Alli Murphree US History: November 2012

Crimes is a continuous occurence happening all over the world. These crimes have exsisted for many years even before any weapons were involved. A man named Johann Hoch was one of the many murderes that made a dent in the United States. In the Gilded age systems and protection rights were a lot weaker than they are now. This made it possible for people to get away with their horendous crimes and continue to persue them. Johann's story, along with many others, helped formalize many systems including a stronger police department and more enidence on insanity cases.

Johann Hoch was a lady killer. He was from germany and convienetly traveled over to the states with no problem. This was the beginning to the weakness of sysytems occuring in the world. Immigration was a major subject happening in the U.S. They had no boundaries at the time to control other people crossing the border. Hoch was desperate for money and had no job. He conspired a trecherous idea to make a never ending money supply. It involved rich widows. Hoch's plan consisted of marrying rich widows, taking their money, then poisining them to death and as a result he would flee the town. Hoch had a special "potion" he gave the women which contained of arsenic. The Gilded age had doctors but they didnt have advanced equipment to recognize what had been put into the widows body. This allowed him to get away with murder. Hoch would repeat the process and move to the next city to encounter a new rich widow. Over time, Hoch was able to go through sixty murders of women without being caught. Once Hoch was finally convicted he denied the situation and remained silent about his dirty deeds. The Police began to bring in endless clues of evidence that Hoch was forced to be guilty. Hoch was put through a trial and put into an insane asylum.

Police were not very involoved in the Gilded age. They were very careless and most of the men didn't take their job very seriously. Some police were convicted of helping prisoners escape jail. These men were not very professional and were not respected by the townspeople. In the gilded age the regular crime rate consisted of: 28 cases of assault, 7 of theft, 2 of rape, and 1 of helping prisoneers escape. This is what has been recorded from the time period but much more was going on throughout the city that the police department weren't aware of. Crime was an occuring problem happening in cities all over the U.S., this made policemen more aware and was the start to their more professional title. There was no big event that caused the rise of security, but just the build up of many other cases occuring around the country. Johann Hoch's case happned to be one out of the many that helped unionize the police department to become more official. Hoch's case was very eye opening because evidence came in that showed the crime occurring over and over again without any punishment. This made policemen want to be more cautious and aware of what is happening the people in their cities. This era helped form policemen into stable hard working men as they are today.

Poilcemen also were involved in the trials involoving the criminals. They helped give an input on the punishment of the suspect. Uneducated people were being put in positions that they shouldnt have been put in. This caused the uproar of false accusations. Hoch was charged with insanity because people thought if you thought it was okay to kill people as a living you had to be insane. Right? Wrong, yes it was crazy to go through with such a harmful task but that doesn't mean that you are clincally insane. That's where the people had it all wrong. The M'Naghten rule was a plan to limit the insanity defense. This rule formed two types of insanity. One being the basic inpotness to determine right from wrong. Then there was also Volitin insanity which was experienced by mentally healthy people who act in a crime and at the time are so unstable that they cannot abide by their actions. This helped make a clear division between insane assylum and jail time. In the gilded age many criminals were put into insane asylums and cared for clinical help when it wasnt needed. These two rules helped distinguish people into different states of mind. In the gilded age crime was a new upcoming subject and people felt that charging them with insanity only seemed right. When multiple cases started to appear just like Hoch's people began to become wiser and come up with the M'Naghten rule. With time criminals were put into jails instead of insane asylums. It was still very different from the modern world today because today if those crimes were performed now the criminal would be put to the electric chair immediately.

During this time period many improvements were made pertaining to the multiple cases of crimes. Hoch was one of the harmful men in this world that helped lead to security improvements. Although he was a terrible person who participated in awful tasks he assisted in making this world a better place. Criminal cases still occur in the modern world today but are taken better care of with wiser decisions. Crimes will continue to happen but our countries security system will also continue to grow and become stronger.