New-York tribune., 1919-12-16
Woman No Drug Addict,
Say Alienists, Who Re.
gard Mother Of Drowned
Boy as Extraordinary Case
Ignored by Her Relatives
Victim Of Insanity Fits, Doc
tors Believe; Was Once
Attacked by Negroes
staff Correspondence

stag Correspondence
ATLANTIC CITY, Dec. 15.-Mrs.
Esther Blake lay in a public ward in
Atlantic City Hospital to-day, guarded
by a policeman, and between fits of
sobbing continued to deny that she had
murdered her five year-old mute SON,
Buddy" by throwing him into the
ocean from the Ventnor Fishing Pier.
James Blake, an insurance broker.
of Philadelphia, father of the drowned
child has refused to pay for private
room at the hospital for his wife and
he said tonight he was undecided
whether to provide a lawyer for her.
Neither her mother, Mrs. Clara Miller,
nor her sister, Miss Maude Miller, have
been to see Mrs. Blake at the hospital
"Buddy's" sister, Esther, ten years
old, has not been taken to see her
mother either
Five physicians examined Mrs. Blake
to-day and agreed she was not drug
addict. Several of them expressed the
opinion that she was subject to tenn
porary fits of insanity, and her own
physician said that her naturally nerv-
GUS temperament had been compli-
Cdlcu WeHtally during liiS iooI wv"
years.
Medical Expert Sees Woman
Dr. John T. Beckwith, formerly of
New York City and skilled in mental
diseases, examined Mrs. Blake at the
request of County Prosecutor Edmund
C. Gaskill, who also is conducting an
investigation into the marital troubles
of the Blakes. The couple were legally
,to,l n Rcl 1Or
| but thus far none of the family has
revealed the cause.
When he left the hospital DR.. Beck
with said:
Mrs. Blake positively Is not drug
addict. Hers is perhaps the most ex-
traordinary case in my career. am
not prepared to say whether she is
sane or insane. | want to talk with her
a good many times before express an
opinion on her sanity. There is not
a needle mark on her body and no other
indication that she ever has taken
narcotic drugs.
/ day about her story that two negroes
had kidnapped her son. My first effort
will be to gain her confidence. She did
tell me, however, that when she was a
! girl in Baltimore two negroes had
attacked her. This might account fol
the story she told about the disappear
ance of her boy.
II talked with her about her life dur
ing the last few years. She told me one
incident In these words:
After we were separated I went tc
Jim's (Mr. Blake's) house in German.
town and he told me he didn't want me
there. said:
"'Why do you say that. jim, wher
God told us otherwise at the altar
Narcotic Theory Denied
81 shall have frequen talks with
Mrs. Blake before reporting to Prose
cutor Gaskill,' concluded DR.. Beckwith
Dr.. William W. Fox was another OF
those who examined Mrs. Blake. He
said he had treated her from time tc
time during a period of six years, ever
prior to the birth OF Buddy"
Mrs. Blake took Buddy" to the Office
of DR.. Fox last Friday, the day the
child was drowned
"Mrs. Blake is not drug addict,
he said, after talking with her. %
never prescribed drugs and Mrs. Blake
never asked for them"
DIR: Fox said he always had treatec
her for nervousness and described he1
as woman of high h-strung tempera
ment, but without temper. He said she
seldom, if ever, tried to combat hel
nervous spells. As the doctor expressed
It, Mrs. Blake had no sand" She hac
never displayed symptoms Of insanity
he said, but at times she was decided,
erratic. He said she was morose oc.
casionally, and that she usually as
crlbcd such frame of mind to hel
domestic troubles. The doctor sale
her domestic trbulations had accentu
ated her nervousness, but that she
never had told him what she and he,
husband had quarreled about. Once
she told him that her husband didn'1
want her to come back to him.
Mrs. Blake not long ago, according
to DR.. Fox, revealed that she was
jealous of her husband and spoke Of
some one-not Il child, the doctor sale
who had come between them.
$50 far as | have been able to OBJ
serve said DR.. Fox, "Mrs Blakc wa.
deeply and equally fond OF her chill
drcn. When she was in my office Fri
day she held Buddy on her lap. II,
than was obstrepcrous and bard t,
manage. She was exceptionally paticn
and gentle with him."
Planned for Care of "Buddy"
DR.. Fox said Mrs. Blake had talked
with hlm several times about putting
Buddy" into home where he would
Aeoei'e proper training. lie SAID hs
considered this, not so much because
of the childs inability to talk, but
because he was growing unmanageable
Mrs Blake began to sob hystcricall,
this morning when she discovered that
the neighboring bed in the ward was
occupied by tive-ycar- old boy. This
was Tony Cappucio, black haired lit
tie Italian boy, who is convalescine
from pneumonia. Mrs. Blake requisite
Or. Grafton Brown, the hospital ply
sician who is attending her, to place
screen between her and Tony.
He makes me think Of my Buddy
she sobbed
GEORGE RHODES CULLINGWOR
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