The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-11
THAW CONFIDENT
 OF HIS RELEASE
Statement Is Issued By Thaw
 Reviewing His Case
ARGUMENTS FOR SANITY
Prisoner Declares That Tests and sEx periences in His Various Trials Have Proved His Sanity
 Forty Times Over.

White Plains, N. Y, August 1O.-Reas- sertng his sanity, H. K. Thaw today is- sued statement reviewing the evidence given in the recent hearing on his appli- cation for release from the Mateawan asylum. In the course of his argument to sustain his contention that he is sane, Thaw said that according to the alienists, District Attorney Jerome had proved him to be sane 40 times over'' in his long questioning. Thaws statement follows:
 "The following is all I have to say about the trial: MT. Jeromes witnesses were an unprofessional lawyer and an un- fortunate woman who contradicted each other: also three of his peculiar alienists and Dr. Baker, who, from his testimony, might have been on each side except that he showed some unfriendliness to us, and could not remember any admissions he had made to me.
 'Dr. Pilger admitted he did not believe in souls because he had not seen any,, Dr. Hirsch affirmed that their profession was incompatible with religion Dr. Me Donald and Dr. Flint refused to believe what Jerome had soemnly stated to jury, so I hardly think any judge could believe any of them.
 "The best experts have informed me that if any ipsane man was questioned for 20 minutes as Jerome questioned me, he would assuredly show his insanity. As Jerome kept this up over 15 hours in all during the trial, he proved me sane man 45 times over, for the alienists said any 20 minutes during his 15 hours of
 wild and extraordinary questions would have rattled any paranoiac.
 However. might have failed as other sane men might have. so l don't con- slider my testimony onertenth so import ant as the 20 alienists who personally ex- amned me, and their records have sworn l am sane, or the testimony of 62 wit nesses. Mir. Jerome at the second trial after telling the jury why he had not produced pr. Flint and company, said he
 would submit the case to human intel ligence.
 William D. Morgan relates the fol- lowing conversation to the same point
 "A great aienist is going to operate on
 a woman who has been unconscious for 40 years and desires clear knowledge of her mental state if she regains any men, tai faculties. So he asked his wife and her friend to watch. The doctor tells them I don't want you to see anything
 of the operation but what I want is to | have one or more goodss observers at hand and I want everything observed 1 and recolected.'
 His wife replies: Why, don't the peo-
 pie at the asylum do 1t? Why us?' | "Because,' answered the husband, each
 of them had a theory and none of them | will recollect anything that don't agree I with it. l want real, live creatures, of | good average intelligence.'
 | Tt seems to me l must be sane if hard | headed men think so who slept in the | room with me and saw me go to sleep
 and wake up, to eat my breakfast, dinner and supper and who took me up on the
 mountain where I could have left them
 miles behind if I had not been trust {, worthy.
 | This seems to me to prove my sanity | 10 times better than whether or not I
 could handle MT Jerome in a fourteen and half hour debate on every possible subject except the alleged delusion, which | he did not seem to want explained. | Maybe explanations would have spoiled his hypothetical question:"