Criminal Cranks.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 20 September 1913, Page 4

Criminal Cranks.

POPULAR MISUNDERSTANDINGS. (Sydney Sun). Melbourne, August LiO. The innermost thoughts of the criminal are known to Air Lloyd Methodist Chaplain at Pentridge, who has for 25 years been the sole observer of the moving picture of the law-breaker's mind, as revealed in heart-to-heart talks. It may be doubted whether the criminal attains any high degree of sincerity in his revelations to visiting chaplains, but Mr Lloyd denies that the Pentridge inmate is a hypocrite. He says that a man may be the incarnation of hypocrisy whilst in the dock, but he throws oil' the mark when, a beaten man, he is cast into prison.

"It is an exceptional thing," says Mr Lloyd, "to find a man who maintains his plea of innocence. In live cases out of six the criminal beats the law, and in the sixth case the law beats him. He fights with all the resources of duplicity and hypocrisy against his prosecutors, but once the sentence sounds in his ear he takes it smilingly. He has a very critical eye for the justice of the position. He resents a punishment which is out of proportion to the crime, but give him what he thinks a fair deal, and he will go through it without complaint.

CRIMINAL MONOMANIACS. Mr Lloyd knows every turn and twist of life behind the walls of a prison. He has been impressed with the way in which a man will follow a criminal life along one little groove. Many of the inmates of Pentridge are criminals against only one clause of one Act of Parliament. They are safebreakers, or horse-thieves, or pickpockets, but the horse-thief would resent the imputation that he is also a safe-breaker, and the pickpocket would deny that he was anyiiiing so dangerous as a horse thief.

This is illustrated by the story told by a Melbourne society worn;: ' w !•■» visited Pentridge. An inmate informed her that he was serving his sentence for breaking open a safe. "Hut J can assure you, madam," he added, "thai apart from a few exploits like this I am a perfectly respectable citizen."

"Most crime when 1 it is habitual is confined to a certain act," says Mr Lloyd. "A. man develops a vice, and it clings to him most persistently. Very often it consists of forging valueless che(|Ues. 1 know one man who, to use his own term to express a conviction, has often been 'down and out.

It is amazing how that mans I houghls fly to a blank cheque. Let him grow short of money, or even take a drink or iwo. am! his besetting weakness gets the better of him, ihough he would not dream of commit ting any ot h<•" sort oi erime. At any rale. in all ot her respects he is free from criminal taint. There is another man as <>vntie as a lamb in ordinary life. II is bete noir is a policeman in uni form."

TILE LNTKLLKCTI'AL Uo.llSK THIEF. Horse stealers are best instances of these monomaniacs. -Mi' Lloyd's lirst request for an interview was I'rom a man who had stolen many horses. lie was well-spoken, courteous, and intellectually inclined. His object was to give the chaplain some practical advice in regard to church work advice which was afterwards adopted by (lie Methodist Synod of Australia. Yet this champion horse thief was proud of his skill and did not conceal his

pride. "1 had a companion who was also a clever horse thief, lie remarked, "'but 1 had lo scratch him off my list of acquaintances, hecause he stole a pair of boots. That, of course, is below my dignity. A. man who will descend to stealing a pair of boots is not a companion for me." "This man had a clear conception of an aristocracy in crime, remarked Mr Lloyd. fie served a long sentence and was always the samecourteous, affable individual. Soon after his discharge ho was found dead in a paddock. Thorn was no doubt :is to bis purpose, as he had a bridle on his arm.

EVERY Ol'IM IXAL'S COMPLAINT. The main grievance of tho Victorian criminal is that ho thinks ho does not get a fair show from society. In his own words he is tried after he comes out, and damned forever by society as an additional punishment for having once broken its laws. .ITe cannot got employment. Tie is hunted from pillar to post, and at last, in desperation, returns to his old haunts and to his old crime. Mr k. . Jk .i"

Lloyd considers that a large part of crime is caused in this way. His estimate that 80 per cent of first offenders are due to the offenders' inability to control a vicious habit- -lust, acquisitiveness or laziness is of special interest to psychologists.

"Of one tiling I am certain,'' (lee-lares Mr Lloyd. "In the worst man in Pentridge there is a patch of good. Every man has his soft spot, and it is the business of the chaplain lo touch it if he can. I know a man who has spent many years in gaol. Yet he has never been heard lo use a bad expression. lie would scorn to till his mouth with the ordinary language of (lie criminal. I can put my hands on a man too who has such regard for the Sabbath that he could not be induced to sew a button on his clot lies on a Sunday. Yet he has served sentences for serious crimes. His patch of badness was bigger than his patch ol' goodness that's all."'