Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1907-02-14
BATTLE FOR THAW'S LIFE.
Wife of the Millionaire Prisoner Is
Witness for Defense.

Wife of the Millionaire Prisoner Is
Witness for Defense.
With the fact of Stanford Whites
murder by Harry Kendall Thaw estab-
lished in their minds with the MUIR
derer daily in their presence, self-pos-
sessed, Unconditional, deeply interested
in the movements of the machinery of
law upon which his future so largely
depends, dutiful and courteous to his
mother, gracious to his wife; with the
knowledge that the father of this
prince of Incidence and intemperance
was a man of sufficient genius, industry
and acumen to accumulate fortune
of S40,0OO,O0O, that the mother has been
for years Il ruling spirit in the social,
religious and philanthropic circles of
Pittsburg that the daughters possessed
sufficient attractiveneSs of mind as
well as of purse to marry one an Eng
lish earl of venerable title and the
other a man of large business response
bilities, and that the prisoner himself
was deemed by the administrators of
his fathers estate capable of handling
his inheritance-with these things be-
fore them, the twelve jurors who are
to determine whether Thaw shall die
for the murder which he committed
are asked to believe not only that the
accused was insane when he fired the
fatal shots. but that the faint of insan-
ity rims through tbp family
Plainly, from the attorneys opening
plea, the jurors are to believe that the
climax of arrangement, the high tide
of ThaW brain disturbance, was reach
ed when White was slain, and that
since then the mind of the prisoner
has returned to normal conditions.
There is no contention of present in
sanity Such a preposterous claim, in
view of the prisoners attitude in court.
might upset the whole defense, which is
not directly plea of justification for
the act, but an ingenious scheme of ar
gument and testimony intended not
only to prove responsibility, but to
absolve from moral guilt. Insinuating
this plan is the effort to keep con-
stantly before the minds of the jurors
the stains upon the character of the
slain man, especially in their relation
to the wife of the murderer. so that
while no actual defense based upon the
unwritten law is introduced this ele-
ment is present. In the opening address
for Thaw it was stated that his attor-
neys. while re1~ing upon insanity as
sufficient and reasonable defense.
would avail themselves of every de-
Tense allowed by the statutes.
All things considered. the insanity
defense has in it much suggestive of
the absurd. vet it furnishes a basis
upon which to establish at least a dis
agreement. The defense is not re-
oured TO prove that Thaw was insane.
If it can establish in the minds of a
few of the jurors. or even of one, rea-
sonable doubt of the defenders mental
condition on the night of the murder
it will secure disagreement.
Here is what they are endeavoring TO
prove: That Harry Thaw comes Of
mentally tainted stock. because two of
his fathers cousins and an aunt of his
father were confined in insane asy-
lums; that Harry's Inheritance of the
family affection manifested itself when
he was a child by his awaking sudden
ly and unnaturally from his sleep; that
this hereditary tendency made MIN sub
ject to deluSions; that out of his great
love for Evelyn Nesbit, after his meet
ing with her in 1901, was evolved a de
fusion which had to do with Stanford
White; that in the development of this
delusion he came to see in White not
only an enemy of himself and Evelyn
Thaw but of all mankind: that when
he killed White he believed himself to
be an agent of Providence. 1t was
the disease of his mind which instilled
these thoughts in him. However, the