The San Francisco call., 1904-03-19

titude Of profound and hopeless melan-
choly while his lawyers tried to con-
vince the court that he was a
physical and mental wreck. and that
unless he were admitted at once to bail
he would become incurably insane
forthwith or be carried out of Los An
geles County's new Jail a corpse.
The millionaire was Colonel Grif-
fifth ]. Griffith. formerly Park Com
missioner of Los Angeles, now under
sentence of the Superior Court in that
city for shooting his wife, Christina
Griffith. for which offense he has been
sentenced to serve two years at San
Quentin and pay a fine of $4,000. Pend
ing the decision of his appeal, which
cannot be heard in the Supreme Court
for more than a year. his attorneys had
sued out writ of habeas corpus before
Justice Mcfarland for the purpose of
getting their client out on bail Griffith
was brought into court by Sheriff w.
A. White of Los Angeles County. His
petition was presented and argued by
ex-Judge j. f. Mckinley, John T. Jones
and Earl Rogers. 1t was opposed by
the Los Angeles District Attorney, ].
was to be said on each side the court
denied the petition and sent Convict
Griffith back to his quarters in the Los
Angeles Jail.
AFTIDAVITS GALORE.
Attorney Jones opened the case for
the petitioner with the reading of a
batch of affidavits from well-known
Los Angeles physicians. These experts
were called at the trial in the attempt
of the defense to substantiate plea of
insanity, but the jury refused to accept
their theory. They now deposed that
the month passed since the trial had
produced grave changes for the worse
in the condition of the prisoner, that lie
was rapidly breaking down both ply
sically and mentally, showing signs of
acute delusional insanity and liable il
confined further in the Jail to become
either maniac or a dead man.
This was the burden of all the affida-
Wits, for they were as much alike as
peas in a pod They were sworn to by
Drs e. NJ. Griffith, J. H. Crawford, Fl.
G. Brainard, Robert V. Day, E. NJ. But
Ter, Granville MacGowan and f. c.
Shurtliff. All had known the prisoner
for many years and all were convinced
that the only thing that could save his
mind and perhaps his life was to get
him out of Jail and into a sanitarium,
where he could have abundant open-air
exercise. Besides the affidavits of the
doctors Jones read that Of A. w. Marsh,
a detective, who declared that he had
been watching Griffith for weeks and
believed him to be sinking swiftly into
a state of complete collapse.
WHEN DOCTORS DISAGREE.
Jones rested. This gave District At
torney Fredericks a turn at the affi-
davit business, and he at once pro-
ceeded to square himself by reading
the dispositions of Drs. George w.
Campbell, E. G. Goodman, j. w. True
worthy and w. w. Hitchcock. They
had known Griffith just as long as had
their professional brethren, and they
were just as positive in their beliefs
They declared that the prisoner was
in prime condition, both mentally and
physically, and that neither his life nor
his mind would be endangered by
imprisonment in the Los Angeles Jail.
This belief was fortified by their ac-
counts of a visit which all four of the
atlantis had maid to Griffith in his coll