Evening star., 1935-02-16
AL|EN|ST TEST|F|ES.
|NKENNAMER CASE
Defense Shifts to Scientist
After Father and Girl
Hint at Insanity.
Hy the Associated Press.

kennaHleT, On Trial Tor muTQeI,
listened intently today as DR.. Karl A.
Menninger, Topeka, Kans., psych-
artist, took the witness stand to give
testimony the defense hopes will boil
ster its assertion the 19-year-old Fed
eral judges son was temporarily IN
sane when he slew John Gorren last
Thanksgiving night in Tulsa.
Kennamer, who will take the stand
probably Monday, admits the Staying
but asserts it was in self-defense and
in an effort to thWart an extortion
plot he asserted the 23-year-old den
tai student had planned against the
family of Homer F.. Wilcox. wealthy
oil man, and which involved the KID
naping of Virginia Wilcox. 10. Ken
manner professed a great affection for
Virginia.
A. Flint Moss, chief of defense
counsel, asked Menninger long, in
volved question, relating young Ken
manners history, his escapadeS and his
thWarted love for Miss Wilcox, pre-
paratory to asking the psychiatriSt II
he considered Kennamer sane.
At the end of the 40-minute sum-
nation question, Moss asked:
Now, doctor, taking these facts
into consideration in addition to your
own information, would you say the
defendant was rational or irratlonal?'
J. B. King, attorney for the State,
who had been reading DR.. Menninger's
book, The Human Mind immedl-
ately objected there was much in the
hypothetical question which should be
stricken and other things, such as
Kennamer's drinking, that should be
Included
Miss Wilcox Testified.
Yesterday the court room crowd had
thrilled when the defense introduced
In support of their claim, the defend
ant father, Federal Judge Franklin
E. Kennamer, and the pretty Miss
Wilcox, who said she was the object
OF young Kennamer's unrequitted
affection.
He was my first date" testified
the modishly dressed young woman,
aged 10.
Defense counsel persistently ham,
mered on the theory that blind and
reckless alteration for the young
beauty could have goaded Kennamer
past the outer limits of sanity.
Kennamer was the only person in
the courtroom who didn't look at Miss
Wilcox while she was on the witness
stand.
Only -four or five" times, Virginia
Wilcox testified, had she kept engage
ments with young Kennamer. The
last she said, was in February, 1888.
Then E.
Asked Date in Two Years.
did you write to Philip" asked Moss,
recalling she had spent the Summer in
Michigan, and had been begged by
Phil Kennamer to correspond with
him.
NO" she replied.
It just couldn't see myself writing to
Phil"
"One time" she recalled, che asked
me for a date two years in advance.
I told him he could not have the date"
Judge Kennamer. stern OF manner
on the bench in his own courtrooms.
wept as he described the morbid moods
and fantastic impulses Of his son.
His story was that he and the others
Of the family had tried for years with
out success to train young Kennamer
into normal boyhood and manhood.
He would not go to school. He
wanted always to be ahead of the pro-
cession, to go to far places and have
exciting adventures. He read greedily
all kinds of books, some good, some
not so good in subject matter and con-
tent.
Quit Jobs Often.
Often he took jobs his father OBJ
tained for him and quit them quickly
because he could not reach the top
in one step.
Had you known of his infatua-
ton for Miss Wilcox before this
tragedy occurred?" Moss asked him.
mo. He'd mentioned her name"
Had he ever talked of destroying
himself?"
The judges breakdown came as he
sought to answer the question.
"As I remember it, one day last
Summer, as was reading" His
voice faitered. faded. He reached
into pocket for a handkerchief and
he seemed to shrink in the chair.
At the counsel table Phil quickly
brushed his hand across his eyes,
then leaned again on the table, shield
ing his face from the crowd.
Phil came to me and talked to
him about his running around the
country. and he said, You don't
understand. I'm going on a long
trip and never return"
The court room, contrast in social
positions, was hushed for the hour
the father was on the stand. Tulsa,
from where the case was brought on
Q change OF venue, was represented
by prominent members of its society.
Among them sat bronzed farmers,
with their huge 10-gallon hats in
their laps. Indian men, their hair
in long braids, sat on their heels,