The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1917-12-01
Experts at De Saulles Muir
der Trial Go Into Past
Actions of Defendant.
REPLIES mo" TO
$1,000 WORD INQUIRY
Assert the Woman Didn't
Know Was Wrong" to
Shoot Down Husband.
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS


Mineola, N Y, Nov 30.-Mrs.
Blanca de Saulles was not mentally
sound, did not know the nature or
quality of the act and did not know
"that it was wrong" when she shot
her former husband, John L. de
Saulles, at his Long Island home. ac-
cording to experts who testified to-
day in her behalf.
This opinion was given in response
to a $4,000 word hypothetical ques-
ton put by attorneys for the de-
fense
To brain pressure resulting from
fractured skull received in childhood
and to hypothyreosis. a disease of the
thyroid gland. which affects the brain
and nerve centers, was ascribed Mrs.
de Saulles' alleged lapse of account
ability. 1t was during the "blank
space" that the defendant claims she
fired the revolver shots.
In answer to the last question at
the resumption of court. DR.. Wight
said:
at is my opinion she was suffer-
ing from brain pressure duento
adema produced by series of
psychic shocks received that night. in
the presence of a lack of nervous
control, due co thyroid condition and
resulting from the old injury to the
BRAIN
In answer to cross questioning by
District Attorney Weeks, DIR. Wight
said he believed that had no brain
pressure existed as a result of skull
fracture, Mrs. de Saulles would have
been subject to lapses of memory in
consideration of other causes related
in the hypothetical question.
The witness was asked whether he
knew of a person having been COM
mitted to an insane asylum because
Of hypothyreosis. He answered.:
mo"
The noon recess was then taken.
At the afternoon session the dis
trict attorney resumed his attempt to
show that DIR. Wight was not quail
fled to testify as an expert in cases
concerning mental ailments or in the
reading of X-ray photographs.
A number of roentgen pictures OF
skulls were exhibited in a project or
by Weeks. A lengthy cross question
ing followed evidently calculated to
determine DIR. Wight's familiarity
with such reproductions.
DIR. Smith Ely Jeliffe, whose repu-
tation as an alienist Weeks said he
would not dispute. was next called.
He made the same responses to the
three parts Of the hypothetical oues-
ton as was made by DIR. Wight.
When asked what, in his opinion,
was the disease from which Mrs. de
Saulles was suffering at the time of
the tragedy, DR.. Jeliffe replied:
"It was an acute swelling in the
brain tissue producing pressure of
the brain due to a chronic disease
hypothyreosis."
The defense rested its case at 2:30
o'clock this afternoon.
Before the defense rested, DIR. Jel-
life said that in his opinion the de-
fendant's lapse of responsibility in all
in the absence of the skull injury
that other factors contributing to her
mental condition would have pro-
duced the same effect.
DR.. Jeliffe said it was very pos
sible," that Mrs de Saulles was in
a peculiar sub-conscious states fol-
lowing the shooting in which she
might have said 'now send for the
police"
DIR. Jeliffe was asked whether, It
was not possible for him to be mis-
taken regarding the sanity of per-
son.
His answer was yes
"Were you not mistaken when you
testified that Hans Schmidt was in
sane in his trial for the murder Of
Anna Aumuller?' asked Weeks.
.I was not" was the reply.
"Do you know Schmidt, following
the trial. said he had faxed the ex-
perts' and was not crazy" was
Weeks next question.
DIR. Jeliffe admitted he had heard
of this statement, but insisted his
opinion was correct.
Major Lewis C. Cole in charge of
the United States army X-Ray work
at Cornell University was the first
witness called in rebuttal by the
state.
In reference to the depressed por-
tion of skull line shown in an X-Rav
photograph of Mrs. de Saulles' head,