Los Angeles herald., 1905-04-23
| PROBLEM which promises to at
tract great attention and give

n tract great attention and give
rise to endless controversy among
medical and scientific men in general
is involved in the case of George H.
Wood, young man of 26 years, who is
confined in the Jail at Somervlle, n. j..
charged with the murder of George
Williams, farmer of the village ot
Watching, N. j. Williams was found
dead in his sleigh on the Coontown road,
not far from Watching, with a bullet
wound in his back, on February 2 last.
1t has been established that Wood
and Williams had gone away in the
sleigh together and that Wood disap-
peared before the body was found, and
he has since declared emphatically that
he has no recollection of having been
anywhere within miles of the scene of
the killing, to which denial he adds the
astounding assertion that his mind is Il
total blank concerning his actions and
movements for period of several days,
beginning three days before the
murder.
Wood was born in Somerville and
lived there until his tenth year. Seven
teen years ago his family moved away,
and he only returned at long intervals
to visit his grandmother, Mrs. Sarah
Pollock.
1t has been proved that Wood had
never met or known Williams before
February last, when he bargained 10
pay 81. so to be taken in Williams sleigh
over to Mount Horeb, eight miles away.
Wood has never shown any homicidal
tendencies AS far as can be learned
he has had a good reputation, working
at his trade as iron worker and living
with his wife and three children in
One Hundred and Thirty-frst street.
Manhattan.
His last distinct recollection until he
"came to-" as he expresses it, in the
Tombs was leaving his house about 8
o'clock on the morning of January 80 to
go to Scarsdale, Pa, to make a loan
for business purposes. He remembers
the difficulty of making train .connec-
tions, the meeting of two friends in q
junction restaurant, the name of which
is unknown to him, drinking one glass
of beer, and nothing more until
II sort of came to and found myself
in the Tombs.'
Now the question arises Is this man
feigning when he disclaims all knowl-
edge of committing the murder or is
he suffering from amnesia? And the
answer will puzzle some of the brightest
experts on insanity.
Speaking of the case of DIR. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde, which, of course, is admitted
to be but an allegory, one physician
who has made brain disease his life
study said:
1.-THE case of Ancel Bourne. a minis
ter of Greene, r. l., is reported by
Prof. James of Harvard;
"'On January II, 1887, after drawing
a sum of money from the bank. he paid
certain bills and entered car. This Is
the last incident he remembers. Moth
ing was heard of him for several
months and foul play being suspected
the police sought him in vain. On the
morning of October IA, following, at
Morristown, person calling himself
A. j. Brown, who had rented a small
shop six weeks before, stocked it with
goods of varied assortment and carried
on quiet trade without seeming in the
least eccentric, awoke in fright and
called to the people in the house to tell
him where he was. He said his name
was Ancel Bourne, that he was quite
ignorant of Morristown, knew naught
of shopkeeping and that the last thing
he remembered-it seemed but the day
before-was drawing money from the
bank in Providence, etc. He could not
be persuaded that ten months had
elapsed Mr.. Bourne could be hyp-
Noticed and the Brown personality
brought out in the hypnotic trance"
DR.. Dana, Dr. Weir Mitchell ana