The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1908-01-15
1HAN'SSTRANCEAC ACTS
That Were Not Even Hlnted at
In the First Trial.

Mr.. Llttleton Told tho Court THAI
Thaw Took Poison After He Hears
Evelyn's story and Nearly Died
Justice Bowling Rules Out Refersno'
to Stanford White.
New York, Jan. 14.-The Thaw tria
is moving with a rush. After the
state had presented its direct oas'
and Assistant District Attorney Car
van had characterized the killing o.
Stanford White as "a premeditated
deliberate and cowardly murder" )" Mar
tin w. Littleton. for the defense, made
the opening plea for the prisoner
His promise OF new evidence was sen
sational and held the supreme atten
ton of all in the court room.
District Attorney Jerome, seeming
ly taken by surprise, seated himself
in the witness chair the better to hear
the outline of the new defense.
Evidence of Hereditary Insanity.
Mr. Littleton promised to forge a
chain of circumstances and to pro-
duce a line of testimony which will
prove Harry X. Thaw undeniably in
sane at the time Of the homicide. Evi-
denceofhereditary insanity, of strange,
unusual acts of Thaw not even limited
at during the first trial, was told OF by
Mr.. Littleton, who said that physi-
clans and nurses who had attended
Thaw were hurrying here from Eu'
rope; that teachers of the defendant
in childhood would be on hand to
give their impressions "of the wide.
eyed. distant boy"
In conclusion, Mr.. Littleton chal-
lenged the district attorney to pro-
duce a single reputable physician who
would say that Thaw was not insane
at the time he killed the noted archi-
tect
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 1903 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.
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 Dowl'
ing 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 drew an objection from the
peoples cutting officer who said:
"Mr. Littleton is now straylng to a
field of stuff which in my opinion will
be excluded"
Jerome's Objection Sustained.
Again Justice Dowling sustained the
objection. It was reported at the be-
ginning of the trial that Mr. Jerome
would fight this year TO exclude the
testimony of young Mrs. Thaw.
Mr. Littleton spared neither Thaw
nor his family in his recital of the de-
fendant's life history. During the
speech Thaw sat wide.eyed and pallid,
looking fixedly at his counsel. To
ward the close he seemed rather dis
pleased with something that had been
said and leaning forward scribbled of
a note. Mr.. Littleton's speech was
somewhat dramatic 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 state.
ment OF fact.
Thaw's 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 then the defendant himself
was pictured as irrational, erratic and
insane as a boy, who oscillated be.
tween "starship and madness, between
brilliance and darkness" and who
fought unavailingly against the fever
of insanity which coursed in his
blood at birth.
Describing the killing of White, 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 intell-
gently to answer questions put to him,
maniacal in the last degree, lost-lost
as he was in Rome, in Monte Carlo
and in London-the blind confusion OF
insanity overcame him and he fired.
The result was not a murder, but
the act of a madman, 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
Providence"
After his speech Mr.. Littleton was
asked in what manner he would at
tempt to prove Thaw sane at the pres.
net time If he offered such an accum.
ulation Of evidence as to progressive
insanity up to the time of the killing.
81 can only say that will cross my
bridges as I come to them. A man