Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1917-12-01
| 5,000-Word Hypothetical
Question of Defense Did Not
Suit District Attorney, So He
Is Preparing Longer One.
TEN-DAY BLANK SPACE
IS ASSAILED BY WEEKS
Prosecutor Attempts to Riddle
Theory That Defendant Suf-
fered Lapse Of Memory'
Skull Not Fractured.
lsY MORT We JOURNAL SPECIAL LEASED wrrs,

isy noRI JOURNAL SPECIAL LuLssp wIRtI
Mineola, n. Y, Nov 30-Another
mass of expert testimony was added
today to the volume of evidence al
ready introduced in support of Mrs.
Blanca De Saulles' claim that she did
not know what she was doing when
she shot her divorced husband, John
L. De Saulles, in his Long Island
home the night of August g. The de-
fense rested at 230 o'clock this af-
tcrnoon.
Because District Attorney Charles
Il. Weeks did not like the phrasing
Of a fifteen-thousan word rypo.
thetical question put to alienists by
attorneys for the defense, he is to-
night preparing a similar interroga
ton of equal or greater length which
experts of the disease of the mind
called by the prosecution will be asked
to answer tomorrow Weeks insisted
the questions submitted by the de-
fense were based entirely on testi-
mony favorable to Mrs. De Saulles,
| ignoring altogether statements made
by witnesses upon which he is de-
pending in large part to convict the
young Chilean woman. There was
considerable argument as to whether
the interrogation might be revised so
as to satisfy counsel for both sides,
but this was finally declared imprac-
ticable. Justice David F. Manning
ended the controversy Ey Instructing
the district attorney to frame anoth-
er query including the testimony he
deems most favorable to his side of
the case.
Reading Required Long Time.
1t required an hour and a half to
read the questions prepared by Mrs.
De Saulles' attorney, Henry A. Uter-
hart. Discussion of its points occu-
pied an additional two hours. With
a similar procedure to be gone
through with tomorrow, it seemed
probable tonight that the submission
of evidence in rebuttal would not be
finished before tomorrow night
When attorneys for the defense
rested their case. District Attorney
Weeks Immediately began an attack
Mrs. De Saulles suffered a ten-day
blank space" or lapse of memory
which began a few moments prior
to the time she fired the revolver shots
and ended when she awoke as a pris-
oner in the Nassau county Jail on Au
gust 13.
Through Roentgen-ray photo
or he lie IN rh hl
the depression of a part of one of Mrs.
De Saulles' skull bones was merely
the area commonly known as baby
spot" and that it did not mark a frac.
ture, as maintained by the defense.
Attorney Uterhart declared his client
suffered a fractured skull in an ac-
cdent when a child which left bit
of bone pressing upon the frontal
lobes of the brain. That this brain
pressure was a factor in bringing
about Mrs De Sauiies alleged lapse
of responsibility is one of the bull
warks of the defendants case.
Not Mentally Sound.
BY answering in the negative each
Of the three parts of Uterhart's hy-
pothetical question, DR.. Smith Ely
Jeliffe, widely known alenist, and
Dr. ]. sherman Wight, who has at
tended Mrs. De Saulles since her ar
rest swore 1t was their belief "the
defendant was not mentally sound"
"did not know the nature and quail
ity of the action" 'and did not know
that 1t was wrong"
Each of the witnesses said it was
his opinion that hypothreosis dis
ease of the thyroid gland, was a fac
tor in producing the defendants
purted loss of accountability.
District Attorney Weeks sought to
bring from Mr.. Jeliffe an admission
that Mrs. De Saulles, by conversing
in an apparently rational manner and
giving her attention to commonplace
matters Immediately after the shoot
ing, contradicted her own claim that
she was irresponsible when she fired
the shots. DR.. Jelffe declared it was
very possible" for her to be in a sub
conscious state that made such seem-
sngly paradoxical conduct entirely
consistent" with her temporary in
sanity.