The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1908-01-14
NEW EVIDENCE IS
PR0M|SEO|N THE
THAW TRIAL
LittIeton Springs Sensational
Plea For Millionaire
"DRENcHED WITH POISON"
Jerome Scores When He Excludes
tho Story Of Whites Alleged Treat.
mont Of Mrs. ThaW.

NEW YORK. Jan. 1.-THE Thaw
trial IA moving rapidly. as after the
state had presented Its direct case and
Assistant district Attorney Garvan
had characterized the killing Of Stan.
ford White as "a premeditated, DELHI
crate and cowardly murder Martin
w. Lttleton. for the defense, made
the opening plea for the prisoner.
His promise Of new evidence was
nsational and held the supreme at
tsntion Of all In the courtroom. Dis
tict Attorney Jerome, seemingly TAX
en- by surprise, seated himself In the
witness chair the better to hear the
outline of the new defense.
Mr.. Littleton promised to forge a
chain Of circumstances and to produce
q line of testimony which will prove
Harry X. Thaw undeniably insane at
the time of the homicide.
Evidence of hereditary insanity and
of strange, unusual acts of Thaw not
even limited at during the first trial
was told of by Mr. Littleton, who said
that physicians and nurses who had
attended Thaw were hurrying here
from Europe and that teachers of the
defendant in childhood would be on
hand to give their impressions of 1.-The
wide eyed, distant boy" In conclusion
Mr.. Littleton challenged the district at
torney to produce single reputable
physician who would say that Thaw
was not insane at the time he killed
the noted architect.
Mr.. Lttletons speech fairly brlstled
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
, poison" and would have died but
for the heroic work Of three physicians
who labored over him all of one night.
Mr.. Jerome had his surprise to offer,
too, and when Mr. Littleton started to
launch into the relations of Stanford
White with the girl whom Thaw 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..
Iittleton 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 now is 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 Eight this year to exclude the
testimony Of young Mrs. Thaw.
Mr.. Littleton, opening for the de-
Tense, sketched Thaw's life from in
fancy and said he had inherited In
sanity from both his fathers and
mothers families
me man." he said, can escape the
fever that burns in his blood at birth
and burns In his bleod at death"
"Thaw's madness, bern and bred In
him, had been set ON FIRE by the stories
he had heard. He had gone to the dis
trict attorney with them and to Mr.
Comstock. They ran In HE head until
staggering among the chairs Of Aadi
son Square Garden, yet not drunk, his
eyes burning like tive great Goals Of
fire, unable intelligently to answer
questions put to him, naniacal in the
last degree, lost-lost as he was In
home, In Monte Carlo and in London
the blind confusion Of insanity over
came him, and he fired. The result wa.
not q murder. but the act of a mad
man, who afterward. wild eyed ant
irrational cried out in his cell that ht
heard the voices Of little children call
ing and proclaimed that he had bu
acted as an agent Of Providence"
After his speech Mr.. Littleton was
asked in what manner he would at
tempt to prove Thaw sane at the pres
ent time IL he offered such an accumu
lation Of evidence as to progressive in
sanity up to the time of killing.
II can only say that l will cross m!
bridges as come to them. A mar
can't ride two horses going in opposite
directions at the same time,' he re
piled.
The outline Of fine defense was gen
orally considered as rejecting deter
mination on the part of Thaw's attor
neys to prove him insane In 1905 re
CARELESS Of all consequences.