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Abstract
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There is no form of insanity which is of greater impor-
tance in criminal jurisprudence than paranoia. This state-
ment is made because the paranoiac remains so often undiag-
nosticated until some act of violence, which results in the serious
injury or death of his victim, calls the attention of medical men
to his condition.
The examination of such criminals requires not only a pains-
taking study of the prisoner's history as it relates to his victim,
but must include inquiry likewise into his heredity, his youth and,
indeed, his whole life up to the time of the examination. The
diagnosis of other types of insanity is comparatively easy. The
recognition of paranoia is frequently extremely difficult; and
oftentimes the demonstration of it to the satisfaction of public,
judge, and jury is impossible even in well marked cases.
Lest I should be accused of exaggeration, I may refer to
the case of Prendergast, the assassin of Carter H. Harrison,
Mayor of Chicago, as recorded by H. M. Bannister. Prender-
gast was born in Ireland, and came to this country as a baby;
his father was an inebriate, and several of his parental ancestors
were insane. His mother was a strong woman, with no bad
heredity that was ascertained. In early childhood he sustained
a head injury by falling that made him unconscious for several
hours. This was followed by more or less headache. As a boy
he showed peculiarities, was very irritable, and did not care for
the companionship of other boys.
He went to school for a fewyears, and made very good progress. He became a newsboy and
did quite as well as such boys generally do, but was rarely on
good terms with the other boys. As he grew older he delivered
daily papers on a somewhat secluded route, and did this work
to the satisfaction of all. About the age of 15 he began to
develop delusions of persecution; thought the other newsboys
were combined against him, that they were making misrepre-
sentations about him, and that his mother and brother were also
against him and constantly trying to do him harm.
A little later, there was much agitation in the Chicago papers
about the dangers of railroad grade-crossings and the neces-
sity of stopping the loss of life by track elevation. Then Pren-
dergast became possessed of the delusion that he was God's ap-
pointed agent to bring about this important work. To do it, he
conceived the idea that he must be made the corporation counsel
of Chicago. As soon as Mayor Harrison was elected he applied
to him. After Hon. A. Krauss had been appointed, he called
upon him and several times demanded the office as his, by right
of being the Almighty's agent. At the time of the assassination he
went in the early evening to the Mayor's residence and made the
same demand. Being refused, he shot Mr. Harrison, and imme-
diately thereafter went to the police station and gave himself
up. At the station he was regarded as insane, and at first it
was determined to send him to the Detention Hospital for the
Insane. At the police station Prendergast insisted that he did
it; that he was the divinely appointed agent to elevate the rail-
road tracks, and in order to do it properly he must be corporation
counsel. The mayor refused to comply with his request, and the
Lord had commanded him to remove him. He seemed sorry
enough, but said he must do as the Almighty demanded. In
various interviews he always admitted the killing, and always
justified it by his delusions ; he seemed to be very sorry that
it had to be done. Upon other topics he talked as well as could
be expected with his limited education,.showing a good memory
and emotional control. He had numerous stigmata of degeneracy.
After two jury trials he was condemned and in due time hanged.
No postmortem was permitted...
Language: en |