A TEACHER OF INSANITY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XXVI, 27 June 1896, Page 769

A TEACHER OF INSANITY.

Teaching murderers to feign insanity is a profession in New York. Its leading exponent is an Italian whom Dr. Robert Stafford Newton has discovered. Dr. Newton is the expert on insanity and nervous diseases employed by the District Attorney. In the Sunday World Dr. Newton tells how he first became aware of this enterprising philanthropist’s work and of his subsequent investigations. Conviction of the act of which this man is charged would make him liable to punishment as an accessory to the crime * after the fact,’ as the lawyers put it. He worked so craftily, however, that even after his plan of operations had been discovered the collection of sufficient evidence to convict was rendered almost an impossibility. Such evidence as he succeeded in getting he recently submitted to the Grand Jury, but it was decided that while there was no doubt as to the facts in the case it was not complete enough to leave no legal loopholes, and so no indictment was returned. * But I am after the fellow yet,’ said the doctor, * and I believe I will get him if he doesn’t skip out. About a year ago Vicenzo Nino, now in Sing Sing prison awaiting the death penalty for his crime, murdered his wife in cold blood,' the doctor continued. ‘All night long be bad been quarrelsome. He had beaten bis wife and cold her that he was going to kill her. In the morning he did it. Cases of this kind I have made a practice of treating as follows : The first night I have them put in cell No. 18for twenty-four hours. Itison theground floor, and removed from all distracting influences. It gives the men a chance to cool off, and at the end of the twenty-four hours I can see whether they are in a normal condition or not. If not, then, I leave them there twenty-four hours more, and again make an examination. * Vicenzo exhibited none of the symptoms of insanity. Hs was quiet, cool and not an unusual symptom displayed itself for weeks. Then this man began to call and see him. He was supposed to be distributing tracts from an Italian cross society. In that way he had entrance to the Tombs. Suddenly a change came over Vicenzo. He began to have fits of noisiness. He would yell, and even butt his head against the bars of his cell. But his fits of noisiness were almost invariably in the morning, and after a good night’s sleep. He was a beautiful sleeper, sleeping the sleep of the pure in heart every night, and in the morning he would eat with the appetite of an anaconda. This was entirely at variance with the acts of an insane man of the type he was trying to represent, but, apparently, bis instructor hadn’t coached him on that point. Next he developed pugnacionsness. If a little man came into his cell be would attack him with great ferocity, beat him, bite him or do anything he could to damage him. But he never tackled a big man. He began to get tired of it, anyway, and was never noisy or violent except when he

knew be was being watched. He was too lazy to keep up the symptoms and exhibited them only when someone was about. He was tried for bis sanity on May 17th. He was quiet enough until he got into the court room. Then be became violent. He was pronounced insane. 1 Mind you, up to this time he had shown no delusions, illusions, or halucinatione He was simply violent. But the insanity teacher soon gave him that idea, and Vicenzo began to declare that bugs were pursuing him, bugs with blood in them. Bugs were getting into bis ears, be said, and the reason why he had killed his wife was because she had put bugs into bis coffee. When he was arrested be bad never said anything of the sort. The insanity teacher kept at his work. He went to the relatives and friends of Vicenzo, and at the trial he had a score of witnesses who declared that Vicenzo had often exhibited symptoms of insanity. Then it was that I began to suspect the insanity teacher, and began investigations that resuited in finding out how he bad been at his work. “If Vicenzo is noisy,” I said to his keepers, “stop feeding him.” He had a voracious appetite, and that order stopped the noisiness. On his trial Vicenzo was convicted. The teacher had been good enough, but his pupil was a dull degenerate who couldn't keep up the simulation of insanity with success. * About the same time another man, Charles Petrowsky, also a murderer, was in the prison. I made up to him with some success, and one day he said to me : * “ Doctor, a fellow offered to make me crazy for 810." * I never could find out whether it was the same teacher who had been soliciting his trade or not, but I have no doubt it was.

* In thirteen months before this fellow began to ply his trade in the Tombs, not a plea of insanity had been made for the Italians accused of murder. When he got to work, however, nearly every one of them made that plea. Gierachici and Maloni set up a plea of insanity. I believe the plea in the case of Maria Barberi won Id have been insanity if I had n t made a thorough examination of her mental state before the other fellows had a chance ti work the thing up. * The peculiar thing about these insanity cases was that all displayed the same symptoms. The violent form, the one that is nearer the lay idea of insanity, was abandoned. They began to simulate melancholia. They would come into the court room with dishevelled hair, throw themselves into a chair and sit there all day scarcely moving, occasionally weeping if they could squeeze tears ont. Once out of the sight of the Judge and jury their normal demeanour returned.