slclnlioil and Mine. Bessarabo while they were in prison, and I may say that, as with the others, they showed no real repentance, but found it natural to be acquitted, while those who were sentenced felt merely impotent rage against the Court which had dared to punish them. The fact is that women do not seem able to understand why they should actually bo punished for doing something which they regard as quite natural or a mere Irille. After I lit? verdict they either go into hysterics nr a fit of rage. Sister I.eonie, the well-known superintendent of the prison, and myself once narrowly escaped I lie consequences of a crisis of lids kind. Throe women were under sentence of ,|pmlli. They had committed murders which would certainty have meant the guillotine for them had lliey imen men, but (except during Ihe war, when five women were executed in Paris'! capital punishment lias never been inflicted on one of the sex. These three cases, however, were so bad Hint it was thought they mi'-hl be executed. They became so furious that they smashed the stove in the cel] which they occupied together, ami tried In kill Sister I.eonie and myself by Ihrowim: Ihe fragments of iron at us. Ne\l day Ihe penally was com in 1 1 1 ed . and llm Ihree furies were immediately I cans formed in I■> Hirer land'.- of Ihe gentlest ami sweetest dc-rripliun.