The Mask of Sanity. Hervey M. Cleckley

by the governor of the state which had imprisoned him, pointed out vehemently that he was sound in mind and body, and expressed strong indignation at being confined unjustly in what he referred to as a “nut house.” It was then pointed out to him that he was not pardoned but merely paroled and told that if discharged at present he would be returned to the penitentiary.

      Here his wrath began to subside at once and marvelously. Hastily but with some subtlety, his tone changed, and he began to find points in common with the advice he had been receiving from the staff. He left the room in a cordial frame of mind, tossing friendly and fairly clever quips back at the physicians, nearly all of whom he had known during some of his many admissions to various hospitals.

      About ten days later he was pardoned outright by the governor and almost immediately took legal action which got him discharged against medical advice.

      Many similar adventures had occupied his time prior to the recent admission. Some of these had resulted in his being sent, as in the episode above, to psychiatric hospitals from which he promptly obtained his release by legal action. Others had led him to jail and to the police barracks dozens of times for charges not sufficiently serious for him to utilize the expedient of psychiatric hospitalization as a means of escape.

      A series of troubles had led to his reaching the hospital on this last occasion. As mentioned previously, he had many years ago divorced his first wife and remarried. The second legal spouse continued to play an important part in his career. As the proprietress or Madame of a local brothel generally conceded to be the most orderly and, perhaps in a certain sense, the most respectable institution of its sort in the city, she was constantly embarrassed by the actions of her husband. Though enjoying a good part of the revenue from this ever-lucrative business, Max troubled himself little to maintain the dignity of the house.

      In fact, he went out of his way, it seemed, to complicate matters for his wife. If not through his daily and nightly brawls or uproars in various low grogshops, dancehalls, “juke-joints,” etc., then by putting slugs into slot machines or serving as fence in some petty thieving racket, he brought the police in search of him down on the House of Joy which maintained him.

      Though satisfactory understandings existed between this institution and the law, policemen suddenly appearing at the door and trooping through the hallways proved anything but conducive to that sense of security and dignity Mrs.——— had long and justly boasted for her house.

      Max also, especially after a few drinks, liked to go about the house bragging to clients and to entertainers alike of his prowess in various lines, intruding on parties still at the “downstairs stage” of the night’s activities, minding everybody’s business, and inevitably turning the conversation to his superiorities. Most of the time he was quite amiable in this role—a cordial, but an all too cordial, host under circumstances where people are usually concerned more with definite and perhaps pressing aims of their own than with the glowing reminiscences of another. Occasionally when crossed he became threatening even with clients and, though open strife was usually avoided, hot, wild words and strenuous scenes sometimes followed, with Max exulting in the aftermath by pacing up and down the corridors of the house, shadow-boxing, cursing, crying out his pugilistic titles and victories, and challenging all comers.

      No one better than his wife, a woman of experience and good judgment in such matters, realized what an unhappy effect these antics had on her clientele quietly seeking pleasure behind doors before which Max roared and paraded. Naturally she sought to silence him and to lead him off to the quarters they shared. Usually, however, her appearance served merely as a focus for his ire, and the tumult she sought to quell redoubled through her efforts. More than once under such circumstances he pursued her into her room, the wrangle having moved on to open violence, and beat her there to his heart’s content. Mrs.———, a tall and heavy person, gave a casual impression of being twice as large as Max. Furthermore, she was a woman of considerable strength. She often fought back vigorously and, though she seldom succeeded in landing a telling blow that would discourage her marital opponent, her resistance made the fight much more lively and greatly augmented the uproar of thuds, slaps, crashes, oaths, grunts, and honest yells of pain.

      Over several years this connubial life had been interrupted frequently by Max’s departure, which he usually took in heat after quarrels such as those described above. Often he left voluntarily with obscene curses at his wife on his lips. Sometimes she called the police to him after he had covered her with minor bruises and abrasions from his practiced fists and had him forcibly ousted. Over the years he spent perhaps two-thirds of his time away, going from city to city, living by his wits, which are sharp indeed. When caught in his minor frauds, which he practiced not only on the public but also on those associated with him in his ventures, he quickly left town; or, if not quick enough, spent a few days in jail, from which he soon obtained release by telling of his imaginary head injury, of his “spells,” or of anything else that occurred to his fertile mind as a means to make people believe he was incompetent because of “shell shock.” When his situation turned out to be more serious, he telegraphed or telephoned to his wife, who at once flew to his aid and usually with some little money at her disposal.

      He covered the entire eastern seaboard on these trips and made several expeditions into the Middle West. For a few weeks in Texas he lived well off of money he milked from slot machines by some ingenious device or contraption or maneuver. His inventions of this type are numerous and highly practical. He could, perhaps, make an excellent living indefinitely off such takings if he did not, when drinking, and often when sober, boast too widely of his cleverness or otherwise bring himself to the attention of the police.

      It has been mentioned that he had, earlier in his career, but after his second marriage, been wedded to other women bigamously. His wife learned of these episodes and legal action was taken by the deceived women. From these minor troubles he was extricated by his shrewdness, the aid of his wife, and the power of his familiar tactics of claiming incompetency and irresponsibility.

      This gambit of moves seems to have gained rather than lost effectiveness by repetition. It has become virtually a joker in the deck, or rather up the sleeve; and it has never failed him yet. One cannot but wonder if the juries, the courts, and other authorities are not overwhelmed by precedent and, seeing that his grounds for impunity have been upheld so often in the past, fail to challenge them adequately. Precedent is, of course, freely admitted to weigh heavily in law. On the other hand, these nonmedical observers seem to weigh seriously the plain facts of the patient’s conduct when they decide that he is not a normal man. Psychiatry, with its clear rules and definitions for the determination of psychosis, has not seemed to be as much concerned with these facts.

      The immediate cause of Max’s return to the hospital on this occasion was indirectly connected with a third bigamous marriage which he recently made while off on one of his tours from connubial security. With his new partner he tried his hand again at forgery on a somewhat larger scale than usual. He prospered for a while and, flushed with prosperity and bravado, brought his new bigamous partner home with him on a visit to the brothel where his legal wife was struggling to restore standards which had suffered during his presence.

      Quarreling broke out at once, as might well be imagined, between the two wives. Max, still in character, did nothing to pour oil on these sorely troubled waters. In fact, his every move seemed designed to whip up the already lively doings to a crescendo. The dispute culminated in a vigorous and vociferous set-to during which both ladies were pretty thoroughly mauled, furniture broken, and the brothel all but wrecked. Max’s most important personal contribution to the fray was a broken jaw for his legal wife, the Madame of the house.

      It is interesting here to note that, despite his continual brawling with both men and women over so many years while drinking or while quite sober, and despite his ferocious threats of violence and his pretty genuine ability as a pugilist, no serious bodily harm had before this come to anyone at his hands. I believe that the substantial injury was unintentional, an act of thoughtless exuberance committed in the heat of a situation eminently and subtly designed to bring out high enthusiasm in such a man as our hero.

      Having succeeded in bringing off a scene that even in his career stands out as a little masterpiece, he took the bigamous partner and fled back to the nearby city