The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1907-02-08
ACCUSES MURDERED MAN or
ACCOMPLISHING HER RUIN
WHEN MERE GIRL.
BREAKS DOWN IN MIDST OF NARRATIVE
DEFENDANT ALSO OVERCOME BY
GRIEF AS WIFE DETAILS
HER EXPERIENCE.

Thaw, the wife of the man charged
with the murder of Stanford White,
took the witness stand in defense of
her husband and told the story of her
relations with Stanford White, the
famous architect, who was killed by
Harry ThaW.
The story was simple narrative,
told in a girlish way, and in its midst
the young woman broke down and
cried and could proceed only with
difficulty.
Her husband sat brave faced for a
while; then he, too, burst into tears
and buried his face in a handkerchief.
He sat thus for some time. When he
again looked UP his eyes were red
from weeping.
1T was in September, 1901" said
Mrs. Thaw. who appeared but a slip
Of girl in the big witness chair, with
her hair caught low on her neck and
tied with a big black ribbon, when
Mr.. White invited me to another of
the parties had attended with him.
mother, whom he had sent to Pitts.
burg. l was just past sixteen years
old.
"This night, when got to Mr..
Whites studio in Twenty-fourth street,
there was not anybody there. Mr..
White said: We'll, well, they all
seem to have turned me down. He
said, Never mind, we would eat
alone Later said I must go home.
He said he wanted to show me an.
other part of the house and we went
into a bedroom with mirrors all round
"He gave me more champagne: Then
everything became whirly and black
When came to my clothes were all
off. screamed and screamed, but he
kept telling me to stop, saying, Its
over, it's all right"
Told Same Story to Thaw.
The girl told the story to the twelve
men in the jurybox, she declared, just
as she related the incident to Harry
Thaw one night in Paris late in 1908
when he had asked her to become his
wife, and she had told him she could
not. He pressed for a reason and II
was then that she told him all. When
she had concluded she said he knelt
beside her, picked up the hem Of her
skirt and kissed it.
She had been sent to school in New
Jersey in 1902 by Stanford White
became i'll there and had to be sub.
mitted to an operation, the nature Of
which the doctors did not tell her
Thaw came to see her at the hospital
and said she could be taken abroad
to recuperate. She went to Paris
with her mother and Thaw and it was
in Paris that Thaw made his first pro,
posal Of marriage.
Going back to her earliest girlhood
the prisoners wife told the entire
story of her life-how she was brought
to New York by her mother and posed
for famous artists to earn money for
the family support. She also took a
place in the chorus Of a musical show
and it was while there she met White.
Mrs. Thaw was on the stand two
hours and her direct examination had
| not been concluded when the luncheon
adjournment was taken. AS she
walked from the witness chair along
tho passageway back Of the jurybox
she felt along the wall with the finger
tips of her left hand as If about to
faint. From scarlet her face had
paled to the wilderness of sheet.
Except when she broke down when
, going into the details of her expert.
ence with Stanford White the girl
spoke in clear, soft voice. On the
witness stand she appeared for the
first time in court unveiled and her
beauty was remarked on all sides.
Answers in Clear Voice.
Mrs. Thaw took her place in the
, witness chair calmly. She looked
steadily ahead at Mr.. Delmas and
gave her answers to his first ques-
tions in a clear and firm voice, which
was soft in quality.
Harry Thaw smiled at his wife as
! she walked to the witness stand, but
/, she apparently did not see him at the
moment. After she was seated, how.
ever, she smiled family at the pris.
! oner.
In answer to Mr.. Delmas' first ques.
tion Mrs. Thaw said she was born
Dec. 25,. 1884, and married Thaw in
Pittsburg on April 4, 1906. She told
of going to the Cafe Martin to dinner
/, the evening Of June Is with her hus
band, Thomas McCaleb and Truxton
Beale.
In recounting the events of the
tragedy Mrs. Thaw gave evidence cor
roborating that Of other witnesses as
to details of the shooting Of White