Show THE INSANITY PLEA the tile career carter of a criminal binal who alwy always resorted to it arl written aten for the af orni anz cull call singular na as the statement may seem it is none the tile loss less the fact that the royal psalmist was the airet than to play the insanity dodge in proof of this let me quote the thirteenth verse of the twenty firby chapter of first samuel and he be changed his behavior before them and aud feigned himself mad in their hands and scrabbled on the doors of the gate and aud let his spittle e fall upon hia his beard the he here spoken of is no less a personage than david and poorly accorded w with ith the tile III majesty of tho the jewish king or the enraptured utterances of the poet seer beer insanity has been the dernier of many a criminal guiteau being beilla a recent and notable example while there havo have been many instances in which a murder baa has seized this plead hia his only possible chance of escape from the gallows ws solar so far as its my experience goes but one ra rascal cal adopted it as a prof profession es sion under cover of r which he lie might escho his just deserts henry porter pursued this crofit sion lion from 1857 to 1869 ho was wideawake wide awake and springy fluent of t talk lk and aud handsomely habited there was of snap nap in his eyes a profusion auvon of black hair imir on hb his hear head 02 a pid gro about his mouth he e began his career when about 24 years but of hia hi earlier exploits I have no data A A CHECK it was in ia 1859 1850 when under the name of he visited cheater pa and called on sir the principal of a boya boys school was acx anxious apus ia to place his libs two brothers in inthe the school the two boys were in philadelphia As he was called east on bu business sinew he lie would be obliged to send the lads by a third party would pay thir tuition now he presented a check for over the tuition ices fees mr bir had not the necessary funds and left saying he lie would have the paper cashed and return wescott went to the bank and landed handed out the check which was drawn on the columbia bank and certified by the cashier tho the cheater chester cashier denounced it as a forgery wescott was arrested during the examination the cashier casl iier placed the forged paper upon the table whereupon wescott seized it put it in bismouth hi and gulped it down S he was lodged in jail in a few hours he lie turned on the insanity dodge dudge the district attorney says I visited wescott and found him stripped of everything but his pantaloon pantaloons walking up tip and down the cell gesticulating with his arms and ut uttering terin incoherent expressions pres I am informed he be kept thibup this up day and night without intermission for a weed week an examination waa was held wescott was pronounced non no coina and discharged hobent he went to massachusetts and under the name dame of biddle and ag as a I son of commodore bid biddle e m managed a n to scoop in the president of I williams saz collage it ge some of the students and a number of the tradesmen and departed in the county of girardeau mo under the name of benjamin he attempted to play the chester game upon the mother superior of a convent once more he sought to swallow tho the forged paper I but the cashier successfully choked the paper out of dil his throat caged once nce more he became a raving mv maniac diac filling the air with yells and screeches which might be heard beard squares away for hours he lie pranced up aud and dor down n hia cell and starting with a diminuendo whine and ending with a staccato shriek the euphony seemed to crack the welkin when brou brought glit into court his horrible howla howls blistering oaths and the foam about bis his mouth convinced everybody that bo lie i was as without a doubt demen demented tod being he was discharged by order of tho the court A OFFICER col E H merritt ferritt 12 U S A in march refi 1862 confronted P prof r f W NV benjamin of an nead academy eDIT at siu sin sing ft he was in uni folin rud prolee Pr proposed oloe I entering his avillia wil ea brother in prof benjamins nen academy demy among amon other 11 stive legends detailed by the colonel was the announcement no that he col E 11 merritt le bad had just taken gen atik ner and other curled crate officers to fort warren and wad was en loute theWL fur for the west he even exhibited a letter from gen buckner to hid his wife and several battle field disc dl patches bo lie bared hia hig bosom to display pla a wound on his breast cohered with strips of court planter it must bo be conceded that this was well calculated to deceive especially ally when backed by the plausible tongue of the tile old scamp porter it will hardly be credited dut it ia nevertheless a it fact his this same rascal had worked the taic school once before under the title ofal stani bury now however he lie imagined a full beard and the circumstantial ity of his story would carry him through but prof benjamin recognized him and as soon as 03 the sabo check was produced Plod he uncovered liia gun n and an the colonel was incarcerated car the next day but one the pru amar was informed that the fellow was insane two of the three 11 Ds D a who examined him pronounced him a crazy beyond a doubt the professor wor however insisted that it was all pham but admits that I saw the colonel give one of his exhibition hibi tion and a more amore perfect bitof bit of acting I never witnessed co col merriu was taken before judge and the grand jury and was sent to the utica insane inanc hospital in 1803 governor seymour pardoned pardoned him out ou t on the ground oT of insall insanity ity upon forged letters prepared by th the e prisoner james W V hardin was lodged in the charleston mass state prison in 1804 and a some ome time later was removed to tho the state lunatic asylum who should hardin be but porter mons wons tonson come again he added to his howling canticles canti cles the apparition of a serpent which was amusing itself by me means doring dering about hw his neck and insisted that his bip was a doubleheader one of tho the heads devoting itself to his eyes and the other to his bis ears dr beans bemis in his report says say when I saw him in february he lie v was as apparently a drivelling dri velling idiot he ile had haa refused food until be he was actually sick pick his beard and face were covered with saliva his hair uncombed hia his clothing slip 84 ping from hia his body liia his eyes closed most of the time he spent much of f hia his time rolling on the floor and when raised up quickly dropping down again muttering broken sentenced sentences about the war and his suffer i enss one of the faculty of the iclean asylum writes he ile was in a reduced state very weak and thin in fic flesh sh in constant motion making loud noises and starting in fright his pulse was high hia his ekin skin clammy ho he refused food and retched fetched even that which he be was forced to take B by y this time the insanity dodge doage r was as pretty well known but so wonderful was his acting that half the time the ex experts erts were in doubt themselves he ile evidently forced himself into a state which was probably next door to the genuine article had it not been for the th regularity by which he regained hia his sanity after his frequent releases for I have named but a few of his escapades the mans insanity might have been unquestioned on oil several occasions the strictest watch wa was maintained over him day and night three men took turn about watching him through an orifice in the ceiling for the better part of a week but they were unable to report any return to reason at two diffie different rent times detectives were introduced into his cell the last one especially audio anxious us to undertake the operation and bonfi conn dent of liia his success three daya of f experience waa was q quite U ite sufficient ident akdins hardins Har 11 dins violent ca conduct n d act was intensified ho he wreathed and crawled and jumped like a demon gree creeping ing ff up to the zealous detec detective when overpowered by sleep hardin executed bloodcurdling blood curdling yells close to his car which deemed to thrill every nerve in in the sleepers body again he lie would play the part of a tiger cat and leap si at the throat of the tile spy with every muscle tense his eyes e cs aflame his fingers spa spasmodically closing and un closing grinding his teeth and forcibly emitting saliva and there were ivere hours when he ba pursued his victim with remorseless energy not a single coherent sentence e escaped his tips lips and in the occasional spells of exhaustion hardin lay upon the floor 00 oo e every v e ry tendon and muscle of f h his b body dy twitching tho the strain on n th the d detectives tec tw tives body and mind was iv as terris terri ble THE EXPERTS PUZZLED mr bir hayes the warden was va convinced that he be was insane and the cammi commissioners aio ners mura convened when one of the physicians declared it as hia his belief that hardin was an unmitigated rascal meal and that much if not all of hia his mental disease was feigned dr choate it another nother member of the board declared that there was wa some room for doubt as regarded his finnity but it must be remembered that gentlemen gentlemen ent lemen s saw aw only the wonderful derauf exhibitions which hardin was able to give in which he displayed extraordinary strength and a wonderful degree of power to sustain uta in the exertion they did not sec see liim him at liberty when he lie was a quiet tolf belf possessed adroit confidence operator hardin escaped from the hospital june 1869 and wae wag at large for some six ax months and during that period vindicated his right to be considered a rational sensible being in ander under various aliases he fully swindled several schools and during this time there was no nothing thin to indicate his lack of reason the tle fact of being advertised as a violent maniac waa was disguise sufficient for outside odthe walla he became the plausible cultivated gen gentleman his bis insanity was a robe which he put on or as to pleased him the best so soon aj as the fugitive raised sufficient wind ho anchored arch ored for a while in a lovely little ohio village and begin began to woo a damsel more than pasting passin fair air and well dowered cowered dow ered As it happened the courtship was wits one of thosa those in which the community almost to a man was inter ested A WIPE WIM hardin with rith hia his usual consummate e sr nl ate skill bad surrounded himself wa with tha a romantic history and the lady was a bona jule fide heroine whose adventures were a source of town pride hard hardin in possessed to a remarkable degree the faculty of exciting sympathy and makine use of those around him he ile exhibited much sagacity Eaga city in the selection of his asso eates and was able to in pire the greatest poe possible confidence in in himself and his antecedents his peculiar line of rascality that is working educational institutes utes I led up to his whereabouts and once on c a more the colonel ru recaptured inside of 24 hours he was insane and toon soon after was wu removed to Jo hannot hall of the worcester insane asylum here he adopted new tactics and succeeded in persuading hia his attendants that he be was the victim of a conspiracy and this too in the face of their full knowledge of his hia history and antecedents one of these deluded men meri purchased a heavy hammer and gave it to hardin and took sheets from several bed beds tore them in strips and knotted them into a rope he left this in onega the ventilators rs of Har Hardina dins room hardina Har dins idea was to break the cast iron bar bars of hu his windo wand let himself down ome some 40 f feet ce t b by the sheets this attempt wa was foil foiled however but escape be he did eventually from this point onward the writer has little knowledge of this extraordinary criminal it ii is certain however that hardin made several veral other schools euer and succeeded in in having himself transferred from prison to the hospital hoi pital and theu made his escape whether ho he ended his life behind the ban bars of a jail in the ward yard of an insane asylum or a as a free man I cannot say it would be difficult I Yn i imagine agine to match the career of this rascal certa certainly ln ay 11 no one ever worked so 20 hard for r a living iving and when one reflects that one tenth of this physical exertion and mental strain devoted to legitimate business must have aye insured better rewards it is hard bard to comprehend the sums obtained by Har hardina dins method never exceeded and more often 50 and 75 represented the total gain so the profit was meagre indeed the game was not worth the candle I h have ame frequently frequent lT beard crooked people declare that no claw elms of fineu as a rule worked harder for ther money and porters history goes to prove it waltr M NI philadelphia LADELPHIA oct 15 1882 |