A Prisoner’s Descent Into Delusion in Everett
A man awaiting extradition for murder in the Everett jail claims to be under a 'divine' sentence, prompting local officials to question his sanity.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
B.F. Gooch, a self-confessed murderer currently in the county jail awaiting an officer to take him back to Silver City, New Mexico, is believed to be on the verge of insanity. Gooch told officials, 'I had an awful time. I was sentenced by God to be a little devil and bathe in hot things... my clothes burned me until they told me to put on wool clothes.' He spends the rest of his days brooding over this sentence and talking ramblingly of his experiences. When first arrested, officers thought Gooch was merely a 'religious crank.' Now, local officials are debating whether he is a proper subject for the state insane asylum rather than the prison.
“When arrested the officers said at once that Gooch was a religious crank. They thought that was the extent of his queerness.”
This account captures the historical intersection of criminal justice and mental health, highlighting a period when the legal system often struggled to distinguish between 'eccentricity' and medical conditions. It serves as a reminder of the evolving standards in forensic psychology and the state's historical burden of managing mental health within the penal system.
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