The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-03-23
COMMISSION IN DENNISON CASE BLAMES ASYLUMS Middletown Officials Called Into New York Murder
 Case
Strict Enforcement of Leg islation and Enactment of More Stringent Regula- tions Among Recommen- dations of Commission.

In connection with the murder of
 Patrolman Ellsworth G. Deitz by Gus
 Mueller, the madman, released a few
 months before by the state hospital for the insane at Middletown, por- tions of the report of the commission l-appointed by Judge O'Sullivan of New York in the case of Herbert Jerome Dennison are of much in Eterest.
 Dennison is the maniac arrested for the shooting of Robert Lomas and Arthur Shibley on Jan. 12 as the two children were coasting in High Bridge park, the Bronx. He is also alleged to have shot John H. Fredericks. He 1908 was in the same institution that was later occupied by Mueller.
 Considerable suspicion was direct ed at Dennison following his arrest for the Shibley and Lomas murders, in connection with the staying of nine body was found in the woods north east of Lakeview home in the fall of 1908. The description by youths who played about the vicinity, of a strange man they had seen in the vicinity, corresponded striking g1y to that of Dennison. He was familiar with this locality. having been in sanitariums and homes hereabouts.
 Portions of the report of the com
 ewis lgsion Dr whifh Jas Wais6 Ge9a and pr
 we are of the opinion that the said Herbert J. Dennison is in such of understanding the proceedings or making his defense on the trial of the indictment now pending against him, and that he is also unable to intel1igentIy advise with counsel as to the conduct or preparation of the trial of the said indictment, or to make any proper defense thereto.'
 That in the last ten years Dennison had been confined in six different in stitutions and in none of the private ssyluns was he ever under any par ticular restraint the Commissioners say was shown by the evidence. Their report continues:
 whenever his mother or he became dissatisfied with any institution in which he was confined, his mother was allowed to take him to another private institution. This was done without any recourse whatever to the legal authorities, or any restraint asyluns, permitting the patient at large without any qualified surveill- ance in the interim. The easy man ner in which the insane. as evidenced in this case, are turned over to the care of parents relatives for in definite period, has made such an inn pression upon the members of this commission that they deem it their duty to call the attention of this court, and leave it to this court authorities should be called to the lax way in which the insane, and in this case a dangerous and violently insane person, may be taken out of public insane asylum after having bee1i duly r-orar1itt. .' to the same O. by order of court and left entirely in the cnliIro1 of a parent or relative to do with such insane person as he or she pIeases.
 Lax Methods Cost Lives.
 From facts that were developed on this examination the commission is unanimous in arriving at the con- clusion that at least two lives have methods that were allowed to be- 9 dopted in the case of this defend ant, and that at least one other per fendant, and only by the merest chance escaped with his life. The commission has not had the oppor- tunity to look up all the laws that are now in force in reference to the and detention of violent ly insane persons. Perhaps 4 there = are already on the statute books. If there are the commission desires to call the attention to the careless way in which said laws have been en- forced. If there are not proper laws governing this class of cases the com fact to the attention of the State Leg fs1ature and asking that sufficient and proper laws be at once enacted to govern cases of this kind.
 Among the witnesses heard by the commissioners was Dr. Maurice c. of the Middletown State Asy- lurn, to which Dennison was regular ly committed in December, 1900. pr. Ashley said that Dennison had an idea that he was being persecuted, and that certain persons were follow ing him and watching him, and anong those he mentioned William c. Whitney. Magistrate Peter T. Bar low and United States Senator Hoar. He said that they were thieves and criminals.
 The medical superintendent of the Midd1etown asylum testified that when Dennison's mother took him away from that institution in 1908. without any order of the court and without a certificate from any physi- 1 elan, he was discharged uninaproved and not cured.
 The portion of report cr1ticising lax m ethods in asylums was sent by Judge O'Sullivan to Dr. Albert W. | Ferris, President of the State Lunacy Commission.
 -Dennison will likely be committed l to a place for criminal insane.
 KOENIG+CISKO.
 A marriage license was issued today | jc iSf