The usual motive for crimes against the person--assault,
manslaughter, mayhem, murder, etc.--is the desire to punish,
or be avenged upon another by inflicting personal pain upon
him or by depriving him of his most valuable asset--life. And
this desire for retaliation or revenge generally grows out of
a recent humiliation received at the hands of the other
person, a real or fancied wrong to oneself, a member of one's
family, or one's property. But this was too easy an answer to
my friend's question. He wanted and deserved more than that,
and I set out to give it to him.
My first inquiry was in the direction of original sources. I
sought out the man in the district attorney's office who had
had the widest general experience and put the question to him.
This was Mr. Charles C. Nott, Jr., (now judge of the General
Sessions) who had been trying murder cases for nearly ten
years. It so happened that he had kept a complete record of
all of them and this he courteously placed at my disposal.
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