The Lie Detectors (35 page)
Authors: Ken Alder
This book is based on primary sources, most of them unedited manuscripts held in public archives and private collections. Only this type of source enables us to peer behind the scientific facade of lie detection and discern the motives and mores of the men who made the machine their hobby horse. As J. Edgar Hoover said, it is the polygraph operator who is the true lie detector. Of course, much like a polygraph chart, these archival records provide a kind of inky evidence whose trace must be read for its emotional slant and corroborated by other evidence. In this historians are like detectives—as well as voyeurs of a sort.
The family papers of Leonarde, Charles, and Eloise Keeler are in the Bancroft Library at the University of California-Berkeley, although portions of Leonarde Keeler’s papers are also at the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute and the Northwestern University Archives. I thank the archivist at Northwestern, Patrick Quinn, for his help. The letters of Katherine Applegate are held by her family, and I thank Joyce Schwartz, Thomas "App" Applegate, and Penelope Eckert for their generosity in sharing them. As none of these repositories include Keeler’s criminal cases or the correspondence between Leonarde Keeler and Katherine Applegate, we may assume that these papers were destroyed.
The bulk of John Larson’s papers are also in the Bancroft Library; I am most grateful to the archivist, David Kessler, for helping me access these materials. Important additional papers were shared with me through the generosity of Larson’s son, Bill Larson; and his former assistant, the psychiatric nurse Beulah Allen Graham. I am extremely grateful for their generosity. Another set of Larson’s papers are in the Johns Hopkins University Archives.
The papers of August Vollmer and the administrative files of the Berkeley Police Department are likewise in the Bancroft Library. The case records of the Berkeley Police Department are held by the department, and I am deeply indebted to Sergeant Michael Holland for help in locating them. Some of William Moulton Marston’s papers are in the Smithsonian Institution, but the bulk are still in the possession of his family; I thank his granddaughter, Margaret Lampe, who allowed me to consult her portion. I am very grateful to Penelope Eckert, Fred Inbau, Len Harrelson, and Bill Larson for granting me interviews.
In this book, I have drawn on the work of many scholars, some of whose works are cited in the Notes and Selected Bibliography. Although this is the first history of the lie detector, two related works guided my thinking. Tal Golan’s fine book of 2004—
The Laws of Men and the Laws of Nature
—covers some of the same ground as my Chapter 4. I also admire the excellent dissertation by Geoffrey C. Bunn, "The Hazards of the Will to Truth: A History of the Lie Detector" (1997), though my approach differs from his. I first laid out my own thinking on the lie detector in two academic articles: "To Tell the Truth: The Polygraph Exam and the Marketing of American Expertise,"
Historical Reflections
24 (1998): 487–525; and "A Social History of Untruth: Lie Detection and Trust in Twentieth-Century America,"
Representations
80 (2002): 1–33.
The biography of Leonarde Keeler by his sister Eloise Keeler,
The Lie Detector Man: The Career and Cases of Leonarde Keeler
(N.p.: Telshare,1984), is based on documents and recollection, although silent about Keeler’s shortcomings. A candid look at Keeler’s personal life can be found in the unpublished biographical portrait by Agnes de Mille; I thank her son Jonathan Prude for letting me quote from it. There are, of course, many articles and books about the polygraph for both scientific and lay audiences. These vary widely in their purpose and quality. The most cogent summary of the technique’s merits (or lack thereof) can be found in a report of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences,
The Polygraph and Lie Detection
(2003).
Throughout the text, I have silently corrected misspellings and grammatical errors in original quotations, except to convey the idiosyncrasies of John Larson. To refer to the generic subject of a lie detector test, I have (roughly) alternated between the pronouns "he" and "she," while reserving "he" for the operator, who was almost always a man. I have provided pseudonyms for polygraph subjects whose personal information I gathered solely from archival sources; by contrast, I have supplied medical, personal, or psychiatric information about the leading interrogators when I acquired that information through material which they or their heirs made publicly available. Scholars seeking access to documents on the use of the polygraph at the FBI and Oak Ridge obtained through the Freedom of Information Act should contact the author.
The archives and libraries I consulted are listed below by abbreviation. In the notes, I provide citations for direct quotations, quantitative claims, and some factual matters. The numbers that follow the archival collection refer to the box number. All dates are in the month/day/year (or month/year) format, with all years from the 1900s unless otherwise indicated.
Abbreviations of Newspapers and Journals
Abbreviations of Proper Names in the Notes
PREFACE
1
"all the man’s thoughts":
Lucian,"Hermotimus; or, The Sects," in
Translations from Lucian,
ed. Augusta M. Campbell Davidson (London: Longmans, Green, 1902), 72.
2
"Who’s Lying to You":
R. Don Steele,
Body Language Secrets: A Guide During Courtship and Dating
(Whittier, California: Steel Balls Press, 1996), back cover.
3
In 2006, one review:
Bond and DePaulo,"Accuracy of Deception Judgments." DePaulo et al., "Accuracy-Confidence Correlation." The lie-detecting ability of the best professionals—federal officers—topped 70 percent, but that was for liars already screened for having exhibited behavioral clues; see Paul Ekman, Maureen O’Sullivan, and Mark G. Frank, "A Few Can Catch a Liar,"
Psychological Science
10 (1999): 263–265.
4
2 million Americans:
Gale, in
Polygraph Test,
7. For numbers of polygraphers in U.S. and abroad, see Gordon H. Barland,"The Polygraph Test in the USA and Elsewhere," in Gale,
Polygraph Test,
75. The only countries outside the U.S. to use the polygraph to any degree have a close national-security relationship with America—such as Israel and Japan.
5
from only 35 percent:
Office of Technology Assessment,
Scientific Validity of Polygraph Testing.
6
53 percent:
David Thoreson Lykken, "The Case against Polygraph Testing," in Gale,
Polygraph Test,
117. See also Lykken,
A Tremor in the Blood.
7 Gertrude Stein,
A Novel of Thank You
(New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, [1925–1926], 1958), ch. CXCIII.
8
"Her eyelids drooped":
Dashiell Hammett,
The Maltese Falcon
(New York: Random House, [1929], 1992), 89.
9
"one of these big"
to
"very nervous type":
BPHS/64024: Fisher, 3/31/21–4/14/21. See also
BG,
3/31/21.
10
"eliminate all personal factors":
J.L.,"Modification," 392.
11
"If a lie":
Michel de Montaigne,
The Complete Essays,
trans. M. A. Screech (London: Penguin, 1991), 35.
12
"a preliminary":
BPHS/64024: J.L., 3/30/21.
13
"Do you like college?":
BPHS/64023: J.L.,"Questions Used," [4/21]; a slightly different version appeared in J.L.,"Modification," 397.
14
"uncomfortable and painful":
J.L.,"Modification," 393.
15 "
We forcibly prevented":
BPHS/64024: Larson,"Report," 5/7/21.
16
"broke down":
BPHS/64024: Larson,"Report," 5/7/21.
17
"Beyond my expectation":
JLP/7: J.L. to Reg Manning, [early 1960s].
18
"It was an odd way":
George Haney quoted in JLP-BG: unidentified news clipping, James Craig,"Stories," n.d.
19
"Fixing the": SFE,
8/9/22.
20
"pure hooey":
JLP: J.L. to W.M., 4/7/36.
21
"might have been reacting":
J.L. in
Detroit News,
1/23/48. See also David Redstone, "The Case of the Dormitory Thefts,"
Reader’s Digest
51 (12/47): 18–21; JLP/7: Redstone to J.L., 4/10/47, 6/30/47, 7/16/47; J.L. to Redstone, 7/3/47; J.L., "Modification," 394; author interviews with Bill Larson, 9/11/2003, 5/12/2005.
22
"My first knowledge"
to
"nervous breakdown":
BPHS/64023: Graham, as recorded by Fisher, 5/3/21; Graham (in Kansas) to J.L., 5/24/21.
23
"all the indications":
J.L.,"Modification," 398.
24
"I am very sorry":
BPHS/64024: J.L. to Graham, [5/24].
25
"Dr. Larson is":
BPHS/64023: Graham to A.V., [1922].
26
"Listening in on":
A.V.,"Caught by Lie Detector,"
LAT,
7/2/22.
27
"I sometimes feel":
LKP-DoD: Richard North to Harold Morrison, 1/4/[68?].
28
"In a certain sense":
Hans Gross,
Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students,
trans. Horace M. Kallen (Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, [1898], 1918), 474.
29
"the most significant":
Joseph G. Woods, "Introduction," in Vollmer,
Law Enforcement in Los Angeles,
no page.
30
"the genius and altruism":
J.L.,
Single Fingerprint,
frontispiece.
31
"First of all":
JLP/8: A.V. to J.L., 2/11/24.
32
"mental acuity": BG,
4/10/05, quoted in Carte and Carte,
Police Reform,
19.
33
"You’re not to judge":
William Dean, in
August Vollmer: Pioneer in Police Professionalism
(Berkeley: Regional Oral History Office, Bancroft Library, University of California, 1972–1983), 1:1.
34
90 percent of the "problem":
A.V., "Predelinquency,"
JCLC
14 (1923–1924): 279–283. Elisabeth Lossing, "The Crime Prevention Work of the Berkeley Police Department," in
Preventing Crime: A Symposium,
ed. Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1936), 237–263.
35
On his watch:
Anne Roller, "Vollmer and His College Cops,"
The Survey
62 (1929): 305. See also Julia Liss and Steven Schlossman, "The Contours of Crime Prevention in August Vollmer’s Berkeley,"
Research in Law Deviance and Social Control
6 (1984): 79–107.
36 "
All three had":
William Dean, in
August Vollmer: Pioneer,
1:1.
37
"strike any person":
John Holstrom, in
August Vollmer: Pioneer,
1:24.
38
"mildly": Berkeley Record,
6/13/06, quoted in Lawrence M. Friedman and Robert V. Percival,
The Roots of Justice: Crime and Punishment in Alameda County, California, 1870–1910
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1981), 219.
39
"Were you off"
to
"I don’t need":
JLP/2: J.L., "Faked Holdup" (partial typescript), n.d. See also JLP/7: "Hoist on His Own Petard," n.d.
40
"fearing," he recalled:
JLP: J.L.,"Some past biographical notes," n.d.
41
Larson created:
J.L., "Heredity in Finger-Prints" (M.A. thesis, Boston University, 1915).
42
Ph.D. in physiology:
J.L.,"On the Functional Correlation of the Hypophysis and the Thyroid…" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1920).
43
"You go to":
J.L.,
Lying,
305. JLP/2: J.L.,"Faked Holdup," n.d.
44
"Mrs. Simons accused":
JLP/2: J.L., "Code Numbers: Berkeley Police Records," n.d.
45
"Friend Larson":
BPHS/72848: "Battery" [W.B.] to J.L., 7/10/22. See also J.L.,
Lying,
290–294.
46
"disturbances due":
J.L.,
Lying,
329–331.
47
"very smooth":
BPHS/72828: "Larceny," 7/16/22.
48
"Have you ever": BG,
1/12/23.
49
In two years:
J.L.,"Polygraph and Deception," 26–27.
50
"‘lieing machine’": Officer 444
(Ben Wilson Production, Goodwill Pictures, 1926).
51
"most convincing case":
Vollmer in
SFE,
quoted in J.L.,
Lying,
369. For Hahn case, see
BG,
12/22/22; BPHS, J.L.,"Case Book," [1921–1923].
52
"Then the Officer":
Franz Kafka,
In the Penal Colony,
trans. Ian Johnston [1919], (2003), http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/kafka/inthepenalcolony.htm.
53
"The Invincible Determination": SFE,
5/20/1887, quoted in David Nasaw,
The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst
(Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000), 77–78.
54 "
William A. Hightower is unshaken": SFE,
8/17/21.
55
"My dreams are": SFC,
8/17/21.
56
"Nothing could have been": SFCP,
8/17/21.
57
"100% accurate":
J.L., "Scientist Explains Features of Test,"
SFCP,
8/17/21.
58
"no question":
A.V., "Proof Conclusive, Vollmer’s Verdict,"
SFCP,
8/17/21.
59
"the Lie Detector":
By the time the Hightower case was resolved, the term "lie detector" had become current, although I have not been able to locate the first citation. The first citation in
The Oxford English Dictionary
is Larson’s later use in 1922; see J.L., "Berkeley Lie Detector." See also John Bruce, "The Flapjack Murder," in
San Francisco Murder,
ed. Joseph Henry Jackson (New York: Duell, Sloan, and Pearce, 1947): 213–242; J.L.,
Lying,
369–373.
60
"No longer can we": SFE,
6/20/22.
61
"Haven’t you enough?": SFE,
5/31/22.
62
"My daddy loved": SFCP,
6/5/22.
63
"a combination of a radio": SFE,
6/10/22.
64
"hands were clean": SFC,
6/10/22.
65
"hasty examination":
J.L., "Lie Test Clears Wilkens, Declares Larson,"
SFE,
6/10/22.
66
"run for its money": SFCP,
6/10/22.
67
"doubtful":
BPP/10: J.L. to A.V., 4/20/27. See, however, how A.V. backed J.L. in
BG,
6/10/22; J.L.,
Lying,
378–381.
68
The next day, John Larson:
International Association of Chiefs of Police,
Proceedings, Twenty-Ninth Convention
(1922), 2:214–219.
69
"would not be countenanced":
Captain Duncan Matheson, quoted in J.L., "Psychology in Criminal Investigation,"
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
146 (1929): 258–268, quotation, 263. There is some ambiguity about why Duncan objected to the tests. For police rumors, see J.L.,
Lying,
409.
70
"How the Electric":
J.L., "The Polygraph and Deception,"
Welfare Magazine
18 (5/27): 646–669.
71
"I am going to take": BG,
6/26/23.
72
truth serum was unethical:
BPP/10/1: J.L. to House, 6/11/23. JLP/8: J.L. and Dwight S. Beckner,"The Dangerous Truth about ‘Truth Sera,’" n.d. For ban, see Missouri case,
State v. Hudson,
289 S.W. 920 (1926).
73
"are so striking":
J.L.,"Berkeley Lie Detector," 628.
74
"
POLONIUS
:
See you now": Hamlet,
II: i.
75
In July 1922:
The most reliable account of
Frye
is J. E. Starrs, "‘A Still-Life Watercolor’:
Frye v. U.S.,
"
Journal of Forensic Science
27 (1982): 684–694; but it suffers from inaccuracies. Frye’s own version of events can be found in his pardon plea of fifteen years later; see NARA, RG204/56: Frye,"Application for Executive Clemency," 7/21/36.