Insanity Claims | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 30, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 31.

Insanity Claims.

In referring to the nurse in Massachusetts who confesses to thirty-one murders of patients entrusted to her care and personal friends, the Christian Advocate remarks:—

It would appear that the sole grounds to suppose her insane, are the number of the subtle crimes she has committed, the supposed lack of any motive which might influence a sane person, and the absence of remorse. If there were no delusions, hallucinations, or illusions, this decision is far reaching in its consequences. It will be a frightful precedent, and make human life even more unsafe than it was before. The logical conclusion is, if for any reason one wishes to commit one crime and escape, commit more of them apparently without any motive. There are men so constituted that the appalling character of crimes leads them to believe the person who committed them must of necessity be insane. Divers insanity experts have that personal peculiarity. Their testimony in such cases is worthless; for they make no distinction between crime and insanity. One of them once testified that “in every case of a murder committed by a woman, the legal presumption should be that she was insane.” When asked if he would apply the same thing to men, “By no means,” said he.

It is said that the woman knew she was doing wrong, knew what the consequences of the poison so skillfully administered would be, but could not resist the impulse to kill. On that ground, according to all reports, she was accounted insane. Possessed by a demon, it looks like.