The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1906-06-27


White. the eminent architect, Of the
firm Of McKim, Mead & White. was shot
tonight and almost instantly killed by
Harry Thaw, member of a prominent
Pittsburg family, during the perform
ance Of the musical extravaganza,
'Mamselle Champagne" on the roof of
the Madison Square Garden. White
died before an ambulance could be
summoned and Thaw was arrested i'm
mediately after the shooting.
The garden was crowded with a fash
ionable audience. While Harry Short,
was singing. a comic song and the gar
den was echoing with laughter and
applause, series of shots rang out
and man in evening dress was seen
to fall across the table at which he
was sitting with a party Of friends.
The man who fired the shots fed, pis-
toll in hand, toward the nearest exit,
where he was seized by the police.
Instantly the great audience was
thrown into panic and wild stam-
pede occurred, during which chairs and
tables were overturned, and men and
women fought with desperation to es-
cape from the roof The man who was
shot was quickly identified as Mr..
White, but his assailant was not pos
itively known to be Thaw until after
he had been taken to the station house.
Persons in front of the auditorium,
where the tragedy occurred, say they
saw a man sitting with fashionably
In, ha crd II,
walk down toward table in front.
The first intimation of trouble came
wnen, walking in front of his seated
victim. the man exclaimed You've de-
served THIS: You've ruined my home
and drawing an automatic pistol, fired
three shots. The first two took effect,
but as the third was discharged the
pistol was struck up by a fireman on
duty in the theater and the bullet went
skyward.
The assailant was taken to the West
Thirtieth police station, where he de-
scribed himself as John Smith, student,
los Lafayette Place, Washington, D. c.,
but the police. on searching him, found
cards and letters addressed to Harry
Thaw of Pittsburg, and later his iden-
Thaw had been at the performance
all evening and had been noticed to
be very nervous and excited. White
had been previously to the Manhattan
Club, and had been at the Garden only
a few minutes when Thaw confronted
him. Thaw handed the policeman who
arrested him $40 and asked him to no.
tify Andrew Carnegie that he was in
trouble.
While waiting for the elevator,
Thaw's wife, who was Evelyn Nesbitt,
a member of the original Florodora
sextette, rushed up to him, threw her
arms around him and cried, I'll stand
by you, Harry" There are several
stories as to what Thaw said after fir
ing the shots, but a number of men
agree that he said: "That - -
will never go with that woman again"
To Policeman Dobbs at the Garden,
he said. well, damn him, he deserved
it."
Once at the police station he appar-
emily had recovered himself and had
become the least excited man in it.
Refusing to say a word about the
crime, and asking that his lawyers,
Louis A. Delafield and Frederick Long
fellow, be notified, he pulled his CT
garette and was taken and locked up.
The charge placed against his name is
murder.
NEW YORK. June 26.-Frankly adj
hitting that he killed Stanford White,
the famous architect, and pleading in
justification of the deed that White
had ruined the life of his wife, beau
tiful Florence Evelyn Nesbit, Harry
Kendall Thaw of Pittsburg occupies a
cell in the Tombs awaiting the action
of the grand jury on the charge of
murder.
His counsel will offer the defense
(of insanity. and today the prisoner will
be examined by eminent alchemists,
retained on his behalf and by the dis
trict attorneys office. The coroner's
inquest will be held Thursday. and in
all probability the case will then be
considered by the grand jury when the
prisoners wife will be required to ap-
pear before that body, she having been
served with a subpoena today while in
consultation at the offices of her hus-
bands counsel. Every effort is now
being made by both sides to expedite
the legal preliminaries SO that the ar
raignment and trial may take place at
the earliest possible date.
The whereabouts of Mrs Tnaw. who
disappeared from Madison Square
Garden in the confusion that followed
the tragedy remained mystery until