The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1908-01-14
IaAlI EAII.Y
fContinued From PAGE ones

defendants life history. During the
speech Thaw sat wide-eyed and pallid.
looking fixedly at his counsel. Toward
the close he seemed rather displeased
with something that was said, and
leaning forward scribbled OF note.
Mr.. Littleton's speech was somewhat
dramataic and impassioned at times,
and was keenly followed by the jury.
despite the rather frequent objections
from the district attorney, who decried
the flights OF oratory as having NO
place in an opening statement OF fact.
Thaw's ancestry, marked by decided
taints of insanity on both the fathers
and mothers sides. according to his
chief counsel, was drawn with great
care, and then the defendant himself
was pictured as Irrational, erratic and
insane as boy.
His Life History.
Il make no claims for this defend.
ant above those of the average man
as to morals. vices or virtues" de-
clared Mr.. Littleton. but l say his
life history is enough to free him
from the charge that he was RESPONSE
BILE for his act. Add to his history
the heart-breaking episode of his love
for the young woman who became his
wife. and Of her recital to him of a
story which, flashed to the four quar-.
tiers of the globe, made all the world
that reads stand still and wonder, and
shall have no hesitancy in asking
you IL you have not a reasonable
doubt as to whether he was sane the
night of this deplorabIe tragedy. And
upon that doubt. I shall ask you for
a verdict Of not guilty."
Describing the killing of Whiet. Mr..
Littleton said: "Thaw's madness. born
and bred in him, had been set on fire
by the stories he had heard. He had
gone to the district attorney with them
and to Mr.. Comstock. They ran in his
head, until staggering among the
chairs OF Madison Square Garden-yet
not drunk-his eyes burning like two
great Goals of fire, unable intelligent
ly to answer questions put to him, ma
niacal in the last degree, lost-lost as
he was in Rome. in Monte Carlo and
in London-the blind confusion of in
sanity overcame him and he fired. The
result was not murder but the act
of mailman who afterwards, Wild
eyed and irrational. cried out in his
cell that he heard the voices of little
children calling and proclaimed that
he had but acted as an agent of Prov
idence."
Not Crossing Bridges.
After his speech. Mr.. Littleton was
asked in what manner he would at
tempt to prove Thaw sane at the pres
ent time If he offered such an accumu-
latlon of evidence as to progressive in
sanity up to the time of the k1lling.4
81 can only say that I. will cross my
bridges as 1 come to them. A man
can't ride two horses going in oppo.
site directions at the same time," he
replied.
The outline of the defense was gen.
orally considered as rejecting deter
mination on the part Of Thaw's at
torneys to prove him insane in 1906 re-
CARELESS Of all consequences.
The first evidence for the defense,
probably of a medical character, will
be taken tomorrow morning.
The human side was described by
Mr. Littleton as a thing inscrutable.
No man could fathom it-no man
could say why one man should be
gifted above another-no man could
set himself up as saying he could
Judge infallibly of the acts Of another.
Mr.. Littleton said there would be no
attempt to invent any new kind Of .ex-
mania despite the fact
that District Attorney Jerome had in
timated in his questioning of jurors
that some such thing would be tried.
Cut all the driftwood away, ask
you men of the jury, and judge this
man by the facts as they are present
ed to you"
Mr.. Littleton then sketched the life
OF the defendant from the time of his
birth.
Many Thaws Insane.
On the fathers side of the family.
Mr. Littleton said, sister became In
sane at five years of age and died at
fifty in an asylum in Pittsburg. A
cousin of the father, one William
Thaw, died insane in an asylum in
Virginia of melancholia. Harriet AL
ice Thaw, on the fathers side. is in
an asylum in Pittsburg, suffering from
Of which decisions of perse-
cutlon are the characteristics. Horace
Thaw, a cousin, also is insane, with
persecution as the basis.
EroD, tho Father'S eide Thaw inherit |