The Criminal Imbecile: An Analysis of Three Remarkable Murder Cases

by Henry Herbert Goddard

Assuming that on the 26th day of March he asked an acquaintance by the name of Morris Howe, a boy of fifteen years, if the deceased came to get her mail nights, and said that he would get even with her; that on Tuesday, March 24th, he told a man by the name of Estes Compo, with whom he was working, that the deceased had tried to send him to school and that if he had a revolver he would kill her, and asked this same man if he had read of a murder down South, of a colored man killing a white girl and laying it on the superintendent of a factory and that the man was sentenced to the chair and the colored man confessed the crime; that on the preceding night he had been in Compo’s room, where he saw a revolver and a knife, and on the following day he said if he had a revolver, he would kill the deceased; that about a week before the 27th day of March, while defendant was working for Sam Hutchinson, he told a boy he would some day put an end to the deceased.

Assuming that between the hours of seven and eight o’clock on the night of March 27th, 1914, Miss Beecher was killed at a dark and lonely spot on the Buck Hill road and that she had come to her death by being struck on the head with a monkey wrench and had been cut repeatedly to the extent of about 24 times with a knife in various parts of the body and that she was dragged from the place where she was killed to a clump of willows near the road and that her umbrella and hat were found the following morning in the road and that by following the track where her body had been dragged over the snow the body of the deceased was found.

And assuming that on the morning of the 28th day when the defendant was brought to Poland he was taken to a house of a Justice of the Peace and was taken into a room by the Deputy Sheriff and told that he was suspected and was accused of being a party to the crime. That after he was completely stripped of his clothing he stated to the Deputy Sheriff that he had gone to school to the deceased and had trouble with her at school and wanted revenge and that he had met her the day before near the Post Office and asked her to go up to his house and see his folks about having him go to school again, and that the deceased told him that she would go the next night. That the next night he did meet her near the hotel and she said that she was ready to go up. They walked up the street, and when they got near his father’s house, the defendant told her that his father did not live there, that they had moved up the hill, that he then stated in detail how he committed the crime and disposed of the body and what he did with the wrench and the knife. That he said, “You would not think any one could do a job as quick as that.” He said he supposed they would talk insanity, but he was not any more insane than the Deputy Sheriff was, and he did not want them to talk about it.

He also said, “Gillette got the chair, didn’t he?” and upon the Deputy Sheriff replying, “Yes,” the defendant said, “He had no reason to kill the girl, but I did; I wanted revenge.”

That at the same time the defendant signed a sworn statement before the Justice of the Peace, in which he stated that he went to school to Lida Beecher, and had trouble with her and wanted revenge; that he was not afraid, and when he got home, he was just as happy as he ever was, and did not think anything about it, as he thought he had revenge; that at the time he made these statements he was cool and quiet and spoke connectedly; that he was not nervous or excited.

Assuming that the defendant had not attended the Poland school since February or March, 1913, and that while there he had studied under the deceased for about one year, and that during this period the only punishment he had received from the deceased was a seat facing the wall with his back towards the other pupils, and was occasionally sent upstairs to the Professor of the school for punishment. And that the deceased had always manifested a friendly interest in him, was mild, kind, gentle, and good to him.

And further assume that when he left school, he was in the sixth grade.

Assume that he had frequently been detected in telling lies, that he had spoken of hatred of his father, that he manifested no affection towards him, referring to his father as “Old Man” and “Him.” That on the morning of the 28th when he was being brought back to Poland by Newman, Newman stated to him, “You have got something beside skipping out now staring you in the face,” to which he replied, “They can’t give me but ten years”; he used no words, when informed it might be a long time, that expressed fear or fright; and when he was informed that he had murder staring him in the face, he acted no different than ordinary.

That less than a year before the birth of Charles, the first child, the defendant’s mother suffered from an attack of diphtheria, for which she was treated by Dr. Quinlan.

Further assume that in the summer of 1910, at Morehouseville, while quarreling with a little boy named Arthur Jones, the defendant said he would go up to his father’s room and get his hunting knife and kill him.