The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-11-16
MOTHER PLEADS
 FOR HER SON
Only Chance. for Spencer, Accused Slayer, Is on
 Ground of Insanity
Aged Mater Tells Court
 How Father Cruelty Beat the Boy at a Tender Age
Special from United Press. )

Springfield, Mass, Nov.. 16.-The defense in the trial of Bertram G. Spencer. for the murder of Martha G. Blackstone, during a burglary in the fashionable Round Hill district, began the introduction of testimony. this morning, to support it's conten- tion that Spencer is insane.
 The completeness of Spencer's con- fession as introduced by the state closed every avenue of escape for the prisoner except by insanity. Spencer S was perhaps the most amazing con. ieSSiGn of a career of crime ever made in New England. According to his own statement, men, women and children were victims of this slayer, whose career of crime covered a period of. two years and included 24 separate robberies and holdups be- fore it reached it's climax in the kili- ing of Miss Blackstone, in March, of last year. And yet, the whole story was not told. So nauseating were some of the details that Spencer mar rated in verbal confession to Cap tain John H. Boyle of the Springfield detective department that even cOun- sel for the prisoner agreed with coun- sal for the comm monwealth that they should not be admitted as evidence. Should Spencer be acquitted by the jury by reason of insanity, the law prescribes that the court shall order him confined in a state asylum for the rest of his life.
 Fully realizing that the most she can hope for is the acquittal of her son on the ground of insanity, which n neans life Imprisonment in an asy lum, Mrs. Kate E. Spencer, aged mother of the accused, mounted the witness stand at the opening of the
 low IN {, happenings in the family history tending to prove the insanity of the defendant. Mrs. Spencer has kept vigil at the side of the prisoner throughout the trial, comforting her 1aywardson with words of hope down under the strain. In his most fioIeat outbreaks, the touch of his mothers hand thrust through the wire netting surrounding the dock has subdued the prisoners passions. This morning when his mother began her cegained his self control but later on broke into a fit of grooming and writhing that several times caused a halt in the trial.
 Mrs. Spencer testified that when he prisoner was very young he eX- 1ibited signs of insanity both while awake and while asleep
 When Bertram was only nine months old. the witness said his fath- CT whipped him for crying at the ta-
 le After the child became very nervous The next severe punish nent was in the third year of his age. He fell from his fathers lap while being punished and struck on his head on the stove. Between four and five years of age he was repeatedly 7unished.
 The witness said that. at one time. t1 +na o1, tl,A ot.;1 md the father whipped him severely. \ question about what the prayer was vas objected to but was permitted by -he court. The witness said it was. Now I lay me down to sleep.'
 When the child was seven years of ege, the witness said. she heard him screaming in the woodshed because ae was being punished. The child came into the house and told her the 'ather had put his head on the chop ping block and threatened to cut his
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