The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1907-02-05
THAW'S CASE STATED.
Counsel Says Temporary Insanity
Caused Shooting.
WITNESSES TELL OF DEED.


Prosecution Opens Fight With Stories
of Bystanders on Fatal Night = De-
PENDANTS Wife to Tell of Relations
With White.
New York, Feb. 5.-Temporary in
sanity, due to heredity, and the stress
of wrongs alleged to have been in
ficted upon his wife by Stanford
White were disclosed as the dual de-
tense of Harry Kendall Thaw.
Mrs. William Thaw, the prisoners
mother, and Mrs. Evelyn Nesbit Thaw,
his young wife, will be the chief wit
nesses for Thaw.
There was a strong hint, too, in the
opening speech of John b. Gleason for
the defense and in the cross examina-
ton by Mr. Delmas that self defense,
or the belief of Thaw that he was act
ing In self defense would figure as
secondary plea.
Emphasis was laid too, upon the
idea that Thaw believed that he did
no wrong in Staying White, but, on the
contrary. that he served the will of
heaven in avengng wrong.
Mr.. Gleason said plainly that the de-
Tense would spring sensation. He
said:
Defendants Wife to Testify.
SIN June, 1903, this young man asked
this young woman to be his wife. She
refused. Now, gentlemen, what the
circumstances We're behind that re-
fusal you will learn from her own
lips.
Il will not take time to go into de-
tails. The reasons why she did not
wish to marry him she will tell you
with her own lips and her relations
to Stanford White.
'He finally did marry the girl in
April, 1904"
Mr. Gleason said that Thaw labored
under the delusion that his life was al
ways in danger when he was in New
York city, and he believed threats had
been made to kill him. This accounted
for the fact that since January, 1904
he had always carried a pistol. He
had placed it in his overcoat pocket
Ine nlgnC ne went 10 Tie MdulsoA
Square Roof Garden.
In less than two hours, out of the
mouths of nine witnesses, the state
proved that Thaw murdered Stanford
White on the night of June 25, 1906
on the Madison Square Garden roof.
Demas Suggests Self Defense.
Dolphin NJ Delmas, the California
advocate, sharply cross examined the
eyewitnesses as to the possibility of
their having seen Whites left hand.
This was the first intimation that the
defense has a plan to prove either
that White had a revolver in his hand
and that Thaw shot in self defense or
that Thaw believed White was armed.
None of the witnesses admitted seeing
the left hand, and none was asked
whether the architect held revolver.
In presenting the case of the people
against Harry X. Thaw, Assistant Dis
trict Attorney Francis P. Caravan spoke
only ten minutes. He said the people
contended that Thaw killed Stanford
White with deliberation and premedi-
tation. Mr. Garvan said:
"This is an important case both to
the defendant and to the people of the
state of New York. You must under
stand that the purpose of the enforce
ment of the criminal law is the protec-
ton of society, and therefore the sole
purpose of an individual prosecution is
not to punish an individual for h..
criminal act, not alone that, not for
reven@e, but to serve as deterrent to
others who contemplate crime and
hence to act as a protection to the
safety of human life and property in
community
Looked Back at Victim.
In his speech Mr.. Gleason, Thaw's
lawyer, said:
I'VE will appeal to no higher law.
We will not ask you to give our client
back his freedom on any law except
the law of the state of New York.
1--WE will prove that Harry Thaw
was insane when he killed Stanford
White; we will prove that he was no
accountable for his actions, that he be-
lieved the death of Stanford White t.
be an act of Providence and that
believed himself to be an agent of
Providence. l frankly state to you
now that insanity is our defense.
1--WE will show that his perverted
mental condition existed for two years,
and we will show its origin in hereof
tary insanity.
Nevertheless we will show to you
that despite his insanity this defend
ant had proyocation and that he did
what any one of you would have done
under similar conditions.
1T is story that throbs with pas
sion and sinks deep into sorrow and
suffering as it progresses.
''We will demonstrate to you by
sworn witnesses that Harry Thaw
was subject TO such persecution and
such wrong as would prompt any sane
man to the course which our client
pursued.
"But he was not sane What he suf-
fered and what he endured overthrow
his reason, and he committed an act
without being responsible for it, al
though having ample proyocation. 1t
was an act justifiable in itself, yet
nevertheless performed by a man who
had no control over himself or his acts