The Washington herald., 1920-11-02
CLAIM PERRYGO
ISUNBALANCED
Witnesses Tell Of Peculiar
ties Of Boy Slayer Of
Aged Woman.
SAY HE WAS MARKED"
Mother Tells of Fright She
Received Shortly Before
His Birth.
SAY HE WAS MARKED

A somnambulist, unbalanced Of
mind, peculiar, wayward and af-
ficted with Chronic domestic dis
satisfaction"
Such is Edgar Randolph Perrygo,
Is years old, charged with the muir
der on February last of Mrs.
Mary Emily Faithful, an aged re-
cIuse, according to testimony given
yesterday by witnesses for the de-
fense in the trial before Justice
Ashley NJ Gould and a jury in
Criminal Division No. 1, District
Supreme Court, where the young
man, on a plea OF insanity, is fight
ing for his life.
The youths alleged alteration
was said by the witnesses to have
had its inception in prenatal infiu-
ences followed in childhood by
blows on the head received by a
stone. in a wagon accident, and by
falling bale OF hay.
Was Sleep-waker.
Perrygo often walked in his sleep,
declared the defendants brother.
Quentin Perrygo. Found wander
ing about the house at night, he
would be awakened and sent back
to bed. but could never recall the
nocturnal incidents on the follow
ing mornings. An unusual way in
which he had of resting in a chair.
his head on the floor and his feet
over the back. and other peculiari-
ties manifested, led him to believe,
he said, that Edgar was OF un-
balanced mind"
At other times,the brother assert
ed, Perrygo would butt his head
against the wall or other hard sur
faces. On these occasions he would
always seriously remark: "OnG
block against another"
DIssatIsned With Home.
spell of wRyward dlssatisfac-
tion with home came over the boy
just before the death OF Mrs. Faith
ful, averred the youths father, Ross
Perrygo, on the stand. This had
often been manifested in his child
hood by an aversion to school.
TT was just like trying to stop
the wind blowing to attempt to get
Edgar to attend school," said his
father. "On ore occasion l heard
the report Of a firesrm from an up
stairs room in the house. Inyesti-
eating, I found that my youngest
son. hardly 10 years old. had just
fired a pistol out Of the window at
Edgar's instigation. He was struck
on the head another time when a
wagon in which he and his mother
were riding collided with another
vehicle"
Would stare Into Space.
James z. Talbert, a neighbor of
the PcrrygUs, testified that nc had
often noticed the queer way in
which the defendant would avoid
participation in boys games and
would stand and stare at nothing
for twenty or thirty minutes at a
time.
Perrygo was hit on the forehead
when q child by large stone
thrown over a fence by Richard
Barrett, friend, who testified that
the youth seldom played with the
other boys and that when he did
he was dull and slow in movement.
In the summer of 1919 a portion
of 4 bale Of hay fell on Perrygo,
according to Leonard Fowler, an ac-
quaintance, who stated that he had
pushed the hay off the loft Of his
barn just as the defendant walked
underneath. The latter had been
struck in the head, he said, and had
been dazed by the blow.
Boys Mother on stand.
Mrs. Rosa Perrygo. the boys
mother, said that she was confined
to bed for a week about three
months before her son was born
because of fright received when a
dangerous maniac tried to climb
through the window OF their home
at St. Elizabeth's Insane Asylum,
where her husband was for some
time poultry keeper