The Richmond palladium. (Richmond, Ind.) 1906-1907, 1907-02-06
District Attorney Jerome Sub
jeCtS ThaW'S First Witness
to the Most MerciIeSs Fire
of Cross Questioning.
DECIDEDLY BLUE DAY
FOR SLAYER OF WHITE
Dolphin DeImaS, Who Travelled
Across Continent to Defend
Young Millionaire, Displeas-
ed with Conduct of Case.
Publishers Press,

lf-uhiiSHefS ffcSS.y
New York, Feb. with the first
expert on insanity called TO the de-
fense of Harry X. Thaw hopelessly
muddled by District Attorney Jerome
in the most merciless cross examina-
tion of man of science ever heard
in the criminal courts building. with
testimony of Alfred Lee Thaw.
cousin of the defendant and of DR..
John +. Deemar tending To show in
sanity in collateral lines OF the Thaw
family rejected as incompetent. and
with threatened disagreement
among counsel for the defense over
the progress of the case, the first day
of the examination of Witnesses for
the Pittsburg millionaire was little
short of disastrous from any view
point except that of District Attorney
Jerome.
1t was bad day for Thaw. Those
who heard the examination could not
help but contrast the business like, de-
termined and straightforward conduct
OF the peoples case yesterday with the
Intellectual and rather purposeless
development of the case of the de-
fense today. More than this, Thaw's
first witness, DIR. Charles j. Wiley, su.
perintendent of the hospital for the
insane at Pittsburg, qualified as an ex-
pert and then was shown by Mr.. Jer-
ONE. to have such hazy technical in
formation as To make his appearance
as an expert really iaughabie.
Even Thaw himself joined In the
amusement at the knots in which the
district attorney, scintillating In his
cleverness. tied the first witness for
the defense. His manner changed to-
wards the close of DIR. Wilcy's tangled
cross examination, and the defendant
turned to another OF his experts, DR..
Charles G. Wagner. superintendent OF
the Binghampton. n. ", asylum, and
demanded in an audibly angry whis-
per:
why does he testify? He doesn't
know anything about my case any
how. / don't like this"
Clifford w. Hartridge, one of Thaw's
lawyers, said after DIR. Wiley, red
faced and fiustered had escaped from
Mr.. Jeromes scalpet, that DIR. Wiley
had not been called as an expert. but
only to testify to certain incidents
which came under his observation,
tending TO show Thaw's mental condi-
ton. John b. Gleason, who made the
opening address to the jury for the de-
fense, and was given active charge OF
the case today, had, nevertheless, ask
ed DR.. Wiley an hypothetical ques-
tion embodying ~baw's conduct and
demeanor when he killed White, and
had supplemented il with an inquiry
as to the witnesses opinion OF Thaws
mental condition at that time. DR..
'Wiley's answer was Il believe Harry
Kendall Thaw was insane when he
killed Stanford White on the 25th OF
June last"
This gave Mr.. Jerome his opp0rtuni-
ty to fay Wiley The district attor-
ney displayed remarkable familiarity
with the anatomical aspects of the
nervous system and with the patholo-
gy of insanity DIR. Wiley was igno-
rant of the best known insanity tests.
he was unfamiliar with the first au-
thorities who have written on the SUBJ
iects about which he attempted to tes-
tify and fell into traps which the dis
trict attorney set by asking questions
founded on scientific inaccuracies
which the witness adopted in his an
swers.
Attorney Michael Dolphin Delmas,
the California trial lawyer who was
brought across the continent to help
defend Thaw, was plainly displeased
with the days work. After adjourn
ment there was a conference of the
Thaw lawyers, at which il is believed
that Delmas was outsDoken in his
criticism of the way Thaw's case In
being handled Rumors were circu-
lated tonight that there might be one
or more Withdrawals by attorneys now
in the young millionaire's
behalf.
While DIR. wfley's rather ludicrous
testimony on account of its long du-
raticn, was the apparent feature of to-
days proceedings, the exclusion late
this afternoon of testimony relating to
insanity in collateral branches of the
Thaw family, was blow to the de-
Tense which can hardly be overesti-
Attorney Gleason made he
roic effort to secure the admission Of
testimony showing that Alfred Lee
Thaws father, who was a first cousin
Of William Thaw, father of the de-
fendant, died in an insane asylum.
The actual point OF this testimony was
excluded after the most extended le-
gal argument so far heard III the trial
On two grounds 1t was rejected on
the ground first, that the insanity of
Alfred Lee Thaw's father might have