Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1912-03-21
INSANE man Hal AXE
Court Officials Were Relieved
When He Gave 1t Up.
was In the Hands Of Alexander Ills
sette. who Had Demanded n Jur,
Trini for AssnuItine Ills
Father-in-L Law.

A two-hlade axe. in the hands of an in
sane man. flashed before the gaze of
Judge Miles and the assistant Judges and
puNered over the head of Col. John Fl
M't'''ns for the space Of thirty seconds in
"i''ehoeh county court late yesterday
aiterhoon when Alexander Brown, nl,as
/ 'Na'iuor Hissetfc. was being tried for
assault with intent to XIII his fathcr.in-
law james Hammond. sheriff Js,ocs
H. Allen ahortly afterwards secured m.
axe ana the courtroom brea thed sigh Of
relief
/ Fissct,e The calls himself Charles
-N'eNah"er hroWn) was placed on trial
'a'e Ill the afternoon, the jury having
been drawn at the morning session. r.
=. Wehster had been assigned az coun-
sci for the respondent. The trial lasted
just ono hour, including the returning of
the verdict Tsoth sides the state and
the defense. admitted that Bissette was
insane. but the respondent had Demand.
ca jury triaLand 1t was speedilY given.
The chief witness for the state was DR..
Don D. Grout. superintendent Of the
stale Hospitsl at Waterbury, who testi-
fed that he had made a snecial invesu-
CATION OF Bissettc's case and that tho
of imbecility, deFeneracy and insanity,
ana WIS not q safe man 10 10 at large
He said he doubted II Btssette had cver.
been safe man to allow a large IN the
community.
3iasette was called to the stand to tell
his own story OF the assault and to give
the jury opportunity to judge for them
selves Of his mental condition He ram
lSl a! ono .y
but made several direct contradictions un-
der cross-sXamination. While he was de-
scribng the axe with which he is alleged to
have made the assault he suddenly stoop-
ed and drew out wicked looking two
hladed axe from under the witness bench.
No one seemed to nave known that the
axe WAS there prior to that. Col. Mir1ms
edged back an inch OF two and there
was an uneasy stir in the courtrnn.n
"Flcle IS The axe right here" said Ii--
Scttc, Holding it up. ~ would not hit
man with that, a blow from that axe
would kill Il man
The witness was informed that he need
not continue to hold the axe and It WAS
secured as quickly as possible by Sheriff
Alien. States Attorney II. Il. Shaw pre-
scented his argument 80 the jury in lust
the state asked was that they return
verdict Of not guilty .v reason of in
sanity vi Webster made no argument
and the jury returned in five minutes
after leaving the room with the verdict.
Rissette viii row be committed to Water
bury. although he did not seem to realize
this fact and seemed relieved when the
iuiN said mot guilty"
LONG GRIND AHEAD
County court readiusted itself yester-
day afte lnoon and settled down to what
Will probably be long grind. Judge Miles
said it looked a. though the business now
before the court would carry 1t until the
first of June. lnasmuch as there We're
no other jury cases ready this week, the
luINmcn were excused until Monday aft
erHoon AT two o'clock. when Judge Miles
said the cases assigned must he ready
Tor trial. There are large number of
Jury cases, court cases and number OF
criminal cases yet to he heard. besides
many civil and ,hanccrv eases The court
will sit the rest of this week for the
purpose of hearing court or chancery
cases. Judge Miles said that many Of the
jurors are becoming uneasy at being
away from their homes during the sugar
making season and tho lnrN cases must
be tried as quickly - possible. The dock
e was called yesterday afternoon for as
siCnmcnt OF cases and tine cases on the
jury calendar now stand assSned as fol-
lows
Monday March -. Maurice D. Suli-
van. apt, vs. George Sullivan adm OF
ne estate Of Patrick sullivan: Anna $
l4aNery VS.. Laura A. Barstow. case
Tuesday, March O. Adolphus NJ. Saw
Yer W. James +. eastman. trespass. H.
J. Cassard VS.. r. H. Murphy, breach OF
contract Jane Bsset, va. John Fuller,
tln' apt Eugene l. Alien VS. O. 6.