The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-01-14
STATE CLOSES,
DEFENSE OPENS
Killing of Stanford White De-
nounCed as CoWardly Muir
der by Assistant Garvan.
STORY OF SHOOTING TOLD
DRAMATIC STATEMENT OF DE-
PENDANTS ATTORNEY.

New York. Jan. 13.-The Thaw trial
moved with a rush today. After the
state had presented its direct case and
Assistant District Attorney Caravan had
characterized the killing OF Stanford
White as "a premeditated, deliberate
and eowardly MURDER" Martin w. Lit
Teton, for the defense, made the OPEN
ing plea for the prisoner. His promise
of new evidence was sensational, and
held the supreme attention of all in the
court room. District Attorney Jerome,
seemingly taken by surprise, seated
himself in the witness chair the better
to hear the outline Of the new defense.
Mr.. LittletOn promised to forge chain
of circumstances and to produce a line
of testimony which will prove Harry
X. Thaw undeniably insane at the
time of the homicide. Evidence of
hereditary insanity and of strange, I'M
usual acts of Thaw not even limited at
during the first trial was told of by Mr.
Littieton. who said that physicians and
nurses who had attended ThaW were
hurrying here from Europe; that
teachers of the defendant in childhood
would be on hand to give their impress
siOns of THE wide-eyed. distant boy"
In conclusion, Mr.. Littleton challenged
TIE ulSlIlCA dllOAIts " IfOuuN6 d Slll~
gle reputab BILE physician who would say
that Thaw was not insane at the time
he killed the noted architect.
Prosecution Surprised.
Mr. Littleton's speech fairly bristled
with surprises. He startled the court
room by declaring that after Evelyn
Nesbit had told him her story in
Paris in 1908, Thaw "drenched himself
with a poison" and would have died
but for the heroic work of three physi-
clans, who labored over him all of one
night.
MIR Jerome had his surprise to offer,
too, and when MI Littleton started TO
launch into the relations of Stanford
White with the girl whom Thdw mar
ried, the district attorney was on his
feet with an objection. Justice Dow
ling sustained him, and the name of
the architect was not linked again
with that of the defendants wife. Mr..
Littleton touched but lightly upon the
girls story as she told it TO Thaw, but
careful as he was on this point. he
again drew an objection from the pros
ecuting officer, who said:
Mr.. Littleton is now straying into a
field of stuff which, in my opinion, will
be excluded"
Again Justice Bowling sustained the
objection. 1t was reported at the be-
ginning of the trial that Mr. Jerome
would fight this in order to exclude the
testimony of young Mrs. Thaw.
Insanity in Thaw Family.
Mr.. Littleton spared neither Thaw
nor his family in his recital of the de-
PENDANTS life history. During the
speech, Thaw sat wide-eyed and pallid,
looking fiXedly at mis- counsel Toward
the close he seemed rather displeased
with something that was said and,
leaning forward. scrubbed off a note
Mr.. Littleton's speech was somewhat
dramatic and impassioned at times,
and was keenly followed by the jury
despite the frequent objections from
the states attorney to the flights of or
atory as having no opening statement
of fact.
ThaWs ancestry, marked by decided
taints of insanity on both the fathers
and mothers side, according TO his
chief counsel, was drawn with great
care, and the defendant himself was
pictured as irrational, erratic and in
sane as a boy, who, oscillating between
starship and madness. between bril-
lance and darkness. fought unavail-
ingly against the fever of insanity
which cOursed in his blood at birth.
Thaw's Morality Average.
Il make no claims for this defendant
above those of the average man as to
morals or virtues" declared Mr.. Lit
Teton. But / say his life history is
enough to free him from the charge
that he was responsible for his act
Add to his history the heart breaking
episode of his love for the young wO-
man who became his wife and of her
recital to him of a story which, flashed
TO the four quarters of the globe, made
all the world that reads stand still and
wonder, and l shall have no hesitancy
in asking you if you have not a rea-
sonable doubt as to whether he was
sane the night of this deplorable trag-
edy. And upon that doubt I shall ask
you for verdict of not guilty"
Mr., Littleton told Of a trim abroad