A Psychological Puzzle.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16153, 6 March 1918, Page 6

A Psychological Puzzle.

The study of the psychology of criminals reveals many strango anomalies ] and perplexities, and the case of * Eggers, who was hanged in Lyttelton Gaol yesterday, only affords another j illustration of this fact. Never was j n criminal convicted upon elearor evi- c denco than that which left a Christ- 1

church jury "without the shadow of any reasonable doubt that the mail known us Frederick William Eggers had com- i mitted the crimo of murder with which ; lio was charged. He was proved to have been in the neighbourhood of tho : murder when it was committed; the proceods of tho robbery which was the svidont objo-jt of the murder—a sum jf about £3000—were found in his possession; tho bullets found in the lead- man's body were identical with jullets in tho prisoner's brief-bag, and ( itted' a pistol in tho same bag, which 1 >istol he endeavoured to use "when ho 1 ras arrested. He "gave himself , ' away" on more than ono occasion-— [ in an interviow which ho had in tho presence of the police with a woman -who lived with him as his wife, and in his correction of a witness in the Lower Court, in which ho showod minute familiarity with tho spot whore the murder was committed. The jury spent little more than an hour in actual deliberations on their verdict, and seldom, if ever, has a jury on a ease of such magnitude) had so little ground for hesitation in coming to a decision. The Judge very truly said • that they discharged their duty in tho only way in which they could discharge it in accordance with the evidence.

In tho face of all these facts there is no doubt that Eggers wont into' the presence of his Maker yesterday with a lie on his lips added to the stain of blcod upon his soul. Why ho did so is a mystery which we cannot pretend to solve. Somo criminals in the dread hour of death sc<ek some ehse to their consciences by making a full eonfo3sion of their crime. Eggers was not one of this tybe. Tho cool premeditation with which he planned the robbery and murdor showed that ho was a man of strong will and determination. He must havo known that no statement he could make upon tho scaffold would prevent, or even defer, tho. drawing of tho fatal bolt. There is no evidence

that he cared very much about what the world at large thought about himItis possible that there was someone for whom ho cherished affection or regard, whom he had dercivod and imposed upon in life, and whom he wanted still to believe in him after his death, or, at any rate, not to think of him as a J common murderer. Who can pretend to fathom the working of such a mind, or, indeod, of any human mind, when once it is lifted cut of the forma! routine of everyday existence?