Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-24
THAW NOT CRAZY
NOW, SAYS DELMAS
His Acts During the Trial Those of
Sane Man.

IL,
ing of Mr.. White"
Under date of February Thaw wrote
Mr.. Delmas as follows:
Not as principal but as husband I
must hear your notes for my wife's testi-
>mony, as shall permit nothing but the
truth, and wish to prevent any uninten-
tional misrepresentation. Today a wit
ness-not the stage doorkeeper, who was
pleased to hear, stand straight and safe on
facts-perjured himself In a very natural
or studied manner. This grieves me, and
forced me to Insist upon my right as a
husband. If not upon that Difference due to
my wishes as principal"
Wanted an Answer.
Another note of the same date saws:
Mr.. Comstock comes after my wife,
presume? She will testify Friday or Mon
day. My mother testifies tomorrow. sup
pose, and some others, possible Mr.. Catlin
or other witnesses of Whites two revolvers
(the last the unusual one) and his threats
and his ring. He always told her you
know nothing at all yet That removes
danger of 'contagion' of ring or other mat
tiers. hope you can now answer my early
note. This requires none"
In one of his letters to Mr. Delmas, Thaw
declared Anthony Comstock might answer
as to Thaws work with him.
Thaw also refers to letter in the pos
session Of one of his counsel, Mr. Gleason,
which he says originated either July or Z,
while / still may have been frenZied."
Richard Worthington of Baltimore, Thaw
declared, could prove the date Of the let
ter. Thaw also desired President Patton Of
Princeton Theological Seminary to be called
as witness with regard to letters Thaw
had written him. One of Thaw's notes
handed to Mr.. Delmas in court read: "Do
not permit Jerome before the jury to ask
and when he said he had shot S. W. This
is neither in fact or in evidence"
Explained the Blackmailing.
Another was as follows:
81 am informed that in the last twenty
thousand (20,000) cases detained In the
Tombs not one has suffered from his wife
being subpoenaed decus tecum' to produce
his letters. To counteract effect of Jerome's
libelous arguments 1t may be well to force
my letters to J. d. Lyon after June % into
the evidence They explained the black
mailing, etc.
Attorney Gleason in his affidavit declares
Thaw's memory to be wonderfully accurate.
In his investigation of matters reaching
over a number Of years, he has always
found Thaw's statements as to facts to be
correct. Henry o. McPike of counsel de-
clares that Thaw throughout the trial has
been treated as a man in possession Of a
re tional and healthy intellect and without
any suspicion or doubt as to his entire men
tai responsibility.
Clifford w. Hartridge and A. Russell Pea
body complete the list of counsel who filed
ga .Ifz ,,-%. ,I,01 nlarn ma
capable of understanding the proceedings
against him are Drs. BrittPs< D. Evans,
Charles G.. Wagner, Graeme M. Hammond
and Smith E. Jelliffe. The physicians also
relate at great length many of the incidents
of the trial and many Of the daily CONVERSE
lions they have had with Thaw.
Mrs. William Thaw's affidavit, which was
made public during the late afternoon, Is
confined wholly to family history and be-
gins: The move by the prosecution for
an inquiry into the advisablity of lunacy
commission for my son, Harry X. Thaw, af-
fords me the long-desired opportunity of
giving all the facts in relation to the So
alleged heredity, epilepsy and insanity,
stripped Of all verbiage which malicious
Misrepresentation and gross exaggeration
have thrown around them.
First, 1 wish to emphatically state that
in the direct line Of descent for four gen.
erations, if we include that of the defend
ant himself there is no trace Of either
epilepsy or insanity"
Copley Had Brain Fever.
Continuing Mrs. Thaw says:
with regard to the alleged insanity of
Josiah Copley, jr., brother of Mrs. VIM
Thaw, that he had most brilliant mind
and was class day orator at Amherst Col
lege. His oration," says Mrs. Thaw, i'm
pressed the faculty as so profound in its
erudition that they injudiciously decided
not to limit him as to tme with the result
that its close was Immediately followed by
an attack of brain fever, which shattered
for time his nervous system
Josiah, jr., was discharged after seven
months, enlisted in the civil war was
prisoner in Libby prison, and according to
the affidavit, rs now in vigorous health
and sound mind at three score years and
ten
1.-THE other case of arrangement" Mrs.
Thaw's affidavit continues, "s the one
brutally referred to by medical experts for
the prosecution as being imbecile from
his birth. On the contrary, Henry w. Cop
ley, uncle of the defendant, was, until six
years of age in perfect physical and men,
tai condition. In the dusk of a summer
evening two vicious boys trespassing on our
place, disguised with horrible masks pur-
sued him until he fell with scream Of ter
ror in my mothers arms. 1 was but two
years older, yet the scene is imprinted on
my memory. Even after, as the country
practitioner, DR.. Deemar, has testified, he
was of feeble intellect and incapable of en-
gaging in business or any steady employ
ment, yet SO decirous was he of serving his
country that he enlisted near the end of
the war, although under age. He lived, as
DR.. Deemar has testified, to be nearly forty
years of age.
Let me say once for ALL there is no
secret to be guarded or family skeleton to
be hidden on either side Of the family of
the defendant