Interrogations-and-Confessions-Handbook

234 A Psychology of Interrogations and Confessions
because of his general distrust of his memory and his belief in the woman’s
honest reporting of the theft. What none of us knew at the time was that no
crime had been committed in the first place.
Mr Peter Reilly
One of the most publicized cases of internalized false confession is that of Peter
Reilly, who has been the subject of two books (Barthel, 1976; Connery, 1977).
In 1973 Reilly was an easygoing and well liked 18-year-old youth. He lived in
Canaan, Connecticut, with his 51-year-old mother. At 8 p.m. on 28 September
he went to a Methodist Church for a Youth Centre meeting. He returned home
around 9.50 p.m. to discover his mother’s mutilated body. She had been brutally
murdered minutes before Reilly arrived home. He immediately called for
an ambulance and was clearly in a distressed state. Within hours he became
the prime suspect for the murder and after intensive interrogation he made a
self-incriminating confession, which resulted in his arrest and conviction for
manslaughter.
Connery (1977) states:
Suddenly an orphan, and still in his teens, with no close ties to relatives, Peter
was subjected to four great shocks in a day’s time: the murder of his mother,
the realization that he was suspected of being the murderer, his own amazed
agreement that he might be his mother’s killer and his arrest. He was put behind
bars and there he remained for 143 days before going to trial (p. 21).
As the police investigation commenced Reilly remained voluntarily in police
custody for several hours. He was eager to help the police to apprehend the
murderer and according to police sources was fully co-operative. There was
insufficient evidence to arrest him and he declined to have a lawyer present
during the subsequent interrogation. Three years later he explained why he
had not exercised his right to a lawyer: ‘Because I hadn’t done anything wrong
and this is America and that’s the way I thought it was’ (p. 42).
Reilly’s interrogation commenced at about 6.30 a.m., nearly nine hours after
he had found his mother dead. It was tape recorded. His interrogator noted
that Reilly appeared very relaxed, well poised and exhibited no emotion. For
the next two hours Reilly gave a general description of his movements on the
day of the murder and his discovery of the body. He was asked questions about
his mother’s sex life and whether he had ever had a sexual relationship with
her. Reilly was later to say that these personal questions upset him a great deal.
After a four-hour break Reilly was asked to take a polygraph test. He agreed
because ‘I was sure of my innocence. I just wanted to get all the police garbage
out of the way so I could get some rest and be with my friends’ (p. 57). Prior to
the polygraph examination, the examiner told Reilly about the effectiveness of
the instrument:
‘The polygraph reads your brain for me.’
‘Does it actually read my brain?’ Reilly asks.
‘Oh, definitely, definitely. And if you’ve told me the truth this is what your brain
is going to tell me.’