Note 58 — Part I. THE SUBJECTIVE CONDITIONS OF EVIDENCE: THE MENTAL ACTIVITIES OF THE JUDGE.

Cf. the extraordinary confession of the wife of the “cannibal” Bratuscha. The latter had confessed to having stifled his twelve year old daughter, burned and part by part consumed her. He said his wife was his accomplice. The woman denied it at first but after going to confession told the judge the same story as her husband. It turned out that the priest had refused her absolution until she “confessed the truth.” But both she and her husband had confessed falsely. The child was alive. Her father’s confession was pathologically caused, her mother’s by her desire for absolution.