A MURDERER’S 
DYING CONFESSION DISPROVED 
BY SURGICAL AND ANATOMICAL FACTS; 
Read before the Massachusetts Medico-Le<?al Society, 
June 11th, 1889. 
By Benjamin E. Cotting, M.D., &c., 
Senior Consulting Surgeon to the Boston City Hospital, 
Associate member of the Society. 
On the afternoon of July 1st, 1874, a woman, 
twenty-two years of age, of no very uncertain char- 
acter, was brought to the Boston City Hospital- 
She was completely paralyzed on the right side ; 
seemed nearly or wholly unconscious; and had 
fearful and bloody injuries about the head. The 
story that came with her was that she had been 
found in this condition, a few hours before, in her 
“ own hired ” room, and in her own bed. When 
found she was motionless, and was at first sup- 
posed to be without life. Her head, neck, and 
shoulders were red with blood; and under them the 
pillows, sheets, and bedding were saturated with it. 
This blood had flowed freely from a number of open 
wounds on the left side of the head; but there was 
no spattering on the walls or objects near by. She 
was lying on her right side, with face towards the 
middle of the room, in the exact position apparently 
that she had taken on first going to sleep. Her 
night-gown and the bed-clothing about her body had 
not been perceptibly disturbed. Her day garments 
and smaller articles were orderly distributed about 
the room, as left on retiring. There was no sign 
discoverable that indicated the presence of any 
other person during the night. The room-door was 2 
locked, and the key remained in the lock on the in- 
side. The windows were closed, but one was found 
unbolted. Through this a person could have en- 
tered, or escaped, as the room was on the ground 
floor; yet a most diligent search failed to reveal 
even the slightest evidence that anything of the 
kind had been done. At what hour she retired no 
one could tell; and no response had been gained to 
repeated applications to her door in the course of 
the forenoon. Although an adjoining room on the 
same floor had been occupied that night, its inmates 
declared that they had not heard a groan or a sound 
from her apartment. 
So far as known she had not an enemy ; yet doubt- 
less had angered some one, inasmuch as an unrecog- 
nized man had asked for her the evening before, and, 
not finding her at home, had vowed terrible ven- 
geance as he left the house. 
Who did the deed, and what the instrument, were 
mysteries that seemed at the time to be past find- 
ing out. To ascertain the former became at once 
the duty of the officers of justice and the courts; 
to solve the latter was an appropriate task for 
medical men. 
On examination at the hospital several extensive 
and complicated fractures of the skull were dis- 
covered, with considerable depressions, thought to 
be chiefly in the outer tablet and not requiring 
trepanning. On and through the scalp were a num- 
ber of bleeding wounds, — the hospital record says 
“ nine on the left side of the head, besides several 
others near the left ear which cannot be separated.” 
The ear itself was “ greatly lacerated,” caught as it 
must have been several times on the edge of the 
instrument when it passed into the scalp. Its helix 
also, with the cartilage, was cut through at its ante- 
rior upper part. These wounds were all of a curved 
or crescent shape, clean cut, each “ little more than 
an inch long.” From two of them “ brain substance 
protruded in a mangled state; ” and into one of 3 
them, the only one mangled, the finger could be 
passed, and carried through the broken skull to a 
considerable depth, without force, in the injured 
brain—the record states “ fully two inches,” and 
I)r. Cowles markedly (on his finger) confirms this 
statement. The lines of these wounds turned gen- 
erally in one direction, inclining towards each other 
at various small angles ; in several instances running 
together or crossing; some mingling in a confused 
or inseparable manner — particularly at the spot 
where the finger could be passed into the brain. 
The little points or tongues of skin, wherever these 
wounds crossed each other, were perfect to their 
very tips, and showed no sign whatever of rent or 
bruise. 
The hair was very long and very thick: “We 
noticed it,” Dr. Cowles writes, “ to have been 
cut off quite sharply in correspondence with the 
cuts in the skin. ... I am quite clear as to the 
cutting of the hair.” 
From the worst wound (it being indeed where 
were several of those “which cannot be separated”) 
a few fragments of bone of considerable size were 
taken ; and from just within the external opening 
of the wound some chopped hair, mixed with the 
mangled tissues there, required removal. The in- 
juries to the bones, including depressions, were esti- 
mated to be within an irregular space of about three 
inches long and nearly or quite two inches wide, 
somewhat semicircular at its upper or widest part. 
The external wounds or cuts, also, with one or two 
exceptions, particularly one in the occipital region 
(diagram at c), were within the limits of such a 
space.1 There were no wounds on top of the 
head, or any other part of the body. 
Now, it is evident that a first blow must have in- 
stantly stunned and paralyzed this woman — else 
* The following diagram may assist in forming an idea of the num- 
ber, nature, and situation of the curved wounds in the scalp ; and 
also of the location of the injuries in the skull, at a, b, and c, as seen 4 
there would have been movement of her body or 
derangement of clothing, of which there was neither. 
This blow may have been given by a bludgeon, a mal- 
let, or a hammer of suitable size, form, and weight. 
Such blow repeated would naturally extend the 
fractures, comminute them, and cause any amount 
of depression in the bony skull. But open wounds 
in the fleshy scalp by such instruments would as 
naturally have crushed or bruised edges (not the 
linear cuts here present) and the blows that made 
such wounds would have caused a spattering of 
blood all about — not the free bleeding which in 
this instance blanched the victim and saturated 
everything near by. 
To account for the fractures and depressions then 
did not seem so very difficult, — any heavy club 
might answer. But what produced the curved and 
curiously situated incisions was a more difficult 
problem; and experts, professional and lay, called 
upon to solve it, as well as detectives and friends, 
all failed to suggest an adequate solution. 
Several days after her admission, Dr. Cowles, 
afterward in the specimen. Most of the heaviest blows, with the 
cutting end of the weapon, excepting that at c, must have been in 
front of the upper lobe of the ear, towards b; that is to say, where 
the skull was much cut through, where “ brain protruded in a 
mangled state,” and where fragments of bone were taken out. The 
“ temple,” the part popularly supposed to be especially vulnerable, 
was evidently aimed at by the assailant. 5 
superintendent of the hospital, called me in, as a 
consultant, to look at these wounds, to see what 
I could make of them. The parts had been shaven 
and fomented. The surface of the skin was quite 
smooth and uniformly convex — still notably swol- 
len— the swelling covering rather more than the 
space originally thought to include the injuries to 
the skull bone. Some of the cuts near the ear 
gaped a little, but the others were generally in a 
satisfactory condition, and all had the appearance 
heretofore described. After hearing the whole 
story, and a careful consideration of the matter in 
all its bearings, I suggested that such wounds re- 
quired a sharp instrument (as all admitted), and 
that the deed had been done by a mechanics’ 
inch-wide youge, — a tool resembling a chisel, but 
having, instead of a Hat, a “ hollow ” cutting blade, 
a longitudinal third or trisection of a cylindrical 
tube. This is bevelled off, like a chisel, to a cut- 
ting edge, which in this way becomes curved or 
crescent-shaped. If the corners also are ground off, 
as on turners’ gouges (vide fig. inf.)2 the cutting end 
partakes of a rounded, spear-like form, and presents 
a drawing edge to whatever may be brought in con- 
tact with it. Hence it might cut hair almost as 
easily as a razor. Its handle is usually nearly or 
quite cylindrical, and of firm hardwood. Thus the 
tool might be just the club for heavy blows, if held 
by its metallic end, while its cutting edge woidd 
most certainly make wounds like those in question. 
Such an instrument had not been thought of; but 
the suggestion evidently made an impression; for, on 
the next day, Dr. Cowles came to my house, bring- 
ing a turners’ gouge, of inch-wide blade, a new one 
2 The figure below represents the cutting end of a turners’ gouge, 
■ showing its curved shape, and the rounded outline of its edge. 6 
procured from a shop as a specimen by a police 
officer who wished to know whether that was the 
kind of instrument I had spoken of, — as it cer 
tainly was. The tool brought to me was nearly or 
quite two feet long — its inch-wide steel or cutting 
portion and its handle being of about equal lengths. 
Its handle was a heavy billet of hardwood, smooth, 
cylindrical, slightly ovoid at the end. Such a tool 
usually weighs about thirty-five ounces, at least a 
pound more than a policeman’s billy. Held by the 
metallic portion, a blow, given by it as with a club, 
would be quite capable of crushing in a skull and 
instantaneously stunning a victim to unconscious- 
ness. Indeed, this would be almost inevitable ; and 
without necessarily breaking the scalp. Repeated 
blows would have the effect heretofore indicated. 
This done the operator, without removing his hand, 
but by simply turning the tool nearly or quite ver- 
tical, with edge downwards, could stab the fleshy 
parts as rapidly and as many times as he chose, 
before the victim could have time to revive or even 
move. He could do this after premeditated inten- 
tion, or on the impulse of the moment, to thoroughly 
complete the deed. Such stabs would make clean- 
cut and curved or crescent-shaped wounds naturally 
turned in the direction of those found ; and when 
the instrument was driven with force it would not 
be apt to slide or make grooves in the flesh, as a 
blunt tool would ; and might pass directly through 
the already comminuted bone into the brain itself. 
As the skull injuries showed that they could 
have been made by the handle of a gouge such as 
that brought to me, so the flesh wounds indicated 
the blade of a similar instrument. Indeed, Dr. 
Cowles had already tried the cutting end of the 
tool he had with him, and found that it would fit 
the wounds exactly. 
Thus the problem seemed to be satisfactorily 
solved. 
Dr. Cowles then went on to say further, that 7 
among those interested in the woman was a young 
mechanic, who was, in fact, so tremulously anxious 
about her possible recovery as to excite suspicion, 
and induce the surveillance of the police. Since 
my visit to the hospital this man had been taken 
into custody. Proving to be a turner by trade, his 
workshop and tool-chest had been searched. The 
chest contained the usual tools, having a series of 
gouges complete, with the exception of the inch- 
bladed one. That was missing! The arrested 
man could not explain its absence, or give any 
account of what had become of it. He could not 
even tell when he had used or seen it last; and it 
was too large a tool to be lost without notice. 
These were rather damaging circumstances, but he 
stoutly asserted his entire innocence of the whole 
affair; and no other evidence was ever found 
against him. He had, it appeared, known the 
woman for some length of time, and had always 
seemed to be anxious for her welfare. 
The woman did not in any way connect him in 
the matter, nor even recognize him; in fact, she 
was never able to recall the assault or any thing or 
person of the evening previous — an ante-accident 
oblivion not uncommon in those Avho have been 
severely stunned. The detained man made out an 
alibi; and was subsequently set free. He was 
generally accounted guiltless of the assault. I am 
not aware that the missing tool has ever been 
found, or its loss accounted for. 
(As merest conjecture, in solution of this part 
of the mystery — possibly the man who with 
“ horrid oaths ” had threatened vengeance the 
evening before the assault, while in search of a 
club, may have robbed the chest of this tool — a 
very natural thing for a mechanic to do, and not 
unnatural in anyone on felonious intent. This may 
have suggested itself more readily to him if he 
knew the owner was an intimate of the threatened 
woman, as in such case the missing tool would 8 
tend to divert attention from himself and to turn 
it upon another man. Besides, the carrying a tool 
would not attract notice; whereas the possession of 
a club might arouse suspicion. The deed done, he 
could easily throw the tool into the waters of the 
dock near by, nevermore to be seen of men. There 
was, moreover, as rumor had it, an unaccounted-for 
disappearance from the neighborhood of a man 
quite competent to all this.) 
The injured woman, after a protracted convales- 
cence (during which the paralysis gradually dis- 
appeared) and a residence for a time at an asylum, 
at length regained her usual health and sanity. 
Before she was discharged, however, she declared 
her fixed determination to return to her old mode 
of life ; and was soon lost sight of, except by the 
local police of her own immediate neighborhood.3 
In May, 1876, nearly two years afterward, a con- 
demned murderer, a few days before his execution, 
made a “ confession ” of many of his misdeeds, 
and claimed this assault as one of the number. He 
stated that by chance that evening he had met 
upon the street this woman, before unknown to 
him; that he went with her to a restaurant; 
thence to her house, and passed the night there; 
that, in the early morning, while she was yet sleep- 
ing, he pounded her on the head with a hammer, 
and then left her for dead. He further stated 
that the hammer might be found buried in the 
earth in a cellar he had access to at that time. He 
had had other things there, for murderous pur- 
poses, awaiting opportunity. The finding of a 
hammer gave credence to the story, which was 
pretty generally acquiesced in. But having had 
much to do with the case for which this man was 
to suffer (his last victim having been my patient), 
3 Dr. Edward Cowles, now superintendent of the McLean Asylum 
for the Insane, at Somerville, Mass., kindly permits me to say, that 
to the best of his knowledge and belief the case in my paper, so far 
as it came under his observation and cognizance, has been related 
by me in a true and faithful manner. 9 
I distrusted the narration. Yet what motive, it 
may be asked, as it lias been, for a man so situated 
to make misstatements ? Although now concerned 
with facts, not motives, here is one among others, 
quite conceivable. At about that time, in another 
case, a death-sentence was delayed and a commuta- 
tion expected (afterward actually granted) on the 
open avowal of murders and other revolting 
crimes,— on the ground that “ irresistible im- 
pulse,” or something of the kind, had rendered the 
villain not responsible. More than one murder was 
chargeable to this last convict. A long list might 
save his life, if his philanthropic sympathizers 
(after having denounced his sentence as unmerited 
and too hasty) could be induced to urge upon the 
government the plea that “he couldn’t help it.” 
It would have been the venture of desperation; 
but it was too late.4 He soon became “'much 
mixed,” and finally broke down. 
As to my patient, I had, as her murderer at last 
acknowledged, given in open court more correct 
details of the deed than he was able to recount 
when, in sight of the gallows, he attempted a nar- 
rative of his noAv admitted crime,—admitted to his 
amazed legal defender, whom he had deceived, 
up to that moment, into full belief of his inno- 
cence. 
In regard to the injured woman, his statements 
were so defective, or so at variance with my obser- 
vations as a medical man, that, for myself, I soon 
became convinced that he never had anything 
whatever to do with her, unknown to him, as he 
admitted, up to the day of the assault. 
But the hammer! It was (I have seen it) a 
smiths’ hand or riveting hammer,5 with circular 
* This supposition is not necessary to the argument, anti perhaps 
it implies too great facility in expedients; but a man who could 
thoroughly hoodwink his friends and advocates at will, could 
readily take a new tack when convinced that the one he was on 
was soon to prove fatal. 
s A friend reminds me that the murderer said that he used a plas- 
terers’ (i.e., lathers’) hammer—quite a different tool from that found; 10 
face of seven-eighths of an inch in diameter, not 
very sharply defined at the edge, but enlarging 
almost at once into a square form of an inch and 
three-eighths diagonal line; weighing only rather 
more than a pound, handle and all; not very likely 
on a first blow to completely stun in an instant, 
and thoroughly paralyze one struck by it, or to 
cause, with its small face, large fractures or depres- 
sions in the skull, or any fracture at all without 
leaving small, local, pulpy bruises in the scalp 
where struck, and not a uniformly smooth swelling 
as in this case. The pein, or wedge-shaped end of 
such a hammer, if the blow were of sufficient 
force, might cause a fracture, but then the wound 
left in the scalp would be a straight, mangled fur- 
row or indentation. In like manner its round face 
would leave a soft or pulpy and somewhat cup- 
shaped depression. If an open wound of the full 
size of its face could be so made, it would be cir- 
cular, of course ; but if less complete and of an inch 
in length (more than the diameter of this ham- 
mer’s face), it could not be of a lesser arc than a 
semicircle. One, or two such wounds segregate, 
might be imagined, perhaps, but half a score or so 
would be clearly impossible. Now, the wounds we 
had to deal with were crescent-shaped, not semicir- 
cular ; were sharply defined incisions, all of equal 
lengths, variously inclined and running into or 
crossing each other, and in themselves hardly 
conceivable as the work of a hammer, or as made 
by anything else than a sharp, cutting instrument. 
Besides, no hammer’s blunt face could be forced 
into and through the skin, except at an angle, and 
then the opening would be bruised down on one 
side and crushed off on the other, according as the 
instrument slipped, as it inevitably would more or 
less, on a rounded skull. Furthermore, we repeat, 
an instance of liis inability to give details correctly. The hammer, 
as found, was so defective and weak in its handle, where attached 
to the metallic head, that a very feeble blow would have broken its 
head off. 11 
wounds made by a blunt tool might spatter their 
blood, but not set running so many freely flowing 
vessels. Bruised wounds do not bleed like incised 
ones. Again, and fatal it would seem in them- 
selves to the “ confession,”— 
(a) No hammer, however keen its circular face- 
edge, or other blunt tool, could make such “ sharp” 
cuts in and through the mass of hair this woman 
had, — no, not one such; much less a score; 
(ib) Nor is it possible, supposing a human arm 
had the power, that a hammer-head, being only one 
inch and seven-eighths in length from its face to 
the hole for its handle, could be forced through 
such hair, scalp, and skull, into the brain to a 
depth in all of “ fully two inches,” without making 
a much larger opening, carrying in to the very 
depths hair, flesh, and fragments of bone, and 
leaving a very different state of things on the 
outside from that here found. 
All that was done, however, could have been 
easily effected with a turners’ go\ige.6 
Not long ago, March 20th, 1889, fourteen years 
after the injured woman left the hospital, a notice 
appeared in the newspapers that her body had been 
received at the morgue. I immediately called on 
Dr. Harris, medical examiner, who at once, with 
most courteous readiness, offered all facilities pos- 
sible at so late a period. He had not known any- 
thing of her previous history; but had been told 
that after a prolonged drunken debauch, of which 
she had had many, nature giving way, she fell 
into a state of exhaustion, and in a few days there- 
after had a painless and peaceful death. The 
cause of death had been officially reported “ alco- 
holism.” 
9 A small matter, perhaps, but tending to show the kind of instru- 
ment used, — almost all, if not all, the curved wounds had their 
points forwards or somewhat turned diagonally upwards, precisely 
as if made by a gouge held as one, when a!«out to strike such blows, 
would naturally hold it — at its middle near the junction of the 
handle, with the tips of the fingers resting high up in its metallic, 
“ hollow ” part. 12 
Even in the grimness of her grewsome surround- 
ings and after such a life she was not ill-looking. 
Her face and features were not disfigured. She 
had “ never had disease,” except from alcohol, and 
was not wasted. Her head-of-hair was quite ex- 
traordinary in abundance, great length, softness, 
and glossy blackness. It had been well cared for; 
even the officials of penal institutions had re- 
spected it; and, contrary to their usual custom, 
had left her in full possession. 
There had been an autopsy, and everything had 
been replaced in proper order; not then to be fur- 
ther disturbed. I sought out, however, the ex- 
ternal scars in the scalp — an important matter. 
They were not at first easy to find on account of 
the thickness of the hair. They were there, never- 
theless ; and, except near the ear, where was a 
wrinkled group, they were delicate, linear, crescent- 
shaped scars, unmistakably the result of clean 
cuts, or incisions healed by first intention, — not 
of bruises. There could be no doubt in the mat- 
ter. 
Some weeks later I had a chance to see the 
“specimen,” — deprived of most of its integuments. 
Looking at it in front, a general depression of the 
middle of the left side, as compared with the right, 
was quite evident; and this occupied about the 
space estimated in the first examinations at the 
hospital. Such a uniform and shallow depression 
suggested the result of blows by a weapon of 
considerable size, without angular projections, — a 
smooth club, most probably. 
On side view, about two inches above the an- 
terior third of the zygomatic arch, there appeared 
evidences of former fractures (diagram, at a). 
From a point on the frontal bone near the parietal 
several lines of old callus radiated at acute angles 
as from a centre. Between two of the uppermost 
of these was a double triangular prominence about 
an inch long and quite an inch and a half or more 
wide as it diminished off towards the base. 13 
Very likely the fractures at this place came from 
the first blow the woman received from her assail- 
ant. 
On, or just above, the level of the zygomatic 
arch, there was an oblong opening in the skull — 
beginning at the largest portion, just in front of 
the anterior part of the temporal ridge, and ex- 
tending forwards about two inches (diagram, at b). 
The upper and lower bony edges of this opening, 
irregular in outline, were not rough, having been 
smoothed oft' naturally in progress of time since 
the injury. The lower border seemed to be of two 
nearly equal lines, each very slightly curved and 
joined together at an angle, open upwards, of about 
a hundred and twenty degrees. The upper border 
of the opening was rather more irregular, but 
equally smooth. The anterior limits ended in a 
point, almost, while the posterior or aural portion 
was three-fourths of an inch, or more perhaps, 
across. From this space undoubtedly came the 
fragments of bone removed at the first examina- 
tions. Here too, near the ear, the finger could be 
passed into the brain, but no hammer of the size 
and form of that found could have ever made an 
entrance through such an opening. A gouge could 
have done this, and easily have shaped the lower 
border of this cavity. 
On the occipital bone, about three inches behind 
the meatus auditorius, was (at c) a well-marked 
curvilinear depression of about an inch chord, 
which, with a slight ridge inside, gave strongest 
evidence of a former wound by an instrument that 
had gone completely through the skull at this 
point. This was where (in Dr. Cowles’s trials, 
before mentioned) the gouge would most exactly 
fit the fleshy wound; and the prolonged depres- 
sion of the enclosed fragment of skull showed 
with what difficulty the tool must have been 
wrenched from its impackment in the bone. Now, 
indeed, if any one can conceive of anything better 14 
adapted to produce such a wound than a gouge, he 
must have greater powers of imagination than I 
can lay claim to. Even with such an instrument 
the blow must have been given with very great 
force. Not to insist that, in the position the 
victim was lying, the blow of a hammer in the 
hand of an assailant, if it made a curved indenta- 
tion, must have made one in a different direction, 
— no hammer-head, even if held as a punch and 
struck by a sledge, could be driven through all the 
coverings of the skull and the skull itself at that 
place, and simply cut out, or force in, a circular, or 
as in this case an almost semicircular, fragment. 
A general crush of all the neighboring parts 
would be inevitable. A small hammer in the sin- 
gle hand of one person would seem wholly out of 
the question. 
There did not appear to be anything else in the 
“ specimen ” attributable to the assault now under 
discussion.7 
To recapitulate, —it appears, from the length and 
width of the space involved in the fractures, and 
the depressions being in the outer table chiefly, that 
the victim had been struck by a club of some kind, 
— one of considerable size, and smooth also, inas- 
much as the scalp was not laid open by it; 
That, instantly stunned and paralyzed, her motion- 
less insensibility permitted other blows, and the in- 
fliction of any number of open wounds; 
That the wounds actually made, a score or so 
scattered or inseparable, were curved or crescent- 
shaped, with clean-cut edges, the little points, at 
? There were three little depressions in the outer table near the 
vertex, two on one side of the sagittal suture and one on the other 
side, — as if it were at the corners of a right triangle. They were 
each capable of holding half a large pea, flattened. They were out 
of the reach of a weapon of any kind as the woman was then 
lying; and, as there were no wounds of any kind in that region 
when she was admitted to the hospital, they could not have had 
anything whatever to do with this assault. 
I have the support of the highest authority in saying that there is 
nothing in the specimen ” inconsistent with the theory that a 
gouge was the instrument used by the assailant. 15 
the crossing of any two, whole and clearly defined, 
not bruised; that these wounds were/)f nearly equal 
size, each a full inch in length; and, further, that 
they were cut through thick hair “ quite sharply,” 
and through the scalp also, in one or two instances 
going quite through, and deeply into the brain; all 
evidently done by some kind of sharp-edged instru- 
ment ; 
That these wounds bled freely, as cut wounds 
generally do; 
That a turners’ gouge fulfils all the requirements 
of the case; while the hammer utterly fails in regard 
to the open wounds, and, as we think, in every par- 
ticular. 
Such are the premises; and such the offered solu- 
tion.8 An adequate explanation, however, ought 
to be enough to hold against the improbable, or the 
defective. 
To some persons the circumstances attending the 
“confession” may seem to add credibility to the 
murderer’s story, but they should not. The con- 
fessions of criminals, even when without motive and 
only tending to increase their infamy, are not re- 
ceived by courts of justice unless supported by 
other and more trustworthy evidence, laying per- 
sons, in their feeble and imperfect utterances, sel- 
dom fully know what they are talking about, as 
momentary revivals often prove. In the partial 
delirium of weakness, as in half-sleep, a person 
striving to say one thing may utter something very 
different from what he wishes, semi-consciously, 
and in spite of himself. Last words, ordinarily of 
little moment, should be construed with caution, 
for too seldom can they bear the interpretations one 
would gladly give to them. Death-bringing illness, 
while killing the body, generally, even where and 
% 
8 Its elucidation an after-thought —else more thorough in details 
— incited by the last notice in the newspapers of the woman and 
her avowed assailant. 16 
when least expected, clouds or nearly obscures the 
intellect, and fills the mind with baseless delusions, 
while the crushing terrors of impending destruction 
seem at times to start up in a culprit’s mind re- 
membrances of crimes which he never committed.9 
What wonder then, that, broken down by despair, 
the last straAv of hope floating away, Avith mental 
powers utterly demoralized,10 a doomed man, Avith 
or without rational motive, magnify his many mis- 
deeds, assuming the acts of others Avhich he had 
gloated on, and incorporating them Avith his oavu. 
At all events, this portion of the murderer’s 
“ confession ” I did not believe at the time. I do 
not believe it hoav. Facts in the case disprove it. 
JV. B.— After reading my paper a friend called my 
attention to an article in the London Lancet (Apr. 
20,1889, p. 819) wherein the Avriter asks, “Are most 
dying declarations unreliable evidence, and how 
may we differentiate them? ” and then says, in an- 
swer, “If a human being be aboulic .... if suf- 
fering from extreme nervous exhaustion through 
terror or otherwise .... his [dying] statements 
are unreliable as evidence, .... and the sooner 
medical jurists insist on the alteration of the posi- 
tion and value of such testimonies the better it 
will be for society and for mankind.” 
9 “ An instance of remembering events that never occurred ” — 
H. \V. B. on testimony in another noted case. 
10 A recipient of another part of the “ confession ” says of it that 
it was “ true so far as a person, with a mind so thoroughly demoral- 
ized as his had been, could make it.” In fact, it is to be surmised 
that his statements generally would require coroborations from 
other testimony. 
I Reprinted from the Boston Medical and Surgical Jonrnal of 
July 4, 1889.]