Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1909-08-13
THAW INSANE:
SENT BACK
TO ASYLUM
COURT HOLDS THAT STANFORD
WHITE SHOWED SYMPTOMS OF
DERANGED MIND.
JEROME WINS EVERY POINT,
Justice Mills Believes Evelyn Nesbit
Lied on Stand During Husbands
Trials for Murder
ARCHITECT NOT BAD AS PAINTED.

+, WHITE PLAINS, n. Y, Aug 12.-
tFhe state Of New York won a complete
victory over Harry X. Thaw today when
Justice Isaac y. Mills decided that the
slayer Of Stanford White is still insane
and sent him back to the criminal in
sane asylum at Matteawan.
Not one of the many contentious made
by Thaw during the three weeks Of his
recent hearing We're sustained. He is,
however, somewhat better off than be
fore he brought the present suit, be
cause Justice Mills in his decision sug-
gcSts-and the suggestion amounts prac-
tlcally to Orders-that Thaw at AIattea-
wan be restored to the privileges he
enjoyed during the first three months OF
his stay there, and that his mother be
allowed all the possible privileges and
treated with every consideration 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 at his cham
bers in Mount Vernon.
The prisoner took the decision coolly.
his only statement being denial of the
assertion III the courts opinion that he
still cherished the same deIusions that
drove him to shoot White
In formal language, Justice Mills de-
cison dismissed the writ of babeas cor
pus under which Thaw applied for his
liberty and ''remanded him to the Gus
tody Of the defendant Or. Robert B.
Lamb. superintendent of MatteaWan
state hospitaD, whence he was produced
here"
Gives Childhood History.
In concluding that Thaw is now in
sane the court gives first importance TO
his family and childhood history. His
determination that the prisoner has not
yet recovered is based principally on the
opinion Of DIR. Amos Baker. assistant
superintendent of the Matteawa1
asylum
.'Ar such authorities" saws Justice
Mills are public officers, with no con
ccivable motives except to do their
duties"
The court says that it was more CON
WINGED by the testimony of the alieDists
called for the state than by that of the
prisoners experts. Regarding DR.. Brit.
ton ID. Evans, he says:
He experienced great difficulty in REQ
onciing his present opinion with nix
previous attitude in connection with thf
homicide trials, and to my mind did no,
entirely succeed in so doing"
Thaw evidently made bad impression
upon the Judge by his actions both or
and off the witness stand. The opinior
calls particular attention to Thaw's ia
cial appearance, especially during the
last afternoon of his testimony. wher
for twenty minutes he spoke in iustif
cation of ''his extravagant belief as f.
Whites conduct with a certain woman. >
Justice Mills Decision.
After discussing the evidence Justice
Mills draws the following conclusion:
First conclusion: The insanity with whi-I
Harry X Thaw afflicted on June d
1906, at the time he committed the homi
eide was of the kind known as chronic
teIusive insanity or paranoia. This con
clusion rests upon the following facts
There was, i'll his ancestral stock sub
stantiaI but not very strong trace of in
sanity. BY not very strong is meant The
fact that no one of his direct ancestors
was ever insane. Upon the maternal side
two uncles We're of unsound mind. each ~
least for portion of his life; and on hi,
fathers side an aunt at least al
epilepuc and perhaps insane; and some
more remote relatives were undoubtedly
insane, though as to them the evidence il
not. clear. but there had been insanity il
one of their ancestral lines not common t.
the prisoners own descent. As a young
child he was physically weak and puny
exceedingly nervous ana abnormally wilful
Older, he subject to violent spells
amounting almost to paroXysms of excite
ment without any naturally adequate cause
lie attended various schools for different
periods from the age of upwards. bu
made little progress in study While a
school, especially in his early years. h,
had frequent outbreaks of uncomfortable
excitement in which his facial appearance
was wild and staring.
Meets Evelyn Nesbit
About 1901 he became enamored of
young woman Miss Nesbit whom he after
wards married She was then, by common
1
or a mistress of STANFORD White She SooI
assumed that relation to Thaw and obvious
| ~, to account to him for her former posi-
tion with White. told him various wild ant
grossly improbable stories IF the inception
of that relation. Although he, Thaw evt
IDENTIFY was himself far from a moral man
and then engaged soon thereaftc
became engaged i'll practices Of a perverted
character, revealed by the testimony O.
the Merrill woman, which, with the corrob
Grafton afforded by other evidence in tht
case, appears credible, he gave absolut,
credcnce to the tales told him by Miss Mes
bit about White. He obtained similar in
other young women, either directly from
them or through Miss Nesbit, all of which
! information was of the same wild and i'm
probable character. evidently to any norma
mind. grossly exaggerated. To all how
| ever he gave implicit belief. His min,
became absolutely possessed with these sto
ries He not only believed them in thei
| entirety, but he deducted from them con
/ illusions to the practices of White fa
| beyond what such belief in a normal mine
| would warrant.
From the charges separately made h,
| these few admittedly immoral women, h
! concluded that White maintained severa
| places In New York city where he accom-
| plished. by force or by drugs, the ruin o
| respectable young American girls as it We're
| by the wholesale. Such belief. to such ex
| IRENE extent. was plainly Gelusion.
Couldn't Shake Delusions.
His delusions as to the practices of Whit
! were not shaken by the failure of the IL
| vestigations made by the detectives an
Ell TON tn HEAD Roam