Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-04-19
DoC" lARNN'S
P~ECuLIARITIES
Slept With Limburger Cheese.
in His Bed.
LIKED THE ODOR OF ONIONS
And Was Going to Do His Own Assay
ing With a Stick and a
Tomato Can,
THE DOOR OF ONIONS

Judge Henry N. Blake today resumed
the taking of testimony relating to the
sanity Of James Larkin at the time he
executed a deed for some interests in the
Snohomish and Tramway properties to
the Butte & Boston company some years
ago. The statement was made yesterday
that Mrs. Hesse who CAV testimony
Monday was Larkin's second wife. This
was an error. Mrs. Hesse was the first
and only wife of Larkin and Clara Larkin
is his only child. After being divorced
from Larkin, she married Hesse.
John Deviin testified today that he
knew Doc" Larkin during his lifetime;
met him in 1887; On one OCCASION witness
met Larkin in McGovern's saloon and
spoke to him, when for no cause "hat-
ever, Larkin became very much excited
and ran behind the bar to get a pistol, eN-
pressing a desire to kill the illness; at
forwards witness asked Larkin why he
wanted to kill him. and Larkin could give
no explanation of his conduct; after this
incident the relations between Larkin
and witness continued pleasant. After
1890 Larkin began to show signs or men,
tai weakness; in the earlier days Larkln
was apparently a more than ordinarily
bright man; his manner of speech was
never polite. Witness was Of the opinion
that there was room for improvement in
Larkin's method of speech. In witness
opinion Larkin's mental condition, IN 1898
was different than it was in former
years. Larkin was not in a fit mental
condition to attend to his business at
fairs.
On cross examination, witness said his
residence in Butte dated back to the
earlier days of the camp. He knew of the
various mines in which Doc Larkin
was interested: from 1885 until l $50 Lar
49,, l:l aN--;l1r 80 NJ yr-oply ~ n r,irn
across the creek" Larkin was fire.
quently at McGovern's where he met the
men who consregated there and drank
considerable: Larkin had no occasion to
attempt to kill witness. He did not be-
lieve that Larkin was afraid of witness.
After the McGovern incident their rela-
tons continued pleasant; but the affair
| impressed witness that Larkin's mind
was giving way;prior to 1887 witness con-
sidered Larkin a good business man as
he had acquired valuable mln1ng inter
| ests and held many of them. Larkin was
a rough, uncouth man in the earlier days,
Duncan McRae. the next witness, testi-
fled that he had resided in Butte since
1881 and was a shoemaker. He knew
James Larkin: remembered the time he
was sent to the asylum; saw him nearly
every day previous to that time. Witness
lived near Larkin's place from 1888 until
1898, and had frequent opportunity for
observing Larkin's peculiarities; Larkir
came out of his cabin one day, nearly
naked. He had a pistol in his hand ana
talked about some imaginary foe. Or
another occasion witness came home t
dinner and saw Larkin in front of hi,
place, waving a cane violently in the al
and calling on God to stop the wind: OF
another occasion Larkin had a rope in hi
hand: he was alone and was saying
Hang him! Hang him." Witness wa.
of the opinion that Larkin was a ''littl,
0f - ciSra 1899 and that IN 1910 bn uo.
insane: did not consider him compaten
at that time to enter into contracts of
business nature.
On cross-examination witness said tina
after 1892 Larkin was much quieter il
every way; Larkin might have bee
drunk at the time he made the demon
s%tration with the pistol; did not thin
Larlkin was drunk when he was calm
on God to stop the wind; previous to 1S9
'e Larkin drank a great deal; witness kne,
nothing about his financial condition. blu
knew that he spent a great deal of money
William Waters knew Doc Lark
about four years. during which time h
roomed at his house. Larkin's conduc
was not good; he would sleep with
piece of Limburger cheese under his ri
low because he said he liked the odol
he also liked the odor of onions. Wit
ness threw the cheese out on one occa
sion and Larkin did not like it and toll
, witness SO; Larkin also had a weakness
for raw ham, which he kept in a burea
GU drawer along with the "odoriferous
ne cheese and onions and orange peeling!
Re Larkin told witness that he had a silve
c. plate in his skull, the result of a SUI
at sical operation. on account of a mine aC
- cident, in which his skull was FRACTURED
' Larkin would sometimes talk about hay
ing killed someone, which seemed t
bother him, but he would not enter int
.er details. Larkin told the witness that l
was affected with an unmentionable di:
ease; he would go to bed frequently wit
his clothes on. Witness did not thin
that Larkin was drunk "all- the time,
but said he Just got drunk occasionall,
30 like anyone else During 1898 Larkil
90 in witness opinion, was insane, and wa
90 not in a fit mental condition to atten
m to his business affairs.
IN At yesterday evenings session of Il
~ examination a number of witnesses wei
w examined.
r. j. Watson told of his business r.
lations with Larkin. He said Larkin fl,
quently recounted the story of the killir
of a German in German gulch and Il
manner in which he had accomplished Il
deed.
John J.. Lavelle testified that he ha
been very friendly with Larkin alor
about 1890 and 1891. Larkin was We
abusive in his remarks about other pc,
pie, and his friends had difficulty in +
straining him. He always wanted a 81
when he had a quarrel, and frequent
described how he had killed the Germa
u He appeared to be childish.
James McNichols thought that Lark
was crazy. On one occasion he met La
kin on Park street. Larkin had a toma
can containing some samples of ore. +
told witness that he. was going to pour
. tho rnrk with a cfipk and do his -OWp a