Show I mAW INSANE Arm WILt NOT BE t mm RELEASED o Aa v Lengthy Opinion by Justice Justi Ce e eMills F Mills in All the Facts i Were Reviewed CAST DOWN BY HIS DEFEAT YOUNG WIFE REFUSES TO DEt DE DECLARE DEt t CLARE HER PLANS REGARD REGARDING ING DIVORCE UPON ADVICE 6 y y Q d j 4 v 4 fi 0 New York Aa AMA 1 Mrs Evelyn of fi Thaw said that the abe would 4 fi mare make no taMa sIt t with regard to 4 I Ie dIvie proceedings prOceed 4 against K Thaw until she fi had wi her er counsel e 4 t A OO j O j O O White Plains Plain N Y Aug The Thet state t te of or New York won a complete vic victory victory victory tory over Harry K X Thaw today when Justice Ju Isaac uc N X decided that the slayer Mayer of at Stanford White was still WI tW ta m insane mane ane sane and swat sent t him back to the asylum for tor the criminal c insane at Mattawan j Defeated at All Points Not Gt one of ot the Ute many contentions made madery madely ry by ly Thaw dining the three weeks of ol his hili recent hearing was sustained He is ia however ow ver somewhat better ort oft than be before before before fore he brought the present suit be beans ause ans Justice Kills Hills in his decision sug suggests and the suggestion tion amounts practically practically practically to orders that Thaw at Mattea MatteR wan nari an be restored to the privileges he enjoyed during the tint first three months of his hie stay atay there and that his mother J be allowed all the th possible privileges and treated with every consideration when she calls call to see him I Thaw will remain in the jail aU at least leut until tomorrow when his attorney will willbe willbe willbe be given giver a chance to make any formal fonDal motions before Justice Mills at his hiss hist chambers in Mont Vernon N K Y 1 t The prisoner took the decision coolly His only statement wigs a dental denial of or the assertion in the courts opinion that he still BUll cherished th lbS UMi same ame delusions that t ha t drove him to In shoot t White TOUte Writ Dismissed I In formal language Justice Mills KII de decision decision cislon dismissed the writ of habeas babe corpus cor corpus corpus pus under which Thaw applied for Cor his liberty and ancI remanded him to the cus cara custody carat to t tody too tod of the defendant Dr Robert Robirt B a BLaw Bl aj j l Law It of at w tN k ti 8 sane the theto s to his family and childhood history His determination det that the prisoner has bas base a 1 not yet recovered is 18 based baaed principally e 5 on the opinion of Dr Amos Baker as u assistant ask assistant stant superintendent of So k asylum All such authorities says Justice ce Mills fills are public officers with no con conceivable conceivable motive except to do their duty The court says y it was wu more convinced by the testimony of the alienists called for the state than by that of the pris prin prisoners experts Regarding R Dr Britton D Evans he says He experienced great pe t difficulty in reconciling his present opinion with his hill previous altitude attitude in connection with the tile thep p homicide trials and to tc my mind did not DOt entirely succeed in so M doing Thaw Made Bad Impression Thaw evidently made a bad Impre Impression sion elon on the judge by his actions both on and off oft the witness stand The opinion calls calla particular attention to Thaws facial appearance ap rance especially during dUMe the last Jut afternoon of the testimony te tl mony meny y when for twenty minutes he spoke in Justification of his hill extravagant extravagant gant belief as u to Whites WhIte conduct with witha a certain woman Th The Mother Pitied An oln unusual ual paragraph in Justice Mute Mule opinion is devoted to Mrs Mary Copley Thaw the prisoners mother The court says say sayi i While paying this regard d to Dr BakerI Baker I the court is ia by no se means meana satisfied with the th e treatment w wat which Thaw has nas received I at Mattawan since his return there in October last lut fter his unsuccessful at attempts attempts attempts tempts in the courts then to obtain his freedom fr om No one could help being greatly moved by bv the manifestly unfeigned die dis distress dietress tress tres of t t r mother when as a witness she narrated that treatment tr telling how after r his return to th the institution l he was refused 1 his former fonn r comfortably furnished fm l j Continued on Page 5 I THAW HAW r INSANE i AND WILL NOT BE RELEASED Continued from Page 1 compelled nightly to undress und in ID corn Com nigh of f the he ward In ID the presence of fifty or mere meIe questioned lunatic to pass through the arY between rows roWil o of f coW cots with with the S wit tick In UI a to his I a room with the and bed bedas red redIS hits It Its sole ole article Of furniture and r re Jan IS as there hero in ID darkness ten hours ura from 8 P r m Thaw Not a Criminal in considering this thie narrative doubtless must be b made for tor the a effect on Se the mothers m feelings It lt must mast b be under UDder underwood wood tood T Thaw is Ia not in the hospital as a Criminal criminal s ne nalto to undergo under O punishment theme mauler The jury tae ne supreme authority in the matter has hasL L by bv its it verdict declared Thaw Innocent of ofin in lily y crime In the m matter off of the homicide and that verdict must mut m be respected at least by allt all public officiate In the hos hoa hospital uta pital he must be bed regarded as II an unfortunate unfortunate person pe afflicted with mental de deran derangement ran ement there t ere not to be punished for Interline any crime but t solely to sto be beo cared he for protected and and aDd guarded ed so o that he may Sot not lIot injure another aDother or himself he but tut always ulti with Ith the distinct hope that h ht j may ulti ultimately be cured however great peat or small that hope bope really may be beIt beIt beIt It It is wen well doubtless that care should al albe be ve exercised exert by bybe the authorities authorities that Thaw be not favored because of the wealth and social position of his hla family e It is Ia equally that we well ell dl ll o that care are be b exercised that he be not treated any worse wone on those ac accounts accounts counts COuer bno te It It may y well we fl ll be that this this court courtin in the exorcise exercise of its Ita plenary chancery powers baa has the authority by order to tomake make specific directions a as to o the tr tria treat treatment ia ment of any II inmate in such an a institution n Suggestion to Authorities However Howver that may be I venture to suggest to the authorities there that when wilen he be Is returned to their custody the privileges privileges privileges leges which be he was permitted permUted to enjoy in his first three months stay slay be restored to him If such a procedure bP b not found to be clearly incompatible with Kith due discipline and further that his venerable ene able and most moat estimable mother be beat beat beat at all times treated with the utmost con COD consideration eider tion Her sorrowful condition com commands commands mands the profoundest sympathy of every normal minded person Having out of consideration for the mothers feelings continued Justice Mills I ills permitted permUted her as aa a witness to tomake tomake tomake make at will win her plea for her son eon and In Ingo inso go so doing to give certain incompetent teet testimony mony mon which embraced criticism of Mr Jerome I deem it my duty to say ay that the se criticisms seem to me to be mis mistaken mistaken mistaken taken and unwarranted although doubt doubtless doubtless doubtless less sincere In the very complete record before me I find no evidence of any heartlessness or undue seal upon his hiB part partI If I he made the remark remembered by Mrs frs Thaw that he has h said her son On would never be released from Matte wan wanI I am confident it U was made as the ex expression expression expression not of a hope but of a conviction conviction tion that he be would not recover After Atter discussing the evidence Justice Mills MUIs draws dram the following conclusion Conclusions of the Court First liim conclusion The insanity with which Harry K Thaw was WIllI afflicted on June JUlIe 25 26 1906 1 at the time he committed the homicide was the kind hind known as alii chronic delusional insanity or paranoia This conclusion rests resin upon u on the following facts acts which appear to me to be clearly proven There was wu in his hi ancestral ance stock k a substantial but not very strong trong trace of Insanity By not very strong is meant the fact that no one of his direct ancestors a was as ever Insane mune On the maternal side aide two uncles uncle were of unsound un mind each at least for a portion of his life and on his fathers father side an aunt was at least an epileptic ep and aDd perhaps insane and aDd some more remote relatives were undoubtedly Insane though aa as to them the evidence is not DOt clear but there had been Insanity In one of their ancestral tine lines not common to the prisoners own descent As a young child he was physically weak week and aDd puny exceedingly nervous and abnormally wilful Older he was subject to to violent spells amounting almost to paroxysms p of excitement without any naturally adequate cause He attended att various schools for different periods from ii the a age ff e cf g upward but made mad little ress t A iM in I study II Idy While at school especially 1 JJ In nj h i Iy years he had frequent out breaks break o ot uncontrollable excitement in which j facial adal appearance was wild and staring Connection Conne With Evelyn Nesbit Continuing his history Watery of Thaws life Justice Mills says About 1111 1 he became enamoured of a ayoung ayoung young Toung woman Miss Nesbit whom he aft erward married She was then by com common common common mon repute repa well wen known to him the mis rate tress or a mistress of Stanford White She 5 assumed that relation to Thaw and obviously to account to him for her former P lUon l with White told him wa u Y Yul rious ul WY wild and Sros grossly grouly Jy improbable stories of the inception of that relation Al though hough he be Thaw evidently was himself far tar from a moral man and was then engaged or soon thereafter engaged in practices of a perverted character as re revealed revealed revealed by the testimony of the Merrill woman which with the corroboration af afforded forded by other evidence in the case ca e ap pears credible he gave absolute credence to the tales told him by Miss Nesbit about White He obtained similar information as to Whites conduct with a few other young women either directly from them or through MSS Miss Nesbit all aU of which in formation was wu of ot the same wild and im improbable Improbable improbable probable character evidently to any aDY nor normal norma normal mal ma mind grossly gro ly exaggerated To all aU however he gave implicit belief bellef His mind became absolutely possessed poe essed with the sto stories ries He not only believed them in their entirety but he deducted from them con conclusions as to the practices of White far beyond what such belief in a normal mind would warrant From the charges sep Mp made by these few admittedly Im Immoral Immoral Immoral moral women he concluded that White hite maintained several places in New York City where he accomplished by force or orny ny by drugs drug the ibe ruin of or respectable young oung American girls as it were by the whole sale ale Such belief to such extreme extent was plainly a delusion Complete Delusion His HIlI delusions as to the practices of White were not shaken by the failure of the investigations made by the detectives and public authorities and his delusive belief bellef in his special mission continued to possess his mind miDd In that mental condi condition condition condition tion at the roof garden he came into the presence of White doubtless unexpectedly unexpectedly unexpectedly and publicly shot him to death In in a spectacular s and theatrical manner In so doing he believed he was acting aa as the agent ag agent of Providence and aDd performing a praiseworthy act like that of David in slaying Goliath or St SL George In killing the dragon Regarding Thaws suspicion of a con conspiracy conspiracy conspiracy against him by his early counsel the court says Such belief that is la as to the purpose e ew was w utterly without foundation and a clear delusion All AH this continues Justice Mills ac according according cording to the weight of expert testimony is 18 plainly the history of a paranoiac This court concludes therefore that Thaws insanity at the commission of the homicide homi homicide homicide cide was of the kind known as paranoia and not Dot all of the brainstorm sane half halfa a minute before and sane ne half a minute variety if any such variety really ex Ita Verdict of Jury Warranted The verdict of the jury was plainly warranted by the evidence not DOt merely as u an expression of reasonably reasonable doubt but even as an affirmative finding of the fact of insanity It is true that the new De testimony upon this trial introduced in behalf of the pris prisoner prisoner prisoner oner tends tenda to materially vary the history of his early life aa as above stated I am convinced however that in such variance It la is very ery largely la ely mistaken and that the testimony given on this point given at the second murder trial by mother nurse family physician and teachers Is the more creditable Not Yet Vet Recovered Second conclusion Harry K Thaw thaw has hu not yet recovered his sanity a above stated and defined This determination is made upon the following grounds First All the experts agree that In a case calM of true recovery Is very ver doubtful Second The court is disposed to pay great respect re p et to the opinion of the hos bos tal authorities here hereof of Dr Baker the hospital physician having bad actual charge of Thaw thee the All AI such ties Ue are public officers with no conceivable conceivable conceivable able motive except to do their duty Third In view of leading traits trai s of paranoia the lay testimony given glen by by so many entirely respectable re and credible witnesses showing allowing rational conduct on the prisoners part In the Tombs at Mat tawan and in ID the Duchess and ter tM county Jails is not of commanding force fOlCe Fourth The testimony of the alienists called for the defendant as to his present condition seems to me on the whole more convincing than that of those thOM called for the prisoner Courts Observations Fifth Upon my own personal tion of the conduct of Thaw his hill actions and his speech in the court room both bothon on and off the witness stand I have been Impressed that he is now of unsound mind He was exceedingly nervous and very frequently interrupted his counsel with suggestions On his examination it became evident even by his own admission admission sion alon that he holds his former beliefs as to the evil practices of White Just as extremely and Just as aa strongly today as ever If those beliefs beli constituted delu delusions delusIons delusions In his hla mind when he committed the homicide they are the same now While he has no more evidence against White than he had then it is all of the same character and neither alone or with what he previously had warrants his extreme convictions In the latter part of his ex examination exI I when he was striving might ily to defend d his delusions and his be lIeta his facial appearance seemed to me not to be that of a sane person Third conclusion The enlargement of Harry K Thaw now would be he dangerous to the public peace and safety and there fore cannot be permitted |