CHAPTER XIX.

Commission Finds Thaw Sane.

CRISIS IN CASE IS REACHED--BLOW TO JEROME--EVELYN CARRIES GLAD TIDINGS TO PRISONER--THAW EXPRESSES NO SURPRISE--PROSECUTOR THREATENS TO APPEAL, BUT BOWS TO FINDING.

One of the most dramatic phases of the great trial was at hand. The defense suddenly announced it had closed its case before the lunacy commission, and after a private examination of Thaw by the board Dr. Allen R. Diefendorf told the members that Thaw was a paranoic and had not recovered his sanity. “Thaw is insane now,” he swore.

The crisis came on the morning of April 4, 1907. After a session lasting nearly all night the commissioners filed into court and Chairman McClure handed the following report to Justice Fitzgerald:

“After careful examination of the defendant personally and of all the evidence we find the following facts:

“In the frequent and in some cases daily--during the several months last past--intercourse had by the defendant with the Tombs physicians, chaplains, keepers, other attendants, and the probation officer these persons failed to discover anything irrational in his conduct or speech.

“The defendant has taken an active part in the conduct of the trial, has made numerous suggestions orally in court and by letter as to the selection of jurors and the examination of witnesses. Many of these suggestions were deemed valuable and were adopted by his counsel, and examination of the letters referred to shows that generally the suggestions contained in them were material, sensible, and apparently the product of a sane mind.

“While the testimony of numerous experts called by the district attorney and the defendant’s counsel is irreconcilable, that given by certain experts who personally examined the defendant during the trial and since the appointment of the commission, and who of all the alienists examined had greatest opportunity of observing, disclosed the fact that no indication of insanity at the present could be found in the speech, conduct, or physical condition of the defendant.

“The direct oral and physical examination of the defendant by the commissioners themselves disclosed no insanity in the defendant at the present time. Upon all of the facts it is our opinion that at the time of our examination the said Harry K. Thaw was and is sane and was not and is not in a state of idiocy, imbecility, lunacy, or insanity so as to be incapable of rightly understanding his own condition, the nature of the charges against him, and of conducting his defense in a rational manner.

“DAVID MCCLURE, “PETER B. OLNEY, “LEOPOLD PUTZEL.”

This was a staggering blow to Jerome, who protested loudly. The defense was elated. Thaw was not in court to hear the decision, and the jurors also were barred. All the members of the prisoner’s family, however, were present, and Evelyn Thaw herself conveyed the glad news to her husband. Harry was not surprised at the finding.

“It is only what I expected,” he declared. “I am as sane as any man on earth.”

The district attorney, who had been threatening to “appeal to the Appellate court and have the trial stopped,” suddenly decided to yield to the inevitable.