WHY DID THEY KILL?

A study of a crime rather than a criminal career (My Life in Crime- Harper- 1952) records and examines the killing of a nurse by three teen age youngsters with an eye towards a general social guilt as well as the individual imbalance of those involved. And the clinical case histories of Bill Morey, Max Pell and Dave Royal who robbed and clubbed a nurse in Ann Arbor shows the transition of youngsters, who might be yours, to hoodlums and hot-rod kids who get their kicks from beer and gambling and souped-up cars. The account here concentrates on Bill Morey, who thought up and carried through the fatal slugging; on his concerned parents- his mother was a former teacher- who did not recognize the insecurity and inferiority in the boy which prompted acts of aggression; on the duality of his nature and activities... A shocking story, which commands sympathy rather than censure and makes a solicitous inquiry into the marginal differentiation between delinquency and adult crime, and the forces which are responsible. This widens then the implications and interest in the case over and above its immediate sensationalism.