Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-07-10
THE CRANE HOMICIDE.
Proceedings of the 2Oth and 2Ist
Days.

e FRIDAY, July ,, 1863.
DR.. NJ. s. Graft said: ! am 6 praet
+. sing physician; resident OF this city
v have practiced my profession for min,
!. teen years; was three and a half yea
q surgeon of the army Of Norther
Virginia; have known the prisOnt
e for twenty-five years; we have live
= IN the same town q great many wears
j l have been frequently associated wit
g him, and have known his family well
since February, 1865, have been hi
r medical attendant and | do not kuoy
9 OF any one else who has acted in tina
} capacity; my visits to his house hay,
been frequent; cannot say how mann
times ] have been there, but in III
four and a half years / have been hi
physician he has sent for me alWav!
when there was necessity, and fire.
, quentiy when there was no necessity
the prisoner has been q man who
would drink, but motto my knowledge
to excess; i have never seen him nm.
der the influence Of liquor, so as not t.
have his faculties perfectly under con.
troll; l never saw him much excited
| by 1t to my knowledge; I never saw
him drunk or approXimating to drunk
enness; l have never attended him fOT
any condition Of body or mind that |
could kattribute to excessive use OF
liquor, and he has been during that
time two or three times a patient of
mine; think | understand mania a
pO,u very welI-weli enough to recog-
nize it under all circumstances and at
all times; do not profess to be so con-
! VerSant with mania generally, or in
sanity; during my practice | have
! had occasion to treat a great many ca
ses of mania potu, and ! think un-
derStand it; ! would be very confident
OF recognizing it wherever il might
exist; IL | should see q single exhibit
ton of violent conduct or delirium, I
am very sure that / could say whether
II resulted from mania a pOtu, but [
might not be able TO say whether it
was produced from disease of the
brain; | am very familiar with mania
potu, but not so familiar with ordi-
nary insanity; man under the inliu-
encc OF mania pOtu is never aggres-
siye, but his great desirGis TO get out
OF the way of danger; ! have heard
and read Of occasional hOmici1es be
ing committed under the influence of
mania q pOtu, but the circumstances
that have been stated, inVrN-'-'-
have been abOnt r. -,.aIaOly
ff''.''-' ,utSe: the party af-
---.,,, Dy mania a potu in apprehen-
sion of some great dangers will
seize a sword or knife, or some
thing of that sort, and viii strike q
man down WhOis trying to hold him;
l. - 4hp fprsc no
simply wants 10 throw every obstacle
out of the way in order to escape; IL Is
the great fear which impelS them 10
do it; / never have seen q case OF the
kind; ! have seen two efforts during
mania a pOrtua, to commit suicide by
parties who were under the impress
sion that they were to be publicly eX-
ecuted, and their object was to escape
an ignominious death.
At the time of the trouble nj the
prisoners residence, testified to by
witness Taylor and Others, / was sent
for by Mr.. John X. YcTgeT, urging
me TO come over ut once as Edward
Yerger was in a furious, uncomfortable
condition: ! could not 90, and in
about a half or thrce-quarters of an
hour afterwards he sent again, with
the information that George Nerger
had knocked Edward NeTger down,
and had probably killed him; I went
Immediately, and when / got there,
whatever excitement there might have
been in the knocking down of the
prisoner, etc, had subsidized, and saw
Mr.. Nergcr sitting at one side of his
table; Mr.. Anderson, his brOther-in-
law, Mrs. Anderson, his sister, and
probably one or two other members of
the family, and Mr. YeTger was mar
rating the circumstances of being
knocked down, or Of being attacked;
] walked in without much ceremony,
didn't knock at the door, and as soon
as | got to the door, Mr.. NCrggr recOg-
nized me; he said: ] was telling
Fulton and Mary Ann, meaning Mr..
and Mrs. Anderson, Of being knocked
down, and of the difficulty with the
rObber; he then told me that he was
assured of the fact that there was q
rObber in the house, that he knew
there was one. and that he was look
ing for him, and that at last he had
encountered him in the hall, and that
he had broke ut him and went toward
him with his knife TO attack him, and
that the rObber knocked him down
with 4 chair; do not know whether
it was 4 TObber or a murderer; it was
some such expression; he told ii in
considerable detail, but that was the
substance Of what he said; | satisfied
myself that he was not labOring under
the influence of mania a pOrtu.
l decided it in the first place by ask
ing Dlr, Yerger if he had been drink
ing; he told me ne had not; l ascer-
tanned from members of his family,
from Mrs. Anderson particularly, also
from his wife, that Mr.. Nerger had
been for three or four days in the house
going down town scarcely at all, if
ut ALL don't know but he had been
at home all the time. Mrs. Yerger
assured me that he had not been drink
ing: that there was no liquor in the
house, with the exception of some
claret, and she hadn't observed him to
be drinking at all; being there profess
siOnally, | examined him; l do not
know that / felt his pulse, or looked
at his tongue, but l criticised his Inan-
ner, and / saw that he was not under
the influence Of liquor; it was per-
fectly unmistakable, he neither was
| drunk, nor labOring under the results
ola long debauch. | recollect dis
tinctly, just as I was about leaving,
they were afraid of another outburst
of this furious passion, and insisted
that should do something for him,
and l suggested to Mr.. Yerger that /
thought he ought to take a dose of
morphine; that his nervous system
needed to be quieted, for he was in the
condition of a man who had encOun-
tered robber, and told him l would
give him a dose eofmOrphine in a little
claret; he said no, he would not take
the morphine, but he would take the
claret if would give it to him; he
| drank little claret, and after we had
chatted on Indifferent matters for the
| purpose of diverting his mind from
| the delusion, and | suggested that he
ought to lie down and go to sleep.
He had not, when l saw him, any
| symptoms of a man who had taken
! liquor, and did not know how to
account for his condition; he did not
| deport himself as men do who are un-
der the influence of liquor; such eXhi-
bitions, however, might have proceed
ed from actual intoXication; If he had
| been under the influence of delirium
tremens during the time preceding
my visit, in form so violent as to
have affected his mind to the extent
indicated by the witnesses, and with
the delirium still upon him he would
have exhibited traces of character to
indicate its existence beyond any ra-