Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-08-07
WHOLE FAMILY QUEER
Jerome's Intimation, Summing
Up in ThaW Case.
SAYS EVELYN FALSIFIED
All Other Witnesses. He Declares,
Tried to Tell Truth.
NOT SAFE TO BE AT LIBERTY
"A Man From Mars" Would Call
Thaw Uncanny, He Asserts.
Morschauser's Argument.

WHITE PLAINS. n. Y. August t.
Closing arguments were heard by SUI
preme Court Justice Isaac n Mills today
in the application of Harry X. Thaw for
his release from the Matteawan Insane
Asylum. Each side was confined to an
hour, and both said that they did no,
| need as much time as this. Mr. Jerome :
turn came first.
Mrs. Josiah ThaW, the prisoners sister
INLAY, was the only member of the
family party not present when court con-
vened. Thaw looked even paler than
usual His chair touched Jerome's, and
he settled his features with evident de-
termination to show no emotion under
the storm which he expected to descend
upon his head.
Mr.. Jerome began with saying that
Justice Mills must be perfectly familiar
with the case and therefore he would not
attempt to 60 over the evidence in detail.
Speaking Of the credibility Of the wit
nesses and their bearing under cross
examination, he said he believed all did
their best to tell the truth, except Mrs
Evelyn Nesbit Thaw.
Says Evelyn Thaw Lied.
81 do think" he declared. that this
girl was deliberately and Intentionally
classifying. That she told her husba nd
the story of her injury at the hands OF
Stanford White. l have no doubt
Mr.. Jerome then passed directly to the
question of Thaw's sanity. He acknowl-
edged that modern science did not attach
extreme Importance to the influence of
heredity on disease; nevertheless he de-
clared that this influence must be con-
sidered in assessing the descendants men,
tai condition.
He summed up Thaw's family history
with the declaration that when MEM
Der broke, he or she broke in this weak
spot. the mind. Under strain they de-
veloped imbecility or epilepsy"
Whole Family Peculiar"
LET me point out now that the whole
Thaw family manifested what might be
called popularity. From such stock
the average man of the world would say,
without any assistance from alienists:
Well. you would get a pretty rickety sort
of child out of that family"
Susie Merrill's story of receiving large
| sums of money from Thaws attorneys
and his living at her house with various
women. the district attorney said, was
unrefuted. Here Mr.. Jerome laid down
his notes and reeited from memory vari.
Gus wild acts of the prisoner, testified
to at the former trials. His alleged at
tempts at suicide In PLris and his
wife in New York, were held up par
ticularly as evidences of q diseased mind
mo normal mind would want q wife to
tell the terrible story Evelyn Thaw
told on the stand" asserted Mr.. Jerome
While the district attorney spoke Mrs.
Thaw read a magazine. Once she leaned
over and made q suggestion. to Mr..
Morschauser, which the latter noted
down.
Thaw's love of the dramatic was point
| od orYf nv Ar ufra ohor
acteristic of his alleged mania. 1t re-
ceived its strongest illustration in the
shooting of White, said Jerome. The dis
trict attorney declared that he placed
Britton D. Evans. Thaw's chief alienist,
and asked the court to DISCARD it.
Thaw's Attitude "Uncanny."
IF a person had come in here from
Mars" continued the prosecutor, and
seen Thaw on the stand he would have
realized something was the matter with
him. 1t was unwhOlesome, it was un-
canny. 1 call your attention to his at
titude toward his act. A man Of sound
mind would have said: Yes, 1 killed
him, but he did a great wrong to the
woman / loved. and 1 hated him. 1t
was wrong, l know"
Jerome's voice rose for the first time
Mrs. Thaw laid down her magazine, and
she and the prisoner and his counsel
held a whispered conference. The dis
trict attorney went on.
THE situation is about this: Here Is
man whom heredity has proven to be
bad: he is a man whose childhood was
| that Of a highly nervous sort. We find
him marrying this girl. and there was
nothing after the marriage to excite
his jealousy. We see him pursuing this
idea of injury to young American girls
Referring to Mrs Thaw's attack on him
| +
I'VE see in this pamphlet the same color
that runs all through the sons behavior.
1T seems to me 1t would not be safe to
turn this man loose until there had been
ample opportunity to submit him to med
ical examination from day to day for a
long period"
Mr.. jerome finished his summing up at
IL 30, the court having offered no objec-
ton to the length Of his speech
Thaw's Lawyer Sums Up.
Attorney Morschauser for Thaw began
by urging the court to consider only the
evidence produced in the present pro-
prior to. during or just after the homi-
eide. He dwelt upon the testimony OF his
own alienists and attacked that of the
opposing experts. especially DR.. Bakers.
If Thaw had had a latent trace of in
sanity, he said, the horrors of Mattea-
wan would have made 1t evident. Incl
dents of Thaw's life were grossly ex-
aggerated at the early trials. he said to
show insanity. A similar result might be
achieved with the boyhood pranks Of
any man.
Harry "Ahead Of the English"
WHITE PLAINS, August 7.-Mr. Nor
schauser explained the excitement created
in London hospital by Thaw's demand
for ice as follows:
Mr.. Thaw was simply ahead of the
English. Your honor remembers how,
when. as boys, we had fever, they
would not give us any ice or cold water
Well, the people in that hospital had the
same idea"
He declared that, although the defend
ants life was raked for incidents to prove
his insanity at the trials. there was a
period of fourteen years during which
no cratic acts were in evidence.
At 1870 Mr.. Morschauser said he would
take at leaSt an hour longer and Just;ca