Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1870-05-20
MARKTwAIN ON 1.-THE NEW CRIME

-Grasns Dying oatIssTemporary AZ
erration" Quite Eashionabie.sv gf~
4 sFrom tie Bpfalo Express.3 J. @tD
This country, during the last thirty or
forty years has produced some of the most
cases of insanity of which there
is any mention in history. For instance,
the Baldwin case, in, Ohio, twenty-five
years ago.. Baldwin, from his boyhood up,
had been of vindictive, malignant, quar-
relsome nature He put a'boy's eyes out
once, and never was heard upon any occa-
sion to uttera regret for it. g1He did many
such things. But at last he did something
that was. serious. HE called at house Just
after dark, one evening, Knocked, and
when the occupant came to tn, door, shot
him dead, and then tried to- escape, but
vas captured. Two days before, he had
insulted helpless cripple, and
.he man he afterwards took swift ven-
yeance upon with an assassin bullet
knocked him down. Such was the
Baldwin case. o., The trial was long and
exciting; the community was fearfully
wrought up. Men said this spiteful bad
hearted villain had caused grief enough in
ais time, and now he should. satisfy the
aws Bat they were mistaken. Baldwin
xss 2 insane. when he did thea.deed they
1ad not thought of that. BY the argu-
81 snts OF. counsel it was shwon that at 1890
n the morning on the day of the murder,
Baldwin became insane, and remained SO
for eleyelr hours and a half exactly. This
ust covered the case. comfortably, and he
VAS aequitted.a thus, if an unthinking
md excited community had been listened
% instead of the arguments of counsel,
Door. crazy creature would have been held
o q fearful responsibility for mere freak
If madness. .rBaldWing went clear, and al
hough his relatives and friends were nat
lrally incensed against the community for
heir injurious suspicious and. remarks,
hey said let it go for this time and did not
,rosecute. -
The Baldwins were very wealthy. This
anne Baldwin had momentary fits of in
anity twice sfterward, and on both occa-,
lions killed people he had grudges against.
And on both these occasions the circum-
tances, of the killingwere so aggravated,
md the murders SO seemingly heartless and
reacherous, that if Baldwin had not been
insane he would have been hanged without
he shadow of a doubt. AS it was, it re-
Iuired all his political and family influence
o get him clear in one of the cases, and
cost him not less than $4,000 to get clear
n the other. One of these men he had
VIGOROUSLY been threatening to kill for
,welve years. The oorcreature happened,
by the merest piece of ill-fortune, to come
along dark alley at the very moment that
Baldwin's insanity came upon him, sand so
ne was shot in the back with gun loaded
with slugs. 1t was exceedingly fortunate
sor Baldwin that his insanity came on him
ust when it did. i. ...s' .i,,.fsssss u .35sfl.
Take the case of Lynch Hackett, of
Twice, npublic, he attack
I'd German butcher by the name OF Bemis
Feldnes, with cane, and both times Field
aerwhipped him with his fists. Hackett
was vain, wealthy, violent gentleman,
who held his blood and family in high es-
5eem, and believed that q reverent respect
was due his great riches. He brooded over.
he- shame of his chastisement for two
weeks, and then, in momentary tit of in
sanity, armed himself to the teeth, rode
into the town, waited a couple of hours,
until he saw Feldner coming down the
street with his wife on his arm, and then,
as the couple passed the doorway in which
he had partially concealed himself, he
drove knife into Feldner's eek, killing
him instantly. The widow caught Il limp
form and eased it to the earth. Both, were
drenched with blood. Hackett josose-
" remarked to her that as pro-
FessionaI butchers recent wife, she
could appreciate the artistic neatness of
the Job that left her in condition to marry
again, in case she wanted to. The remark,
and another which he made to friend, that
ais position in, society made the killing of
IN obscure citizen simply an 'eccentricity"
instead of a crime, were shown to be evil
lence of insanity, and so Hackett escaped
punishment The jury were hardly inclined
10 accept these as proofs at first, inasmuch
rs the prisoner bad never been insane be-
fore the murder, and under the tranquiliz-
ing. effect of the butchering, had imme.
1iately regained his right mind but when
the defence came to show that q third
cousin of Hackett's wife's stepfather was
insane, and not only insane, but had nose
the very counterpart of Hackett's, il was
plain that insanity was hereditary in the
family, and Hackett had come by it by
legitimate Inheritance. OF course the jury
then acquitted him. But it was merciful
providence that Mrs. III. S people had been
afflicted as shown, else Hackett would GER
tainly have been hanged.
However, it is not possible to account all
the marvellous cases of insanity that have
come under the public notice in the last
thirty or forty years There was the Dur
gin ease in New Jersey three years ago.
The servant girl, Bridget Durgin, at dead
of night invaded her mistress bedroom
and carved the lady literally to pieces with
a knifesa Then she dragged the body to
the middle of the floor and beat and banged
it with chairs and such things. Next she
opened the feather beds and streWed the
around, saturated everything with
kerosene and set fire to the general wreck.
She now took up the young child of the
murdered woman in her blood-smearlng
hands and walked off through the snow
with no shoes on, to a neighbours house
q quarter of mile off, and told q
string of wild, incoherent stories about
some men coming ana setting fire to the
house; and then she cried piteously, and
without seeming to think that there was
anything suggestive about the blood upon
her hands, her clothing, and the baby, vol
unteered the remark that she was afraid
that these men had murdered her mistress
Afterward, by her own confession and other
testimony, it was proved that the mistress
had always been kind to the girl, conse-
quently there was no revenge in the MUIR
der; and it was also shown that the girl
took nothing away from the burning house,
not even her own shoes, and consequently
robbery was not the motive. Now the read
or says. ''Here comes that same old plea
of insanity again. But the reader has de.