Los Angeles herald., 1907-02-16
SENDS CLAIMANT
Of MILLIONS To
INSANE ASYLUM
Woman's Hallucina-
ton Is Proved
After Seventeen Years Struggle to
Gain Portion of Large Fortune,
Mrs. kinsella Is De-
cIared Insane

After more than seventeen years of
desperate struggle to support what
she thought was a legitimate claim to
a large California estate Mrs. Joseph
inc Kinsella Of 41Sb Last Pico street
was yesterday taken before Judge
Rives and the insanity commission in
department of the superior court and
declared mentally incompetent.
The complaint against Mrs. Knsella
was made by her daughter Tressa
Kinsella, a brilliant young woman who
has been the only support of the wo-
man for the past few years Yester-
day when the girl told the story Of
her mothers hallucinations she be-
came almost hysterical.
Mrs. Kinsella's fight for the estate
has been a matter of history in Los
Angeles for the past ten years Ac-
cording to her story she was married
in Syracuse, N. y, about twenty-five
years ago and two girls were born
to her. A short time after the birth
of the second child, according to the
woman's story her husband began to
abuse her and on one occasion struck
which she has never fully recovered.
Has Strange DeIusions
Shortly thereafter she began to have
Illusions about a great fortune left her.
The death of a well known Californian
attracted her attention and she imag-
ined that he was a long lost brother
of hers who had come west several
years before. She began an intricate
system of proving herself an heir.
She had no money with which to pro-
cure evidence, but she wrote for cer-
tificates and depositions which were
never taken and never reached her.
When the papers did not arrive she
imagined that the mails had been tam
pered with and that the papers had
been stolen. She spent her last cent
for railroad fare to Washington and
with her daughter, Tressa, she pre-
sented her case to the postmaster gen.
eral and demanded a complete inves-
tigation of the mail service. SO in
sistent did she become that somewhat
of a scandal was created in the postal
department and Mrs. Kinsella was
given railroad fare to take her to Chi
cago. There the Y. w. c. A. supplied
her with funds for a trip to Los An
geles and she arrived here about ten
years ago. She promptly began to
fight the case and presented her claims
to different attorneys. In her desperate
attempt to secure a portion of the
estate she visited nearly every attor-
ney in the county and they, recogniz-
ing the fact that there was no sub
stantial evidence upon which to base
a contest, refused to consider the case.
Stands by Her Mother
Through it all the brave little
daughter supported her mother and
cared for her. going with her time
after time to the homes of attorneys,
where she would repeat over and over
again her claims to the estate.
Her entire fight was to obtain some
thing for the sake of her children, and
she kept it up for more than twelve
years. Finally she began to imagine
that everyone was in league against
her She would tell her own fortune
by means of cards and they always
showed that she vas being pursued,
and that haunted her.
So excited did she become over her
imagined prosecutions that during the
administration of Judge Wilbur as dis
trict attorney she carried a complaint
before the county grand jury during
which she charged many of the prom
inent attorneys of the state with being
in league with her enemies in an effort
to defraud her of her rights and her
share of the estate.
Sent to Asylum
Judge Rives, who tried the insanity
case yesterday, was the deputy who
made the examination in the grand
jury case and found all the charges
without foundation. Many prominent
attorneys We're in court yesterday to
tell about the woman's Authorizations.
Finally Mrs. Kinsella began to inn
agine that she was being tracked by
detectives who wanted to kill her.
She would not speak above a whisper
for fear someone would hear her and
she often refused to eat the food pre-
pared for her by her daughter for
fear the stuff had been poisoned.
Finally she became so erratic that the
insanity complaint was filed and yes
terday the woman's nervy fight for
what she imagined VIC I'D make both
she and her daughters fortune ended
when she was led from the court room
by officers who last night took her
To SNrIp Of