In the asylum for a crime (1935)

From the chronicle by Lladó Figueres (Barcelona, ​​​​1910-1996), included ninety years ago today in number 1 ofBreaking News (18-X-1935). An ERC newspaper of the Anglo-Saxon hybrid news-sensationalist model that was unprecedented here. Director Josep M. Massip commissioned the design to Josep Escuder, trained in New York. Irene Polo was head of content. Like Lladó, they were part of the younger generation of journalists interrupted by the war.

A small, plump, wet-eyed woman and a young woman, who looked as though she had suffered greatly, waited with a neighbor in the corridors of the Palace of Justice for a man to be brought before the court. They were the mother and sister of Salvador Cazorla. He was accused of murdering a three-month-old baby. This happened in Terrassa. It was May 1932. Salvador broke into the home of his neighbor Manuel Martínez Moya. He had taken advantage of a moment when the house was empty. The defendant's intention was undoubtedly to steal. But while he was busy looking for something convenient, Salvador suddenly heard the cry of a baby. His skin crawled.It was a fear of I don't know what"said Salvador. He hesitated for a few moments. He assumed that the infantó, with his crying, could betray him. A whirlwind of thoughts crossed his head. And brutal instinct emerged victorious in this struggle. Salvador entered the room, picked up the infantó in his arms and slit his throat. A two-day shave there has been for forty-one months in prison. He finally answered, in an imperceptible voice, saying that he doesn't remember [...] Salvador isn't here for nothing. "I committed the crime. He committed it out of fear." "Fear of whom?" the prosecutor asks. [...] Salvador remains silent again. He doesn't want to tell us what it was that frightened him. The accused was an ordinary man. He worked like everyone else. He served in the army and earned the rank of corporal. He was in excellent health; he wasn't lacking in energy. But suddenly, the man becomes determined; he has strange preoccupations; he often rambles... He insists that he's useless in society. That he's good for nothing. [...] He sees only one solution: to disappear from the world. He tries to throw himself under a moving train to avoid—he says—greater evils. He runs away in time. Salvador is indignant: "When someone wants to take their own life, no one should stop them.". The doctors attend the trial. They are extensively interrogated. For them, Salvador is a schizophrenic. But he is not one from birth, but symptomatic. They categorically maintain the absolute irresponsibility of the accused. The prosecutor addresses the Court: — I withdraw the accusation. But it is necessary that this man be admitted to the courtroom. stretched out by the civilians and shouts "I don't want to move from here". The mother, devastated, follows them. And says to her handcuffed son: "Stubborn, stubborn! How sad it will be!"