Then I decided we had better get our information down on paper in a formal examination.
The meeting convened at once, with Coy, McCahill, a county detective from Mineola, two deputy sheriffs, two patrolmen, a stenographer and myself as board of inquiry. It may serve to describe the fellow’s manner, as well as to bring out what the examination further disclosed, if we make use here of extracts from the proceedings:
Question. Where were you born?
Answer. Somehow my brain is in such a shape that I can’t remember—Wisconsin, I know. I don’t know what it is that affected me—something inside of me—maybe it is the shock I got from that.
Q. You speak with a German accent. Were you born in Germany, or in any of the European countries—tell me the truth.
A. Now listen. That has been said before—that I speak with a foreign accent. That is because I speak several languages. I speak French, German, Spanish, and all that. That is the cause of that, you see?
Q. We will eliminate the trouble of asking you questions if you will tell us the town or city in which you were born.
A. Yes. Now I am trying to think (a pause) I will have to disappoint you.
Q. Your memory is very clear on other things.
A. As I told you, I have been lying there, thinking, thinking.