Outside of the girl's general frank bearing, undoubtedly a point rather indicating to the police possible truth in her statements, was the detail in which the alleged events were given. The signed statement coming from an apparently naive girl of 15 would seem in its clearness and coherency to bear the earmarks of truth. We always regarded this case as one of our interesting examples showing the unreliability of girl witnesses, especially those who have had unfortunate experiences, even though merely mental, with sex affairs.
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Mentality: Mild choreic psychosis. Case 23.
Girl, age 15 years.
Early clandestine sex teachings.
Delinquencies: Mentality:
Running away. Normal ability,
False accusations. temporary aberration.
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CASE 24
Summary: A girl of 16 whose general conditions won ready sympathy created much trouble. She repeatedly made serious accusations against a man and her attempt at suicide made her statement seem convincing. Further study showed the absolute falsity of her charges. It was a case of hysteria which had developed largely upon a basis of injury—there was a traumatic psychoneurosis. Under good treatment she made a fine recovery; there being no more indulgence in pathological accusations, although her nervous symptoms recurred for a short time after a couple of years.
At the time when we first saw Georgia B. she was somewhat over 16 years old and had been only 5 years in this country. We saw her because she had run away from home and attempted suicide. From the latter she had been rescued, and then had accused a neighbor of raping her. The case proved to be very troublesome until the nature of the whole affair was understood.
We found a thin and anemic girl, not at all prepossessing in appearance, dull in expression, suffering from a chronic suppurating otitis media.
On the mental side we had much trouble in conducting an examination because she was greatly given to tears. She did work for us on a few tests and her efforts would have been graded as those of a feebleminded person if her emotional state had been left out of account. Even our physical examination was largely hindered through her crying. However, her story was told in a straightforward way and with that show of emotion which had previously convinced others that grave injustice had been done her. Distinct proof of hysteria was present; for instance, on one occasion in the middle of a test Georgia apparently became unconscious. Her head dropped to the table, but her lips were red, her face did not change color, she resisted having her head moved, and in a moment or two lifted it herself to a more comfortable position. The diagnosis from such symptoms as these and from her history was not difficult to make.
The ``Aussage'' test, for obvious reasons, was not given.
Georgia told her story with surprising coherency; in outline, it was as follows: She ran away from home, and then was put under protection of the police authorities by a man who caught her. She said she was caught when standing by a drug store where she had been to get medicine, just ten cents worth of peroxide. When asked by us if it were not really carbolic acid she called for, she said yes, it was and that she intended to take it. She wanted to get rid of her life. What could she do in the way of living? Her father and mother were both sick and they could not live long and then how could she get along taking care of three little children? When asked if her parents would not be terribly affected by her suicide she said that it would not be the first time they had buried a child. At this time she would go no further into her history.
On the next day she talked straight to the point, but with a remarkably dull expression on her face. She said that about five weeks ago, she cannot tell the exact date, she went to a neighbor's house. A man there wanted her to come and look at some pictures. He finally got her to go to a bedroom and then held her so she could not scream, and raped her. She is sure of it. He later choked and beat her and kicked her out of the house. At first she was afraid to tell her people. A couple of weeks afterward she went back and asked why he did that, and he swore at her and accused her of being bad, and she and he talked back and forth for some time. ``He says, `I'll kill you. I did not touch you at all.' I says, `You did. You're a liar and you can kill me now if you want to. You have already killed me. See, I grow large like this.' '' He then set upon her and beat her again. She has not seen him since. After telling this Georgia began to cry very hard and said that she really is killed now and is done for. The whole story was told in a straightforward way with a full show of emotion.