Solving a murder at Harlem’s Green Parrot Grill

It may be the only time a tropical bird helped crack a New York cold case.

On July 12, 1942, Max Geller, owner of the Green Parrot Bar and Grill on Third Avenue and 100th Street, was shot to death in his small restaurant by a lone gunman.

None of the restaurant’s patrons could (or would) identify the killer, and the police had no clues.

Months passed, and finally, a breakthrough. Geller had kept a real parrot in his restaurant, and a detective learned that the bird was trained to call regular customers by name.

Witnesses had said that the bird screeched “robber robber robber” as his owner was shot. The detective, however, “had a hunch that the parrot had actually repeated “Robert Robert Robert.”

“Suspicion focused on a man named Robert Butler, 28, who had left Manhattan shortly after the shooting.”

Cops located Butler, a former taxi driver, in Maryland, where he confessed to shooting Geller in a drunken rage because Geller refused to serve him.

Brought back to New York in November 1943, Butler was sentenced to 15 years.

Common term Coined in New York (again)

Some readers' may have noticed my predisposition to writing about issues in and around the New York area as it relates to subject matter here. Let's just say having been born and raised there, I am and will always be a New Yorker. Moving on...

One term most people are familiar with is the well known label "Hooker", mostly associated with the long standing profession of prostitution.

Corlears Hook was named in the 17th century for the Van Corlears Family, early Dutch settlers who had a farm near the East River. In the 18th century the British renamed it Crown Point, and in the 19th century it reverted back to its' New Amsterdam name.
But it was no longer farmland. In the 1830's it became the City's most notorious red-light district attracting sailors and the women who serviced them...
The women of Corlears Hook..."were the most debased and lowest of their class. They were untidy, flashy and covered with brass jewelry and tinsel," states Seafaring Women, by David Cordingly. "Their dresses are short, arms and necks bare, and their appearance is as disgusting as can be conceived". A rather scathing description for women during any period in history.

The area known as Corlears Hook is generally credited in giving rise to the term "Hooker".
The area now is a park offering views of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges-with no hint of its importance in creating the popular term for ladies of the evening.

New York City's First Drug Dealer

A dubious distinction at best, the famous Astor family usually known for real estate development in and around New York (Astor Place, Astor Row, Astoria Queens)apparently got started in another lucrative trade: Drug smuggling.

John Jacob Astor, a german immigrant made his first fortune trading furs with the natives in the late 1700's and eventually shipping pelts worldwide.

Having been associated with China from his fur trading, the needed connections were already in place.
He began purchasing thousand of pounds of Turkish Opium and shipped it to China, illegally as Opium was banned there in 1799. After a few years of successful smuggling, he quit the business evidently unscathed and began a new career in another prosperous trade: New York Real Estate.

Don't Overlook The Obvious

New York City’s founding families

The city’s oldest cemeteries are home to the tombstones of early bigwig early New Yorkers.

The first Riker (of Rikers Island fame, of course) arrived in New Amsterdam from Holland in 1638.(For all you non-New Yorker's that's the jail on it's own island).

His descendent, John Lafayette Riker, was a Civil War colonel in a Union Army volunteer regiment called the Anderson Zouaves.

Riker was killed at the Battle of Fair Oaks in 1862 and buried in Green-Wood Cemetery.

..."Know A Good Lawyer"?

These little gems are from a book called "Disorder in the American Courts", and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place..

ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
___________________________________
ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
______________________________
ATTORNEY: Now doctor, "isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?"
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
______________________________
ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shitting me?
______________________________
ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He's twenty, much like your IQ.
______________________________
ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
______________________________
ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK?
What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral.
______________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
ATTORNEY: And, Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
______________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question?
_____________________________
And the best for last:
ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No .
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

Street Slang: NYC Born

Ever heard street slang and wondered how it came about or where it came from?...

The term "Jones" or "jonesin" (jone-sin, jones-ing) was originally used by drug addicts and junkies when referring to their habit; "I got a 3 bag a day Jones"...or the desire for drugs; "I'm jonesin' for some ______". The term is said to have been created after Jones St. in the West Village of NYC...
then there is Great Jones St and Great Jones Alley which runs behind Great Jones St. It's rumored that Great Jones Alley was a big hang out for the drug culture in Greenwich Village... hence the term, "Jonesin'".

Interviews: "Make 'Em Do It Backwards"!

Theories abound about how best to tell if a suspect is lying to you, short of hooking him up to a polygraph or CVSA, and even then...it's only a tool. We hear about kenesics, the use of body language and movement, different cues to look for, and on and on. Well, here's one more for your consideration: Make 'em tell it backwards. That's right. One more wrench in your toolchest should be having your subject recount all the facts for you as always, then....have them do it backwards in a timeline. One of the best ways to obtain cues to possible deception may be simply to have the subject tell his or her story backwards. You will find it's much more difficult for a person who is fabricating a story, alibi or incident to do so while telling it in a reverse or backwards timeline. In doing so you will start to see a pattern within the context of the interview:
Extreme Brevity: You will get very condensed versions.
Sparse Details: When lying, subjects will tend to offer few details generally speaking.
Justifications: When details are offered in the fabrications, they will tend to be in the form of justifications or rationalizations.
Non-verbal giveaways: During deception, the subjects may more often press their lips together firmly and look away like they were trying to think, to concentrate hard. Also their hand gestures may be different. When being truthful, they may tend to gesture away from their body, the opposite -- toward their chest -- when making up stories. And, when lying, grooming gestures may be more evident. These cues are all based on you obtaining a baseline of truth prior to your interview. You will notice, that Kenesics do play a part in this style of interview. Talk to your subject, get their baseline, then give it a try.

THE MOST RECOGNIZED PERSON THAT NO ONE KNEW


The retired NYPD Lieutenant that thousands of cops know, yet never knew, recently passed away.

Jesse Oldshein was the inspiration for the paper target that thousands of New York (and other) cops shot at for years. How many of us ever knew his name? How many ever knew he was a real person?

Jesse Oldshein retired as a Lieutenant, and has been living in Florida. He died recently, at the age of 92.

It was less than 2 years ago that he was unmasked as “The Thug” – the male holding a gun in a shooting pose that we shot at as a target at Firearms training for years.
When this target was replaced in 2008, with a faceless Mr Clean look-alike, it was revealed that Jesse Oldshein was the model for the target.

When he showed up for firearms training one day in the early 1960’s, Oldshein was asked to pose for a picture. “Pose in a boxing stance”, he said he was told. “Next thing I know, my face is on a target.”

Jesse Oldshein served as a Lieutenant in the 79 Precinct before he retired.

Not only was he the face that everyone knew, even if we didn’t know him, but he was truly a “cops cop”.

In a thank-you letter sent to Jesse OIdshein from Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, he summed it up best when he wrote “Yours is the face that launched a thousand careers.”

We say “Farewell- and God Bless” to this NYPD legend.

The Role of Private Individuals Before the Police

Throughout the period 1674 to 1829 many victims of crime were able to identify and apprehend the culprits before contacting a constable or a justice of the peace to secure their arrest. Those who witnessed a felony were legally obliged to apprehend those responsible for the crime, and to notify a constable or justice of the peace if they heard that a crime had taken place. Moreover, if summoned by a constable to join the "hue and cry", inhabitants were required to join in the pursuit of any suspected felon.

Although these legal obligations were rarely enforced, Londoners continued to help apprehend suspected criminals. As the Proceedings frequently illustrate, cries of "stop thief!" or "murder!" from victims often successfully elicited the assistance of passers-by. This sense of individual responsibility for law enforcement was eroded over the eighteenth century, however, as increasing numbers of men were paid to carry out this task. For example, victims frequently paid thief-takers to locate and apprehend suspects. Moreover, the difficulties the authorities had in identifying and apprehending criminals led them to offer rewards to those whose arrests led to the conviction of serious criminals, and pardons to accomplices who were willing to turn in their confederates. Increasingly, ordinary Londoners left the task of securing criminals to people who were motivated to do so by the prospect of financial or other rewards.

Miranda Warnings: Hollywood Vs. Real World

How many times have we all seen a television show or movie that depicts an arrest and while in the process the LEO'S give Miranda Warnings to the suspect? How many of us actually do that? As a member of a patrol division or a detective squad I submit that doing that too soon can be just as bad as not doing it at all.
The truth is if you're a patrol cop and you make an arrest, there is a chance you may want to question your arrestee. If you were to administer Miranda as you are arresting your suspect like they do on television, you may very well be shutting your bad guy (or girl)down before you need to. The ride "back to the house" can be very productive depending on circumstances. If it's a job that you will handle all the way through, you are going to want to talk to your subject right? Why then would you want to lose the opportunity to gather spontaneously uttered information? Those comments and statements made from the rear of your patrol vehicle by your subject will certainly be called into question if you gave Miranda prior to them being made. I have seen too many times LEO's in the real world doing their job as if they were trained by cops on different TV shows...sad but true. We are human and absent a good training officer and /or mentor people (yes even Police Officers) will act based on what they are exposed to.
Being a detective for many years it is one aspect of TV and movies that I cannot deal with. Why would a producer/director of a movie or series show take the time to hire real LEO's (retired or active) as consultants and then throw in the mistake of advising Miranda as the arrest is taking place? Because that is what people have seemingly come to expect. The same reason all the CSI issues are now so prevalent...it's been shown in the movies and on TV so much, real jurors expect DNA, fingerprint evidence and other aspects of crime scene investigation to be present in a case before they will convict (but that's yet another post).
It is not necessary to advise an arrested person of their right to remain silent UNLESS they are going to be questioned! Yes they have been arrested, yes you will want to question them. Think about this...
don't do it on the street to "get it out of the way", or to make sure you won't forget. Give them the opportunity to "vent" all the way back to the station. Then, during your "pre-interview chat" let them know their rights prior to getting into your subject matter.
I realize we all have or own style of working and we all do what we have found works best for"us"....but let's keep our edge and don't give away the game before you get started.

“Don’t investigate your conclusion – let your conclusion be a result of your investigation”.

MONEY LAUNDERING


According to a research report Anti-Money Laundering: A Brave New World for Financial Institutions, money laundering is typically a three-stage process:


Stage One: Placement. Moving illicit funds into the financial system by, for example, depositing cash in banks, buying valuables (gold, diamonds, artwork), etc.


Stage Two: Layering. Moving the funds around in the financial system to cover the audit trail to the origination point of the funds. Examples are multiple cross-border wire transfers, investments in securities, deposits in overseas “shell” banks or secret bank accounts (e.g., numbered accounts).



Stage Three: Integration. Finally, the disguised funds are reintroduced into the legitimate economy. This may be accomplished by investing the money in real estate or business ventures, or to acquire luxury assets or other goods, sometimes through the use of credit cards. “Front” businesses are sometimes established for this purpose. A front business engages in legitimate business operations, but at the same time generates false invoices or uses other techniques to absorb the laundered funds.



Money laundering schemes can range from simple to sophisticated. Here are a few examples:
Generation and payment of false invoices. This technique involves a front business which creates invoices for goods and services not actually delivered, or delivered at inflated prices, allowing money launderers to collect and bank cash that is effectively disguised as sales for a business operation.



Loan defaulting. In this scheme, the launderer takes out a bank loan, using the illicit funds as collateral. The launderer then deliberately defaults on the loan, causing the bank to lay claim to the collateral. The launderer has thus effectively traded illicit funds (which the bank now holds) for clean money — the loan money originally extended by the bank.



Manipulation of insurance policies. The malefactor purchases a large insurance policy, pays one or more premiums, and then cancels the policy, obtaining a refund of the premiums (usually minus some penalties). An audit trail would show the refunded monies as originating from the insurance company.

911 Attack Still Claiming Lives

Years later the attack on the WTC is stil claiming lives of Police Officers. Three more NYPD MOS have had their names added to a memorial for those who lost their lives working the rescue /recovery efforts. Those three officers, Robert B. Helmke of Hauppauge, Det. William J. Holfester of Mastic Beach, and Sgt. Michael W. Ryan of Hauppauge, died of illnesses that may have been related to their efforts at the World Trade Center disaster site following the Sept. 11 attacks, officials said.

Cop Arrested On Train: I Was Defending Myself

An off-duty NYPD officer arrested after allegedly pointing his gun at Long Island Rail Road passengers has said he was defending himself against unruly hockey fans, but authorities said Tuesday the now-suspended cop broke the law when he brandished his weapon.

“The allegation is that he was not acting in any legal law enforcement capacity, and he allegedly used his weapon to menace the passengers, so it doesn’t matter that he’s licensed or a trained professional,” said Eric Phillips, a spokesman for the Nassau district attorney’s office.
At his Brentwood home, Officer David Hendrick, 38, declined to comment Tuesday.

In an earlier interview on News 12 Long Island, he said he was “letting them know who’s boss” when he pulled his gun on what he described as several drunk and aggressive Rangers fans coming home from a game Sunday night. He said in the interview that he identified himself as a police officer on the 9:17 p.m. Ronkonkoma-bound train and warned them to stop harassing passengers. “It started out with cursing, disrespecting people, drinking,” he said.

He said he told the group, “You have two choices: Stop the drinking, stop the cursing, stop the smoking, the disrespect by everybody, or I escort you off the train.”


He continued: “A rumble ensued. I had my gun on me. They were coming at me. We were fighting, throwing blows. . . . I pulled out my gun, pointed it at the subjects. It was two against one.”

Later Tuesday, he was no longer talking. He returned home just after 5 p.m. When he saw reporters, he sprinted to his front door.


MTA and Nassau police had arrested Hendrick on Sunday at the Mineola station.

Hendrick pleaded not guilty Monday in Nassau District Court in Hempstead to second-degree criminal possession of a loaded weapon, a felony, and second-degree menacing, a misdemeanor. A judge set bond at $2,000 and cash bail at $1,000. If convicted, Hendrick faces a maximum of 15 years in prison.

Reprinted from PoliceLink

Why Don’t We Get It…?

Here we go again, Officers in a jam over postings on Facebook. This time a few buddies got together and video taped themselves burning a dummy wearing the agency’s uniform while leaning up against a cross. Then, the coupe de gras…show it to the world! Resignations and demotions followed. Whether it will stick is another thing.

The act itself and the posting of the video was said to have been a “stress reliever” with the names of other Officers’ and the head of the agency pinned to the dummy. Now one Officer will have a lot less stress having been relieved of supervisory duties in the Investigative Division of their department and another can relax at home…
Look, there is no one that is more of a prankster and joker than yours truly. It’s fun to have a good time and “act up”. It’s also easy to understand some of the things we all do that we call “stress relievers”. We are different when it comes to the things we see and deal with. This job calls for a certain type of humor in order to survive that most of the civilized world just doesn’t get. It is getting old though watching people get jammed and ruin their careers for posting idiotic rants and videos on social networking sites. I also do not always agree with the decisions to discipline people over exercising their right to free speech (or what we believe is free…but that’s another post altogether!). We are obviously held to a higher standard and are expected to set ourselves apart from the masses. That has been upheld over and over again. All I can say is….”C’mon Man! Why don’t we get it”?

“LEST WE FORGET…”

WTC Victims of Attack:

Sgt John Coughlin #3751, ESS4
Sgt Michael Curtin #3256, Ess2
Sgt Rodney Gillis, #1889, ESS8
Sgt Timothy Roy #2926, STED
Det Claude Richards #244, Bomb Squad
Det Joseph Vigiano #4511, ESS3
PO John Dallara #4011, ESS2
PO Vincent Danz #2166, ESS3
PO Jerome Dominguez #10003, ESS3
PO Stephen Driscoll #17482, ESS4
PO Mark Ellis #11441, TD4
PO Robert Fazio #6667, 13 Pct
PO Ronald Kloepfer #22403, ESS7
PO Thomas Langone #14356, ESS10
PO james Leahy #8943, 6 Pct
PO Brian McDonnell #6889, ESS1
PO John Perry #3266, 40 Pct
PO Glen Pettit #3815, PAPO
Moira Smith #10467, 13 Pct
PO Ramon Suarez #12671, TD4
PO Paul Talty #28907, ESS10
PO Santos Valentin #21630, ESS7
PO Walter Weaver #2784, ESS3

IF YOGI BERRA WAS A DETECTIVE

(I had to re-post this after reading one individuals report last week...Tip of The Day: Write like you speak, not like people expect you to write...no "cop-ese"!)

The following statements, taken from Detective Supplemental Reports, could easily have been written by Yogi Berra if he was a detective.

They were living domesticatally.
They’re habitating at …
Seeking the location of his whereabouts…
He was of Jamaican assessment.
Seeking to identify his identification.
Identified a pattern of unrelated incidents.
Was wearing a multi-colored white tee shirt Known to congregate by himself.
The eyewitness is blind and did not see anything.
They went into a feet pursuit.
He has numerical arrests on his rap sheet.
The bus driver was working off duty at the time.
The information was received from an anonymous CI.
His sister states that she is not related to her brother.
The suspicious package was examined and determined to be not suspicious.
The unarmed security guard fired two shots at the perp.
All the calls that day happened another day.

Also, does anyone know when the word “conversating” became a recognized word in the English language?

INVESTIGATOR’S THOUGHTS TO PONDER

“Truth is knowledge, only verified”.

"A man does not look behind the door unless he has stood there himself."

"If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck... it is a bird of some sort."

Benedict Arnold was always the first one to rise when George Washington walked into the room.

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

"Singularity is almost invariably a clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more difficult it is to bring it home."

"I have become convinced there is no one truth, nor two; there are often several truths."

"In the war between falsehood and truth, falsehood often wins the first battle, but truth wins the last."

MOTIVES FOR FALSE CONFESSIONS

To date, the innocence project has freed in excess of 200 individuals from prison based on DNA evidence. These innocent defendants were found guilty of serious felonies such as murder and rape. Furthermore, about twenty percent of them confessed to committing the crime either to the police during an interrogation, or to a judge as a result of a plea bargain with the prosecutor. What causes innocent people to confess to crimes they did not commit?

The simple answer is that, at the time of the confession, many of these suspects believed that it was in their best interest to confess, e.g., escape a death sentence, keep children out of a foster home, etc. However, when evaluating individual cases, a number of specific motivations can be identified. When evaluating the trustworthiness of a confession, the investigator, prosecutor and judge should consider the following motivations for false confessions.

Tangible Gains

When speaking of the value of the polygraph technique, John Reid told the following story. A man from Chicago confessed to a homicide that occurred in California. The man was extradited to the west coast and charged with the killing. At that point he recanted his confession, and explained that he was seeking to escape the cold weather of Illinois. Of course, no one believed him until Reid was able to verify his truthfulness through the polygraph technique. Other examples of tangible gains that may lead to a false confession include seeking shelter, food, medical care, and protection (being hunted by drug lords). These suspects may come forward and confess without any interrogation (the so-called voluntary false confession), or confess after a relatively short and mild interrogation. Once their need has been satisfied, they recant the confession but find that it is much easier to be charged with a crime than having the charges dropped.

Protecting a Loved One

During a New Year's Eve party, a guest was shot in the host's back yard. When the police arrived, the host's teenage son came forward and explained that the guest was arguing with his father so the boy ran into the house, retrieved a shotgun and killed the guest. The boy was charged with first degree murder and obtained an attorney. Once the boy learned that he would be tried as an adult and face life in prison, he recanted his confession and explained that it was his father who actually shot the guest. A polygraph confirmed the boy's statement; the father was interrogated and confessed. We have also experienced the opposite situation, where a parent has confessed to protect a son or daughter who was involved in criminal activity.

Low Intelligence / Youthful Offenders

In the previous New Year's Eve killing, the boy's father told him that because he was a teenager he would not go to prison. It has been suggested that suspects who are young or have a low IQ may fail to understand the severity of consequences they face through their decision to confess. Consider an analogous situation: I believe most adults of average intelligence would pay the IRS a $200 fine even though they contest the alleged error on their tax return; putting an end to the hassle, fear and frustration of dealing with the IRS is worth $200. However, I doubt that the same taxpayer would be willing to spend even a day in jail as punishment for the contested error.

Suspects under the age of 16 who have had little contact with police, or suspects who have an IQ under 65 are statistically abundant in documented false confession cases. Certainly a confession coming from this category of suspect should be carefully scrutinized to make certain that it was obtained in the absence of a promise of leniency and that the confession contains corroborative information that originated from the suspect. When investigators are dealing with these vulnerable suspects, caution should be exercised to make certain the interrogations are not too lengthy, intense or psychologically manipulative.

Coercion

Many innocent people will confess to a crime if they are subjected to sufficient pain or threats of harm (coercion). This concept is fundamental to common law, and within the judiciary there is zero-tolerance when it comes to coercion. For a confession to be admissible as evidence, it must be obtained without inflicting or threatening to inflict any physical harm to the suspect.

While coercion specifically relates to the suspect's physical well being, there is a related psychological circumstance which may have an even greater impact on false confessions. Consider the following interrogation of an innocent mother in a case involving the death of her infant child.

"Martha, the fact that you can't tell the truth about what you did to your child tells us you're an unfit mother. You know what we do with unfit mothers? We place their children in foster homes. Your children will be placed in foster homes across the country and they will never see each other again and you will never see them. That's what will happen if you don't confess to shaking your child."

When an innocent suspect is convinced that his denials will not prevent a prison sentence, loss of reputation, or loss of something else he values, in an effort to reduce or escape those inevitable consequences, certainly the suspect may be persuaded to confess. Under this circumstance, because the suspect is still under the threat of the consequence, the confession may not be retracted until the suspect feels it is safe to do so.

Duress

The average innocent suspect can answer questions and fend off persuasive interrogation techniques for many hours without being tempted, in any way, to confess. However, when the sessions become too lengthy, intense or unbearable, the innocent suspect may confess to terminate the conditions. Duress describes lengthy questioning, as well as deprivation of biological needs such as sleep, warmth or food. Unlike coercion, duress is considered by the courts on a continuum, in which a number of different factors are considered.

A homicide confession obtained after a ten hour interrogation from a mentally competent adult suspect who has waived his Miranda rights may be considered by most courts as legally admissible. However, a burglary confession obtained after a ten hours of interrogation of a 15-year-old suspect who did not have a parent or guardian present may be suppressed, partially as a result of duress. When evaluating the trustworthiness of a confession, it is important to recognize that some suspects are more susceptible to persuasive interrogation techniques.

Mental Illness

Following a heinous crime, it is not uncommon for innocent individuals suffering from mental illness to come forward and confess. Some of them are delusional and receive "messages" to confess. Others have lost touch with reality and believe they committed the crime. Some confess to seek attention or recognition. Most of these cases involve voluntary confessions (obtained in the absence of interrogation) which are readily identified as false because the confession lacks accurate corroboration.

This motivation presents a greater difficulty when the innocent suspect with a mental illness initially maintains his innocence, and confesses after interrogation. Innocent suspects with anxiety disorders are more susceptible to duress than the average population. With some depressive disorders, the individual may rationalize a false confession by convincing themselves that they deserve to be punished for some real or imagined past transgression.

The latter group of suspects are aware that they did not commit the crime at the time of their confession. These suspects were simply vulnerable to interrogation tactics that the mentally healthy suspect can easily resist. Consequently, mental illness and cognitive functioning becomes an important factor when considering duress.

Faulty Memory

Finally, an innocent person may be persuaded to confess if he has no recollection of his activities at the time of the crime but is convinced, after learning of evidence of his guilt, that he must have committed the crime. This is termed a coerced internalized false confession. There is generally a tangible cause for the suspect's memory loss such as intoxication, head trauma, epilepsy or suffering from multiple personality disorder.

Once convinced of their guilt, these suspects may accept this as the truth, plead guilty in court and accept their prison sentence. Through time, therapy or happenstance, this suspect may question his guilt. But, as with the earlier suspect who confessed to obtain a warmer climate, he discovers that it is very difficult to undo a plea bargain.

Conclusion

Just because there are many possible motivations for innocent people to confess does not mean that most confessions are false. To the contrary, the average criminal suspect is more than capable of resisting standard interrogation tactics and a great deal of effort is required to persuade these individuals to tell the truth. But experience and scientific evidence proves that innocent suspects have confessed. Furthermore, each of these false confessions satisfied a particular motivation. Awareness of these motivations should assist investigators in selecting appropriate interrogation techniques for particular suspects and should also assist prosecutors and judges to identify confessions that may not be true.

With the above discussion in mind, the following represents some factors to consider in the assessment of the credibility of a suspect's confession. These issues are certainly not all inclusive, and each case must be evaluated on the "totality of circumstances" surrounding the interrogation and confession, but nevertheless, these are elements that should be given careful consideration:
1. The suspect's condition at the time of the interrogation
a. Physical condition (including drug and/or alcohol intoxication)
b. Mental capacity
c. Psychological condition
2. The suspect's age
3. The suspect's prior experience with law enforcement
4. The suspect's understanding of the language
5. The length of the interrogation
6. The degree of detail provided by the suspect in his confession
7. The extent of corroboration between the confession and the crime
8. The presence of witnesses to the interrogation and confession
9. The suspect's behavior during the interrogation
10. The effort to address the suspect's physical needs
11. The presence of any improper interrogation techniques

excerpts from John E. Reid & Associates