POLICE INVESTIGATIONS 101
LESSONS FROM SHAKESPEARE’S MACBETH
Gilles Renaud | Ontario Court of Justice (Retired)
INTRODUCTION
In this article, I document the various elements of guidance and instruction from Shakespeare’s play Macbeth that may result in enhanced excellence in investigative work. Briefly stated, the discussion is organized along broad, thematic lines involving demeanour evidence, interviewing skills, human nature and judgment in investigations.
DISCUSSION
Demeanour evidence
Distant precedents showing that fiction writers gave great weight to such non-verbal evidence – focus on the features of the face
Macbeth contains a few valuable examples. They are listed below:
1) LENNOX.
What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look
That seems to speak things strange. [Act 1, sc. ii, l. 47]
2) DUNCAN.
There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face …
[Act 1, sc. iv, l. 11]
3) LADY MACBETH.
… Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters …
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under’t. …
[Act 1, sc. v, l. 57]
4) MACBETH.
… Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
[Act 1, sc vii, l. 82]
5) MACBETH.
… Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue:
… And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
Disguising what they are.
[Act 3, sc. ii, l. 34]
- Lips, non-verbal communication and the
At times, it is difficult to know what, if anything, is meant to be communicated by movement involving the lips, as made plain by the passage that follows” “BANQUO … Live you? or are you aught That man may question? You seem to understand me, By each at once her choppy finger laying Upon her skinny lips…” [Macbeth, Act 1, sc. iii, l. 44] By way of contrast, note the more common understanding involving the involvement of the fingers and the lips in the quote that I have selected from the last line of “Charles Augustus Milverton”, a short story in the book, The Return of Sherlock Holmes: “My eyes met those of Holmes, and he put his finger to his lips as we turned away from the window.” This form of non-verbal communication seems to be universal and suggests that silence is golden in that context. In other words, some demeanour is quite easy to interpret and apply; some far from it…
- Smile
Refer to this simple but effective example in Act 2, sc. iii, l. 139 of Macbeth: “DONALBAIN. … Where we are, There’s daggers in men’s smiles …”
- Tears
A great example of how easily one may “fake” crying follows: “MALCOLM. … To show an unfelt sorrow is an office Which the false man does easy…” [Macbeth, Act 2, sc. iii, l. 135]
Evidence – Circumstantial evidence
- Blood as an indirect proof of guilt
Lady Macbeth seeks to compromise the dead King’s guards by getting them drunk early on and by later smearing them with the blood from the Sovereign and by placing the knives that killed him in their possession. As we see at Act 2, sc. ii, l. 55: “… Give me the daggers. … If he do bleed, I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, For it must seem their guilt. …” Canadian courts have little confidence in circumstantial evidence, influenced by real-life past miscarriages of justice and fiction such as this scene.
- Flight
When persons leave a crime scene, or do not stay to assist the police, this often raises suspicions. Thus: “MACDUFF. … Malcolm and Donalbain, the King’s two sons, Are stol’n away and fled; which puts upon them Suspicion of the deed.” See Macbeth, Act 2, sc. iv, l. 25. Of course, as noted, circumstantial evidence is often of little probative value
- Wounds suggesting courage but that is not necessarily correct
At the end of his interview with the King, the Sergeant states: “… But I am faint, my gashes cry for help.” The King responds: “So well thy words become thee as thy wounds: They smack of honour both. Go, get him surgeons.” See Act 1, sc. ii, l. 42. In fact, wounds might have been acquired while fleeing from the battle. Their objective presence does not mean they were acquired after a courageous battle and detectives must be careful not to draw unwarranted conclusions from blood or injuries, etc.
In this context, note this exchange found in Act 5, sc. viii, l. 49 in which the father asks if his son died in battle with wounds to his front, by use of the word “before”, thus demonstrating that he had courage in his death. As we read, “SIWARD. Had he his hurts before? ROSS. Ay, on the front. SIWARD. Why then, God’s soldier be he! Had I as many sons as I have hairs, I would not wish them to a fairer death: And so his knell is knoll’d.” Again, a soldier might have died after being struck from behind but due to an enemy’s sly attack from the rear, not due to cowardice.
Human nature
- Ambition, to achieve greatness, involves an “illness”
Lady Macbeth seems to suggest, at Act 1, sc. v, l. 22, that ambition brings about illness, and that this disease manifests itself with bloody and false acts inconsistent with human kindness. To wit:
… Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be What thou art promis’d. Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great; Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false …”
Investigators must be vigilant to detect such false or bloody actions and to prevent them, if possible. Further, that those that “play false” must also “speak falsely” at the investigative stage. Indeed, Lady Macbeth goes on to note that to succeed, remorse must be blocked from one’s mind. As we read at Act 1, sc. v, l. 40: “… Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood, top up th’ access and passage to remorse …”
- Deadly and violent events are difficult to describe objectively
Note what follows in that regard:
MACBETH.
She should have died hereafter.
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. [Emphasis added]
[Macbeth, Act 5, sc. v., l. 15]
What detectives investigate during the most tragic of crimes are the ways in which victims met their fate, and the information often provided by vain persons proud of their offences or by those incapable of providing a fair and balanced account of the events, in which noise overwhelms understanding.
- Substance abuse and strong emotions affect people differently
This is discussed briefly and obliquely in Act 2, sc. ii, l. 1: “LADY MACBETH. That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold: What hath quench’d them hath given me fire …”
- Things bad begun
“MACBETH. … Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill…” See Act 3, sc. ii, l. 54. Many people believe this and for our purposes, investigators must be mindful that certain persons may become unduly negative or pessimistic after initial difficulties, transforming greatly the account they provide of the events being analyzed.
Judgment by investigators
- Beware of liars
The complicated passage that follows makes plain that equivocators, or liars, are especially crafty as deceiving their peers. Thus:
PORTER.
Here’s a knocking indeed… Here’s a farmer that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty … Faith, here’s an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God’s sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven: O, come in, equivocator …
Detectives must always be vigilant lest they believe false reports
- Confusion resulting from terrible news
Consider how confused is Macduff when he learns of the deaths by murder of his family. This type of understandable inability to make sense of the information received is of such a degree at times that investigators must not seek to question the victim until they have had time to recover. Hence:
ROSS.
Your castle is surpris’d; your wife and babes
Savagely slaughter’d. To relate the manner
Were, on the quarry of these murder’d deer,
To add the death of you.
MALCOLM.
Merciful heaven!—
What, man! ne’er pull your hat upon your brows.
Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak
Whispers the o’er-fraught heart, and bids it break.
MACDUFF.
My children too?
ROSS.
Wife, children, servants, all
That could be found.
MACDUFF.
And I must be from thence!
My wife kill’d too?
ROSS.
I have said.
[Macbeth, Act 4, sc. iii, l. 203]
- Expert opinion
The passage that is found below illustrates an important step in many investigations, when an expert concludes that what is being analyzed is beyond their ability to explain. As a result, they cannot help the police. Such a concession is important as so many miscarriages of justice have resulted from vain and unprincipled persons who wished to gain credit for the help they provide to the authorities. This fatal flaw led them to provide unfounded reports and later testimony as to what caused the death, injury, etc. “DOCTOR This disease is beyond my practice: yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep, who have died holily in their beds.” [Act 5, sc. i, l, 56]
- Evasive responses
The responses made by Macbeth in the quote that is set out below, in attempting to explain why he killed the guards of the King as they slept and posed no danger, exemplify the type of evasive answers that must be dissected fully. Thus:
MACBETH.
O, yet I do repent me of my fury,
That I did kill them.
MACDUFF.
Wherefore did you so?
MACBETH.
Who can be wise, amaz’d, temperate, and furious,
Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:
Th’ expedition of my violent love
Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,
His silver skin lac’d with his golden blood;
And his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature
For ruin’s wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,
Steep’d in the colours of their trade, their daggers
Unmannerly breech’d with gore. Who could refrain,
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage to make’s love known? [Emphasis added]
Macbeth, Act 1, sc. iii, l. 105.
Of note, Lennox later observed on this fortuitous decision:
… Whom, you may say, if’t please you, Fleance kill’d,
For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late.
Who cannot want the thought, how monstrous
It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain
To kill their gracious father? damned fact!
How it did grieve Macbeth! did he not straight,
In pious rage, the two delinquents tear
That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep?
Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too;
For ’twould have anger’d any heart alive,
To hear the men deny’t. … [Emphasis added]
[Macbeth, Act 3, sc. vi, l. 1]
- False confessions
The example that is set out next demonstrates how certain individuals will confess to crimes they have not committed, for private reasons often difficult to explain. In this case, to avoid being called upon to lead troops to defeat Macbeth, the bloody killer of his King and of his best friend, as Macduff thought himself lacking the necessary talent.
MALCOLM.
I grant him bloody,
Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,
Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin
That has a name: but there’s no bottom, none,
In my voluptuousness: your wives, your daughters,
Your matrons, and your maids, could not fill up
The cistern of my lust; and my desire
All continent impediments would o’erbear,
That did oppose my will: better Macbeth
Than such an one to reign. …
[Macbeth, Act 4, sc. iii, l. 55]
- Fraud
This play is perhaps most famous for the last exchanges between Macbeth and Macduff, set out below, as they engage in a fight that Macduff wins. Ever since the witches had told Macbeth that he could not be defeated by a man born of woman and, as well, not unless the woods of Birnam travel to Dunsinane, Macbeth’s castle, this murderous traitor had engaged in battle with no fear. However, the weird sisters told a half-truth, as revealed in the quotes, by means of which he was tricked. On the one hand, the soldiers fighting Macbeth cut down trees and branches from the wood to mask their numbers and approached Dunsinane covered in the foliage giving the impression that Birnam wood did travel to Macbeth’s castle and, on the other, the prophecy of invulnerability was mostly false as Macduff was delivered by means of a caesarean section – thus, technically, not born of a woman. Hence:
MACBETH.
Thou losest labour:
As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air
With thy keen sword impress, as make me bleed:
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;
I bear a charmed life, which must not yield
To one of woman born.
MACDUFF.
Despair thy charm;
And let the angel whom thou still hast serv’d
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb
Untimely ripp’d.
MACBETH.
Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,
For it hath cow’d my better part of man!
And be these juggling fiends no more believ’d,
That palter with us in a double sense;
That keep the word of promise to our ear,
And break it to our hope!—I’ll not fight with thee…
[Macbeth, Act 5, sc. viii, l. 8] [Emphasis added]
The underlined words emphasized that deception or fraud in words is often due to paltering, to the clever insertion of half-truths. Detectives must be careful to amass all information as to the discussions in such cases to show the background to the fraudulent intent.
- Memory
In their quest for finding facts, detectives must examine the memory of potential witnesses, and they must make sense of odd phrases such as “I forget”, the common phrase said these days that echoes what Macbeth stated in Act 1, sc. iii, l. 148: “Give me your favour. My dull brain was wrought With things forgotten. …” The issue is this: f you have forgotten information, how may you retrieve fairly and accurately? Investigators must ask themselves this question. In this context, note that Lady Macbeth proposes to get the King’s guards drunk and so undermine their memory, “… the warder of the brain, Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason A limbec only …” Macbeth, Act 1, sc. vii, l. 65.
- Sparing victims needless suffering and protecting the factual integrity of the investigation
The quote that follows, in which Ross wisely states that he will not disclose the whole of the information he possesses about the slaughter of the victims to Macduff, their father, husband and employer, serves to illustrate sound judgment in both sparing victims and in avoiding needless dissemination of information that may be useful in questioning suspects. “Your castle is surpris’d; your wife and babes Savagely slaughter’d. To relate the manner Were, on the quarry of these murder’d deer, To add the death of you.” [Macbeth, Act 4, sc. iii, l. 204]
- Talking fools
The Porter demonstrates great verbal skills amounting to nonsense and police officers must be careful not to be spend too much time and effort in following t the information put forward by “talking fools”. As we read in Macbeth, Act 2, sc. iii, l. 26:
MACDUFF.
What three things does drink especially provoke?
PORTER.
Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes
and unprovokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance. Therefore much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and giving him the lie, leaves him.
Interviews with witnesses
- Leading questions are to be avoided
When investigators interview potential witnesses, they must do their level best to ask non-leading questions, meaning questions that do not contain any suggested answer. If the question begins with the word “So”, or is to be answered by yes or no, it is probably leading. The penalty for leading questions is that the value of what the witness replied is heavily discounted, or ignored, on the footing that you as the police officer told them what to say. Note that leading is “tolerated” if the question contains the two or three possible replies, such as “Were you driving or a passenger of the sports car when the accident took place?”. Further, leading is only a concern if the information discussed is important. Thus, it is not leading if you state, “You are 37, am I correct?” if the age is merely background or “You are a police officer with the R.C.M.P. judging by your uniform…” when there is no doubt that this is the employment.
What is highlighted below by underlining are examples of correct form of questions:
FIRST WITCH.
When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
SECOND WITCH.
When the hurlyburly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.
…
FIRST WITCH.
Where the place?
SECOND WITCH.
Upon the heath.
THIRD WITCH.
There to meet with Macbeth.
Macbeth, Act 1, sc. i, l. 1.
For greater certainty, note that the first questions list all possible choices and the second, although limited to the place of the meeting, is responded to quite naturally with a reference to the person involved in the proposed meeting. The next passage sets out a leading question, in that the person who is interviewed is informed that the events described must have been of great concern. “DUNCAN Dismay’d not this Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?” [Act 1, sc. ii, l. 33] Of interest, the response is to the contrary, such that the leading will not matter, though bad form. The reply was in an ironic fashion, but clearly showed that neither of the captains was worried: “… As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion…” See Macbeth, Act 1, sc. ii, l. 35.
Noteworthy as well is the passage that follows, from Act 1, sc. iii, l. 86:
MACBETH.
Your children shall be kings.
BANQUO.
You shall be king.
MACBETH.
And Thane of Cawdor too; went it not so?
BANQUO.
To the selfsame tune and words. Who’s here?
The underlined passage represents a form of leading question, as it seeks a yes or no reply to an important question and does not set out the two possible options. Investigators do well to ask simple, “please tell us what happened next” type of questions.