The New York herald., 1921-04-09
ROY HARRIS NOT INSANE
OR LYING, SAYS ALIENIST

His temperament Is not emotional"
surprised Into Confession.
| Here DIR. Putnam remarked that the
/ jumping of Harris at the Elwell story
when the Buffalo detectives. Flynn and
Murray, arrested him and asked him
vaguely about that trouble you had in
New York" was evidence of the cor
rectness OF the detectives instinct. "A
guilty mind jumped at the bait" the
doctor said 1.-The detectives forced the
confession out OF him by a surprise"
Harris says he is not subject to faint
ing spells and | believe him. They say
he tainted last night III he did II is
not extraordinary. considering his or
deal. He is not braggart, has no ex-
aggerated ego He told me that when
he went fishing he always had the worst
luck and when he got into scrap he
always got the worst OF it."
| Then DR.. Putnam gave this carefully
worded opinion:
| 1T seems TO me he is implicated in
the murder whether he told his story
| in exact detail or not. 1t would take
a New York man who knew him well
to tell that Harris is no Czolgosz.
| Czolgosz was an anarchist. This man
did what he did for money.
HE told me that his conscience hrst
began troubling him when he thought
he was suspected. He did not give q
consistent reason for so thinking. In
my opinion the departures from fact in
I his description of the Elwell house are
! not important. His mind was on crime,
not on how the house, looked. There
may be a great many discrepancies.
The main question is. did he invent the
story, or not? I think he did not. |
fad
crime. Conan Doyle can do it, but l
have not vet heard Of Conan Doyle inn
| plicating himself in a crime.
Says wife Is a Liar.
"As to his wife's story of his fainting
spells and insistence that she knew posi-
lively he was with her at the time of
the murder and nowhere near the
Elwell house, he tells ME his wife Is a
liar. I believe that he never tainted in
| his life
Or. Putnam got some amusement out
OF firing test questions at the reporters.
such as "How long have we been In
this room?'' and when the answers
varied he chuckled. as If to say You
see; why demand such perfect accuracy
from a man like Harrs?
Oswald. who is not an alienist and
therefore incapable of finely appraisng
a mental condition, but who has stud
led criminals and hearkened unto thou
/ sands of their stories.
There are ridiculous discrepancies in
Harris's tale,'' Oswald said after com
pleting his examination to-day. He
is way off on the description OF the FL
well. house. and I think his wife is right
In saying he has been drawing on his
imagination for the sake OF movie see
narios. / asked him IL he had been in
;ccted into the Elwell case by anybody
In any way He said No He told me,
when + asked him If there was a rug in
the reception room. where Elwell was
killed and where Harris and Duncan
spent an hour before the murder. there
was a rug, not a thick velvet one, but
good rug.
Harris said Elwell, when lie entered
the room. sat on the couch. There was
no couch. He said his view Of Elwell
was obstructed by a lamp or, a vase on
4 table near the centre of the room.
There was no lamp. no vase. no table.
except a little telephone stand in cor
ncr which Harris could not have seen
from the position he says he was in in
the hall He even described the table
cover, saying 1t was kind OF brown
There was no table cover. He said the
nillsman called about 3 a. M. The
milkman really called after Z. He said
Eiwel must have entered the house be-
tween ) and O'Clock. lie really en-
tered between 2 and 8
Doesn't Ring True, Says Oswald.
"He said that Duncan hid behind the
couch in the reception room. AS i said
Before. there was no couch. He saye to-
day that when Elwell came in he, Har-
ris. jumped up with his gun from seat
in the reception room and ran into the
hall and behind the stairs. Yesterday
ha aaid that he and Duncan assumed