Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-13
Harry Thaw Will Not
Make Insanity
Plea
Family Skeleton, Would
Be Laid Bare Before
Alipnists
Mother Realizes Gravity Of Situation,
Yet Is Resigned to Course Planned
to Conceal PecuIiarities
of Her Boy
BY Associated Press

BY Associated Press.
NEW YORK, Jan. 12.-Harry X.
Thaw, who IL soon to be placed on trial
for the murder of Stanford white, is Ill
with tonsilitls in his cell. His condi-
lion is serious.
According to an announcement of n
representative of the district attorney,
office he will, however, be tried Janu-
nry 81.
Special to The Herald.
NEW YORK, Jan. 12.-That Harry
*. Thaw is willing to risk the chance
Of going to the death chair rather than
have his past life laid bare, and that
his mother Is willing he shall take the
chance in preference to having some
of the inner family history revealed.
is said to be the secret of their oppo-
sition to having the young man de-
cleared insane on the eve of his trial
for the murder of Stanford White.
The motives animating the mother
and son, differing in inception vet
strangely alike, reach the same pur-
pose in the end. Harry Is aware of the
gathered here and abroad regarding
his career. He feels, it is said by those
who ought to know, that all the story
Will become public property If a com
mission is appointed to inquire into
his sanity.
Nevertheless, it is stated in dispatches
from Pittsburg today, Mrs. Thaw, the
elder, Is being strongly urged to have
commission appointed and this ad-
vice from ri Ia II
old friends of the family as Senator
Knox of Pennsylvania and Justice Nc
kenna of the supreme court Mrs
Thaw appealed to them, as friends of
her late husband, for advice, but is
loath in the extreme to act on the ad-
vice she got.
May Declare Him Insane
There is every reason to believe that
a lunacy commission would declare
Thaw insane. Thaw is sane enough
to realize that and also what it would
mean to him. He is reported to have
said that he has such a dread of 60
ing to Matteawan that he would do
anything to keep out of the state hos
pltal for the insane. But that is not
his real motive. Rather than consent
TO the appointment of commission
which act in itself would make it rea-
sonably certain of saving his life and
keeping dreadful blot off the family
name, he chooses the other course and
thereby escapes having his peculiari-
ties of conduct become known to the
general public.
These peculiarities, if recounted to a
iunacy commission, would certainly
lead to decision that the young man
was and is of unsound mind
That, at any rate, is the statement
n q hJv xH-I4 he, L.
to do with the case from the time that
Thaw was arrested. and who will play
an important part in the legal proceed
ings that must be followed before the
case is finally disposed of. A great
mass of facts has been collected, all
going to show that Thaw is inflicted
with progressive paranoia. His whole
life has been gone over from the time
he was mere child, and Thaw has
very good idea what material has
been found. especially in Paris and
Monte Carlo.
But these same informants say Mrs.
Thaw. ST., does not know the real rea-
son why her son is so bitterly opposed
to going before a commission in lun-
acy She has her own reasons for sid
ing with him. There are some fea-
lures of the family history which go
far toward showing that for Harry to
be at least eccentric is not strange.
There are stories of legs of tables hav-
ing been bitten into when some one
in the family fell to the floor in par
oxysms of rage that were not pleasant
to behold.
These and other things of the same
general character, known only to a
few persons outside the family, are
said to be a part of what Mrs. William
Thaw does not wish to become public.
Other members of the family are will
ing that 1t should all come out rather
than have Harry go to the death cahir.
When Mrs. Thaw first came back to
this country to aid her son she was
told that his life could be saved
through having him declared insane.
She sanctioned all that had been done.
Then she talked with Harry. What
passed between them will probably
never be generally known, but she
switched around to his view. Then
she wanted to know If something could
be done other than having him de-
clared insane that would give him a
chance for his life-Justification of his
killing of White, for instance.
Mrs. Thaw was asked bluntly If she
was insane to think there could be any
justification In her son walking up to
an unarmed and unsuspecting man and
shooting him down In public play
house. 1t was said she was then and
there informed that If any course was
adopted other than having him de-
clared insane by commission, her son
would certainly go to the death chair,
and that nothing could prevent ii.
That fact was impressed ON her with
the greatest earnestness, but she de-
cided against the appointment of q