The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-11-27
A DANGEROUS LUNATIC.
THERE ARE TWENTY-SIX MEN
WHOM HE MUST KILL.
Strange Authorizations of the Dis
eased Mind of Gus Neumann-The
Doctors Call it Progressive In
sanity-Committed to the Asylum.

Judge Mentally signed the commit
ment to the insane asylum yesterday
of Gus Neumann, the unfortunate
Bingham miner. Upon the question of
sanity or insanity Drs. Wright
and Young found the patient was suf-
fering from paranoia, or progressive
insanity, the same as that which
afflicted Gitteau and Prendergast. and
had Neumann been allowed to go free
much longer, ne no doubt, as he says,
would have committed any number of
murders, as he claims that there were
twenty-six men following him all the
time who wanted his life but with the
aid of Jesus Christ l can be able to
kill them"
Neumann was taken from the county
Jail to the probate court room by
Deputy Sheriff Montgomery, and was
accompanied by Messrs. Oscar Young
berg and William Kempe as interested
friends.
Doctors Wright and Young went into
the unfortunate mans case very
thoroughly and developed the fact that
on no other point was Neumann daft
except "the devil and "the necessity
of killing his enemies" On all other
subjects he talked perfectly rational.
From many questions Neumann an
swered as follows:
81 was born in Finland and was
married there. When I married I took
the name of my wife. as I went into
her estate, instead of she into mine.
1t is a custom of the country that
where a man goes over to live on the
estate of his wife he takes her name:
if she had come to live on my property
She would have taken my name. I
have brother somewhere in Colorado,
Denver think, by the name of Andrew
Fredrickson. That was once my name.
Served With Human Flesh.
"I was up in Ogden just before my
arrest. If you doubt that you can
easily find out where I soaked my
watch there. 1t was while I was there
that I went into a. restaurant to get
a meal. The waiter brought me in
some human flesh to eat I would not
eat it for a man came UP to me and
said his name was John Matson, and
showed me where the cook had shot
him through the head and murdered
him. He said the cook had killed him
and two more men, and was serving
their flesh at the meals. Matson asked
me not to eat his flesh and he also
said that the cook was watching me,
and was going to serve my flesh UP
just as soon as he killed me. got out
1
could, and came back to Salt Lake.
my wife got a, divorce from me but
she had no right to as I was sending
her money regularly every month. and
she had plenty to come to me if She
wanted to. but it seems she didn't want
to- q parted from her on February 80
1885 and went to California where I
stayed nearly two years and then
came to Utah. It all depends on who
has the best show to kill. If he
(meaning his fancied erknny) has the
best show then I am dead. If I have
it then he is dead, see? You bet I will
kill if [ have to do it to keep a man
off me. There are twenty-six of them
always after me. They must all die
The devil helps the men and I have a
But I'll kill EN-, I'll kill EN-
And thus Neumann rambled on in
a semi-sane and insane manner for
nearly two hours. He would answer
pointed questions perfectly nationally,
but to be allowed to drift at will he
would soon ride his ''devil' or
enemy" hobby until stopped by an
other question.
An effort will be made to find his
brother, and in the meantime he will
be we'll cared for by friends who will
look after him while in the asylum
The physicians think that his case is
an exact parallel of those progressive
insanity cases which lead to murder or
assassination as were evidenced in
Prendergast, the slayer of Mayor Car
who killed President James A. Gar
field.
Neumann will be taken to the asylum
TODAY