Omaha daily bee., 1908-01-16
THAW SKELETONS ARE Barred
No Detail of Defendants Early Ca
reer or Tendencies Omitted In
Trial Now On.

NEW YORK. Jan. 15.-Adhering strictly
to their promise to interpose no other
defense than that Of insanity In behalf
of their client. the attorneys representing
Harry X. Thaw at his trial today con-
tinued the examination of witnesses. who
swore that young Thaw at various times
in his life appeared to them as irrational
and mentally unsound. Practically all of
the testimony was entirely new to the
case and had to do with acts down to
the day OF tragedy itself Then came
the declaration Of the ten men who sat
on the ooroner's jury during the inquiry
into stanford Whites death, all OF whom
declared that the defendant the DAY fol
lowing the shooting acted irratlonally.
His manner and appearance were such as
to cause the inquest jury to discuss mis-
state Of mind after their formal verdict
had been rendered
In the days testimony there was more
delving into the history of the Thaw fam
lily. Alfred Lee Thaw of Richmond, Va,
third cousin of the defendant. taking
the stand and telling of the tain of in
sanity which had caused his father and
| brother TO die in state asylums.
Some Of Thaw's alleged eccentricites. re-
vealed for the first time, were related to-
day by Christopher Baggan steward OF
the New York Whist club; by Miss Matilda
Stein, a telephone operator, and by Per
August Weber, former butler I'm the Thaw
household. Thaw spent portion of the
afternoon Of June g. 1906. at the whist club
and at that tlme-a few hours before the
tragedy-was pictured by the steward as
being highly nervous and as frequently ex-
claiming this is awful" He asked the
steward to have a valuable package put
into the safe After the killing the pack
age was opened and found to contain three
cigarettes wrapped in tinfoil. District At
torney Jerome. in cross-examining the club
steward, brought out the fact that Thaw
played bridge there with many prominent
men. The witness declared he was not
supposed to know what Mr.. Thaw. Mr..
Gates, Mr.. Schwab and the others played
for, but he was sure nothing but mineral
water was ever served at the tables.
The telephone operator told of Thaw put
ting in seventy-five calls one morning at
the Grand hotel and then forgetting all
about them.
The butler told many details of Thaw's
life at home in 1903 and was still under
examination when adjournment was taken.
| The separate incidents of alleged IRA
tional conduct on the part of the defendant
was being put in evidence by Mr.. Littleton
| as the foundation for the expert testimony
that is to come lie also hopes to accumu-
late such a mass of testimony as to ThRw $
| erratic conduct as to make IT impossible
for the district attorney to fulfill the task
the law places upon him of proving ThRw
sane beyond every reasonable doubt. "
Criminal lawyers of prominence who are
following the case outlined by the defense
and who are taking into consideration the
fact that specific plea of insanity has
been entered this year, declare that ac-
quittal under the circumstances can come
only with the added clause "on account of
the insanity of the defendant at the time
the act was committed This, it Is de-
elared, would compel the presiding judge
to commit Thaw to Matteawan asylum,
fro mwhence a fight to prove his present
sanity and thus gain freedom would have
to be conducted through habeas corpus
proceedings.