The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-01-23
THAW TRIAL IS ON.
from Page one.)

spectively had been occupying ex-
pensive suites. This called forth
more notoriety- The affairs of the
young people were kept constantly be-
/ fore the public until it was finally an
nounced that Mrs. William Thaw had
consented to her sons marriage to
| Miss Nesbit. Thereupon they We're
called to Pittsburg and in the mother S
home marriage ceremony was per-
formed. -.r
For a long time following the we'd
ding the Thaws' affairs were prac-
| tically lost sight of. They spent most
! of their time in New York, were often
seen together at the theaters and the
cafes and apparently their lives ran
happily together.
1t was late in the evening of June
25 last that the city and soon the en-
tire country was ringing with the
slain Stanford White. The setting for
the fatal attack had been the Madison
/ Square roof garden where the first
night performance of a summer must
payne was being given. The place
was gay in flowers and multi-coloreG
electric lights and was thronged with
fashionab bly, dressed audience. On
| the stage a man was singing II could
love thousand girls" when suddenly
above the music the pistol shots rang
out The music ceased, the chorus
girls and actors upon the stage were
terror-stricken, men and women in
the audience dropped their glasses
upon the tables before them. In the
stiffness a man was heard to say:
You ruined my wife, d you,
and now Two got YOU
Stanford White lay dead at the
table where he had been sitting; Harry
Thaw. inA evening dress, stood with a
smoking pistol in his hand. His wife,
who had seen him fire the fatal shot,
was led screaming away from the spot
a W q cd 10 do
attempt to escape.
White was vice president of the
Madison Square Garden company and
was the architect-of- THAT ANGUS
ways maintained studio. 1t was in
| this tower that Thaw had charged
time and time again since his arrest
| that White entertained young women
at the gayest of parties. Thaw said he
had frequently complained of these
studio parties to the Society for the
Prevention of Vice and it has been
stated on authority that this society
had made several Investigations prior
to the roof garden tragedy.
1t has been brought out since the
shooting that White befriended Evelyn
Nesbit and her mother when the young
woman first was brought to this city
to enter the studios as a model. Letters
which passed between White and the
mother of the girl have 1been published
and may play an important part in the
White sought the girls society after
her marriage to Thaw, but this has
been admitted by neither side and SO
far as they could do so. counsel for both
sides have closed the mouths of the
most important witnesses.
Thaw has sought his justification iii
the words he uttered to his victim on
the night of the tragedy. He has claim
ed that under the "unwritten law no
jury could convict him of having taken
the life of the man who had traduced
his wife in her innocent girlhood." To
these accusations by Thaw the friends
of Stanford White. many of them in
fiuential men of the community, have
declared that the architects interest in
the girl was purely of a fatherly char
acter. They said he had assisted many
young woman to make place for them-
selves in the world and that he was
no more deeply Interested in Miss Nes-
bit than he had been in a number Of
others about whom no breath of scan
DIAL has been uttered. 80 n ssy4
1t has been constantly stated that~the
Thaw case would never come to f7trfal
and that the mysteries of its many in
tricate phases would never be exposed
to the light of the public's gaze, this
conjecture being based on the report
that plan of insanity might be en-
This liability, however, it is now
said, is past. Harry Thaw has himself
stood in the way of any. such plan. 1t
is asserted that in his refusal to give
steadfastly supported by his wife, who,
it is also generally reported has con-
stantly urged her husband to take some
action against White. Mrs, Thaw has
been daily visitor to the Tombs prison
and Mrs. William Tina W. who was re-
called from Europe when the tragedy
occurred, has also been frequent calls
er. There have been many family con-
ferences and many stormy Interviews
in the young mans cell, his resentment
being shown every time the suggestion
of insanity has been offered.
y Il prefer death in the electric chair to
n life in an insane asylum, the prisoner
is credited with exclaiming.
Lewis Dalafield, of counsel to the Thaw
engaged Judge w NJ K Olcott, of the
firm of which former Governor Frank s.
Black Is ia memner Money hey ha9 n 1oTiiS
Thaw, after an interview in the Tombs,
dismissed him. He called to his aid Cliff
ford w. Hartridge, a lawyer who had
been his friend for years. Now that the
trial is approaching he has called into
the case Dolphin Michael Dennas. one
West who has come on from San Fran
cisto to New York to take direction of
as admitting that the ''unwritten law"
may be the defense finally decided upon.
District Attorney Jerome will have per-
Sonal charge of the prosecution. He de-
clared he will introduce only such wit
nesses as are necessary to prove that
Thaw had made threats against White
and the eye witnesses of the shooting. 1t
will be fer the defense, he declares, to in
troduce any evidence bearing upon the
gone into however. the district attorney
win offer evidence in rebnttal. While the
presentation of the proSecutfOH'S case will
require only two three DAYS. 1t is
pected there will be great difficulty IN
obtaining jury and that the trial mas
continue over a period of four or fivs
weeks.
JUDGE SENDS BACK PASSES.