Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-05-09
LETTER DEEPFNS
CASSELMAN CASE
C0-STUDENT MAKES STRANGE
ILLUSIONS
"VloLET MAN" DENIES HER
INSANITY
Convicted Forger Too III to Appear
for Sentence Today-Attorney May
Show Mysterious Girl is
kleptomaniac

Sne is Ill IN the county JAN, ana ner at
torneys say she will be unable to APP
pear in court.
In the meantime a thorough investi-
cation of this young womans history
has been conducted by Attorney III. Fl.
Appel. He is not yet ready to make
comment on this strange young wom-
ans guilt or innocence. He has found
that he must discover an answer 10
these questions:
Is Ruby CaSselman a thief and a
forger?
Is Ruby Casselman q kleptomaniac
and a fit subject for the insane asy-
lum?
Is Ruby Casselman under the domi-
nation of Spirtualists who have sur
rounded her throughout the progress of
her troubles?
Have these Spiritualists anything to
fear if Ruby Casselman tells the whole
truth?
Attorney Appel was retained in the
case by friends of Ruby Casselman
after she was convicted. He has en-
deavored to discover facts.
Attorney Puzzled
eff the woman is a thief" said At
torney Appel yesterday afternoon, Il
will tell the court that have found
that she is. If she is a kleptomaniac
and deserves the care that the asylums
of the state are supposed to render,
will give the court ground for that.
But in all of my Investigations / have
found that the young woman herself
will not tell the truth. | have been
pestered by these people of some cult
or other-they talk about 'Karma' and
'obsession' and things like that, but l
don't know whether they are Theoso-
phists or Spiritualists, or what they
are. I want to be let alone. Look at
the letter that this man Almond {.
David wrote to me-"
The attorney produced the letter ana,
reaching for the transcript of the tes-
timony in the trial of the young wom-
an, he read the evidence showing that
David was the young man who claimed
to be co-Student with Miss Cassel-
man and who carried bouquets of vio-
lets to her every day while she was in
the county Jail.
Look at this junk" said Appel, as
he showed the letter across his desk,
land tell me what you make of that.
These people surround this convicted
girl like a wall. What I want to do is
10 get at the facts Read the letter"
The letter was as follows:
Miss Ruby may be free If we do our
little parts right. / propose to person
ally visit Aunt Ada Bryant. the Falls
family, Papa Martin, my friend Cron-
miller, Mrs. j. D. Birch and whoever
else may be interviewed for the pur-
pose of cleaning all possible evidence
against the child's character.
Says Insanity Is Absurd
Gas for the matter of insanity, be-
tween you all and myself, let me say
it is absurd if we are to select her from
the common mass of degenerate hui
mainly and set her up as an example
of human solicitation or pity from that
standpoint, with which to pamper to
the satanic side of mans likes and dis
likes at this stage of the evolution OF
our race as q whole.
ruby is far in advance of the masses
in control of her vital forces without
the aid of condensed or poisonous
chemicals She is, the. efore, sensitive
to spiritual conditions of the atmos-
phere: and still subject to fear, worry,
haste, anxiety, sorrow, joy, expectancy
or even delerium-or breaking down
and the like, but is fast growing be-
yond such mere states of the sser
eN olved human soul.
1.-THE matter of ebb and flow of perl
odical vitality in liquid form turnout
her system is better known to her Gas
it is to each student of tt ,se things)
than to any other soul en- earth; there
fore can be made no basis for insanity
or lack of ability, if not obsessed by the
fears of others overcoming the natural
calm reserve and divine intuitive per-
ception; which has been done with her
(she being obsessed) when those detec-
tives, for fear of their not holding their
position. possibly, or gaining public
gratitude, forced upon their sensitive
aura their condition in a prison sweat
box until no human power could with
Standard speak-against their thot
| forms.
"Omitting the condemnation of par
| ties named or yet unnamed. we have a
splendid case; if we will only proceed
| to find the unbroken chain of circum-
stantial evidence which passes thru all
this alleged crime against our 1mpris-
oned Ruby.
/ Is CowardIy Plea
"Insanity, nothing. 1t is cowardly
plea for patronage. AS for the degen-
crate ills of mankind, they are all due
to the cause-ignorance. 1 speak from
the opposite of a 9O-day fast, so know
whereof I speak in acknowledgment OF
faith in Christ as an unerring guide
even thru the valley of death-the
symptoms of all diseases; which we
must pass in reaping Satanic-Karma
wilfully or ignorantly reproduced by us
during our past-one or many lives, II
matters little. / am at your service
subject to approval of divine inspira-
have lost a step or so in climbing
against this terrific gale"
This is but one of the letters received
by Attorney Appel. After reading the
letter he said:
II have only begun the investiga-
ton Miss Casselman is sick. She will
not be in court tomorrow. But there Is
work to do in getting at the bottom OF
this case The district attorney and
the court are with me in wishing to
get at the facts
Hypnotism Suggested
There have been hints at mystic
rious friend of the prisoner who,
through mesmerlsm or hypnotic influ-
ence, forced her to commit the many
forgeries of which she is known to be
guilty.
Yesterday afternoon it was brought
to light that Rub.- Casselman, when
she was a little girl. according to the
testimony of her foster parents, first
began to steal when she was 8 years
old. Thefts have come to light from a
home which she inhabited in Pots
dam, N. Y, when she was young
girl verging on womanhood. SeVernl
years ago there was a mysterious bur-
glary reported in this city. Attorney
Appel has discovered that Miss Cassel-