The sun., 1918-12-15
CHAPLIN SANE; TO Be
TRIED FOR MURDER
Alienists Report Ex-Editor as
Mentally Responsible When
He Killed Wife.
SCHMIDT DECISION CITED
- Testimony Taken Secretly Is
Made Public in Lengthy Re-
view of Reasons.

Charles L. Chaplin. city editor of the
Euenino World for twenty years, will
be tried for murder. He is found le-
eally sane, and pronounced to have
Deen mentally responsible at the time
when he killed his wife, in the report
filed by the commission in lunacy APP
esopointed by Judge James T. Malone,
saTCourt Of General Sessions. to inquire
into Chapin's mental state.
Judge Malone has approved the re-
;.t port and tomorrow Judge Rosalsky
S.it will assign the case for trial. presum-
70 ably before Judge Mcintyre in Part V.
iouof General Sessions.
~ab Chaplin shot his wife, Nelie' on Sep
TIA TENDER 16 in the Hotel Cumberland.
-bllHis explanation at the time Of his ar
Tsdrest was that being in dire financial
on straits he had killed her rather than
srrlleave her to become pauper, and that
Is3he had meant also to kill himself. He
Tsnstuck to this story before the lunacy
commissioners, who were George w.
Wickersham. former Attorney-Gen
aef the United States; DIR. Smith Ely
Jelliffe, alienist, and Lamar Hardy,
s1@ormer Corporation Counsel.
sds ma, ..,
jivy
lati I'm our opinion" they state at the
.asconclusions their findings, 1.-The de-
10 fendant at the time of killing his wife
was not laboring under such defect
OF reason as % not to know the ma
ture and quality of the act he was do
Jig, or (2) not to know the act was
uLSrong.
we also are of the opinion that he is
NFiot now in state of idiocy, imbecility.
fitnnacy or insanity so as to be incapa-
ble OF understanding the proceedings
or making his defence on the trial of
the Indictment"
slIiU The one kind OF insanity with regard
TO which the commission appears from
the report to have been undecided in
Chapin's case for any length of time
is named as "dementia paralytica."
Other names of the same affection are
paresis, general paralysis and, in lay
mems language, softening of the brain.
yfsc6 All medical authorities agree that
.o3many patients suffering from 1t have
previously been tainted with specific
blood disease, and some authorities
: contend that such a faint underles
( ss1every case of paresis. DIR. Arthur NJ.
5ooShrady, Chapins physician, testified at
90 the hearings that in 1918 he had be-
gun treating Chaplin for blood dis
'1 ease. Other testimony, including Cha
= pins own, showed that the man there
a after had been intensely morbid fear
ing that the disease would progress
and attack his brain.
ssr. No Evidence of Faulty Logic.
guc There were no evident traces" say
snithe commissioners, "of mental deterio-
loTfation. of faulty logic, of delusional in
70 Expectations, or of any continued or
noteworthy hallucinatory experiences.
1.-THE clinical evidence OF his condi-
aQ-tion, both physical and mental, fails to
rs establish the fact that the nervous sys-
sa1tem is so involved as to have been an
efficient producing element in the COM
90 mitment OF the crime of September l6,
o. 1918"
Whether Chaplin, II not legally. was
medically insane is a question which
lawyers dealing with the report will
answer for themselves, unprompted by
the commissioners, who quote DR.. J.
Ross Haviland as stating that "the
evidence pointed to dementia para
fytica- an early incipient case"
- The decision referred to was that in
People VS.. Smith," which Dr.. Jelliffe
told Sun reporter last night was the
NhSC SoiiIiHOIlg hIlONI as the Hans
Schmidt murder case. 1t said:
1.-THE Court of Appeals in People VS.
Smith held that there are times and
circumstances in which the word
wrong as used in the statutory test
of responsibility ought not TO be linz
tied to legal wrong but Judge Car
doza said: 1t is not enough that he
DEFENDANT has a view of right and
wrong at variance with those that find
j, expression in the law. The variance
must have its origin in some disease
Of the mind"
- Judge Malone Approves Report.
Ear Judge Malone's Endorsement written
upon the Chaplin report says: After
/ careful revision of all the evidence
( -' adduced in the proceedings herein, l
agree with the findings end conclu-
t"sions OF the learned commissioners
*nd In all respects confirm this report
Vet the defendant proceed TO trial on
a='he indictment"
The Chaplin lunacy hearings were
- held behind closed doors. with no one
admitted but Chaplin, the lawyers and
the witnesses. This had been the pro-
posal or Abe Levy, Chapin's lawyer
'-Iembers of the EreninO World staff
and employees Of hotels where Chapin
Trad lived were among those who
q 9stihed Former Police Commissioner
Waldo, who had known Chaplin init
mately. was a witness.
A digest of the evidence occupies
twenty-nine typewriter pages. Ben
.iamin Duke is named AS having
- ioaned Chaplin $1,000 in bonds, which
Chaplin delivered to bonding com
.pany, thereby relieving himself of the
demands of Milwaukee court to
which he was responsible because of
Z n, lis management as guardian of the
property OF n ward.
90 Elsewhere in the report it is stated
JAat Chaplin was hopeessly in debt
.IT 1913, having thrown in every re-