Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-08-12
Justice Mills Decides His
Insanity is Of Chronic
Nature.
STILL DANGEROUS Man
Court Expresses Belief That
Impressions of White Were
Largely DeIuSionS.

White Plains, NJ. ", Aug. t2-Jus-
tice Mills handed down a decision this
morning declaring Harry X. Thaw is
insane. He dismisses the writ of
habeas corpus, under which Thaw en-
deavors to secure his release from the
Matteawan asylum, and remands him
to the custody of the authorities of
that institution.
Not One Contention Granted.
Not one of the many contentious
made by Thaw during his recent
hearing is sustained. He is. how
ever somewhat better off than before
he brought the present suit, because
Justice Mills in his decision suggests,
and the suggestion amounts practic-
ally to an order that Thaw at Matte
avian be restored to the privileges
he enjoyed during the first three
months of his stay there and that his
mother be allowed all possible privi-
leges and treated with every consid-
Grafton when she calls to see him.
Thaw will remain at the Jail at least
until tomorrow, when his attorney
will be given chance to make any
formal motions before Justice Mills
Thaw Is Cool.
The prisoner took the decision
cody. His only statement was a
denial of the assertion in the courts
opinion that he still cherished the
same delusions that drove him to
shoot White. In concluding that
Thaw is now insane, the court gives
first importance to his family child
hood history. His determination
that the prisoner has not yet recov-
cred is based principally on the opin-
ion of Dr. Amos Baker, assistant
superintendent of the Matteawan
asylum.
No UlteriOr Motive
''All such authorities" says the
justice, ARE public officers with no
conceivable motives except to do
their dutes.' The court says it was
more convinced by the testimony of
alienists called for the state than by
that of the prisoners experts. They
evidently made bad impression up
on the judge by actions both on and
off the witness stand.
Expression TcIItaIe
The opinion calls particular atten
tion to Thaw's facial appearance. es-
pecially during the last afternoon of
his testimony when for 20 minutes
he spoke in justification of 'his ex-
travagant belief as to Whites con-
duct with certain women"
Insanity Called Chronic.
After discussing the evidence adj
duced at the hearing, the justice re-
views Thaw'S ancestry and says the
insanity with which Thaw was affect
ed when he killed White was of the
kind known as chronic delusive in
sanity or paranoia. In his ancestral
stock, added the justice was a sub
stantial but not very strong trace of
insanity, although none of Thaw's di-
rect ancestry was even insane.
Reviews Nesbit Affair.
Continuing his history of Thaws
life, Mills said: About 1901 he be-
came enamored of young woman.
Miss Nesbit, whom he afterwards
married. She was then by common
reputation well known to him as the
mistress or mistress of Stanford
White. She soon assumed that re-
lation to Thaw and obviously to ac-
count to him for her former position
with White told him various wild and
grossly improbable stories of the in
ception of that relation.
Thayv Himself Guilty.
Although he, Thaw, evidently was
himself far from a moral man, and
was then engaged or soon thereafter
became engaged in practices of per-
verted character, as revealed by the
testimony of the Merrill woman.
which, with the corroboration afford
ed by other evidence in the case, ap-
pears creditable, he gave absolute
credence to the tales told him by