Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-28
INTEREST lessons
IN THAW'S TRIAL
Small Crowd Hears Testimony
of Insanity Expert.
DR.. EVANS STILL ON STAND
Gives Reasons for Believing Prisoner
Once Insane.
MORE LETTERS ARE SUBMITTED
Entire Morning Session Given Up to
Cross-Examination of the
Alienist. '
MORE LETTERS ARE SUBMITTED

District Attorney Jerome today
continued his cross-examination of
DIR. Britton d. Evans, one of the
alienists summoned by the defense
in the trial of Harry K. Thaw for
the murder of Stanford White.
The drift of District Attorney Je-
rome's examination showed that it
is his object to draw the prisoners
medical experts into an admission
that may be used by other experts
| on behalf of the state to show to
the jury that Thaw is now in APP
proximately the same mental con-
dition as when he shot White. It
is understood that if Mr.. Jerome
succeedsin this he will at once apply
to the judge for the appointment of
a commission in lunacy to inquire
into Thaw's mental condition, and
in the event of the motion being
granted the trial would be stopped
abruptly, or at least halted, until
the commission should report on
the state of Thaw's mind at the
present time.
NEW YORK, February 2s.-This was an.
other day of expert testimony in the trial
Of Harry X. Thaw for the murder of STAN
ford White. DR.. Briton ID. Evans, the
same expert who occupied the stand all
day yesterday. was again the witness when
the trial was resumed in the criminal
branch of the supreme court before Justice
Fitzgerald.
District Attorney Jerome continued his
efforts to make the medical expert testify
that he found In Thaw some pathological
condition of the mind which could only be
consistent with the theory that the pris-
oner is insane at the present time If no
was insane when he killed White and
thereafter in the Tombs when the expert
examined him. The line Of questioning
today was furnished by letters written by
Thaw, some addressed and others without
addresses during the time when he was
counting Evelyn Nesbt and was under the
strain of his prejudice against Stanford
White.
Many of the letters bore interlineations
and underscorings. and In one of them
was found the formula of a mathematical
problem interjected between sentences. One
of them was letter written to Evelyn
Nesbit, in which the prisoner referred
to White as that ''blackguard" With re.
gard to many of these letters, DIR. Evans
testified that their peculiarities indIcated
mental unsoundness on the part of tho
writer, and taken in connection with his
knowledge of Thaw and the fact that he
was the writer, he expressed the opinion
that the writer was insane at the time
he wrote the letters. Pinned down, how
ever, to a consideration Of the letters en-
tirely separate from the identity of the
writer, the expert said that he was not
prepared to say surely that the writer was
insane. When recess was taken the indi-
cations were that DR.. Evans would be on
the witness stand all during the remainder
of the day and probably tomorrow also.
There were only half hundred specta-
tors in the court room when the proceed
ings began today, and half of these had
left by the time the luncheon recess was or
dered. u
DR.. Evans Recalled.
Dr. Evans was recalled when court re-
convened, and his cross-examination was
resumed by Mr.. Jerome. When court ad-
iodfned last evening DR.. Evans was given
copies of Thaw's letters, which are in evil
dence, as well as the will and codicil, that
h1 rad f0r a Nina
ton on his theory that these documents
contain evidences Of unsound mind.
Mr. Jerome spent twenty minutes In an
endeayor to have DR.. Evans say he had
Carefully read the documents. He would
only go as far as saying he had done the
best he could. Mr. Jerome told him to go
ahead and read them again. and the wit
ness proceeded to do SO.
Dr. Evans finally stated that several OF
the letters bore no addresses and were
therefore Of little use in his ATTEMPT to
discover whether the writer was of sound
mind.
DO any of these letters show that the
writer was insane?'' asked the district at
torney
.'Some of them. in my opinion, show signs
of mental instability
by mental instability do you mean in-
sanity?"
mot insanity in the sense that he would
remain permanently insane"
Dr. Evans went into a long explanation
of the reasons for his theory that the let :
tiers showed mental instability A letter
written with a lead pencil by Thaw to
Evelyn Nesbit. he said. showed lack Of
sense OF the propreties, loss of the aes-
thetic senses and various other things.
which the doctor believed showed the
writer was Of unsound mind. In view of the
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