The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1909-08-17
JUDGE SENDS THAW
BACK TO MATTEAWAN
Holds That He is still Insane
and a Paran0iac.
MRS. THAW TO CONTINUE FIGHT
Justice Isaac N. Mills Says: "The Re-
lease of the Petitioner Would Be
Dangerous to the Public Peace
and Safety"

and Safety"
White Plains, N. Y.-Under the
decision of Supreme Court Justice
Isaac N. Mills, Harry K. Thaw must
go back to Matteawan Asylum JUS
tice Mills dismisses the writ of
habeas corpus and remands Thaw to
the State institution for the criminal
insane.
The decision of Justice Mills makes
the way to the divorce court easy for
Evelyn Nesbit Thaw. 1t enables her
to bring proceedings that would as
sure her immediate freedom.
There is but one crumb OF comfort
for Thaw in the 7000-word opinion
handed down by Justice Mills. This
is a suggestion, amounting to an
order, that .Thaw be treated more
kindly by the authorities at Mattea-
wa2, and that his privileges be some
what enlarged.
otherwise the decision was wholly
against Thaw, and declared that "the
release of the petitioner would be
dangerous to the public peace and
safety" ALI the contentious OF Dis
trict Attorney Jerome are supported,
and 1t is declared that Thaw is still
insane, still suffering from persistent
decisions, and still as much a para
noiac as on the day he shot Stanford
White.
Justice Mills opinion reviews the
Thaw case at great length, and, after
telling of his commitment as an In
sane person at the close of his second
trial for murder, says there Is now
upon the prisoner 1.-THE burden OF
proving that since the commission OF
the homicide he has become sane to
the degree that 1t is reasonably GER
tain that his enlargement will now be
without menace to the public peace
or safety. Where insanity has gone
so far as actually to take human life.
no sensible person will be satisfied
with evidence to recover which does
not attain to the degree of reasonable
certainty"
From the evidence Justice Mills
draws the following conclusions:
"The insanity with which Harry
X. Thaw was afflicted on June 25.
1905, at the time he committed the
homicide, was of the kind known as
chronic, decisive 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 the fact that no one of his
direct ancestors was ever insane. As
a young child he was physically weak
and puny, exceedingly nervous and
abnormally wakeful. While at
school. especially in his earlier years,
he had frequent outbreaks of uncon-
trollable excitement, in which his
facial appearance was wild and star
ing"
Further along, reviewing the his
tory of Thaw's life, the Judge says:
about 1901 he became enamored
of young woman, Miss Nesbit, whom
he afterward married. She was then
by common report and reputation,
we'll known to him, the mistress or a
mistress of Stanford White. She soon
assumed that relation to Thaw, and,
obviously to account to hirl for her
former position with White, told him
various wild and grossly improbable
stories of the inception of that rela-
ton. Although he (Thaw) evidently
was himself far from moral man,
he gave absolute credence to the tales
told him by Miss Nesbit about White.
Such belief to such extreme ex-
tent was plainly delusion. With 1t
there came to his mind the convic-
ton, also delusive in character, that
he had special mission to destroy
Whites practices. These delusions
had become established, fixed and
systematized in his mind prior to his
marriage, April 4, 1905, and so con-
tinued at least until after the homi-
eide.
Second conclusion: Harry K.
Thaw has not yet recovered from his
insanity above stated and defined.
"All, the experts agree that in a
case Of t. le paranoia recovery is very
doubtful. .e,e
Third conclusion: The enlarge
ment of Harry K. Thaw now would
be dangerous to the public peace and
safety. and therefore cannot be per-
mitted."
An unusual paragraph in Justice
Mills opinion was devoted to Mrs.
Mary Copley Thaw, the prisoners
mother, for whom sympathy and gen.
tie consideration was expressed.
The decision of Justice Mills fell
heavily upon Thaws mother, who
was so overcome that she was unable
to leave her suite in the Carlyton
Arms. But after conference with
Mr.. Morchauser Mrs. Thaw issued
a statement in which she assailed