Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-03-05

wife applied to Judge True to have her
husband taken care of. His wife stated
that while ugly with her. he was al
ways kind to the children. On the
morning of the homicide he held and
rocked the baby and seemed especially
laffectionate. After he had pounded
the heads of his children with the SHOW
ell, he went out into field and cut his
own throat, partially severing the
windpipe.
ION the following day he was ration
al, and stated that he came to himself
in the field and found his throat bloody,
but could remember nothing of what
had happened before, except that he
and his wife had quarreled on the way
home from the cemetery.
"-Oh Gcd' he exclaimed. in his cell
at the Jail. what shall l do? Why did
| do it? God help mep,
AT the trial of Scribner before Judge
Libby, DIR. Harlow, superintendent Of
the Insane hospital at Augusta, testi-
fled that Scribner was insane. and not
responsible for his act. The verdict OF
the jury was murder in the first degree.
Scrbner remained in the State prison
at Thomaston from February, 1880, to
May, 1884. During the whole of that
time he was manifestly insane, and at
intervals was noisy and violent. At
the recommendation of commission
appointed to examine into his mental
state he was removed to the Insane
hospital at Augusta, arriving in de-
lirous and critical condition, and sur
viving only eleven days after the re-
moval.''
The second case cited is that of
Thomas ]. Libby of Prout's Neck, who.
on the 5th of September 1884, shot and
killed Lydia Snow at the City hotel in
Portland.
Libby had been in the habit of taking
liquor to excess but for fortnight be-
fore the shooting he had taken little
| alcohol. The defense was that at the
| time he committed the crime he was
suffering from delirum tremens.
| AS the sequel showed it is highly
probable that the act of shooting was
one of those strange freaks which char
acterize the early stage of the well-de-
fined disease which ended Libby's life
paretic dementia. Libby served seven
years in the State prison, and then was
| transferred to the Insane hospital at
|
than year.
On the morning of December Z, 1895,
Alfred Hurd of Bddeford killed his
father with a Ratchet. At the trial DR..
3. r. Sanborn, who had had him under
observation at the Insane hospital for
| five months. testified that Hurd was in
the early stages of dementia of a de-
geEerative and progressive type. In
7 u
Hurd in the insane department of the
State prison and found him thoroughly
demented, and his dementia has been
steadily progressive during the five
years he has been a convict.
Another case is that of Bradford p.
Knight who killed Mamie Small in
Gardiner on Feb. IS, 1899. In regard to
Knight DR.. Thayer says:
His mother, during a considerable
part of her life, had reeurrent attacks
of insanity. His uncle died insane at
the hospital in Augusta. One of his
sisters was treated for two years at
the same hospital during an acute at
tack of insanity, and is now demented.
Another sister and also a brother
died insane. He himself. as a
boy, was odd, shy. and oppressed
by a sense of inferiority and a
fear of impending want At the age
of 20 he had what was probably mild
attack of melancholia. At the age of
IS he suffered from sunstroke, followed
by mental depression. He became
sleepless, could not work, spent much
time in weeping, felt thai Gods spirit
| had left him, and that his soul was
I,-t II fro, hnr
and was committed as an insane person
| to the hospital at Augusta.
After leaving the asylum, for most
of the time he was able to work, but
| was periodically depressed. He feared
| that he might kill his children; sew
| eral times he had strong impulses to do
| it: and he told his wife that perhaps it
| would be better if he returned to the
asylum. He made several half-hearted
attempts at suicide. He imagined that
people were down on him, and watch
| ing him and laughing at him. His re-
| Iations with is wfe's sister, Mamie
| Small, were intimate to the extent of
criminal intimacy. For time he De-
leved her to be the only real friend
| that he had: but when she left him. he
| interpreted her desertion as a part of
the general conspiracy TO get him out
of the way. by claiming falsely that he
was insane, and sending him back
| again to the asylum. And so he killed
| her.
| After Knight was arrested and TAX
| en- to the Jail at Augusta, he refused
| food because he said it was poisoned.
Or account of this and other peculiar
conduct. he was transferred to the In
sane hospital for observa ton. While
| there hc paced the floor. talked to him
| self, and AT times was so vioicnt as TO
| require restraint with Sheets"
DIR. TEayer then goes on tn describe
| X aiGht's actions before his .riar and
aft erwards and finally says:
after the exceptions of Knight
counsels had been overruled by the full
| bench, sentence was passed, and
| knight was committed to the State
prison, where he was seen by the
| writer on Dec. 10, 1901. No astuteneSs
is needed now to take the measure of
this mans feeble mind. When religion
was touched upon. Knight broke down
completely. cried in childish WAY,
and told the story of how he had dis
| oheyed the Lord by Drawing in the