Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1901-07-11
AN INSANITY TRUST.
MOST PECULIAR FORM OF CRIME
AT INDIANAPOLIS.
Persons With Alleged Normal Minds
Have Been Arrested, Examined and
Confined, So That Phys clans and
Others Might Profit hereby.

A novel form of criminal oftenSe Is I'M
der investigation at Indianapolis. 1T IS
believed that an Insanity trust exists
there, through the operation of which
lunacy proceedings are brought against
sane persons and are conducted in such
a way as to deny to the subject the full
rights given by the law
The belief is based upon the fact that
70 per cent Of the insanity inquests held
in the Hoosier capital are before GER
tain justice of the peace, that the Wit
neSses in these cases are nearly always
the same that the physicians also are
the same, and that these inQuests nave
cost the county many hundreds OF dol
lars, these fees presumably furnlSh ng
the motive for the operations of the per-
sons concerned. Interest i'll the dlsclos-
ures has been heightened by the fact that
the proceedings in many cases are taken
in secret, and that many Of the persons
s,ho have been committed to the insane
hospital did not know that their sanity
was questioned till the officer placed
them in custody, and, by authority from
the commission, hustled them Oft to the
insane hospital. Some cases, it is true,
were not followed by verdicts of insanl-
ty, but, as the county pays the ices
whether the person under suspicion
proves to be insane or not, the ends OF
the trust were accomplished just the
same.
The particular case upon which the
Attorney General is acting is that OF
domestic who had been working IN a
family for several months. Her mistress
never noticed anything peculiar in her
actions. The first the girl knew OF IN
sanity proceedings against her was when
the sheriff called with a warrant to take
her to the asylum. She protested that
she was not insane and the sheriff said
he knew nothing about the facts, but
must execute the Judgment of the com
mission. The employer of the girl theh
appealed to the Attorney General. All
the facts so far adduced so to show that
the girl was not insane, and the Attorney
General is convinced that Srleyols
wrong has been done. He declares he
will prosecute the witnesses against the
girl for perjury and will slft the IN
sanity trust to the bottom and hold All
implicated in it to a rigid accountable
for their acts.
Another case in viii II charges are to
be preferred Is lllal OF Jobil 1tpNS' NA'l~h
presents the salient features of those OF
many who have been adjudged insane
without proper compliance with the
law. The justice did not examine Ross
as the law requires, nor was the subject
given an opportunity to summon wit
nesses in his own behalf or to make
statement for himself. He received an
injury some time ago while at work in
the packing department of Kingan
porkhouse, and went to the city dlspen-
sary to get some medicine. The next
thing he knew he was dragged away
from his work to the hospital and inves-
tigation shows that he was adjudgcd in
sane, and that the witnesses who testi-
fed against him were dispensary lnternes
who had given him a prescription for
medicine when he called at the dlspen-
sary for treatment.
The record of fees received by physl-
clans, justices and witnesses in insanity
inquests since Jan. l shows that to one
person was paid $3.50. to another $299,
and to others, S191, $3.50, and various
sums down to $50.