In the summer of 1847, a panicked mother in a small village in Barnstable, Mass., on Cape Cod, reported her 10-week-old son missing. The townsfolk fanned out to search for him. Within hours, his body was found floating in the harbor. Because no strangers were visiting that day, the villagers knew the killer was one of them. At the funeral the next day, each resident was asked to approach the tiny open coffin, lay hands on the body and declare his or her innocence, a scene described by Evan J. Albright in his book Cape Cod Confidential. The villagers were looking for signs of guilt. They had found none, and only the boy's fomily remained. His mother at first recoiled at the idea of touching her dead son. Then, as she did so, she yanked her hands away from the corpse as if they had been scalded. "I didn't do it! I didn't do it!" she blurted out. The village had found the murderer.
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机译：1847年夏天，马萨诸塞州科恩角巴恩斯特布尔一个小村庄里一位惊慌失措的母亲报告说，她10周大的儿子失踪了。乡亲们散开寻找他。几个小时之内，他的尸体被发现漂浮在港口中。由于那天没有陌生人来访，村民们知道凶手就是其中之一。在第二天的葬礼上，每个居民都被要求接近那只敞开的小棺材，把手放在身体上，宣布自己无罪，这一场景由埃文·J·奥尔布赖特（Evan J. Albright）在他的《鳕鱼角秘密》中描述。村民们正在寻找内的迹象。他们没有发现任何东西，只有男孩的遗体留下了。起初，他的母亲因抚摸她死去的儿子的想法而退缩。然后，当她这样做时，她将手从尸体上拉开，好像它们已经烫伤了一样。 “我没做！我没做！”她脱口而出。村庄找到了凶手。
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