New Britain herald., 1929-07-22
Shook Murder Trial Will Begin Wednesday as Sanity Hearing Is
 Abandoned By Defense Lawyers
Emotional Insanity, Similar to Remus Plea, May Be Used as Excuse For Staying of Coed
 ParamOur by Professor.

Columbus. O., July 22 UP)- Formal withdrawal of the dema nd for sanity trial for Dr. James H. Shook today will open the way for Shocks murder trial for murde. to begin on Wednesday without further delay.
 Shook, aged 4S, former professor of veterinary medicine at Ohio State University, is accused of the murder of Theora K. Hix, 24-year- stu dent in the College of Medicine with whom he had carried on d clandestine association for three years.
 Trial Starts Wednesday
 On Saturday it was announced that the plan to force a. sanity hear ing preceding the murder trial had been abandoned by the defense. Ac- cordingly Shocks attorneys have agreed to appear today before Judge Henry Scarlett, presiding over the criminal court. and withdraw the re- quest for a sanity hearing. Judge Scarlett has announced he will or der Snook's murder trial to proceed on Wednesday. E. O. Ricketts. chief of defense council. and John F. Sci del, associated with him, emphatic ally denied any plan 10 have their client plead guilty to general charge of homicide and throw him. self upon the mercy of the court.
 CoJ JcF rJ ar,nfinro1 nifty will be the basic plea of the de- fense, it was indicated. The defense, oddly enough, will combine out standing features of two other not able recent murder trials. that of Henry Judd Gray in New York aad of George Remus at Cincinnati.
 Claim Shook Dominated
 Snooks lawyers are expected to at tempt to show that Miss Hix gained such a dominance over Shook that he came to fear her and that it was the constant conflict going on with alleged demands upon him. which broke in a storm of emotional in- sanity during which the murder was done. Gray was defended upon a much similar theory, namely that the dominance Ruth Snyder gained over him brought him so far under her power that he could not resist doing murder when she jed him into a situation which suggested such a course.
 The insanity defense parallels that offered by Eemus in it's legal phases. Remus, notorious bootlegger, mur- dered his wife, lmogene. because of her alleged intimacy with Franklin Dodge, former government agent. He then pleaded emotional insanity, was acquitted of murder upon those grounds and committed to an asv- lum. He was able to prove himself sane and gained his freedom within a few months. It seems certain tha Snook's defense will contemplate the pattern of the Remus defense with perhaps the same ends n view.
 Interest Runs High
 Ipterest in the case runs high in Columbus. It is estimated that 50.- 900 persons have visited the New York Central Rifle Range, five miles out of town, where the murder was committed.
 Sentiment is somewhat divid Il. Many are critical of Miss HiX and are inclined to defend Shook as the victim of passionate, schemins woman. but the ferocity of the m,Ir- der-Miss HiX was struck IT times with a hammer. her throat cut and ugly wounds slashed into her body has robbed Shook of vast amount of sympathy.
 Shook, who has been held in the county jail here since his arrest is reported outwardly calm but actu ally suffering deeply from the shad- ow of the electric chair which is falling upon him. He reads much and is said to have worked little upon the manuscript of scientific