Los Angeles herald., 1907-04-03
INSANITY EXPERTS
DIFFER WIDELY
"THAW IS INSANE; THAW IS
PERFECTLY SANE"
Lunaey Commission viii Conclude Its
Labors Today and Report Its
Findings to Justice
Fitzgerald
Bv Associated Press.

| BY Associated Press.
! NEW YORK, April at was an
nounced tonight after q session which
lasted from 1880 o'clock this morning
until $3.50 p. m. that the lunacy commits
sion inquiring into the present mental
state of Harry X. Thaw will conclude
its labors tomorrow and report its con-
clusions to Justice Fitzgerald before
the hour set for the Thaw jury to report
in court Thursday morning.
There will be a brief public session
tomorrow to hear the testimony of an
alienist offered by District Attorney
Jerome, and then will follow a private
mental and physical examination Of the
defendant
only the members of the committee
and the official stenographers will be
present at the ordeal, the counsel being
excluded.
The decision probably was due to the
conflicting character of the testimony
heard today. 1t was another battle of
alienists.
Those engaged by the district attor-
ney declared Thaw absolutely incap-
able of understanding his condition, of
realizing the nature of the charge
against him or of nationally comforting
with counsel, while those engaged by
the defense declared Thaw throughout
the trial had acted in a rational man
ner; had nationally advised his counsel
in their hearing, and fully understood
and appreciated everything connected
with the trial.
Experts Differ
The experts for the prosecution ad-
mitted that they had reached their con-
clusions as to Thaw's present state of
mental unsoundness from distant OBJ
servations of him in the court room and
from writings alleged to have ema-
mated from him during the trial.
Among the latter were twenty-four
pages of newspaper clippings and
memoranda written by Thaw as sug-
gestions to his chief attorney, Dolphin |
M. Delmas, for his summing UP ad- |
dress to the jury. Mr.. Jerome's eX-
perts for the defense declared there |
was absolutely nothing in the writings |
upon which to predicate an opinion of |
mental unsoundness.
Mr.. Delmas himself took the stand |
and declared many of Thaw's sugges-
tions were most valuable and that he
intended to incorporate some of them
IN his summing up address.
The alienists for the defense in tes-
tifying declared they had the advan-
tage of constant personal examination
Of the defendant while the prosecu-
tion's witnesses had not. The Tombs
PllS SlCldllS' Two CndpldlnS OF Ine city
prison, civil guards and a probation
officer took the stand and testified that
Ihaw in prison had acted and spoken
like rational man.
DR.. Hamilton Testifies
The commission decided today to ad-
init the testimony of DR.. Hamilton,
who said he made four examinations
of Harry Thaw, the last in July, 1906.
He concluded then that Thaw was suf-
fering from chronic delusional insanity
or paranoia, and still held that belief.
On cross examination, DR.. Hamilton
admitted he had not examined the de-
fendant recently. The defendants
counsel fought against DR.. Hamiltons
testimony to the very last.
Failing in the plea of professional
privilege as bar, they urged that
his conclusions We're too remote to be
Of any value at this time. The COM
mission decided to allow the testimony
Members of the commission cross
several of the district at
.orney's alienists at length, inquiring
as to the consistency of their testi-
nony that he is now insane and had
oeen for several years as against their
testimony at the trial, when, in answer
to question they declared Thaw knew
he nature and quality of his act when
he shot and killed Stanford White and
lnew the act was wrong.
DR.. Austin Flint declared Thaw
vas insane from the alienist's point of
'iew when the homicide occurred, but
vas not insane in the language Of the
aW. Mr.. Jerome's experts, one after
another, agreed that Thaw is a
oaranoiac and that his case is incura-
ole
Dr. Flint gave new touch to the
form of insanity from which it is al
eyed Thaw is suffering by declaring
that his former paranoiacal delusions
1f persecution are rapidly changing
INTO "delusions of grandeur"