The Newark star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1909, 1909-08-12
Would Be Public Menace
TO Set Slayer Free,
Says Justice Mills.
FAMILY. GRIEVED, LOCK
THEMSELVES IN HOTEL
Decision Fails to Sustain Com
tentions of Prisoner, Who
Takes Verdict Calmly.

WHITE PLAINS, N, Y. Aug. H.
Justice Mills handed down a decision
this morning declaring that Harry K.
Thaw is insane. He dismisses the writ
of habeas corpus under which Thaw
endeavored to obtain his release from
the Matteawan asylum, and remands
him to the custody of the State au
thorities of that institution.
Thaw received the news today of
the failure of his second attempt to
obtain his freedom with slight display
of emotion. His manner indicated that
he had expected an adverse decision.
Have you heard Justice Mills's de-
cision?" he was asked.
ne said Thaw, without moving
lo(his chair.
bScopy of the courts opinion was
tded to him. He read it rapidly and
}hout comment until he came 10 the
blowing sentence:
3"If those beliefs constituted delusions
In his mind when he committed the
flomicide, they are the same now
That's not So" he said, and marked
the lines with pencil.
Thaw's attorney, Charles Morschau'
ser, was not in town this morning when
the decision was rendered. None OF
the prisoners family could be found.
At their hotel it was said that they
had locked themselves in their rooms
and given orders that no one be ad'
mitted to them.
Justice MflIs's Conclusions.
After discussing the evidence, Justice
Mills draws the following conclusions:
First Conclusion-The insanity with
which Harry X. Thaw was afflicted on
>une rs, 1905. at the time he committed
the homicide, was of the kind known
as chronic. delusive insanity, or para
noia. This conclusion rests upon the
following facts, which appear to me to
be clearly proven: There was In his
ancestral stock a substantial, but not
very strong, trace of insanity. BY not
very strong is meant that fact that no
one of his direct ancestors was ever
insane. Upon 'the maternal side two
uncles were of unsound mind, each at
least for portion of his life, and on
his fathers side an aunt. was at least
an epiIeptic, and perhaps insane; ana
some more remote relatives were un-
doubtedly insane, though as to them
the evidence is not clear; but there
had been insanity in one of their an
cestral lines not common to the pris-
oner's own descent.
Distorted View of Wife's Stories.
Continuing his history If Thaw's life,
Justice Mills says:
About 1901 he became enamored or
a young woman, Miss Nesbit, whom he
afterwards married. She was then, by
common reputation, well known to him
as the mistress or a mistress of Stan
ford White. She soon assumed that
relation with Thaw. and obviously, to
account to him for her former position
with White told him various wild and
grossly improbable stories of the incep-
tion of that relation. Although he
tThaw) evidently was himself far from
a moral man, he gave absolute
'.credence to the tales told him by Miss
Nesbit about White.
His delusions as to the practises of
White were not shaken by the failure
Of the Investigations made by the de-
tectives and public authorities, and his
delusive belief in his special mission
continued to possess his mind. In that
mental condition, at the roof garden he
came into the presence of White, doubt
less Unexpectedly, and publicly shot
him to death in a spectacular and
theatrical manner.
History OF a ParanOiac.
Regarding Thaw's suspicious of a
conspiracy against him by his early
counsel, the court says:
"Such belief, that Is, as to the pur-
pose, was utterly without the least
foundation and clear delusion.'
"All this" continues Justice Mills,
according to the weight of expert tes-
timony, Is plainly the history of
paranoiac. This court concludes,
therefore, that Thaw's insanity at the
commission of the homicide was of the
kind known as paranoia, and not mt all
of the sbrain storm'-sane half n minnie
before and sane half a minute after
variety, II any such variety really ex-
lists.
Third Conclusion-The enlargement
Of Harry K. Thaw now would be dam
gerous to the public peace and safety, |
and therefore cannot be permitted.
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