Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-13
TEXT OF JUSTICE
MILLS CONCLUSIONS
SHOWS CAREFUL STUDY

. W III l. A4[A1ANps aug. lGs-J uSNlCt
Mills draws the following conclusions:
First conclusion: The insanity with
which Harry X. Thaw was afflicted
on June 25, 1906, at the time he COM
mitted the homicide, was the kind
known as chronic delusion insanity, or
paranoia. 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 di
rect ancestors was ever insane. On
the maternal side two uncles were of
unsound mind, each at least for por
tion of his life, and on his fathers
side an aunt was at least an epileptic
and perhaps insane; and some more
remote relatives were undoubtedly in
sane, though as to them the evidence
is not clear, but there had been in
sanity in one of their ancestral lines
not common to the prisoners own de-
scent.
LAS a young child he was physically
weak and puny, exceedingly nervous
and abnormally willful. Older he was
subject to violent spells amounting al
most to paroxysms of excitement with
out any naturally adequate cause. He
attended various schools for different
periods from the age of 6 upward, but
made little progress in study. While at
school. especially in his early years,
he had frequent outbreaks of uncon-
trollable excitement, in which his IA
cial appearance was wild and staring
Married Evelyn Nesbit
about 1901 he became enamOred of
young woman. Miss Nesbit, whom he
afterward married. She was then, by
common reputation, well known to him,
I 10 mis- or q mistress of stanford
White. She soon assumed that relation
to Thaw and obviously, to account to
him for her former position with White,
told him various wild and grossly i'm
! probable stories of the inception OF
that relation. Although he, ThaW
evidently was himself far from a
moral man. and was then engaged or
soon thereafter became engaged in
practices of perverted character as re
vealed by the testimony of the Merrill
woman, which, with the corroboration
afforded by other evidence in the case
appears credible, he gave absolute
credence to the tales told him by Miss
| Nesbt about White
He obtained similar information as
to Whites conduct with a few other
| young women, either directly from
them or through Miss Nesbit all of
which information was Of the same
wild and improbable character. To ALL
| however, he gave implicit belief. Ills
mind became absolutely possessed with
the stories. He not only believed them
in their entirety, but he deducted from
them conclusions as to the practices of
White far beyond what such belief in
a normal mind would warrant From
the charges separately made by these
few admittedly immoral women, he
concluded that White maintained sew
eral places in New York city where he
accomplished the ruin of respectable
young American girls. as it were, by
the wholesale. Such belief, to such ex-
treme extent, was plainly a delusion.
Believed Act Heroic
at the roof garden he came into the
presence Of White, doubtless unex-
pectedly, and publicly shot him to
death in a spectacular and theatrical
manner. In so doing he believed he
was acting as the agent of Providence
and performing praiseWorthy act,
like that of David in Staying Goliath,
or St George in killing the dragon.
"Thaw's suspicion of a conspiracy
against him bv his early counsel was
utterly without foundation and a clear
delusiOn
"AIl this, according to the weight of
expert testimony is plainly the history
/ Of a paranoiac. The court concludes
| therefore, that ThaW's insanity at the
] commission OF IIe IOIllCluG Ntto VI tIi'
| kind known as paranoia and not OF
the brain storm-sane half minute
| before and sane half a minute after-
variety, if any such variety exists.
THE verdict of the jury was plainly
Warranted by the evidence, not merely
as an expression of reasonable doubt,
but even as an affirmative finding OF
the fact of insanity.
1T is true the new testimony upon
this trial introduced in behalf Of the
prisoner tends to materially vary the
history of his early life as above stat
ed. | am convinced, however, that in
such variety it is very largely mlstak-
en-. and that the testimony upon that
point given at the second murder trlal
by mother, nurse, family physician ana
| teachers is the more credible.
Has Not Recovered
Second conclusion; Harry K. ThaW
has not yet recovered from his insan-
itv above stated and defined. This de-
termination is made upon the follow
| ing grounds:
"Frst-All the experts agree that IN
q case of true paranoia recovery Is
very doubtful.
"Second-The court is disposed TO pay
great respect to the opinion of the hos
pitaI authorities hereof DR.. Baker,