Image via Wikipedia

Below are excerpts from Lies! Lies!! Lies!!! The Psychology of Deceit by Carles V. Ford, M.D. So many people are attacked by false accusers that I thought it would benefit to look at false accusers from a psychiatrists standpoint.

False Confessions

At the opposite end of the phenomenological spectrum from those who make false accusations are people who confess to crimes they did not commit. Both categories of individuals share a tendency toward pathological lying.

The Hanged Liar

Timothy Evans was eventually granted a royal pardon, but the pardon came years after he was hanged in 1950 for a murder that he did not commit (Sharrock and Cresswell 1989). Evans had initially presented himself at a police station, where he confessed to having murdered his wife and daughter. He subsequently made a series of inconsistent confessions that he later retracted. He was convicted by a jury because of the initial confession, which (because he was a known liar) superseded in the jury’s mind his subsequent retractions. He was described by his mother as having a vivid imagination and being a “terrible liar.” Of note, he was also of below-average intelligence and was barely able to read.

Several similarities exist between Evans and another Englishman who falsely confessed to a murder. This man styled himself as Lord A., the fifth Marquis of Bath” (a bogus title) and also engaged other pseudologia fantastica. (For a discussion of pseudologia fantastica, see Chapters 2 and 7.) He was studied by Sharrock and Cresswell (1989), who found that he was of average intelligence but had dyslexia and other nonspecific neuropsychological dysfunctions. He was also found to be extroverted, highly suggestible, and compliant to interpersonal pressure.

Dr. Gisli Gudjonsson of London has studied a large number of persons who have allegedly made false confessions. Gudjonsson found that when these persons were compared with other persons referred for forensic evaluations, those with supposedly false confessions were notably less intelligent and more suggestible and compliant (Gudjonsson 1990). Caution must be exercised in evaluating any confession and the means by which it was obtained. Factors shown to influence a person to make a false confession include being kept in custody for an extended time with no access to lawyers, friends, or family; lack of control over the physical environment; being subordinate to a powerful legitimate authority; inadequate food and sleep; intimidation by police officers; and being fearful for one’s personal safety (Gudjonsson and MacKeith 1988). These factors are also consistent with the thought-reform techniques used to obtain false confessions from political prisoners.

Law enforcement officers are well aware of the phenomenon of multiple spontaneously generated false confessions following a highly publicized crime. Such a confession may reflect an individual’s need for attention (no matter how such attention is obtained) or difficulty in distinguishing reality from fantasy, especially in a guilt-ridden person.

• Lies! Lies!! Lies!!! Part 4
• Lies! Lies!! Lies!!! Part 3
• Lies! Lies!! Lies!!! Part 1