Abstract
On August 1, 1930, Christine Colletti was murdered and left lying on the side of an abandoned road with five bullet wounds (e.g., Leo, 1994). Shortly after learning of his wife’s death the next day, Tony Colletti, an 18-year-old Cleveland resident, accompanied plainclothes detectives to police headquarters for what he was told would be routine questioning. During the car ride to the station, Detectives Corso and Welch told Colletti that they knew “what really happened,” instructing Colletti to “come clean” and tell them about the murder. Colletti responded, as he would continue to do many times over the next two days, that he did not know what the detectives were talking about, explaining that he had last seen his wife the night before and was as surprised as everyone else to learn of her murder.
I thank Dan Lassiter and Welsh White for helpful comments and Brynn Nodarse for helpful research assistance.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Ageloff, H. ( 1928, November 28). The third degree. New Republic. p. 28.
Arther, R. O., & Caputo, R. (1959). Interrogation for investigators. New York: Copp.
Bandler, R., & Grinder, J. (1979). Frogs into princes: Neurolinguistic programming. Moab, Utah: Real People Press.
Becker, H. (1963). Outsiders: Studies in the sociology of deviance. Glencoe: Free Press.
Becton, C. L. (1987). The drug courier profile: ‘all seems infected that thnfected spy, as all looks yellow to the jaundic’d eye.’ North Carolina Law Review, 65, 417–479.
Bingham, T. A. (1910). Administration of criminal law: Third degree system. The Annals of the American Academy, 11–15.
Black, J. (1927). You can’t win. New York: Macmillan.
Bolus, W. F. (1910). The sweating or third degree system. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 36, 9.
Booth, B. (1930). Confessions and methods employed in procuring them. Southern California Law Review, 4, 83–102.
Brooks, M. (1989). Instant rapport. California: Warner.
Buckwalter, A. (1983). Interviews & interrogations. Boston: Butterworth.
Bureau of National Affairs (1985, August). Polygraphs in employment, part V: The experts debate the issues. (No. 1127, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government ).
Carey, A. (1930). Memoirs of a murder man. Garden City: Doubleday.
Carte, G., & Carte, E. (1975). Police reform in the united states: The era of August Vollmer, 1905–1932. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Chafee, Z. (1931, November). Remedies for the third degree. Atlantic Monthly. pp. 621–630.
Chisolm, B. O., & Hart, H. H. (1922). Methods of obtaining confessions and information from persons accused of crime. The Fifty-First Congress of the American Prison Association (pp. 3–19 ). New York City: Russell Sage Foundation.
Cialdini, R. (2001). Influence: Science and practice. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
City of Oakland, Police Department (1999). Advanced interviewing techniques. Unpublished interrogation training manual.
Clark, C. L., & Eubank E. (1927). Lockstep and corridor: Thirty-five years of prison life. Cincinnati: University of Cincinnati Press.
Cloud, M. (1985). Search and seizure by the numbers: The drug courier profile and judicial review of investigative formulas. Boston University Law Review, 65, 843–920.
Conroy, J. (2000). Unspeakable acts, ordinary people: The dynamics of torture. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Deakin, T. J. (1988). Police professionalism: The renaissance of American law enforcement. Springfield, Illinois: Thomas.
Dilworth, D. C. (1976). The blue and the brass: American policing, 1890–1910. Gaithersburg, MD.: International Association of Chiefs of Police.
Editorial (1910). Thomas Byrnes and the ‘Third Degree.’ Bench and Bar, 21, 91–93.
Ekman, P., & O’Sullivan, M. (1991). Who can catch a liar? American Psychologist, 46, 913–920.
Fiaschetti, M. (1930a). The third degree as a cop sees it, New York World, p. 7.
Fiaschetti, M. ( 1930b, March 8). Forced convictions, New York Telegram, p. 1.
Fiaschetti, M. (1930c). You gotta be rough: The adventures of detective Fiaschetti of the Italian squad. New York: Doubleday, Doran.
Fogelson, R. (1977). Big-city police. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Frank, J., & Frank, B. (1957). Not guilty. New York: Doubleday.
Franklin, C. (1970). The third degree. London: Robert Hale.
Friedman, L. (1993). Crime and punishment in American history. New York: Basic.
Gordon, N., & Fleisher, W. (2002). Effective interviewing and interrogation techniques. San Diego: Academic Press.
Gottschalk, L. A. (1961). The use of drugs in interrogation. In A. Biderman & H. Zimmer (Eds.), The manipulation of human behavior (pp. 96–141 ). New York: Wiley.
Gudjonsson, G. H. (1992). The psychology of interrogations, confessions and testimony. New York: Wiley.
Gudjonsson, G. H. (2003). The psychology of interrogations and confessions: A handbook. New York: Wiley.
Haller, M. H. (1976). Historical roots of police behavior: Chicago, 1890–1925. Law & Society Review, 10, 303–323.
Hart, W. (1981, March). The subtle art of persuasion. Police Magazine, 7–17.
Harvard Law Review (1930). The third degree. Harvard Law Review, 43, 617–623.
Henderson, G. (1924). Keys to crookdom. New York: Appleton.
Hess, J. (1997). Interviewing and interrogation for law enforcement. Cincinnati: Anderson.
Holmes, W. (2003). Criminal interrogation: A modern format for interrogating criminal suspects based on the intellectual approach. Springfield, Illinois: Thomas.
Hopkins, E. J. (1931). Our lawless police: A study of the unlawful enforcement of the law. New York: Viking Press.
Inbau, F. E. (1942). Lie detection and criminal interrogation. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.
Inbau, F. E. (1948). Lie detection and criminal interrogation. ( 2nd ed. ). Baltimore: William & Wilkins.
Inbau, F. E., & Reid, J. (1953). Lie detection and criminal interrogation. ( 3rd ed. ). Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.
Inbau, F. E., & Reid, J. (1962). Criminal interrogation and confessions. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.
Inbau, F. E., & Reid, J. (1967). Criminal interrogation and confessions. ( 2nd ed. ). Baltimore: William & Wilkins.
Inbau, F. E., Reid, J., & Buckley J. P. (1986). Criminal interrogation and confessions ( 3rd ed. ). Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.
Inbau, F. E., Reid, J., Buckley, J. P., & Jayne, B. (2001). Criminal interrogation and confessions. ( 4th ed. ). Gaithersburg, Maryland: Aspen.
International Police Magazine ( 1911, August). Police methods and their critics. p. 9.
MAG Irving, B., & Hilgendorf, L. (1980). Police interrogation: The psychological approach. Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure Research Study No. 1. London: HMSO.
Jayne, B. (1986). The psychological principles of criminal interrogation. In F. E. Inbau, J. Reid, & J. P. Buckley (Eds.), Criminal interrogation and confessions. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.
Johnson, D. R. (1979). Policing the urban underworld: The impact of crime on the development of the American police, 1800–1887. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Journal of American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology (1912). The Third Degree., 2, pp. 605–607.
Kamisar, Y. (1980). Police interrogation and confessions: Essays in law and policy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Kassin, S., & McNall, K. (1991). Police interrogation and confessions: Communicating promises and threats by pragmatic implication. Law and Human Behavior, 15, 233–251.
Kassin, S. (1997). The psychology of confession evidence. American Psychologist, 52, 221–233.
Kassin, S., & Fong, C. (1999). I’m innocent: Effects of training on judgments of truth and deception in the interrogation room. Law and Human Behavior, 23, 499–516.
Keedy, E. (1937). The third degree and legal interrogation of suspects. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 85, 761–777.
Kidd, W. R. (1940). Police interrogation. New York: Basuino.
Kleinmuntz, B., & Szucko, J. (1984). Lie-detection in ancient and modern times: A call for contemporary scientific study. American Psychologist, 39, 766–776.
Larson, J. A. (1932). Lying and its detection: A study of deception and deception tests. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lavine, E. (1930). The third degree: A detailed and appalling expose of police brutality. New York: Garden City.
Lavine, E. (1936). Secrets of the metropolitan police. Garden City: Garden City.
Lee, C. D. (1953). The instrumental detection of deception: The lie-test. Springfield: Thomas.
Leo, R. A. (1992). From coercion to deception: The changing nature of police interrogation in America. Crime, Law and Social Change: An International Journal, 18, 35–59.
Leo, R. A. (1994). Police interrogation in America: A study of violence, civility and social change. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. University of California, Berkeley.
Lewis, B., & Pucelik, F. (1990). The magic of nlp demystified. Portland: Metamorphous Press.
Limpus, L. W. (1939). Honest cop: Lewis J. Valentine. New York: E.P. Dutton.
Los Angeles Evening Express ( 1929, June 7). Confessions to be doubted: Many secured by torture. p. 3.MAG
Lykken, D. (1998). A tremor in the blood: Uses and abuses of the lie detector ( 2nd ed. ). New York: Plenum Press.
Macdonald, J., & Michaud, D. (1987). The confessions: Interrogation and criminal profiles for police officers. Denver: Apache Press.
Macdonald, J., & Michaud, D. (1992). Criminal interrogation. Denver: Apache Press.
Matthewson, D. (1929). The technique of the American detective. The Annals of the American Academy, 146, 214–218.
Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966).
Morris, W., & Morris, M. (1988). The Morris dictionary of word and phrase origins. ( 2nd ed. ). New York: Harper & Row.
Moston, S. (1992). Truth or lies: are police officers able to distinguish truthful from deceptive statements? Policing, 8, 26–39.
Mulbar, H. (1951). Interrogation. Springfield, Illinois: Thomas.
Murphy, C. J. (1929). Third degree: Another side of our crime problem. Outlook, 151, 522–526.
National Commission on Law Observance and Law Enforcement. (1931). Report on lawlessness in law enforcement. Washington: United States Government Printing Office. New Republic (1930, March 19). American Torquemada. p. 13.
O’Connor, J., & Seymour, J. (1990). Introducing neuro-linguistic programming. London: Harper Collins.
O’Dwyer, W. (1987). Beyond the golden door. Jamaica, N.Y.: St. Johns University Press.
Ofshe, R. (1989). Coerced confessions: The logic of seemingly irrational action. Cultic Studies Journal, 6, 6–15.
Ofshe, R., & Leo, R. A. (1997a). The social psychology of police interrogation: The theory and classification of true and false confessions. Studies in Law, Politics and Society, 16, 189–251.
Ofshe, R., & Leo, R. A. (1997b). The decision to confess falsely: Rational choice and irrational action. Denver University Law Review, 74, 979–1122.
O’Hara, C. E. (1956). Fundamentals of criminal investigation. Springfield, Illinois: Thomas.
Oregon v. Elstad, 470 U.S. 298 (1985).
O’Sullivan, F. D. (1928). Crime detection. Chicago: O’Sullivan.
Purvis, M. (1936). American agent. New York: Garden City Publishing.
Rabon, D. (1992). Interviewing and interrogation. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press.
Reid, J. E., & Inbau, F. E. (1977). Truth and deception: The polygraph (“lie-detector”) technique. (2nd ed.). Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.
Reid, J. E. (1991a). The Reid technique: Interviewing and interrogation. Unpublished course booklet.
Reid, J. E. (1991b). The Reid technique of specialized interrogation strategies. Unpublished course booklet.
Reid, J. E. (1994). The Reid technique of interviewing and interrogation. Promotional brochure.
Reppetto, T. A. (1978). The blue parade. New York: Free Press.
Rhoads, S. A., & Solomon, R. (1987). Subconscious rapport building: Another approach to interviewing. The Police Chief 19, 39–41.
Richardson, J. (1987). The magic of rapport. California: Meta Publications.
Risinger, M., & Loop, J. (2002). Three card monte, monty hall, modus operandi and “offender profiling”: Some lessons of modern cognitive science for the law of evidence. Cardozo Law Review, 24, 193–285.
Royal, R. F., & Schutt, S. R. (1976). The gentle art of interviewing and interrogation: A professional manual and guide. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Rutledge, D. (1996). Criminal interrogation: Law and tactics. Nevada: Copperhouse. San Francisco Chronicle (1859, March 27). Confessions of prisoners. p. 1.
Scheck, B., Neufeld, P., & Dwyer, J. (2000). Actual innocence: Five days to execution and other dispatches from the wrongly convicted. New York: Random House.
Sears, D. W. (1948). Legal consequences of the third degree. Ohio State Law Journal, 9, 514–524.
Sedgwick, A. C. ( 1927. The third degree and crime. The Nation, 124, 666–667.
Simon, D. (1991). Homicide: A year on the killing streets. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Skolnick, J. H. (1961). Scientific theory and scientific evidence: An analysis of lie detection. Yale Law Journal, 70, 694–728.
Skolnick, J. H. (1982). Deception by police Criminal Justice Ethics, 40–54.
Smith, D. L. (1986). Zechariah Chafee, Jr.: Defender of liberty and law. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Stansbury v. California, 511 U.S. 318 (1994).
Sutton, W. (1976). Where the money was. New York: Viking Press.
Sylvester, R. (1910, May 10–13). A history of the ‘sweat box’ and ’third degree.’ Proceedings of the international Association of Chiefs of Police, 17th Annual Convention. Reprinted in J. H. Wigmore (1913), The principles of judicial proof (pp. 550–551 ). Boston: Little, Brown.
Trovillo, P. V. (1938). A history of lie-detection. American Journal of Police Science, 29, 848–881.
Trovillo, P. V. (1939). A history of lie-detection. American Journal of Police Science, 30, 104–119.
Underwood, B. (1979). Law and the crystal ball: Predicting behavior with statistical inference and individualized judgment. Yale Law Journal, 88, 1408–1448
Van Wagner, E. L. (1938). New York Detective. New York: Dodd, Mead.
Villard, O. G. (1927, October). Official lawlessness: The third degree and the crime wave. Harpers Magazine, 155, 605–624.
Wald, M., Ayres, D. W., Hess, M. S., & Whitebread, C. H. (1967). Interrogations in new haven: The impact of Miranda. The Yale Law Journal, 76, 1519–1648.
Walker, S. (1977). A critical history of police reform: The emergence of professionalism. Kentucky: Lexington.
Walker, S. (1980). Popular justice: A history of American criminal justice. New York: Oxford University Press.
Walters, S. (2003). Principles of kinesic interview and interrogation ( 2nd ed. ). Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Walling, G. (1887). Recollections of a New York chief of police. New York: Caxton.
Weisberg, B. (1961). Police interrogation of arrested persons: A skeptical view. In C. R. Sowle (Ed.), police power and individual freedom (pp. 153–181 ). Chicago: Aldine.
White, W. S. (1979). Police trickery in inducing confessions. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 127, 581–629.
White, W. S. (1998). What is an involuntary confession now? Rutgers Law Review, 2001–2057.
White, W. S. (2001). Miranda’s waning protections: Police interrogation practices after Dickerson. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Wicklander, D. (1979). Behavioral interviews to a confession. Police Chief, 10, 40–42.
Wicklander, D. (1980). Behavioral analysis. Security World, 13, 141–61.
Willemse, C. (1931). Behind the green lights. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Wrightsman, L., & Kassin, S. (1993): Confessions in the courtroom. Newbury Park: Sage.
Yeschke, C. L. (1993). Interviewing: A forensic guide to interrogation. Springfield, Illinois: Thomas.
Zimbardo, P. (1971). Coercion and compliance: The psychology of police confessions. In C. Perruci & M. Pilisuk (Eds.), The triple revolution (pp. 492–508 ). Boston: Little, Brown.
Zimring, F. E., & Frase, R. (1979). The criminal justice system: Legal materials. Boston: Little, Brown.
Zulawski, D., & Wicklander, D. (2002). Practical aspects of interview and interrogation ( 2nd ed. ). Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2004 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Leo, R.A. (2004). The Third Degree and the Origins of Psychological Interrogation in the United States. In: Lassiter, G.D. (eds) Interrogations, Confessions, and Entrapment. Perspectives in Law & Psychology, vol 20. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-38598-3_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-38598-3_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-33151-5
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-38598-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive