Feeble-Mindedness and Juvenile Crime

Abstract

old child, the inquest on whom resulted in a verdict of Murder against some person or persons unknown. The little toddling mite and his brother, only a little older than himself, had been playing in the road one Saturday afternoon, and some time'afterwards the elder boy was found alone, his little brother having been taken away, he said, by a boy. It was not until twenty-four later that the missing child was found partially buried in some waste ground. One week later a mother missed her own baby who had been playing on the door-step, and, on instituting a search, found him in the arms of an 8 year old boy, who had almost reached the fateful waste patch, the scene of the previous murder. He was accompanied by another small boy, who was known to be mentally deficient. The boy then made the following statement: He had been in the street a week previously, and, seeing the little boy crying, had picked him up. As he carried the child about it fell asleep in his arms. He carried it into the field and laid it down while he made a hole with his hands in the debris from the disused ironworks. As he laid the baby on its back in the hole it woke and cried, Mummy! mummy! He described how it struggled and kicked while he piled the rubbish, brick ends and a large stone upon the living grave. Having done this he had gone home, totally unconcerned, to his tea. Every detail of this tale of horror was detailed without the slightest sign of compunction or regret, and he admitted that it had been his intention to repeat his exploit with the baby now found in his arms, though he said that he and his companion (the mentally deficient child above referred to) had discussed whether they should bury this one or vary their method by drowning it. We stand aghast at the mental attitude of this youthful fiend, in whom the infant's cry of pain could touch no chord of tenderness, and whom no thought of the unutterable anguish of the mother could restrain from murder. Yet this boy had as yet shown no such signs of mental deficiency as had already marked out the companion of his