MINUTE MYSTERIES
[_Detectograms_]
BY
H. A. RIPLEY
WITH A FOREWORD BY
LEWIS E. LAWES
_Warden of Sing Sing Prison_
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
_The Riverside Press Cambridge_
1932
COPYRIGHT, 1932, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO REPRODUCE THIS BOOK OR PARTS
THEREOF IN ANY FORM
The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
TO
MY MOTHER
FOREWORD
The solution of criminal mysteries constitutes one of the most
absorbing, possibly the most intriguing forms of mental activity
existent. It calls for something more than mere cold intelligence and
reasoning ability, requiring in addition native perception, intuition,
and a natural understanding of human behavior under stress of emotion
and passion. Furthermore, some knowledge of pathological or abnormal
behaviorism is a requisite.
Mr. Ripley’s excellently thought-out series of mysteries might be said
to represent a very adequate cross-section of the problems perennially
confronting the law-enforcers and official crime-solvers of the nation.
The points of evidence are cleverly assembled and the _nuances_ of
incrimination are very subtly shaded.
It would be well for the reader interested in successfully solving these
problems to endeavor to think, not as a detective, but as the criminal
in the case would think, in order to arrive at a correct solution. I
have found that to deal adequately with the criminal after conviction,
and while in confinement, it is necessary to understand his personal
problems. To accomplish this, one must first think as does the criminal,
discover the sequent conclusions upon which he based his anti-social
activities, and thereupon make use of these findings to assist him
toward rehabilitation.
In this novel challenge to amateur criminologists, who suffer from a
dearth of laboratory specimens upon which to experiment, Mr. Ripley
offers an excellent opportunity—that of examining and forming
conclusions upon the more elemental, vital, and dramatic aspects of
various typical criminal situations, without the drawback of fantasy and
concocted sordidness, which, for the practical criminologist, takes the
glamour and color out of this thing called—Crime.