Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1925-01-09
PSEUDO PARANOIA

The final curtain was drawn In
the case of the tragedy of the kill
ing of Daniel Mclaughlin at Noun
tain Home, Gilmore County, Idaho,
when the jury returned a verdict OF
SANE" in the case of the State OF
Idaho VS.. Verne Lee Taylor, at the
County Court House in Mountain
Home last Tuesday morning.
AND, Citizens of Elmore Coun-
ty, that curtain fell on final act of
a drama which has had no equal
anywhere in an enlightened civil
lied community.
1t stands alone as one Of the
strangest of the strange legal pro-
cedure which has received notice in
the press of the country in recent
months.
The proceedings of our Courts of
Justice will, of course, always be in
keeping with the standard of the
morals and conscience of the COM
munity-no better, no worse,-and
you all, citizens of Gilmore County,
must give due credit to yourselves If
the Goddess of Justice appears to
have become the disciple of Jazz
mania"
The facts in the case of the State
of Idaho VS.. Verne Lee Taylor, as
the records disclose them and from
the evidence addueed at the trial of
Taylor for murder, held in Novem-
Der. and in the Inquisition for Insan-
ity of Taylor, held in the present
week, are as follows:
On March 31st, 1924, Verne Lee
Taylor, victim of a disease of the
mind, called by experts "Persecua-
tory Paranoia" and defined as an in
durable disease of the mind, met an
unsuspecting citizen of the commun-
ity and shot him down. After he
fell this man, so suffering from this
incurable persecutory paranoia, took
the revolver, after he had emptied It
in his victims body, and hit the pros
trate man over the head with 1t at
least, so the evidence shows, three
times. The insane man was immed-
lately arrested and confined in the
County Jail at Mountain Home and
was taken before the Probate Judge
OF the County and a preliminary
hearing was had. The Probate Judge .
bound the man over to the District ,
Court and an information charging
him with murder followed. The mat .
ter of the insanity of the man was .
not considered by the committing
magistrate as being bar to placing ..
the prisoner within the jurisdiction .
of the District Court of the Third
Judicial District of the State of Ida
no, in and for Gilmore County. =
Thereafter a trial was had, but
prior to the trial and when the case 1
was called for trial, upon motions !
made in writing supported by an af- !
fidavit, in the latter motion, adj
dressed to the discretion of the Dis i
trict Judge, an inquisition to deter !:
mine present insanity was requested
under the provisions of the statutes
of the State of Idaho, and these ap- I
plications and motions were denied. !
During the trial no effort was /;
made by the defendant to make any !:
defense as to the killing, but, in :
brilliant manner, proved to the sat 1
of the jury, at least, that !
he was, at the time of the killing a i
victim of special, double barrelled 1
brand of insanity, peculiarly fitted to I.
his defense, labelled ''Persecutory Z
Paranoia" and that such disease or i
was, at the time of the trial, i
positively incurable. !
The jury apparently considered +
The man fortunate as to being crazy i
and acquitted him of the charge of !;
murder by reason of insanity. I
The close of the trial was marked i
~ an order of the presiding Judge :!
wherein he ordered the retention of
he defendant in the County Jail to {
lppar before jury to be empan- /
relied on January Srd, 1925, to in :
Iuire into his, the defendants, pres &
mt mental condition i
During the time which elapsed be- !
ween the verdict of the former Jury, 1
hiding Taylor insane, and the ap- i
earance before the latter jury, the +
mental condition had.
pparently miracufously improved. I
he solitude of Gilmore County's bas- +
lie evidently having worked more :
'onders than all of the medical sci Z
nee of the world has been known to 2
,eomplish, for 10 and BEHOLD
hen he came before the insanity IN &
uisition he was, apparently cured Z
the kind OF Insanity he had at I
lie previous trial and, probably be- 8