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Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library 
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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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Other Juries Compared With That in 
 the Thaw Trial. 
 
 Trial. Jury was out Verdict, 
 
 Tbaw 47 hours 8 minutes. . , Disagreement. 
 
 William J. Koerner 59 hours 10 minutes. .First degree. 
 
 Nan Patterson (first) Mistrial. 
 
 Nan Patterson (second) 24 hours Disagreement, 
 
 Nan Patterson (third) 11 hours 35 minutes. .Disagreement. 
 
 Roland B. Molineux (first) ... 8 hours First degree. 
 
 Roland B. Molineux (second). 25 minutes Not guilty. 
 
 Albert T. Patrick 2 hours First degree. 
 
 Guldensuppe case 3 hours. First degree. 
 
 Boscchieter case 4 hours Second degree 
 
 Carlisle W. Harris 1 hour 10 minutes.. .First degree. 
 
 Dr. Buchanan 28 hours First degree. 
 
 Dr. S. J. Kennedy (first) 3 hours 13 minutes. .First degree. 
 
 Dr. S. J. Kennedy (second). . 6 hours 35 minutes. .Disagreement. 
 
 Dr. S. J. Kennedy (third)... .22 hours 5 minutes. . .Disagreement. 
 
 Burton C. Webster (first) 19 hours. Disagreement, 
 
 Burton C. Webster (second). . 4 hours Manslaughter. 
 
 David Hannigan hours 20 minutes. . Not guilty. 
 
MADISON SQUARE GARDEN 
 The Scene of the Thaw- White Tragedy. 
 

 THE TOMBS PRISON 
 
 Window in Circle Murks Tliaw's CeJl. 
 
THE GREAT 
 
 HARRY THAW CASE 
 
 OR 
 
 A Woman's Sacrifice 
 
 BY 
 
 BENJ. H. ATWELL 
 
 A graphic and truthful narrative of the nnost sensational 
 case in modern jurisprudence. A thrilling account of 
 a young girl's struggles in her battle for fame and 
 fortune, and the unconquered love of the man 
 who has baffled the world's greatest alienists; 
 with portraits of many leading charac- 
 ters, famous society leaders and noted 
 actresses who have made this case 
 the talk of America and Europe 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 LAIRD & LEE, Publisher3 
 
 '^i 
 
 ^ 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1907, 
 
 By William H. Lee, 
 
 in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chronology of the Case 6 
 
 Chapter 
 
 I. Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, the Woman in the Case, 1 1 
 
 II. Harry Thaw's Courtship and Marriage, . . 19 
 
 III. The Story that Startled the World. ... 28 
 
 IV. Stanford White, Creator and Destroyer, . . 41 
 V. Greatest Legal Battle of the Age Opens, . 53 
 
 VI. "I swear Harry K. Thaw was Insane," . . 68 
 
 VII. A Human Sacrifice on the Altar of Love, . 78 
 
 VIII. Evelyn Reveals White as a Fearful Monster, 87 
 
 IX. Intrigue like those in Days of Nero. . . 102 
 
 X. White on Verge of Arrest when Shot, • . 120 
 XI. Thaw's Will Disclosed Fear of Assassination, 128 
 
 XII. The Hidden Witness to the Proposal, , . 142 
 
 XIII. Lived on Bounty of Stanford White, . . 158 
 
 XIV. Thaw's Mother on the Stand 164 
 
 XV. Scathing Denunciation by Jerome, . . . 182 
 
 XVI. Shocking Disclosures in Famous Affidavit, . 193 
 
 XVII. Jerome Calls Thaw Madman 201 
 
 XVIII. Lunacy Commission is Appointed 213 
 
 XIX. Commission Finds Thaw Sane 220 
 
 XX. Delmas, "The Napoleon of the Bar" . . 223 
 
 XXI. Delmas' Speech Moves Jurors, . . . 228 
 
 XXII. ''The Unwritten Law" — The Defense Ends, 244 
 
 XXIII. "Thou Shall Not Kill," Quotes Jerome, . 262 
 
 XXIV. The Judge's Charge to the Jury — Thaw in 
 
 Collapse 278 
 
 XXV. Deliberations of the Jury 285 
 
 XXVI. Ending of the Trial — Jury Disagrees, . . 293 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 A o^reat trial has come to a close. It has attracted 
 the attention of the entire civilized world for three 
 widely separated and distinctly defined reasons — the 
 unusual degree of heart interest underlying the trag- 
 edy that brought it about ; the startling and sensa- 
 tional disclosures of life in the great metropolis, and 
 the legal precedents established, particularly in re- 
 lation to the universal, unwritten law. 
 
 Realizing that this remarkable case is destined to 
 be more than a passing sensation of the hour or the 
 year; that it will exercise a wide influence on the 
 thought and lives of uncounted thousands, it has 
 seemed meet that a carefully prepared, clean and ac- 
 curate record should be given the world in perma- 
 nent form. 
 
 This, becau.se its eloquent sermon cost too great a 
 price to be lost, and its awful warning against a 
 vicious life is of too great value to the world to trust 
 it to fitful memory. 
 
 Men standing on the; brink of the precipice hewn 
 by unbridled passion, may read in the terrible fate 
 that overtook Stanford White at the hands of an 
 avenging husband, an injunction against the worst 
 in their nature and reflect before it is too late. 
 
 IMothers, tempted by the pressing, material needs 
 of the day to permit tender daughters to aid in the 
 
 7 
 
8 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 family support by entering occupations, which, 
 while not vicious, are beset by pitfalls, may think 
 twice before reaching a decision after contemplating 
 the sufferings and humiliations suffered by Evelyn 
 Nesbit. 
 
 Young women in the exuberance of youth, hun- 
 gering for the empty bubble known as a career, may 
 recall the pathetic picture presented by the same girl 
 when on the witness stand as Mrs. Thaw, and recoil 
 from thought of a butterfly life after viewing that 
 crushed, unhappy figure. 
 
 Even more exalted personages may find profit in 
 taking inventory of the Thaw case. Prosecuting at- 
 torneys are found in every county in this broad land. 
 Let them observe the attitude of District Attorney 
 Jerome in this case and search out their minds to 
 determine if they are ever guilty of persecution in 
 the name of prosecution, or inflict unnecessary tor- 
 ture on the innocent, to vindicate an immaterial the- 
 ory, of interest only to the occupants of the grand- 
 stand. 
 
 Modern times reveal no parallel to the Thaw case 
 in its various phases. Shakespeare's wonderful cre- 
 ations of fancy contain no more thrilling features nor 
 more humanizing passages in their philosophic ap- 
 plication than have been disclosed by this life tragedy 
 of love, hate, villainy, perfidy and outraged inno- 
 cence. 
 
 All the emotions known to the human heart eiit^r 
 
PREFACE 9 
 
 into it, ranging from boundless, mercenary cupidity 
 and indescribable crueltv to self sacrificing love that 
 has found no test too severe. 
 
 Preachments covering the scope of every sermon 
 life's experiences produce abound in its every devel- 
 opment in such blunt, powerful form that he who 
 rurLS may read and he who reads may bring them 
 home to himself. 
 
 Precedents in medical jurisprudence have been es- 
 tablished, medical and legal reputations made and 
 lost. 
 
 To the student of human nature, then, this vol- 
 ume will carry a message. Also, to the moralist and 
 the teacher, the physician and the lawyer. Nor will 
 this list exhaust the field of those who may find some- 
 thing of interest and benefit within its pages, for 
 the field is as broad as mankind. 
 
 If it is received in the spirit in which it is given to 
 the public, free from any disposition to pander to 
 mere morbid curiosity or to exploit that which is rep- 
 rehensible in moral makeup, it shall have accom- 
 plished the purpose of 
 
 The Author. 
 
^^'^SSSSSa^'' 
 
 EVELYN NESBIT AS "AN AMERICAN BEAUTY" 
 .when she was i8 years old. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, the "Woman in the Case." 
 
 yAMED FOR BEAUTY EVEN AS A LITTLE CHILD — BORN JN 
 LITTLE PENNSYLVANIA TOWN — WHEN ONLY 13 YEARS 
 OLD SHE BEGAN AS AN ARTIST 's MODEL — SOUGHT ()\T 
 BY FAMOUS PAINTERS— ENGAGED AS A CHORUS GIRL 
 BECAUSE OF HER BEAUTY — LURED FRO:\I INNOCENT 
 CHILDHOOD BY STANFORD WHITE, MILLIONAIRE ARCHI- 
 TECT— F0R:MED THE ACQUAINTANCE OF HARRY THAW, 
 RICH YOUNG PITTSBURGH MAN — SENT AWAY TO 
 SCHOOL BY WHITE— SNUBBED BY FELLOW STUDENTS- 
 FORCED TO QUIT SCHOOL. 
 
 Evelyn Nesbit, later to be known as "the nu)<{ 
 beautiful artists' model in the world," was bo]*]i in 
 Tarentum, Pa., a little villa<»e near Pittsl)ur^, in 
 1884. Even as a baby she was surpassingly pretty, 
 and her face, like that of a dark-haired cherub, at- 
 tracted hundreds of visitors to her parents' linmbic 
 home, a little two stoiy frame cottage worth \vs^ 
 than J|^2,000. 
 
 Evelyn's life was like that of most youn<»' t»irls in 
 country towns. She wont to Sunday .school regu- 
 larly, and at the age of five made her first public 
 appearance in a Sunday school entertainment. 
 
 The family moved to Pittsburg, and Evelyn was 
 still a school^^irl when the death of her fatht;r, Win- 
 fip|d Scott X<'sbit, a stru^TiIing lawyer, left her 
 mothei' and h<MSelf nlmo^-t rh^stitute. Incumbrances 
 
 11 
 
12 THE GEE AT THAW CASE 
 
 on the little property left by her father shut off al- 
 most every source of income. The schoolgirl had to 
 face a more serious problem than usually falls to the 
 lot of a girl in short skirts. 
 
 When Evelyn was only thirteen years old, a Mrs. 
 Darragh, a portrait painter and miniature artist of 
 Philadelphia, discovered her rare beauty and painted 
 her head. Later Phillips, a photographer of Phila- 
 delphia, asked the Pittsburg child to sit for several 
 photographic studies. The pictures were printed in 
 an art magazine and attracted attention. Before her 
 father had been dead long Evelyn Nesbit found that 
 she was being sought by such artists as Carroll Beck- 
 with, F. S. Church, Carl Blenner, and J. Wells 
 Champney. 
 
 Demand for the privilege of photographing her 
 beautiful face or portraying it on canvas became so 
 great that the money earned by the little girl by pos- 
 ing became the mainstay of the family. With her 
 mother she moved to New York, took rooms in a low- 
 priced boarding house, and began frequenting studios 
 of famous artists. Her work was in constant demand 
 
 It was while she was posing that she met the man 
 whose acts toward her resulted in his killing by 
 Harry Kendall Thaw. It was when her mother, 
 modest, yet proud of her wonderfully beautiful litt](3 
 daughter just budding into girlhood, took her to a 
 photographer's that P]velyn Nesbit flashed into pub- 
 lic view as a famous beauty. The pictures were so 
 
WOMAN IN THE CASE 13 
 
 remarkable, so perfect in feature, so graceful in every 
 outline that the artist exhibited them in his studio. 
 
 Little wonder it was that every one who passed the 
 show case stopped spell -bound by the youthful beauty 
 of the subject; little wonder that Charles Dana Gib- 
 son, then in the zenith of his success, with his studies 
 of the American girl, looked upon Evelyn's photo- 
 graphs in rapture and wished immediately to meet 
 the original and arrange to have her pose for him. 
 
 One day as the little m.odel was about to leave the 
 studio she was met by a man about to enter the door. 
 
 By jove! Gibson, who is this little vision of the 
 <'mpyrean blue ? Tell me. I must know the little 
 sprite, whether she is of this earth or just a fairy 
 from out of wonderland,'* the man added, lightly, as 
 he held the girl a shy and pretty captive at the door. 
 
 The usual unconventional studio introduction fol- 
 lowed. The man who gasped in admiration of the 
 exquisite flower-like beauty of the young girl was 
 Stanford "White, the renowTied architect ; the girl was 
 j^'lorence Evelyn Nesbit, artist's model. 
 
 The man of the world saw in the innocent young 
 thing an easy victim to his wiles, and opportunities 
 were made for him to meet the girl, whom he planned 
 to make his puppet, his plaything, his slave. 
 
 His efforts were not long in being crowned by suc- 
 cess. The pretty trinkets which the girl loved so well 
 were hers with the first expression of h(^r desire; she 
 was flattered wlu-n she realized from whom she was 
 
14 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 roceivinpr adulation, the subtle, crafty methods of the 
 connoisseur of beauty, of art, the epicure in all his 
 fleshly wants, the polished manner, tlie refined taste 
 that were his by birth, all added a charm new and ir- 
 resistible to the ingenuous, luxury-loving little model 
 with the eyes of a Madonna and the smile of a siren.. 
 
 Soon the beautiful, innocent Evelyn Nesbit was 
 ensconced in a high class apartment house and Stan- 
 ford White, who paid the bills, became a constant 
 visitor to tlic magnificently appointed suite. 
 
 There she lived in ease and the artist-architect 
 brought his men friends to see this girl, and boasted 
 that sh(^ was his "by right of discovery.*' She was 
 taken to the restaurants fmjuented by the men and 
 women about town. Evelyn Nesbit became the toast 
 of llie companions of White. 
 
 Finally a stage career was mapped out for her. 
 White managed it, and Evelyn Nesbit 's fame spread 
 as she flaunted her lithe form and graceful beauty in 
 ''Florodora'* and ''The Wild Rose.'' 
 
 It was at this time that Harry Thaw made her ac- 
 rjuaintance. The late hours and the endless, restless 
 round of pleasure had told upon the fragile girl and 
 she fell ill. 
 
 A European trip was planned for her and Stan- 
 ford White was one of the party. In a few weeks 
 they returned to New York, but Evelyn Nesbit could 
 never dance again. Instead she was sent to a board- 
 ing school where White hoped that she would rej^ain 
 
^VOMAN IN THE CASE 15 
 
 her health sufficiently to reappear upon the stage and, 
 incidentally, learn better how to spell and write. 
 
 At this time Evelyn Nesbit was a mere slip of a 
 j^irl, just sixteen, with a wealth of brown hair and 
 ^reat brown eyes. It was in Mrs. Henry C. De Mille's 
 school that White chose to have his "ward'' educated, 
 at **Pimlico," N. J. Stanford "White's checks were 
 forwarded with great regularity and the girl, known 
 in the school to be the ''ward" of the great and pros- 
 perous architect, became a favorite among the girLs — 
 girls of the most exclusive of families. 
 
 It began soon to be whispered that Evelyn Nesbit 
 was a soubrette and exceptions were taken to the visits 
 of Stanford White and of Harry Thaw and other men 
 of their types. 
 
 One day Stanford White went to the school in a big 
 touring car and invited some of the pupils for a ride. 
 During that ride his conversation was of such a 
 nature that three of the girls insisted upon being per- 
 mitted to alight and they returned to the school on 
 foot. 
 
 This caused such an uproar in the school that 
 Evelyn was asked to leave, but she- was prevented 
 from going by a sudden illness. During this illness, 
 Harry Thaw, who had made her acquaintance in New 
 York while she was on the stage, was in constant at- 
 tendance upon her and when the girl was finaflly 
 forced to leave, Thaw was there to defray all her ex- 
 penses. 
 
16 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 Stanford White meanwhile had deserted the beau- 
 tiful girl and refused to pay her tuition, which 
 amounted to $3,000. He declared he was Evelyn's 
 "guardian" by courtesy only. His failure to keep 
 his word to defray the girl's expenses was a severe 
 blow to Mrs. De Mille, whose school had become so 
 depleted through the notoriety that he had brought 
 upon it that it was forced to disband. 
 
 Meanwhile Thaw became desperately in love with 
 the girl and took her back to her mother and told her 
 of his love and begged her to take Evelyn to Europe 
 as his guest. It was in Pittsburg sometime later that 
 he married the girl who had been spurned and repudi- 
 ated and left friendless by the man who claimed her 
 "b}^ right of discovery." 
 
 Evelyn's stage career was brief but brilliant. 
 While an actress in musical comedies she was pro- 
 nounced by all ''The most beautiful woman behind 
 the footlights," but her natural beauty was destined to 
 become fatal— fatal to Stanford White— fatal to her 
 own good name— fatal to her husband's hope of hap- 
 piness. 
 
"The most beautiful woman behind the footlights. ' 
 
 PICTURE OF EVELYN NESBIT 
 
 taken just before her marripge, and considered her best likeness. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Harry Thaw's Sensational Courtship and 
 
 Marriage. 
 
 YOUNG millionaire's ROMANCE STARTLED THE WORLD 
 
 — MET EVELYN NESBIT AFTER A PLAY WHEN SHE WAS 
 ONLY 17 YEARS OLD — FRIENDSHIP RIPENED INTO LOVE 
 
 — THE youth's STRANGE CAREER— WENT TO EUROPE 
 WITH THE FOOTLIGHT AND STUDIO BEAUTY— REPORT 
 OF MARRIAGE ABROAD SHOCICED RELATIVES — DENIED BY 
 BOTH THE SUPPOSED BRIDE AND GROOM— RETURNED 
 TO NEW YORK— EJECTED FROM FOUR HOTELS— HAD 
 WEDDING CEREMONY PERFORMED IN PITTSBURG — 
 MOTHER OF THAW AT FIRST REFUSED TO ACCEPT 
 EVELYN AS DAUGHTER— OFF^ERED $250,000 TO GIVE UP 
 HARRY. 
 
 TTarry Kendall Thaw's winning of Florence Evelyn 
 Xesbit stands out as a thrillin<2: chapter in the great 
 book ofl(»ve. The bio^rraphy of each of the parties 
 was studded with the bizarre. Fifty thousand dol- 
 lar dinners, ejectments from hotels, diamonds and 
 ai-and pianos thrown about as carelessly as if they 
 were trinkets, family opposition, and remarkably 
 romantic love were some of the ingredients. 
 
 Harry Thaw's eyes first fell upon Evelyn Ncsbit 
 whon she was only seventeen years old. She had car- 
 ried her beauty from Pittsburg to the studios of New 
 
 19 
 
20 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 m 
 
 York. Then the stage called lier, and her brunette 
 pulchritude charmed the scion of one of Pittsburg's 
 Avealthiest families. Somebody presented her to 
 Thaw at a gay party of young and beautiful stage 
 girls who Avere having a costly supper after the play 
 at an exclusive restaurant. All this time Evelyn was 
 supposed to be under the eye of her mother, who, a 
 few years previously, had doffed her widow's Aveeds 
 and married Charles J. Holman, a Pittsburg broker. 
 Mrs. Holman told her friends she keenly realized the 
 perils that beset the feet of beautiful young girls, but 
 her chaperonage did not save her own daughter. 
 
 Thaw loved the daughter, he said, as soon as he 
 saw her. His appreciation of feminine loveliness had 
 always been one of his strongest qualities. Only three 
 years before he met Miss Nesbit he had given a $50,- 
 000 dinner in Paris to tAventy-five of the most beauti- 
 ful women 1:hat he could get together. Cleo de ^Merode, 
 at whose feet the King of the Belgians had laid royal 
 tribute, Anna Robinson of this country and other 
 famous beauties were at that banquet. Sousa's band 
 received a check for $1,500 for furnishing the music. 
 This dinner and many of Thaw's other enjoyments 
 were made possible by the fact that Avhen his father 
 died he left a fortune of $40,000,000. This father was 
 AVilliam Thaw and he had been prominent in Pennsyl- 
 vania railroad and steel affairs. His widow and the 
 seven children inherited the fortune. 
 
 Harry Thaw's penchant for economy was pretty 
 
HARRY K. THAW 
 At the time of his marriage. 
 
COURTSHIP AXD MARFIAGE 23 
 
 well exemplified by the will under which his annual 
 income was to be $2,500, because, as his father said, 
 he would spend as much as he got anyway. His moth- 
 er, though, let him have annually sums that were 
 never under $40,000. 
 
 With his money he set out to dazzle the little Miss 
 Nesbit, who back home had often trudged by the 
 magnificent Thaw mansion and possibly had won- 
 dered in her simple impecunious way as to the man- 
 ner of life that can be lived by a family that has 
 $-40,000,000 to dispose of. 
 
 It didn't take Harry Thaw long to show her how 
 some of that money might be spent. To her apart- 
 ments in the Audubon in New York, an apartment 
 building beloved of the chorus girl, he caused to be 
 sent an exquisite grand piano. Miss Nesbit 's mother 
 caused it to be carted away. So also with many of 
 the jewels which Thaw sent up. 
 
 While Thaw's wooing was in progress the name of 
 his family loomed large in the public prints because 
 of the marriage of Harry Thaw's sister Alice to the 
 Earl of Yarmouth. On the very day of the wedding, 
 the earl halted the ceremony by announcing that un- 
 less satisfactory financial arrangements were made 
 at once there would be no marriage. The money was 
 paid, although Harry Thaw told reporters that if he 
 had been there we would have kicked the Earl down 
 stairs. A little later, however, his sister Alice, Count- 
 ess of Yarmouth, repaid the harsh blow at the husband 
 
24 THE GEEA^ THAW CASE 
 
 by publicly snubbing Evelyn Nesbit at an English 
 race track. 
 
 About the time of this marriage Evelyn Nesbit 
 went to Europe. Harry Thaw followed her. They 
 went automobiling, and the charming brunette fell 
 madly in love with the young heir to nearly $40,000,- 
 000 ; he had been in love with her since the evening 
 they first met. 
 
 Then, all because they were arrested for exceeding 
 the automobile speed laws in Switzerland, the curtain 
 was raised upon their romance, that all the world 
 might see. In the police court to which they were 
 taken the impression, that they were husband and wife 
 gained ground. News of the supposed marriage was 
 telegraphed to London and thence to America. Thaw's 
 relatives and rich society friends were shocked. They 
 had registered and stopped at the Carlton hotel in 
 London as husband and wife, and the report of their 
 marriage was generally believed. 
 
 When they returned to New York they had a stormy 
 experience. On their arrival they discovered that 
 Mrs. William Thaw, mother of Harry, had announced 
 that under no conditions would she accept Evelyn 
 Nesbit for a daughter-in-law, and that if her son had 
 really married the beautiful young model she would 
 promptly disown him. 
 
 Harry didn't want to lose his fortune, and it is 
 probable that the girl didn't desire to see him im- 
 poverished, either. So they faced the dilemma. Fear 
 
COURTSHIP AND MABBIAGE 25 
 
 of the wrath of the mother forced them to deny that 
 the union had been consummated, yet at the same time 
 thev were too^ether in New York at the Cumberland 
 hotel, and the proprietor demanded that either Thaw 
 write "wife" after his name on the register or quit 
 the hotel. 
 
 Thaw refused to do this, and the couple went to 
 another hotel with the same result. After they had 
 been ejected from four hostelries they separated. All 
 ihis time there had been no public announcement by 
 either of them that they had been married, as sup- 
 posed. 
 
 Miss Nesbit, as she still insisted on being called, 
 went to a boarding house and the young millionaire 
 made efforts to placate his mother. He was success- 
 ful, but not until an open rumor had it that Miss 
 Nesbit had refused an off'er of $250,000 in cash to give- 
 up Harry and quit the United States. 
 
 Wlien the mother did agree to the union she acted 
 handsomely, and the exquisite beauty was quietly 
 married at the home of Rev. William L. McEwan, 
 pastor of the Third Presbyterian church, Pittsburg, 
 ^Irs. Thaw and the members of both families being 
 present. This was on April 4, 1905. 
 
 The Thaws left Lyndhurst, the magnificent Thaw 
 country mansion near Pittsburg, and went to New 
 York. They varied their life in the metropolis by 
 trips to Pittsburg, but did not go to Newport, where 
 Benjamin Thaw, Harry's brother, lived. In Pittsburg, 
 
26 THE GREAT THA^Y CASE 
 
 l\Irs. William Thaw gave several receptions to the 
 actress-model wife of her son. Pittsburg society 
 started to squabble over these affairs, but finally at- 
 tended the receptions and accepted Evelyn as a mem- 
 ber of their exclusive set. 
 
 The charms of the young Mrs. Thaw had disarmed 
 much of the criticism. Mrs. Holman grew to like her 
 son-in-lavr, although not long before she had threat- 
 enried to apply a rawhide horsewhip to him, wh:Ie 
 Harry and her daughter were living together in New 
 York, apparently unmarried. 
 
 The Thaws themselves, when they saw how hard 
 young Mrs. Thaw was trying to restrict the money- 
 spending habits of her husband, forgave her com- 
 pletely. They even regretted, some of them said, that 
 they had offered to bur her off. When that offer was 
 made — it Avas during the stormy days in New York, — 
 Miss Nesbit had declared "My heart is not for sale!" 
 
 The story of the wedding— a remarkably simple af- 
 fair—is interesting in that it showed Evelyn Nesbit 's 
 love for simplicity in her private life. Although fame 
 and fortune were linked in a remarkable union, the 
 wedding ceremony took place almost in secret. 
 
 The day before the wedding Mr. Thaw went to the 
 Hotel Schenley, and in the grillroom met some of his 
 old associates. He remarked that in less than a 
 week he would be a benedict. Steins were raised high 
 and his companicms declared that it should be made 
 his bachelor dinner. Their host swore them to seerecv. 
 
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 27 
 
 and then the story of the coming nuptials was di- 
 vulged to the chosen few. 
 
 Miss Nesbit arrived in Pittsburg with her chaperon, 
 Miss Pierce, and went to the home of her parents, 
 Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Holman, in Oakland. In the after- 
 noon Harry Thaw went to the residence of Dr. Mc- 
 Ewan in South Negley avenue and arranged for the 
 wedding. 
 
 It was a few minutes after 5 o'clock when three 
 carriages drove to Dr. ]\IcEwan's residence. From 
 them alighted Mr. Thaw, his mother, iMrs. William 
 Thaw, his brother, Josiah Copley Thaw, and Fred- 
 rick C. Perkins. Miss Nesbit came on the arm of her 
 stepfather, C. J. Holman, and was followed by her 
 mother, Mrs. Holman. 
 
 Miss Nesbit wore a traveling costume of dark ma- 
 terial, which was almost hidden in a light three-quar- 
 ter opera cloak trimmed with rare lace and ornamented 
 with Persian floral designs. She wore a hat that in- 
 dicated a slight lingering toward the winter season, 
 and across the silk entwined brim was a gorgeous 
 feather of three shades of browna. 
 
 Miss Nesbit did not remove her cloak or hat and the 
 })ridegroom laid his headgear and top coat over the 
 banisters before he walked into the drawing-room. 
 When the ceremony was concluded the party left the 
 parsonage. Dinner was served at Lyndhurst, and the 
 bride and bridegroom hastened to the railway station 
 to leave for their journey East. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Story of the Killing That Startled the World. 
 
 STANFORD WHITE ASSASSINATED BY CRAZED HUSBAND 
 WHILE ATTENDING THE PLAY — ON ROOF GARDEN OF 
 MADISON SQUARE— THAW W^.U^KED RAPIDLY TO TABLE 
 .WHILE GIRLS WERE DANCING— AT LAST NOTE OF SONG 
 HE DREW REVOLVER, LEVELED IT AT WHITE— SAID '^YOU 
 HAVE RUINED MY LIFE— YOU MUST DIE ^^— FIRED 
 THREE TIMES — TW^O SHOTS CAI\SED DEATH ALMOST 
 INSTANTLY — PANIC IN AUDIENCE AND ON STAGE — 
 BEAUTIFUL W^IFE EMBRACED SLAYER — THE ARREST. 
 
 The killing of Stanford White by Harry Kendall 
 Thaw, on the roof garden of ^ladison Square, New 
 York, June 25th, 1906,— just fourteen months after 
 the marriage — startled the world. Millionaires both — 
 the victim a famous architect, the slayer even more 
 fajtious— the love of a beautiful woman the cause of 
 the crime— is it any wonder the Thaw killing was the 
 greatest sensation in years? It took place just as th(^ 
 nmsical show, "Mamselle Champagne," was com- 
 ing to a close. 
 
 There was a l)ig crowd on the roof of the garden ; 
 a crowd which pretty Avell filled the floor. Many peo- 
 ple noticed a slightly ])uilt young man walking back- 
 ward and forward in front of the stage, among th(* 
 •tables set here and there in an open space in front Qi 
 the seats. 
 
 28 
 
STORY OF KILLIXG 29 
 
 He was plainly nervous and very pale. He kept 
 watching' the entrance from the Twenty-sixth street 
 side. A few people knew it was Harry K. Thaw and 
 remarked on his peculiar bevavior. They thought it 
 queer also that he wore a long, thin coat. 
 
 At about 11:05 p. m. several persons noticed Stan- 
 ford White enter the roof garden and take a seat near 
 the left hand side of the stage, pretty well up to the 
 front, dro[)ping into a chair at a table four rows from 
 the stage. 
 
 Young Thaw, who had been watching apparently 
 for White to come in, jumped at the sight of him and 
 made for the table. 
 
 Few persons saw what happened immediately after- 
 ward. In the first place, the show was nearing its 
 close, the dancers pirouetting and skipping about the 
 stage and the orchestra jingling and clanging in gay 
 dance music. 
 
 All about the opc^n enclosure in front of the stage, 
 where the tables were set, were palms and potted 
 jdants, which largely cut off the view of the table 
 where ]\Ir. White was sitting. 
 
 Some persons were sure that a young woman was 
 at the tal)le when White lounged in and took a seat. 
 They went so far as to describe her, saying she was 
 y()un<r, slim, dark-haired and dressed all in \vhi1<\ 
 with a l)ig white hat, from which a filmy veil fell over 
 her shoulders. 
 
 Othei-s who insisted that they observed White whrn 
 
30 THE GREAT THA^Y CASE 
 
 he took a seat there, said no woman was present. They 
 were positive on that point. 
 
 On reaching White's table Thaw backed oft* a step 
 or two, produced a revolver, aimed it at White and 
 pulled the trigger. The first bullet entered the right 
 eye, penetrating the brain. Thaw shot twice more, 
 rapidly. The other bullets both struck White's body, 
 one in the right side of the upper lip and the other in 
 the right arm. 
 
 AVhite hardly moved from his position at the tabic. 
 His body sagged a little to the left, his arm flattened 
 out on the table top and his head sank heavily on the 
 arm. 
 
 Above the swing and thrumming of the orchestra 
 and the gay chorus of the dancers the three shots 
 sounded clearly, startling everybody, causing the njen 
 to jump to their feet and rush toward the left side of 
 the stage. 
 
 Two women nearby, seeing what had happened and 
 the l)l()od flowing from the man's wounds, screamed. 
 Two of the girls on the stage fled screaming into the 
 Avings. 
 
 ' 'Get back into your line," roared the stage manager 
 so that all heard him. 
 
 One of the girls started back, but she again fled to 
 the wings, while two of the remaining four, seeing the 
 cause of the trouble, fell over in a faint. 
 
 Th(> music and the dancing kept going a while feeb- 
 Jy; then it died away. The nuisicians jumped from 
 
MAZIE FOLLETTE 
 Actress named in the case. 
 
STORY OF KILTAN(} 33 
 
 the pit and joined the crowd. The frightened chorus 
 oirls ran back on the stage. 
 
 The employes of the roof garden thought for a time 
 that the shots came from the stage. Manager Law- 
 rence had been intending to introduce some revolver 
 sliooting in the duel scene where the line occurs, 'M 
 challenge you, I challenge you to a du-u-el, " and the 
 stage hands and other hangers on at the garden 
 til ought the innovation had been put on a night or 
 two ahead of schedule. 
 
 They quickly found out their mistake, and had 
 tlicir hands full in a minute or two handling the peo- 
 ple, who were pushing right and left, the women 
 s:'r(Himiiig to be let out. 
 
 During all the confusion and excitement nobody 
 made any effort to stop young Thaw. He looked at 
 AVhite's body, and then, still holding his revolver, 
 walked leisurely to a clump of potted plants and back 
 toward the elevator. Fireman Brudi saw a part of 
 what had happened, saw Thaw shoot White, and knew 
 who the young man was that was walking away with 
 the revolver. 
 
 Brudi went up to him and caught him by the 
 shoulder. Thaw smiled at him and made no resis- 
 tance when Brudi told him he would have to wait 
 until the police came. He was very pale, but otlun'- 
 wis.' eool and collected. 
 
 Brudi held Thaw lightly, while the crowd gathered 
 arcjund. It was a wait of several minutes bi^fore 
 
34 THE GEE AT THAW CASE 
 
 Policeman Debes of the Tenderloin station, appeared 
 and took charge of Thaw. Debes telephoned to his 
 station honse for the reserves to handle the crowd and 
 the desk sergeant sent ten policemen. Debes wj^s 
 waiting for the elevator to take Thaw to the police 
 station. 
 
 Just before the elevator started, a slender, dai-k, 
 pretty young woman, the same one with whom Thaw 
 liad been sitting before he sauntered away on his er- 
 I'and of death, came running into the car. She threw 
 li(^r arms around the prisoner and kissed him. 
 
 "Oh, Harry.'' she cried. "Why did you do it, 
 Harry?" 
 
 "It's all right, dear wife," h^^ answered, kissing her. 
 ' ^ He ruined you, and I fixed him. It 's all right. ' ' 
 
 All this time the audience was terror stricken. 
 
 "Sing, you girls. Sing. For God's sake keep on,'' 
 shouted the manager. 
 
 The girLs sang. They danced as the silent form 
 lay prostrate. Their faces were white. But they 
 were on the stage and they quelled their emotion. 
 
 A man who sat at a table behind Mr. and Mrs. 
 Thaw, told the following story of the tragedy : 
 
 "I noticed Harry Thaw and his wife when thi\v 
 came in. Thaw seemed to have been drinking and 
 was very restless. He got up from the table sevei-nl 
 times and, leaving his Avife, walked back toward llie 
 elevators. They were sitting at the Twenty-sixth 
 street side of the house. 
 
STOEY OF KILLING 35 
 
 ''At 10 :30 Stanford White came in and took a seat 
 at a table about five tables in front of the Thaws. 
 He talked a while to Harry Stevens and then sat 
 alone watching the show and resting his head on his 
 right hand. 
 
 "As he walked down the aisle, Harry Thaw noticed 
 him and got up from his seat. While White was talk- 
 ing to Stevens, Thaw walked over and stood behind 
 some artificial shrubbery just a few feet away from 
 them. 
 
 "When Stevens left, Thaw walked deliberately 
 down the aisle and stood for a minute behind White. 
 He pulled a revolver from his pocket and fired three 
 shots. I think the first missed, but the other two took 
 effect, and White rolled to the floor, upsetting the 
 chair. ' ' 
 
 With Thaw safely lodged in a police station cell, 
 one of the greatest trials of a century faced the pub- 
 lic. The inexorable hand of the law began its work 
 the next day after the arrest, when Thaw was taken 
 from his cell in the Tenderloin police station, photo- 
 graphed and measured by the Bertillon system, like 
 a burglar or holdup man, arraigned in police court and 
 held without bail. Perfectly calm. Thaw went through 
 the hurried formalities in court, absolutely refusing 
 to make any extended statement regarding the trag- 
 edy. 
 
 The policeman who arrested Thaw, gave this ac- 
 count of the shooting in the police court hearing. 
 
36 THE GREAT THA^Y CASE 
 
 "I found the people almost crazy, trying to get out 
 of the place. I jumped into the mob and saw a woman 
 lying down. She had fainted, and then I saw White. 
 
 "I said to Thaw : 'Did you do it?' and he replied : 
 'Yes, I did it. That man ruined mv life or wife.' 
 I don't know \vhich he said, hut it sounded like that. 
 Then he went on saying : ' That man ruined my home. 
 I guess he won't ruin smy more homes. Is he dead?' 
 I told him he was, and he said he was glad of it, and he 
 was glad he 'made a good job of it.' 
 
 "When I arrested Thaw, a woman, who Manager 
 Lawrence told me was Mrs. Thaw, rushed up to Thaw 
 and kissed him, and said: 'I did not think you'd do 
 it in that way!' 'It's all right, it's all right,' Thaw 
 told her. Then she whispered something into his ear. 
 I don't know what she said to him." 
 
 "Down in the hall and in the street a lot of women 
 gathered about us and shook hands with Thaw and 
 sympathized with him. 'Why did you do it? Why 
 did you do it ? they kept asking. ' ' 
 
 A statement credited to Thaw immediately after th.' 
 arrest is this : - . 
 
 "We were all at a party in Martin's. You can find 
 out the names of the others there, Init I was sitting 
 some distance from my wife. Suddenly I saw her 
 grow pale and begin to shiver, and I thought she was 
 ill. 
 
 I made a motion to incpiire what was the matter 
 
 ( ( 
 
STORY OF KILLING 37 
 
 and she called a waiter and wrote a note whicji she 
 sent around the table to me. 
 
 "The note said 'The dirty blackguard is here,' 
 Then I turned and saw that fat scoundrel sitting there, 
 })ig and healthy, and then I saw her and how she 
 was. ' ' 
 
 "Did White make any motion to attack youf" was 
 asked of Thaw, 
 
 "What?" said Thaw, 
 
 The question was repeated. 
 
 Thaw nodded his head in the affirmative. 
 
 From his pocket when he was searched there was 
 taken a leather revolver shield such as policemen car,- 
 ry their weapons in. He had $168 in cash and several 
 olank checks, besides a gold cigarette case. 
 
 'i'haw did not display the least anxiety about his 
 own welfare nor about the effects of his shots. Tie 
 never asked a question nbout White. lie did not ask 
 any fjuestions of th^ police at all. He seemed as un- 
 concerned as if bailing out a chauffeur instead of fac- 
 in</ an accusation of killing a man. 
 
 As he talked with a reporter he reverted again and 
 again to liis wife's attack of shivering when she saw 
 White in Martin's, 
 
 "That poor, delicate little thin.g, all nervous and 
 shaking like a reed," he said, half to himself. "And 
 there he was, the big healthy scoundrel. Ood!" 
 
 While the coroner's proceedings were in progress 
 in the city next day, the final scene of the tragedy as 
 
38 THE GEE AT THAW CASE 
 
 affecting White was carried out on Long Island. At 
 St. James' the funeral of the dead architect was held. 
 
 Friends and relatives of White left for the little 
 town early to attend the ceremony. By the time they 
 returned the grand jury had indicted the man who 
 brought White's career to a close and the coroner's 
 jury had held him, completing the legal formalities 
 preceding the trial itself. 
 
 Thaw was restless in his cell in the Tombs from the 
 time he entered it until he was arraigned. His wife 
 visited him every time the rules of the prison allowed, 
 and remained at his side as long as possible each time. 
 His mother, an aged, feeble woman, also went to New 
 York to comfort her offspring in his hour of trouble, 
 and the Countess of Yarmouth, his sister, was among 
 the visitors. Other visitors — unwelcome ones— were 
 the alienists whom the state and the defense sent to 
 examine the young man. Thaw fought the insanity 
 plea vigorously, and at times almost fought the ex- 
 perts. Finally, however, he allowed the examinations 
 into his mental condition. 
 
STANFORD WHITE 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Stanford White, Creator and Destroyer. 
 
 LIFE OF HARRY K. THAW ^S VICTIM — HIS DEATH RE- 
 FLECTED HIS STRANGE LIFE— A MENTAL GIANT WHO 
 TURNED FROM LOFTY ENTERPRISES TO VICIOUS REVELS 
 —BUILT MADISON SQUARE GxVRDEN— THE STUDIO IN 
 THE TOWER — MIGHTY WORKS THAT SURVIVE WHITE 
 AS MONUMENTS TO HIS GENIUS— THE TRAGIC '^GIRL 
 IN THE pie'' AFFAIR— white's HOME EXISTENCE — 
 HIS END. 
 
 Stanford White's death was no more remarkal)le 
 than the strange life he led. Few expressed sur- 
 I)fise that the end came as it did. On the other 
 hand, those who knew him best asserted they would 
 liave experienced a sensation little short of amaze- 
 ment had White departed this life as most men, sur- 
 rounded by members of his family and enjoying the 
 ministrations of physician, nurse and spiritual ad- 
 'visor. 
 
 Some saw in the pyrotechnic, picturesque, sensa- 
 tional climax of his existence, the fulfillment of a 
 prophesy oft reiterated by his closest acquaintances. 
 
 The unusual, the unexpected ruled the existence of 
 this man of wonderful brain and creative genius. A 
 ^iant in mental force and power, he could turn 
 lightly from some vast enterprise to a revel passing 
 
 41 
 
42 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 all belief, haviug as its only purpose the snaring of 
 some young girl — as Evelyn Nesbit was enmeshed. 
 And he could turn, quite as lightly from the an- 
 guished cry of his victim and forget her in the mul- 
 tiplicity of details surrounding his huge undertak- 
 ings. 
 
 What a mind was this — at once an engine of crea- 
 tion and destruction, accepting the consequences in 
 each instance as a matter of course. In view of the 
 peculiarities of the man, it cannot be counted strange 
 that he fell before the hand of the avenger in the 
 temple he had builded to mirth, for the famed ]Madi- 
 son Square Garden was a creation of his mind. 
 
 In the tower he had raised above it, overlooking the 
 great Metropolis with all its joys, sorrows, struggles, 
 its mighty forces that work for good and its un- 
 counted army battling for sin, Stanford White had 
 fitted out a den of Oriental magnificence wherein he 
 could accomplish his purposes, far removed from the 
 world at large. 
 
 It was here his wildest orgies were held. It was 
 from the tower-chamber his young victims went forth 
 to lives of bitterness and shame, and within the 
 shadow of that tower White was whirled to eternity 
 without a moment's respite to atone for his sins or 
 l)repare for an accounting before the final tribimal 
 where truth and not pretense avails. Whatever his 
 offenses, his punishment was heavy, indeed. 
 
 Great as an architect, a lover of beauty in his work 
 
STANFORD WHITE 43 
 
 and in his play, a charniing companion, a man of 
 kindliness, possessed of many talents, a lover of all 
 the pleasant things of life, but not bound by scruples 
 or the dictates of morality — such was White. Within 
 two days after his death, New York rang with stories 
 of strange debauches in which White had played the 
 part of host or one of the hosts. Anthony Comstock 
 declared that he had tried to obtain evidence whicli 
 would suffice to bring action against White for vari- 
 ous alleged excesses. When White fell to the floor 
 of ]Madison S(iuare Roof Garden, in short, his per- 
 sonal reputation fell with hijii. 
 
 As an architect, he was admittedly a genius, and 
 he left an impress upon the architecture of this coun- 
 try which will remain. He transformed the old, un- 
 sightly Harlem Railroad freight station into Madison 
 S^iuare Garden— one of the most beautiful edifices in 
 New York. He aided in the designing of Trinity 
 Church in Boston. 
 
 Among his famous works in New York Avere the 
 Hall of Fame at New York University, the Washing- 
 ton arch, the Century, University and Metropolitan 
 clubs, the William C. Whitney residence and the ped- 
 estal of the Farragut monument in Madison Square. 
 
 He was the son of Richard Grant White, the nov- 
 elist and journalist, and was born in 1853. After 
 ])eing graduated from New York I'niversity he went 
 to Europe to study architecture. He returned in 
 1881 and entered into partnersliip with Charles F. 
 
44 TEE GREAT THA^y CASE 
 
 McKim and William R. Meade. The firm of ]\IcKim, 
 ^leade & White, largely through the genius of White, 
 ])eeame one of the most prominent in the profession. 
 
 ^Ir. White was essentially a clubman, being a mem- 
 ber of the Knickerbocker, Ihiion, University, Auto- 
 mobile, Metropolitan, Players', Lambs' and New 
 Vork Yacht clubs. He was a follower of the stag(\ 
 a devout first-nighter, and had an extensive acquaint- 
 ance among theatrical people. 
 
 White's studio apartment in ]\Iadison Square tower 
 was one of the most noted centers of revelry in the 
 city. He used his studio in a professional way to 
 I)aint in water colors and to work out architectural 
 designs in matters that were separate from the firm 
 work of ]\rcKim, Meade & White, but the chief use 
 of the rooms w^a.s as a meeting place for gathei'ings 
 of theatrical and other folk to whom night life was 
 attractive. 
 
 The rooms were decorated with things that Whitc^ 
 had gathered in his frequent trips to Europe. The 
 draperies and rugs, the furniture and adornments 
 were of the florid style of three centuries ago that pre- 
 vailed in Italy and France. His tastes ran to deco- 
 rati(m (piite as much as to architecture, and his ai)art- 
 ments in the tower rQvealeci the artistic side of the 
 man more than any of his purely professional achieve- 
 ments. 
 
 His acquaintance among stage foiK ran not so much 
 to those who were regarded as the leaders in their 
 
HATTIE FORSVTIIE 
 Chorus girl, once a friend of Mrs, Thaw. 
 
 ...J 
 
STAXFOED WHITE 47 
 
 profession as to those who were willing to ''make a 
 night of it." And it was from these "all nighters" 
 that ^Fr. White drew the material for the "studio 
 parties" that at one time brought notoriety to the 
 ^ladison Square Garden tower. 
 
 In the field of decoration, White had established 
 a place for himself unlike that of any architect. He 
 was accustomed to make trips to Europe to secure 
 collections of various kinds. He would get materials 
 for a Francis I. room or a Louis XVI. room, bring 
 them home, and store them to be sold later to some 
 rich man who was looking for fads in household 
 decorations. Sometimes he would collect windows 
 and doors. At other times he would scour France 
 and Italy for hangings and draperies. 
 
 After the tragedy there was great diversity of 
 opinion in the architectural world as to White's 
 standing as an architect. Some of the architects did 
 not hesitate to say that he was the greatest in the 
 profession in his country since 11. H. Richardson. 
 Others asserted that he shone largely by the reflected 
 light of his partners, McKim and Mead. It is cerlaiii 
 that no architect was called upon oftener to serve on 
 juries to pass upon the mt^rits of designs for the great 
 buildings of the country thin White. 
 
 Those who decried his abilities said that mucli of 
 the work ascribed to White was really the work of 
 ^FeKim or ]\Iead. Their tastes ran to the severely 
 classic designs and to what is known as the fi<'l<i of 
 
48 THE GEE AT THA^Y CASE 
 
 pure architecture. It was declared tliat White, a 
 disciph^ of the French and Italian schools, could not 
 have designed many of the buildings for which he got 
 credit as a member of the firm of ]McKim, ^lead & 
 White. One architect said : 
 
 "The Boston Public library, the Columbia univer- 
 sity buildings, the Villard house, the agricultural 
 building at the Chicago World's Fair, and other crea- 
 tions of the ]\lcKim firm were not and could not have 
 been designed by White. All through them runs the 
 genius of jMr. McKim. White ran to the lighter style 
 of jirchitecture, the florid, the modern, and not to the 
 (irecian or the severe and monumental styh^ of purely 
 classic architecture. ■ 
 
 "llis mood was that of gayety and it expressed 
 itself in his designs. The bases of St. Gaudens statues 
 lent themselves to his mood, and some of his best work 
 was done in connection with them. lie was essen- 
 tially an artist rather than an architect, and his in- 
 fluence in his Arm was along the lines of the artistic 
 rather than along the strict standards of architec- 
 tural expression." 
 
 There were current also numeroiLS stories regard- 
 ing White's private life that were not of the credit- 
 able kind. It is not too much to say that he was fre- 
 (inently under suspicion, l)ut there was always some- 
 thing lacking in a legal way so that no open scandal 
 attached to his name, althongh evil repoi'ts were fi'c- 
 ([uent. \o action was taken by the investigators, how- 
 
STAXFOED WHITE 49 
 
 ever, because of lack of tangible evidence. 
 
 One incident that contributed much to AVhite's 
 bad reputation and which illustrates forcibly his view 
 of a "good time" was the "Girl-in-a-Pie" affair, 
 which was later to come out in evidence at the trial. 
 
 The famed "Girl-in-the-Pie" dinner was given to 
 several artists and men about town, with several noto- 
 rious ''fashionable" women in attendance. The 
 spread cost $350 a plate. 
 
 At the approach of dawn, four negroes entered. 
 
 bearing a huge pie, which they placed on the table. 
 
 A faint stir was observed beneath the crust just as 
 
 the orchestra struck up the air of the nursery jingle: 
 
 "Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye, 
 
 Four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie." 
 
 The pie was burst asunder, and from inside there 
 emerged the beautiful figure of a young girl, clad in 
 black gauze draperies. She turned her pretty child- 
 ish face upon the astonished guests, and poised as a 
 bird about to fly, while two dozen golden canaries, 
 released by her hand, flew about the room. 
 
 Then, when the tableau was complete, a man forced 
 his way to the side of the table and with a smih' as- 
 sisted the child to the floor. The man was Stanford 
 White. 
 
 The young girl, a model, then 15 years old, lived 
 with her mother, but on the night of the banquet she 
 (lisappv^ared, and I'emained in hiding foi- two years. 
 Efforts of the police to And her were unsuccessful. 
 
50 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 At last she returned, to tell a story of revolting 
 mistreatment and desertion by the man who met his 
 dt^ath at the hands of Harry Thaw. 
 
 "When I was lifted from the pie to a seat at the 
 table I found myself queen of the revel," she said. 
 "It was dazzling at first," she said, "but in the end 
 it became a sad queendom. 
 
 "Mr. White was kind for a time, but when he went 
 to Europe he instructed his clerks to get rid of me 
 with as little trouble as possible. I never saw him 
 again." 
 
 Turned into the street to live as she might, this 
 girl, not yet 18, finally married, but her husband, 
 when he learned of her part in the "pie" banquet, 
 brooded over the affair, and deserted his girl wife 
 without attempting to avenge her wrongs. She died 
 soon afterward. 
 
 Stanford White was as respectful to women of the 
 stage who demanded respect as he was to his wife's 
 friends. 
 
 lie was one of a group of men, old and young, 
 who are oftenest seen in and near theaters where 
 frothy nonsense charmingly unclad is enacted and in 
 restaurants where musical comediennes tempt their 
 dainty appetites with broiled lobster. 
 
 He knew many theatrical managers, and some of 
 them often invited him behind the scenes— but not 
 to inspect the architecture. 
 
 Stanford Whiti' was indefatigable in his pursuit 
 
STAXFOPiD ^YHITE 51 
 
 of beauty in his work and in his play. He was gen- 
 erous and considerate. He would hide a $100 bill 
 in a bouquet he ordered handed over the footlights; 
 he would visit a poor, sick chorus girl when she 
 thought herself friendless in a hospital. 
 
 Once in a while, ]\Ir. White gave entertainments 
 in the tower, at which the women and men of society 
 were his guests. But there were other entertainments 
 on which Venus, not Diana, should have looked down. 
 At them, if a girl danced on the table she did not 
 scratch the mahogany. Stanford AA^iite vastly ad- 
 mired adolescence. His death was a tragedy and is 
 a warning. His last night was U^ical of his method 
 of life. 
 
 He dined with his son ; he went to his club. From 
 his nearest kin and his honorable friends he turned 
 to the structure his genius had raised, where was hid 
 his "studio." The lights and music of the roof 
 garden enticed him. And in the presence of the 
 woman who vows he ruined her life he perished by 
 her husband's hand. And the last jangle that 
 sounded to him was a comedy song: "I could love 
 a million girls." 
 
 IMadison Square garden, which he created and 
 where he met his death, was known as his "pleasure 
 house. * * 
 
 What an awful warning, to the would-b(^-young- 
 man-about-town ! With all his subtle^ experience, 
 with his fawning servants and paid detectives, even 
 
52 
 
 TEE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 Stanford White with his millions could not avert the 
 hand of vengeance. "Be sure your sin will find you 
 out." Sooner or later a settlement must be made. 
 Lucky is he whose balance is on the right side of the 
 
 ledger. 
 
 THE BIRTHPLACE OF EVELYN NES13IT TUAW AT TAllENTUM, I'A. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 Greatest Legal Battle of Age Opens. 
 
 OPPOSING COUNSEL HESITATE TO SHOW THEIR HANDS IX 
 DESPERATE GAME OF LIFE OR DEATH— ATTORNEY GAR- 
 VAN 'S BRIEF OPENING ARGUMENT FOR PROSECUTION 
 FOLLOWED BY PRESENTATION OF STATERS CASE IN LESS 
 THAN TWO IIOI'RS— VICTIM ^S SON CALLED TO STAND- 
 FATAL BULLETS GRUESOME EXHIBIT— STORY OF THE 
 ROOF GARDEN" TRAGEDY TOLD — DEFENSE OPENED WITH 
 PLEA THAT THAW BELIEVED HE WAS ACTING UPON THE 
 COMMAND OF PROVIDENCE WHEN HE SLEW WHITE — 
 ALIi IN READINESS FOR GREATEST SACRIFICE OF MODERN 
 TIMES. 
 
 ThoiLsands throughout Xew York, and in fact the 
 entire world, breathed in anxions suspense when, with 
 jury complete and all the machinery of lep^al battle 
 in readines.s the fjreat trial opened. Followina- delays 
 in securin^^ the jury— the excusin<>- of several jurors 
 after their acceptance by both prosecution and de- 
 fense—the opening came as a surprise. 
 
 The day will hmg be remembered because of the 
 multiplicity of surprises it broufrht forth. Brevity 
 of argument by counsel for state and def(^nse w^a.s not 
 the least of these. The opposinp^ lawyers felt they 
 were entering upon a stupendous game with life and 
 death the stakes, and youth, beauty, love, hate, treach- 
 ery and millions factors in the play. 
 
 53 
 
54 THE GEE AT THA^Y CASE 
 
 Neither cared to show his hand and disclose the 
 cards he held. It was Monday, February 4, 1907— 
 a fateful day, coming after seven months and ten 
 days' imprisonment for Thaw in the Tombs. 
 
 The prosecution made a most remarkable record 
 when it presented its opening statement in ten minutes 
 and followed it with less than two hours of testimony, 
 closing in time for the noon recess. The defense an- 
 nounced it w^ould open its case with a statement by At- 
 torney J. B. Gleason. 
 
 The purpose of the prosecution was readily appar- 
 ent — throwing upon the defense the burden of disclos- 
 ing its case, reserving the while the state's hardest 
 fire for rebuttal later when Thaw's lawyers had ex- 
 haiLsted themselves and their material. 
 
 Opening shots of the legal battle royal were fired by 
 Assistant District Attorney Garvin, of counsel for th;* 
 state. 
 
 He congratulated the jurors on their body having 
 been completed and then outlined the purpose of the 
 law, which was not seeking for vengeance, but to up- 
 hold the security of the state, h^ said. He urged the 
 importance of the case and a strict observance of the 
 law in order that a verdict, fair to all, might be 
 reached. 
 
 It was the claim of the people, he said, that on the 
 night of June 25, 1906, the defendant "shot and killed 
 w^ith premeditation and intent to kill" one Stanford 
 White. He then briefly outlined the movements of 
 
ASST. DISTRTC r ATTORNEY GARVAN 
 Sketched in court. 
 
LEGAL BATTLE OPEXS 57 
 
 "White, beginning with the Saturday preceding the 
 tragedy and ending with the actual scene of the shoot- 
 ing on the Madison Square Roof garden. 
 
 "The purpose of punishment of crime is an example 
 to the community, ' ' thundered the prosecutor. 
 
 "The defendant is charged with the murder of 
 Stanford White with premeditation on June 25, 1906. 
 ]\Ir. White was an architect, a member of the firm of 
 McKim, Meade & White. On the Sunday before his 
 death he went to his home on Long Island with his 
 family. He returned to the city on Monday with his 
 son and his son's friend named King. They went to 
 the Cafe Martin for dinner. 
 
 "Mr. White had previously purchased tickets to a 
 theater. After dinner Mr. White drove his son and 
 his son's friend to the theater and then went himself 
 to the Madison Sriuare Roof garden, where a new 
 play, 'Mam'zelle Champagne,' was to be produced. 
 
 "Stanford White went to the Madison Square Roof 
 garden and sat alone at one of the small tables there, 
 wntching the first production of this play called 
 * i\Iam 'zelle Champagne. ' 
 
 "The defendant was there with his wife and two 
 fi'iends, Truxton Beale and Thomas McCaleb. The 
 defendant walked constantly about the place. 
 
 "In the middle of the seco«id act the defendant's 
 pa rty started to leave the roof. The defendant let his 
 pjirty go ahead and he lagged behind. Passing the 
 table where Stanford AVihte was sitting, this defen- 
 
 'o; 
 
58 TEE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 dant wheeled suddenly, faced Mr. White, and delib- 
 erately shot him through the brain, the bullet entering 
 the eye. 
 
 ' ' Mr. White was dead. 
 
 "The defendant did not know^ this. He feared he 
 had not completed his work, and he fired again, the 
 bullet penetrating White's cheek. Still, to make sure, 
 he fired a third time. 
 
 "Mr. White, or rather the body of Mr. White, 
 tumbled to the floor. 
 
 "The defendant turned, and facing the audience, 
 held his revolver aloft with the barrel upside down 
 to indicate that he had completed what he intended 
 to do. The big audience understood. There was no 
 panic." 
 
 Mr. Garvin concluded by giving the details of 
 Thaw's arrest and indictment by the prosecution. He 
 spoke always in a conversational tone. Thaw sat 
 throughout with head downcast and face flushed. 
 
 Calm and as cold and easy of manner as though 
 rehearsing a scene in some drama instead of a great 
 tragedy of life, District Attorney Jereme recpiested 
 the exclusion of all other witnesses and placed his first 
 witness on the stand. 
 
 As Evelyn Thaw passed her husband in leaving she 
 took his hand and heldjt for a moment, and, as she 
 turned away, tears trickled down her cheeks. 
 
 Harry Thaw was visibly nervous and druiuued on 
 the table with h:s fingers. 
 
DISTRICT ATTORNEY JEROME 
 in opening address. 
 
LEGAL BATTLE OPENS 61 
 
 Lawrence White, the son of the dead architect, was 
 the first witness. Thaw again fastened his eyes on the 
 table before him and did not once look at the witness. 
 
 Young- White said he was 19 years old and a student 
 at Harvard university. His mother, he said, was then 
 living at Cambridge, Mass. 
 
 White was on the stand only a few minutes. He 
 told of accompanying his father to the Cafe Martin 
 for dinner, and said that when he left him to go with 
 his chum, a bov named Kins' to the New York roof 
 garden, it Avas the last time he saw his father alive. 
 
 ]\Iyer Cohen, a song writer and manager of the 
 house which i)iiblislied the music of ''Mam'zelle Cham- 
 pagne," was called after an elevator man had detailed 
 Thaw's conversation when arrested. 
 
 Mr. Cohen was on the iMadison Square Roof garden 
 the night of the traged}". He saw Thaw there for the 
 first time during the initial act of the musical comedy. 
 Cohen described on a diagram the position of the table 
 at wiiich White sat. 
 
 When asked by ]\Ir. Garvan to indicate Thaw's man- 
 ner of approaching the architect that evening, the 
 witness left the stand, and, walking up and down be- 
 foi-c the jury box, he illustrated the slow pace which 
 lu' declared chai-acterizecl Thaw's deliberation in ap- 
 proaching his victim. 
 
 "He walked up to Mr. White's table like this," said 
 the witness, indicating. "He nuide a slight dotour, 
 
62 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 and coming' up to Mr. White from behind suddenly 
 faced him and fired three times." 
 
 Henry S. Plaese, superintendent of the publishing 
 company that own,ed the rights of "Mam'zelle Cham- 
 paigne, ' ' was the next witness. He saw the defendant 
 the night of the killing in the rear of the roof garden., 
 opposite the center aisle. Mr. Plaese was standing 
 with ]\Ir. Cohen, the previous witness. Thaw stood 
 before them for six or seven minutes, looking to the 
 right and kft. 
 
 After the first act he next saw Thaw just previous 
 to the shooting. White was seated, facing the stage, 
 his head leaning on his right hand. There was no 
 conversation when Thaw approached White, and the 
 former immediately began firing. 
 
 Thaw then retreated toward the rear of the garden, 
 with his right hand elevated, "the barrel of the pistol 
 being, pointed upward. ' ' 
 
 The weapon with which White was killed was 
 brought into the case during the testimony of Paul 
 Brudi, the fireman who disarmed Thaw after the fatal 
 shots were fired. Brudi, who appeared on the stand 
 in uniform, identified the pistol when it was shown to 
 him, and said that after taking it from the prisoner 
 he turned it over to the police. 
 
 "I remember hearing only two shots," said Brudi 
 in relating the events of the evening of the tragedy, 
 "when I rushed up and grabbed the prisoner, who 
 had his arms uplifted." 
 
LEGAL BATTLE OPENS 63 
 
 ( ( ' 
 
 Did you hear the defendant say an}1:hing after 
 the shooting?" asked Assistant District Attorney Gar- 
 van. 
 
 "Yes/' the witness replied, *'he said ^He ruined 
 my wife/ " 
 
 "Did he sav anvthino- else?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Did 3^ou hear any one say anything to him?" 
 
 "His wife." 
 
 "What did she say?" 
 
 "Look at the fix you are in." 
 
 "Did he reply?" 
 
 "I did not hear him say anythinfr else." 
 
 Edward H. Convey, foreman, of laborers at Madison 
 Square garden, was called to further identify the 
 l)istol Brudi took from Thaw, and which Convey 
 h<4ped in turning over to the police. He was not 
 cross-examined. 
 
 Policeman A. L. Debes, who arrested Thaw, was 
 called. He identified the pistol, the Imllets, and empty 
 slu41s introduced as exhibit. 
 
 "Did you have any conversation with Tlinw?" 
 asked ^h\ Oarvan. 
 
 "I did," he replied. 
 
 "T a.sked the prisoner if he had shot Stanfoi-d 
 AVhite, and he said. 'I did.' I then asked him why h' 
 sliot him and he said, 'Because he ruined my wife - 
 or life.'" 
 
64 THE QBE AT THAW CASE 
 
 "You could not distingiush whether he said wife or 
 life?" was asked. 
 
 "No. Thaw then asked where we were going and 
 I replied, *To the station house,' and he said 'All 
 ]'ight.' After this I turned him over to another officer 
 and went up stairs to get witnesses." 
 
 Coroner's Physician Timothy Lehane, who pei*- 
 formed the autopsy on Stanford White's body, de- 
 scribed the wounds made by three pistol shots. 
 
 The first bullet, he said, entered the right eye, pass- 
 ing downward and entering the brain; the second 
 entered on the right side of the upper lip, and the 
 third wound was on the right arm, the bullet ranging 
 downward and passing out six inches from the point 
 of entrance, making what is commonly called a flesh 
 woruid. 
 
 The witness then identified the various bullets and 
 ^fr. Garvan asked that they be formally received as 
 evidence. The exhibits were passed across to the table 
 of counsel foi' the defense. Thaw's eyes wandered 
 about from right to left, but not even a fleeting 
 ghince was thrown in the direction where the deadly 
 l)ullets were being left. 
 
 Dr. Lehane declared cerebral hemorrhage, caus(vl 
 by the bullet wounds, produced death. 
 
 Dr. Sylvester Pechner, who was with a party on tlu^ 
 Af.idison S(|uar(- Roof garden the night of the tragedy, 
 n 'xt was introduced as a witn.ess foi* the prostH'ution. 
 '))'. I\'chner examined White soon after he fell and 
 
LEGAL BATTLE OPENS 65 
 
 pronounced him dead. The architect's death must 
 have been instantaneous, the witness declared. 
 
 Dr. Pechner said that when his attention was at- 
 tracted by the firing of the pistol, he saw Thaw stand- 
 ing over White. 
 
 He then saw the defendant "break his gun" and 
 pull out the empty shells, and hold it aloft. Just after 
 this Fireman Brudi took the man in charge. 
 
 Policeman Debes was recalled and Mr. Oarvan 
 asked him: "Did you hear any remark credited to 
 the defendant's wife that night ?'•* 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Where was it?" 
 
 "On the ground floor of the Twenty-sixth slre(^t 
 entrance." 
 
 "Wluit did she say?" 
 
 " 'llarr>% why did you do it?' and he replied, 'Tl 
 v/ill be all right' " 
 
 This ended the state's case— all the evidence de- 
 pended upon to send the young millionaire to tht^ 
 (^lectric chair having been presented in that brief ses- 
 si(m. The defense opened a little more than an honr 
 later after a brief recess for luncheon. 
 
 "Harry Thaw believed he was aeting upon the 
 command of Providcmce when he killed Stanford 
 White," thundered Attorney Gleason in opening the 
 case of the defense. 
 
 Thaw's insanity at the time of the killing, Mr. 
 Gleason said, was due to heredity and stress of cir- 
 
66 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 eiimstances. It would also be shown, lie said, that thr 
 defendant had suffered from temporary or emotional 
 insanity for years. 
 
 "You must disabuse your minds, gentlemen of the 
 jury," he began, ''of any idea or impression that the 
 defense in this case will rely upon anything but the 
 constitution and the laws of the imperial state of New 
 York. Upon these laws alone we will rely. 
 
 ''Yqu must dismiss all idea that we are to import 
 into this case any so-called higher or unwritten law. 
 We will rely upon all the defenses that the law al- 
 lows. 
 
 "One of the defenses allowed by law is that of in- 
 sanity. ' ' 
 
 Mr. Gleason declared further that it would be 
 shown that Thaw acted in self-defense and without 
 malice, believing threats had been made against him 
 by Stanford White. Mr. Gleason said that Thaw did 
 not know the nature or quality of his act at the time 
 he committed it. 
 
 The defendant killed Stanford Wliite, he said. He 
 l)elieved that it was an act of Providence and that he 
 was guided in that act by Providence. 
 
 ' ' The defendant killed White, and he did not know 
 that act was wrong. He was suffering from a mental 
 unsoundness proceeded from a disease so that he did 
 not know what he was doing. We will show^ that there 
 was a numtal unsoundness in his family. 
 
 "There will b(^ Avitnesscs produced here on both 
 
LEGAL BATTLE OPENS 67 
 
 sides, but you are the ones who will judge of the faet 
 of whether the defendant was insane or not when he 
 killed Stanford White. 
 
 "It lies with yon and yon alone to decide whether 
 or not Thaw was sane Avhen he killed Stanford White. 
 You must apply to yourselves the test of your ability 
 to decide truly and wisely. 
 
 ''It is for you to reach out with that human spirit 
 which says to any man, no matter how degraded, 
 ' look up and be of good cheer. I, too, am a man, and 
 would have done the same thing had I been placed in 
 your position.' 
 
 "When you have heard all the testimony in this 
 case and come to judge this defendant, I am sure you 
 will be of the opinion that the defendant's act was due 
 to insanity and not one of crime." 
 
 Mr. Gleason's address required less than an hour. 
 At its conclusion the way was clear for the greatest 
 defense of modern times and the sacrifice of Evelyn 
 Thaw-- a feature without a parallel in modern juris- 
 |)rudence. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 "I Swear Harry K. Thaw Was Insane." 
 
 DEFENSE BEGINS TERRIFIC FIGHT TO PROVE YOUNG MII^ 
 LIONAIRE WAS CRAZED BY WHITENS ACTS— DR. WILEY, 
 THAW^S FAMILY PHYSICIAN, DECLARES HARRY DID NOT 
 REALIZE WHAT HE WAS DOING— THEATER EMPI OYE. 
 PROVED IMPORTANT POINT THAT WHITE HAD THREAT- 
 ENED YOUNG THAW— ANOTHER PHYSICIAN ASSERT- 
 ED THE SLAYER, WHILE YOUNG, HAD ST. VITUS DANCE, 
 A DREAD MALADY THAT MIGHT HAVE AFFECTED HIS 
 BRAIN— EVELY:^^ PALE AND WORRIED— PRISONER RAG- 
 ING IN HIS CELL— THE CRISIS AHEAD. 
 
 Experts on the subject of insanity— famous physi- 
 cians whose testimony cost from $100 to $500 a day 
 each, and whose services rec^uired an expenditure of 
 more than a half million dollars— were the central 
 fifj^ures in the early part of this cek^brated trial. 
 The defense began by forging the links in the chain 
 of circumstances which, it was asserted, had disordered 
 the brain of Harry Thaw and caused him to kill 
 White. 
 
 The first witness for the defense was Dr. C. C. Wiley 
 oT Pittsburg, the ThaAVs' family jihysician, who was 
 connected with the Dixmont Insane Asylum. Duriiii: 
 Dr. Wiley's examination, the young prisoner sat with 
 paper and pencil, taking notes and consulting con- 
 
 68 
 
DELFIIIN M. DELMAS 
 Thaw's chief lawyer. 
 
SWEARS THAW INSANE 
 
 71 
 
 stantly with his counsel. He was pale and nervous, 
 and shuddered at the slightest unusual noise in the 
 court room. Jerome went at the witness pitilessly, 
 asked him trick questions, and endeavored a hundred 
 times to trap him into an admission that Thaw might 
 not have been insane at the time he killed White. 
 
 Jerome failed. AYhen the day had closed the evi- 
 dence as to insanity remained unshaken, but the wit- 
 ness was exhausted and so confused that he often took 
 refuge in the answer ''I don't know," or **I cannot 
 recall." 
 
 Mr. Gleason, attorney for Thaw, asked the expert 
 a hypothetical question the answer to which immeas- 
 urably strengthened the plea that Thaw was insane. 
 It was: 
 
 "Assuming that any man was proved to you, as an 
 expert, to have attended a roof garden the day of 
 June 25, 1906, the occasion of the opening of a theat- 
 rical entertainment which was largely attended, and 
 that on walking out from the theater, with his wife 
 near him, and apparently in a quiet and orderly man- 
 ner; that that man should turn aside and fire three 
 shots from a revolver into a man who was sitting at 
 the table and to whom he did not speak ; that this man 
 then held the pistol above his head and walked quietly 
 toward an elevator; that he gave up the pistol without 
 resistance and did not make any attempt to escape, 
 and that he said, 'He ruined my wife,' and that im- 
 mediately thereafter he said toliis wife, *T have prob- 
 
72 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 ably saved your life/ I ask you, sir, upon your judg- 
 ment as an expert, whether you are able to give an 
 opinion touching on the sanity of the man who made 
 that answer?'' 
 
 *'I can," said Dr. Wiley. 
 
 "Wiil you express that opinion?" •"^' V- 
 
 "I believe that that man " 
 
 District Attorney Jerome objected. 
 
 "You must not state a belief," said Mr.* Jerome, 
 ' ' that is not evidence. You must give an opinion. ' ' 
 
 "My opinion," said Dr. Wiley, "is that the man 
 who committed the act described was suffering from 
 insanity." 
 
 Other striking assertion.s from Dr. Wiley's testi- 
 mony were : 
 
 "The act of Harry K. Thaw was that of an insane 
 man. 
 
 ' ' The remark Thaw made to his wife after the trag- 
 edy, 'I have probably saved your life,' is an indication 
 of an insane delusion. 
 
 ' ' I have examined 800 people as to their sanity, and 
 should know the prisoner's condition. 
 
 "When I examined Harry in the Tombs prison after 
 the murder his actions were irrational." 
 
 Dr. Wiley was on the stand for the defense all tlie 
 first day, and at the opening of the second day a sen- 
 sation came when Mr. Delmas took the helm of the 
 defense, and called Benjamin Bowman as the second 
 witness. Jerome had refused to aJlow Bowman to tes- 
 
COUNTESS OF YARMOUTH 
 Harry Thaw's sister. 
 
SWEAES THAW INSANE 
 
 75 
 
 tify for the state. Bowman in 1903 was a doorkeeper 
 at the Madison Square Garden Theater. 
 
 ''I knew Stanford White and Harry Thaw," Bow- 
 man swore. "A few nights after Christmas, 1908, 
 Stanford White came up to me after the show and 
 wanted to know if Miss Nesbit had gone home. I 
 told him she had. He replied: 'You are a liar.' 
 I tokl him to go back (m the stage and see for him- 
 self. 
 
 "When he returned, and as he passed me he pulled 
 a pistol from his pocket and muttered: ''I'll find 
 and kill that before daylight.' " 
 
 "Did you tell Harry Thaw of this threat against 
 his life?" asked Delmas. 
 
 "Yes, I met him on Fifth avenue and told him I 
 wanted to speak with him regarding Miss Nesbit. I 
 then told him of the incident at the theater and of 
 White's threat." 
 
 "What was Mr. White's condition when he made 
 the threat?" 
 
 "He was black in the face with anger." 
 
 This ended the direct examination of Bowman, and 
 Justice Fitzgerald said: 
 
 "If there are any persons in the courtroom whose 
 sense of propriety would be offended by the testimony 
 of this witness the court will give them an opportuni-. 
 ty now to withdraw." 
 
 "We must ask the court to bear with us in bringing 
 
76 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 out this testimony," explained Delmas, ''but it is es- 
 sential. ' ' 
 
 **It is perfectly right and proper," Justice Fitz- 
 gerald quickly assured the lawyer. ' ' There are ladies 
 here, however, and I think they should be given the 
 opportunity to withdraw if they so desire." 
 
 The Countess of Yarmouth and Mr.s. Geor^ife L. 
 Carnegie quickly left the courtroom. 
 
 Mrs. Evelyn Nesbit Thaw and May McKenzie ar- 
 rived at the courthouse some time after the session 
 had begun. 
 
 In cross-examination by Mr. Jerome the witness 
 clung to his story. lie added that ''The Girl From 
 Dixie" was playing at the Roof Garden Theater at 
 the time, and that White and Thaw even then were 
 rivals for Miss Nesbit 's affections. 
 
 The next witness was Martin Green, a newspaper 
 man, who saw Thaw just after the shooting. lie was 
 asked as to Thaw's manner after he committed the 
 murder. 
 
 **He held the pistol high above his head," said 
 Mr. Green. 'Tie was very pale, his eyes seemed 
 a])Out to pop out of his head, and his hair was hang- 
 ing well down on liis forehead." 
 
 Dr. John Franklin Bingaman of Pittsburg, on<' of 
 the Thaw alienists, testified he had known Ilany 
 Thaw for thirty years. lie attended him when he was 
 two or three yeans old. Thaw had children's diseases 
 and St. Vitus' dance. 
 
SWEARS THAW INSANE 
 
 77 
 
 Dr. Bingaman said that Thaw's condition might 
 be called a neurotic temperament. 
 
 ]\Ir. Jerome asked only two (questions in cross-ex- 
 amination. In response to them Dr. Bingaman said 
 Thaw had the St. Vitus' dance when he was six or 
 seven years old. 
 
 At the end of this day's hearing Harry Thaw was 
 in a frenzy. In his cell he denounced his lawyers for 
 tlieir determination to make insanity the defense 
 Adding to his troubles was the fact that his beautiful 
 young wife was to go on the stand next day and bare 
 her tragic life to the public ga7.e. 
 
 Mrs. Thaw dreaded the ordeal. She was Ijarred 
 from the court-room during the latter i)art of the 
 early testimony, but extra editions of the newspapers 
 were brought to her hourly, and she read the testi- 
 mony she was not allowed to hear. She was ghastly 
 pale, and at times appeared about to collapse. 
 
 Next day brought the crisis in the most sensational 
 trial of the twentieth century, with the fair, slender 
 Evelyn — the leader in the battle to save her hus- 
 band's life. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A Human Sacrifice on the Altar of Love. 
 
 EVELYN NESBIT THAW BEGINS STORY OF TRAGIC FATE AT 
 HANDS OF STxVNFORD WHITE— TELLS OF SHOOTING— "I 
 WILL BE brave/' HER W^ORDS TO HUSBAND — COL- 
 LAPSES ON STAND— RELATES HOW HER BETRAYAL DE- 
 LAYED HER MARRIAGE — thaw's GREAT LOVE RE- 
 VEALED— ^'l HAVE PROBABLY SAVED YOUR LIFE'^ — 
 WEPT WHEN SHE DISCLOSED TO HARRY THE VILLAINY 
 OF WHITE — BLUSHES CRI^NISON ON THE STAND— AL- 
 MOST FAINTS WHEN ORDERED TO TELL OF HER DOWN- 
 FALL. 
 
 ''I will be brave— I will be very brave, and I know 
 that when I am done, you will go free. It will be 
 hard, but I must tell all. Good-bye, Harry, my 
 love, my own, my sweetheart, husband — " 
 
 These were Evelyn Nesbit Thaw's ^vords before 
 going on the stand. 
 
 Crime, horrible, fiendish, revolting, startling in its 
 details, and consummated with all the clever brutality 
 that a brilliant mind could encompass— was laid up 
 against the blighted name of Stanford White by 
 Evelyn Nesbit on the witness stand February 8, 1907. 
 
 Beauty in distress— beauty that made a powerful 
 impression on .judge, jury and spectators, intensified 
 a hundredfold the dramatic climax of the trial. 
 
 78 
 
A HUMAN SACRIFICE 79 
 
 Frail, young, her fair name shattered, her love for 
 husband surpassing that of Thisbe for Pyramus, she 
 laid down her bleeding heart upon the altar of the 
 soul, and gave herself a living sacrifice to save her 
 husband from the electric chair. 
 
 In the midst of her story of her shame, the beauti- 
 ful bride broke down and cried bitterly. Restoratives 
 were applied, and, fighting with the life of her loved 
 one as the stake, the piteously fragile and surpassing- 
 ly pretty young wife continued with the story of her 
 ruin at the hands of a modern Nero, for so she 
 painted White. 
 
 Mrs. Thaw was on the stand two hours, and her 
 direct examination had not been concluded when the 
 luncheon adjournment was taken. As she walked 
 from the witness chair along the passageway back of 
 the jury box she felt along the wall with the finger 
 tips of her left hand as if about to faint. From scar- 
 let her faced had paled to the whiteness of a sheet. 
 
 Except when she broke down when going into the 
 details of her experience with White the girl spoke 
 in a clear, soft voice. On the witness stand she ap- 
 peared for the first time in court unveiled, and her 
 beauty was remarked on all sides. It is of a girlish 
 type, a mass of dark hair framing a face of daintily 
 molded features. 
 
 "Evelyn Ne-sbit Thaw," called the clerk in a tragic 
 voice, as soon as the trial opened for what was fated 
 to be its greatest day. 
 
80 TEE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 The court room was hushed. Thre^ kundred news- 
 paper workers, flashing bulletins to every American 
 city, to London, Paris, and isles beyond the seas, 
 hardl}^ breathed, leaned forward excitedly, and the 
 crisis in the greatest legal battle ever fought was on ! 
 
 The familiar figure in blue, now for the first time 
 without her veil, appeared from the judge's cham- 
 bers. She stood near the jury box as Clerk Penny ad- 
 ministered the oath. 
 
 "I swear," repeated Mrs. Thaw in an audible 
 voice at the end of the formal declaration, which was 
 made just a little more impressive than usual. "I 
 solemnly swear before the ever living God to tell the 
 truth, the whole truth and nothing but the trutli!" 
 
 ]\rrs. Thaw took her place in the witness cliair 
 calmly. She looked steadily ahead at Mr. Delmas 
 and gave her answers to his first questions in a clear 
 and firm voice, which was soft in quality. 
 
 ITarry Thaw smiled at his wife as she walked to 
 the witness stand, but she apparently did not see him 
 at the moment. After she Avas seated, however, she 
 smiled faintly at the prisoner and blushed crimson. 
 
 In answer to Mr. Delmas' first question Mrs. Thaw 
 said she was born Dec. 25, 1884. She told of going 
 1() the Cafe Martin to dinner the evening of June 25 
 with her husband, Thomas IMcCaleb, and Tinxton 
 Bcale. 
 
 ''While you were at the Cafe Martin did you see 
 Stanford AVliite?" asked Delmas. 
 
( i ■ 
 
 A HU3IAN SACRIFICE 81 
 
 ''Yes," answered Evelyn. 
 
 "At what time did you see him?'* 
 
 ''I don't know; it was some time after we ar- 
 rived. ' ' 
 
 "Where did you first see him?" 
 
 "Coming in at the Fifth avenue entrance." 
 HoAv lont]: did you see him?" 
 I don't know. He passed through and went on to 
 the balcony." 
 
 "While he was on the balcony could you see him?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Did you see him leave?" 
 
 "Yes. I saw him come in from the balcony and go 
 out of the Fifth avenue entrance. ' ' 
 
 "While you were in the Cafe Martin, did you call 
 for a pencil?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "From whom?" 
 
 "I think from Mr. ^IcCaleb. He said he did not 
 have one." 
 
 ]\rrs. Thaw said that McCaleb sat on her left, Beale 
 on her right, and Thaw was facing her. 
 Did you ask again for a pencil?" 
 Yes, I got one from some one, I don't remember 
 whom." 
 
 "Did you write a note?" 
 
 "I did." 
 
 "On what?" 
 
 
82 THE GREAT TEAW CASE 
 
 "A slip of paper. I think Mr. McCaleb gave it to 
 
 me." 
 
 
 "What did you do with itf 
 
 "I passed it to Mr. Thaw. 
 
 "What did Mr. Thaw do?" 
 
 "He said to me: 'Are you all right?' I said: 
 'Yes.'" 
 
 "What was your condition as to being disturbed 
 or affected?" 
 
 Mr. Jerome's objection to the question. was sus- 
 tained. 
 
 "Was there anything unusual in your manner that 
 was visible to others ? ' ' 
 
 Again an objection was sustained. 
 
 "After this how long did you remain?" 
 
 "Only a shoi-t time." 
 
 "Mrs. Thaw, have you that slip of paper now?" 
 
 "I have not." 
 
 "Have you seen it since?" 
 
 "No." " 
 
 "Did what you wrote refer to Stanford White?" 
 
 Mr. Jerome objected on the ground that the note 
 itself v/as the best evidence. 
 
 "After you left the restaurant, you went to Madi- 
 son Square Roof garden?" asked Mr. Delmas. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "About what time was it?" 
 
 "About th- middle of the first act." 
 
 Mrs. Thaw said that she sat in a seat beside ^h\ 
 
A HUMAX SACBIFICE 83 
 
 Beale and Mr. McCaleb. Her husband went to the 
 back of the theater; she said. He was away about 
 fifteen minutes, when he returned and took a seat 
 beside her. 
 
 "How long did he remain at your side?*' 
 
 ' ' About half an hour. ' ' 
 
 "What was his manner then?" 
 
 "It seemed to be the same as ever." 
 
 "Did you talk about anything special then?" 
 
 "Xo, .just general." 
 
 "Who suggested going away from the garden 1" 
 
 "I did." 
 
 "The play wasn't interesting to you?" 
 
 "Not a bit," said the w^itness. 
 
 "How did you start when you went out?" 
 
 "I think that Mr. ]\IcCaleb and I were in the lead 
 and Mr. Thaw and Mr. Beale followed." 
 
 "How far had you gone when something hap^ 
 pened?" 
 
 "Almost to the elevator. I had turned around to 
 speak to Mr. Thaw." 
 
 "How far were you from Mr. White then?" 
 
 "About as far as the end of the .jury box." 
 
 "Yon saw Mr. White sitting there?" 
 
 "I did." 
 
 "Did you see "Sir. Thaw then?" 
 
 "Xot until a minute or so afterward. He waa 
 directly in front of Mr. Wliite, standing with his arm 
 up in the air." 
 
 "Did vou hear sh )ts fired?" 
 
84 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 ''Yes, immediately after I saw Mr. White -I heard 
 the shots." 
 
 "How many shots?" 
 
 "Three shots." 
 
 "What did you say?" 
 
 "I said to Mr. McCaleb: 'I think he has shot 
 him."' 
 
 "Did Mr. Thaw^ come over to where you were?" 
 
 "Yes, I asked him what he had done. He leaned 
 over and kissed me and said : ' I have probably saved 
 your life.' " 
 
 "What happened then?" 
 
 "I left." 
 
 "You were taken from there?" 
 
 "Yes, I think with Mr. McCaleb and Mr. Beale." 
 
 "You left and did not return?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "You said that you are the wife of the defen- 
 dant?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "When were you married?" 
 
 "On April 4, 1905." 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 "In Pittsburo-, at the residence of Dr. McEwen, 
 pastor of the Third Presbyterian church." 
 
 "Who were present?" 
 
 "I think Josiah Thaw, Mr. Thaw's brother," the 
 witness went on, after a moment. 
 
A HUMAN SACRIFICE 85 
 
 "When had Mr. Thaw proposed for the first time?" 
 
 ''In June, 1903, in Paris." 
 
 "At the time did you refuse him?" 
 
 "I did." 
 
 "Did you state in explaining your refusal of his 
 proposal that it had something to do with Stanford 
 \Yhite?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "State what happened." 
 
 "Mr. Thaw told me that he loved me and wanted 
 to marry me. I stared at him for a moment and then 
 he said, 'Don't you care for meV and I said that I 
 did. Then he asked me what was the matter. I said 
 'nothing.' *AVhy won't you many me?' he said. 
 He put his hands on my shoulder and asked, "Is it 
 because of Stanford White?' and I said 'yes.' Then 
 he told me he would never love any one else or marry 
 any one else. I started to cry. He said he wanted 
 me to tell him the whole thing. Then I began to tell 
 him how I first met Stanford White. ' ' 
 
 At this frail Evelyn collapsed utterly. Falling 
 back in her chair, her beautiful features ghastly pale, 
 she murmured: 
 
 "I can't go on! I can't! I can't!" 
 
 The court windows were opened, an alienist who 
 was present applied restoratives, and in a few min- 
 utes ^Irs. Thaw was able to go on to the story of her 
 ruin. 
 
86 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 Evelyn Nesbit*s First Public Appearance 
 
 Sweet-voiced Child of 5 Sang Requiem for the Dead in Village Church, 
 Moving Congregation to Tears. 
 
 Florence Evelyn Nesbit was a particular!}- inter- 
 esting child, very quiet, somewhat shy, and did not 
 easily make friends with anyone, but when one did 
 gain her confidence she was a loyal friend. She was 
 a very beautiful child and had a remarkably sweet 
 voice for one so tender in years. 
 
 Her gift was so marked that she made her first 
 public appearance at the age of 5. It was at a me- 
 morial service in the Methodist church of which her 
 parents were members. It was held in honor of the 
 members who had died during the year. The church 
 was decorated for the occasion with an immense bank 
 of evergreens completely screening the pulpit. 
 
 In the midst of a solemn hush in the service came 
 the dulcet voice of a child singing. It was little Flor- 
 ence Evelyn, hidden behind the evergreens, and in 
 tones that will never be forgotten by the hearers, and 
 which w^ere clear and distinct in all parts of the edi- 
 fice, came the words of the hymn, "We Are Going 
 Down the Valley One by One. ' ' Before the song was 
 half finished nearly the entire audience was moved to 
 tears. 
 
 Softly, tremulously, yet distinctly, came the im- 
 pressive burden of the song. It was a splendid 
 triumph for the child, and it still lingers in the hearts 
 of the people who were there, its remembrance helped 
 them in the midst of her trials to sympathize with 
 and pity her. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 Evelyn Reveals White as a Fearful Monster. 
 
 STAGGERING BLOW TO PROSECUTION — MOB OF WOMEN 
 FIGPITS TO ENTER COURT— PATHETIC SCENE — HAND 
 OP^ MAGICIAN SUGGESTED IN DOORS THAT OPEN W^ITH- 
 Or:T HUMAN AID— AT AGE OF 16, BEAUTY FELL INTO 
 CLUTCHES OF UNSCRUPULOUS MILLIONAIRE— THOUGHT 
 WHITE AN ''ugly MAN '^— RED VELVET SWING IN DEN 
 OF :MIRR0RS— BEAUTY DRUGGED WITH WINE— MOTH- 
 ER 's INFLUENCE REVEALED— PHOTOGR.VPHED IN KIMO- 
 NO—LURED TO white's STUDIO. 
 
 The staggering blow to Jerome was about to be 
 dealt. Tense, nervous, and thrilled with emotions 
 of pity, the spectators hung on every word of the 
 pale Evelyn when she resumed her testimony. 
 
 Word of the impending revelations mysteriously 
 got outside the court-room, although the doors were 
 barred. 
 
 The corridors were filled, and scores of people, 
 many of them women, tried in every possible way to 
 force themselves by the officers at the courtroom 
 doors, but after the preceding afternoon's laxity the 
 bars were put up again and very few were allowed 
 to pass. 
 
 However, half a score of women managed to suc- 
 
 87 
 
88 
 
 THE GREAT THA^Y CASE 
 
 ceed. Tliey were attired in their gayest costumes, 
 in marked contrast with the costume of IMrs. Thaw. 
 
 Evelyn on the stand did not look even her 23 years. 
 She was dressed in a plain dark blue gown, with a 
 long coat and wore a broad white linen collar. Her 
 hat was dark and low in the cro\Aai, with a broad 
 soft brim, and trimmed with a small bunch of violets. 
 She wore her hair in a loose knot low on her neck, 
 tied with a large black ribbon. Her face, which until 
 she took the stand, Avas unusually pale, was first 
 flushed, then ghastly in its pallor. It was marked 
 with delicate eye-brows and long lashes. Her eyes 
 were large and dark, and appealing, and her dark 
 hair required frequent brushing back from her eyes. 
 Her slender figure was tense with excitement, and her 
 voice was usually firm and clear. 
 
 Even while the women were fighting their way into 
 the room, the questioning was resumed. IMrs. Thaw 
 told of the startling crime of Stanford White, that 
 blighted her young life, and made her beauty a mock- 
 ery. 
 
 Attorney Delmas, ever alert to forestall the mass 
 of objections by Jerome at every opportunity, cau- 
 tioned the witness: 
 
 "Be kind enough to remember you are to omit," 
 said Mr. Delmas, "in relating the narrative of what 
 you told ]\Ir. Thaw, the name of any other person 
 save that of Mr. White. Now continue." 
 
 "A young lady asked my mother several times to 
 
EVELYN NESBIT AS "THE SUNBONNET GIRL" 
 when 1 6 years old. 
 
"WRITE A MONSTER 91 
 
 let me go out with her to lunch," said the fragile 
 beauty, Mrs. Thaw. "She came again and again to 
 me before I sent her to my mother, finally, and she 
 said, 'All right.' My mother finally consented." 
 
 "Proceed." 
 
 "On the day I was to go my mother dressed me 
 
 and I went with Miss , the other young lady, in 
 
 a hansom, hoping we would go to the ballroom, be- 
 cause I wanted to see it. But we went straight down 
 to Broadwa}^ through Twenty-fourth street up to a 
 dingy looking door. The young lady jumped out 
 and asked me to follow her," 
 
 Mr. Jerome objected to the form of the narrative, 
 and he asked: 'Did you relate all that to Mr. 
 Thaw?'" 
 
 "Yes," said the witness. "He told me to tell him 
 everything. ' ' 
 
 "By the way," interjected Delmas, "what was the 
 date of that event?" 
 
 "As nearly as I can remember," with a pucker of 
 forehead, "it was in August, 1901." 
 
 "You were then 16 years and some months old?" 
 
 "Well, now I want you to tell of your first meeting 
 with Stanford White just as you told it to Mr. Thaw 
 on that day," directed Delmas. 
 
 The show girl said that a chorus girl, Edna Good- 
 rich, asked her to a luncheon party where she would 
 meet AVhite. She and Edna took a cab and went to 
 the studio on West Twenty-fourth street. The wit- 
 

 92 TEE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 ness said the doors seemed to open of themselves. 
 
 ''We went upstairs," said Evelyn, "and there I 
 met a man who was introduced to me as Stanford 
 White. I thought him an ugly man. There was a 
 table already set for four. Another gentleman came 
 later. I remember Mr. White teased me about my 
 hair, which I wore down my back, and my short skirt, 
 which reached to my shoe tops. After supper we 
 went up two flights of stairs more, and in the room 
 was a large red velvet SAving. Mr. White put me in 
 the swing and swung me very hard. When we swung 
 very hard one foot crashed through a large Japanese 
 umbrella which hung from the ceiling. 
 
 ''Your mother dressed you to go? 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 ' ' I must caution you to tell only what you told Mr. 
 Thaw." 
 
 "I will," said the witness, and went on; "The 
 dingy door opened, nobody seeming to open it." 
 
 "What did you do then?" 
 
 "We went up some steps to another door, which 
 opened to some other apartment. I stopped and 
 asked the young lady where we were going and she 
 said: 'It's all right.' A man's voice called down 
 'Hello.' " 
 
 "Who was it?" 
 
 "It was Stanford White," said the witness clearly. 
 What did you find in the room or studio to which 
 you went?" 
 
 A table set for four." 
 
 ( < 
 
WHITE A MONSTER 93 
 
 ''This is all what you told Mr. Thaw," put in Mr. 
 Jerome. 
 
 "It was," said young Mrs. Thaw, "I told him 
 everything. ' ' 
 
 There was a halt in the testimony here while Mr. 
 Jerome and Mr. Delmas whispered. 
 
 "How were you dressed?" asked Mr. Delmas. 
 
 "I wore a short dress, with my hair down my 
 back." 
 
 The witness said they went up into another room, 
 where a big Japanese umbrella was swinging. 
 
 Mr. Jerome objected to the testimony on the ground 
 that he would have no opportunity to prove or dis- 
 prove the facts alleged. IMr. Delmas said the de- 
 fense would offer no objection to the district attorney 
 probing tlie correctness of the facts. 
 
 Mrs. Thaw then said that afterward she and her 
 companion went for a drive to the park, then re- 
 turned to the house with White. She said when she 
 ^ot home she told her mother everything that hap- 
 pened. 
 
 "Did your mother subsequently receive a letter 
 from Stanford White?" was asked. 
 
 "She did." 
 
 "What was in the letter?" 
 
 "It asked my mother to call on "Sir. White at 160 
 Fifth avenue." 
 
 "Did you tell Mr. Thaw about that?" 
 
 "I did." 
 
94 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 "When your mother returned did she tell you any- 
 thing?" 
 
 "She did." 
 
 "What did your mother tell you?" 
 
 "He asked her to take me to a dentist and have 
 my teeth fixed and for her to have her own fixed, 
 too. She said: 'No; that it was a very strange 
 thing. ' Mr. White told her that he did that for the 
 other Florodora girls." 
 
 "When did you next see White?" 
 
 "I saw him in the studio. I got a note from him 
 previously inviting me to a party and saying a car- 
 riage v/ould be waiting for me on the corner. Be- 
 fore that he had sent me a hat, a feather boa, and a 
 cape. There was another man. and girl with us." 
 
 Mr. Delmas mentioned the names of the others to 
 ]Mr. Jerome. 
 
 "Where did you go?" 
 
 "To the studio in IMadison Square tower. We had 
 a very nice time there. ]\Ir. White said I was only 
 tt) have one glass of champagne, and that I was to be 
 brought home early. I was brought home early to 
 the door of my house. I told Mr. Thaw that we had 
 several parties of this kind in the tower." 
 
 "Did you see ^Ir. White again?" 
 
 "Yes, he came to see my mother, told her that I 
 would be all riglit in New York, and that he would 
 take care of me." 
 
 Mrs. Thaw said she met Whit" in Soptembei-, 1901. 
 
WHITE A MOXSTER 95 
 
 in a studio in East Twenty-second street. The door 
 opened of itself, she said,' and the house looked at 
 first as if no one lived there. She said that she went 
 upstairs and met Mr. White, a photographer, and 
 another man. 
 
 The witness whispered the name of the man to Mr. 
 Jerome, who wrote it down. 
 
 "What did you see there?" 
 
 "There was a lot of expensive gowns there." 
 
 "What happened?" 
 
 ' ' I went into the dressing-room to put on the dress. 
 Mr. White knocked at the door and asked if I needed 
 any help. I said, 'No.' " 
 
 ]\rrs. Thaw related in detail her experience in the 
 photographic studio and said she posed until she was 
 very tired and that White, who had come in, ordered 
 food and they had something to eat. The photo- 
 grapher left, she said, and after they had lunched she 
 went into a dressing room to remove her kimona and 
 put on her dress. 
 
 "I shut the door while I was inside," added the 
 witness. "Mr. White came to the door, knocked and 
 asked me if I wanted any help. I said: 'No.' " 
 
 The former artist's model testified that she drank 
 ])ut one glass of champagne and when she was dressed 
 she got into a carriage and was taken back to the 
 hotel. 
 
 "The next night," she continued, "I got a note 
 from Mr. White askin": me to come down to the studio 
 
96 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 for luncheon after the theater with some of his 
 friends. A carriage would call for me, and would 
 take me home after the party, he wrote. I went 
 down to the Twenty-fourth street studio again and 
 found Mr. White and no one else there. 
 
 " 'What do you think,' he said to me, 'the others 
 have turned us down.' Then I told him I had better 
 go home, and he told me that I had better sit down 
 and have some fruit. So I took off my hat and coat. 
 Mr. White told me he had other floors in the garden, 
 and that I had not seen all of his place. He would 
 take me around and show me, he said. 
 
 ''So he took me up some stairs to the floor above, 
 where there were very beautiful decorations," went 
 on Mrs. Thaw. "I played for him, and he took me 
 into another room. That room was a bedroom. On 
 a small table stood a bottle of champagne and one 
 glass. Mr. White poured out just one glass for me, 
 and I paid no attention to it. Mr. White went away, 
 came back and said: 'I decorated this room, myself.' 
 Then he asked me why I was not drinking my cham- 
 pagne and I said I did not like it; it tasted bitter. 
 But he persuaded me to drink it and I did. 
 
 "A few moments after I had drank it there began 
 a pounding and thumping in my ears and the room 
 got all black." 
 
 Mrs. Thaw was almost in tears at this statement. 
 
 "When I came to myself I was greatly fi'ightened 
 and I started to scream. Mr. White came and 
 
''■^■^- ^- i'-.^<^ — - — jL^gLg^ ^-aa ^v-r ... .-.'.- '-jgij^aa^ijaaaag 
 
 MMMMMMaiaaSiiiiai 
 
 Picture taken in Stanford White's studio. 
 
WHITE A 3I0NSTER 99 
 
 tried to quiet me. As I sat up I saw mirrors all over. 
 I began to scream again, and Mr. White asked me to 
 keep quiet, saying that it was all over. 
 
 "When he threw the kimono over me he left the 
 room. I screamed harder than ever. I don't re- 
 member much of anything after that. 
 
 *'He took me home and I sat up all night crying." 
 
 Regard for the morals of the young prevents the 
 l)ublication of the awful details disclosed at this 
 point in the evidence. The yellowest of yellow jour- 
 nals omitted the hideous details flashed over the 
 wires, and with all the shocking evidence published, 
 the public has no conception of awful facts revealed 
 by this pitiful tragedy. 
 
 "What did he say afterward?" 
 
 "He made me swear that I would never tell my 
 mother about it. He said there was no use in talking 
 and the greatest thing in this world was not to get 
 found out. He said the girls in the theaters were 
 foolish to talk. He laughed afterward. 
 
 "He said it was all right— that there was 'nothing 
 so nice as youno: girls and nothing so loathsome as 
 fat ones. You must never get fat.' " 
 
 The black heart of Stanford White was disclosed in 
 all its hideousness at last! The final shred of respec- 
 tability had been torn from his reputation. The al- 
 most fainting Evelyn had completed the human sac- 
 rifice. Her life story, tragic beyond human compre- 
 hension, had been told under oath— told to a Jury 
 
100 THE GEE AT THAW CASE 
 
 that gasped at every sentence-, shuddered at every dis- 
 closure. It was the coup d'etat of the defense! the 
 staggering blow reserved to overwhelm Jerome and 
 his allies. What a story it was that the poor little 
 victim of a sybaritic brute told ! What a tale of 
 Xero's time it seemed to be! Tiberius and Caligula 
 planned dens and stage settings such as Evelyn Xes- 
 bit described in the haunts of Stanford White. Did 
 Tiberius and Caligula ever plan darker, more foul 
 conspiracies against helpless little girls than the plots 
 of the great architect seemed to have been? And 
 with the telling of the heart-rending story came new 
 thoughts, new lights upon the shadowy life of the 
 man who died before the pistol of Harry Thaw. 
 
 No one ever denied that Stanford White, no matter 
 what he may have been^ was a generous giver, a good 
 Samaritan in the time of need. He supported Eve- 
 lyn, her mother, and her brother, in royal fashion. 
 
 What was to be deduced from the largess of White, 
 both to the Nesbits and to scores of others? 
 
 AVas the licentious architect a Jekyll and a Hyde? 
 
 Or did the weight of remorse and gloomy shame 
 bear down upon this strangest of men in such degree 
 that he strove mightily to salve his conscience and his 
 bitter memories? 
 
 Or was White ''a bookkeeper with the Fates"— 
 a man who tried ever to balance the accounts of good 
 and bad, so that the final reckoning might find his 
 ledgers balanced? There are many men who keep 
 
. WHITE A MONSTER 101 
 
 the lists of debits and of credits — who strive to make 
 a deed of kindness balance every deed of crime. 
 Was White such a man— bookkeeping with the Fates, 
 and seeking by princely generosity to offset the debits 
 of unscrupulous passion? She sat in the witness 
 chair, a tiny, shrinking figure, and she spoke out the 
 horrid details of the criminal outrage upon her; 
 unhesitating and unbreaking. The kindliness of 
 White, all with its ultimate hideous object masked 
 beneath the roses; the mirrored room in the archi- 
 tect's hidden lair; the drugged wine; the awakening 
 —all these things the little Evelyn told with the close 
 precision of a seared and branded memory. And 
 when the story had been spun the shrewd and skillful 
 Delmas smiled serene, well knowing that a probably 
 fatal blow had been dealt the prosecution. The 
 "learned Jerome," as Delmas suavely called him, 
 spent the night before planning and massing his ar- 
 tillery. He had a fearful day of defeat and sorrow. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 Intrigue Like Those in Days of Nero. 
 
 EVELYN TELLS HOW WHITE PLOTTED WITH FALSEHOODS 
 AND MONEY AS HIS INSTRUMENTS, TO BLAST HER LIFE 
 BY FORCING HER TO LEAVE HARRY THAW — SOI'GIIT 
 TO WRECK HER LOVE — HUSBAND GHASTLY IN COURT — 
 LAWYER DICTATED '' AFFIDAVIT" ACCUSING THAW, 
 WHILE BEAUTIFUL ACTRESS WEPT— BREACH OF PROM- 
 ISE SUIT CONSPIRACY— BLACKMAIL HINTED— WHITE 
 FLEECED — ARCHITECT EVEN TRIED TO STEAL EVELYN 
 PROM HUSBAND— JACK BARRYMORE, ACTOR, BROUGHT 
 INTO CASE — WANTED TO MARRY WITNESS— PROPOSED 
 TWICE— RUIN OF OTHER GIRLS BROUGHT UP— EVERY- 
 BODY AFFECTED BY TRAGIC STORY. 
 
 ''I refused to marry Harry at first because I loved 
 him — it was because of my reputation. I loved him 
 more than all else — more than my own life. I did not 
 want to ruin his career, to e.stran<i:e him from his 
 family and blast his future, "—Evelyn Nesbit Thaw 
 told the Jury. 
 
 Intrigue— a story of intrigue by Stanford White to 
 steal Evelyn Nesbit 's love away from Ilariy Thaw 
 by means of false, shocking stories of cruelty to other 
 women was bared by the fragile Evelyn the second 
 day she was on the stand. 
 
 Spectators shuddered at the diabolical ingenuity of 
 
 102 
 
A TALE OF INTRIGUE 103 
 
 Whife, millionaire, famous and feted, who, with nobln 
 aims ready for his mind, diverted his talent instead 
 to hideous crimes. 
 
 The ordeal of the witness chair had made nervous 
 wrecks of the frail woman, and of her husband, for 
 whose life she was battling. Young Thaw for the 
 finst time since the trial began had lost the spring in 
 his step, and instead of walking briskly to his place 
 at the table of his counsel he moved hesitatingly and 
 looked constantly from left to right about the court- 
 room. The big crowd seemed to annoy him. The 
 pallid face broke into a faint smile as the prisoner 
 recognized his brother, Edward Thaw, who was the 
 only member of the family in court. 
 
 ''Call Mrs. Evelyn Nesbit Thaw to the stand," re- 
 quested Mr. Del mas of the clerk. 
 
 When she appeared and took her place in the big 
 witness chair Mrs. Thaw was dressed precisely as on 
 the previous day. She was extremely pale and her- 
 lips trembled visibly as she replied to the first simf)l<' 
 (j[uestion asked her by counsel. 
 
 "Please relate what you told Mr. Thaw besides 
 what you stated before," said Mr. Delmas, looking af 
 Jerome, as if to say, "You cannot stop me now." 
 
 "He asked me how I came to speak to Stanford 
 White after my return from Europe," said Mrs. 
 Thaw. "I told him I was driving down Fifth avenue 
 one day in a hansom cab with my maid and we passed 
 
104 TEE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 Stanford White. I heard hira exclaim : ' Oh, look 
 at Evelyn.' 
 
 ''A few days later I was called to the telephone 
 and it was Mr. White. He said : ' My, but it is good 
 to hear your voice again, ' and said he wanted to come 
 and see me. I told him I could not see him. He 
 said it was very important that I should see him at 
 once. He said he had had much trouble with my 
 family and must see me. I asked if my mother was 
 ill.'' 
 
 *'He said it was a matter of life and death— he 
 could not tell me over the telephone. So he came to 
 see me at the Hotel Savoy. 
 
 "When he came in he tried to kiss me, but I did 
 not let him. He asked me what Avas the matter. I 
 told him to sit down and asked him again if my 
 mother was ill. He said, ^No,' and at once began, to 
 talk about Harry Thaw. He told me that different 
 actresses had told him that I was in Europe with 
 Harry Thaw. 
 
 "He said presently that Harry Thaw took me to 
 Europe, and asked me why I Avent around with a 
 man who took morphine. He said positively that 
 Harry Thaw took morphine, th^t he was not even a 
 gentleman, and I must have nothing to do with him. 
 
 "After that he came constantly to see me. He also 
 sent people to me Avho told me stories about ]\Ir. 
 Thaw, the stories I told yesterday. I told Mr. Thaw 
 afterwai'd that the stories worried me so much I could 
 
A TALE OF IXTEIGUE 105 
 
 not sleep nights. I got very nervous, for I knew ^Ir. 
 Thaw was coming over and I did not want to see him. 
 1 told ^h\ White I did not want to see ]\Ir. Thaw. 
 
 "One day Mr. White telephoned me that he was 
 going to send a carriage for me and I was to come 
 t ) Broadway and Nineteenth street. I did so, and 
 White met me and got into the carriage. He said 
 he was taking me to see Abe Hummel, the greatest 
 lawyer in New York, who would protect me from 
 Harry Thaw. He said I was not to be afraid of Mr. 
 Hummel ; he was a little man with a big, bald head, 
 warts on his face and was very ugly. 
 
 ''AVhen I got to Mr. Hummel's office Mr. White 
 went away. Mr. Hummel's office walls were covered 
 with photographs of actresses, with writing on them. 
 He asked me how I came to go to Europe with Harry 
 Thaw, and I told him that I didn't, I went with my 
 mother and Thaw followed us. He asked me about 
 my quarrel with my mother in London. I said it was 
 a continuous quarrel between us; we simply couldn't 
 get along. She wanted to come home to America 
 and I said she could come, but I was going to stay 
 there and return to the stage ; but the doctor told me 
 I couldn't dance for a year. Hummel asked me all 
 l)laces where I went with Thaw. 
 
 "I told him all I could remember. He said I was 
 a minor and that Thaw should have been more care- 
 ful. He said he had a case in his office against Thaw, 
 
106 THE QBE AT TE.UY CASE 
 
 but the woman in the case Avas a very bad one and ho 
 did not think the case was much good. 
 
 "Then he said Thaw was a very bad man, and, 
 above all things, I must be protected from him. Mr. 
 White then said that the other man was to get Harry 
 Thaw out of New York and keep him out. 
 
 "They asked me if I went to Europe of my own 
 accord, and I said I certainly had. I said I remained 
 in Europe after my mother left because I had quar- 
 reled with her and could not dance for a year, and 
 1 liked Mr. Thaw very much and could not do any- 
 thing else. 
 
 " 'Nevertheless,' Hummel said, 'you are a nn'nor 
 and he should not have taken you away from your 
 mother.' I said he did not take me away. 
 
 "Mr. White said that strong methods must be re- 
 sorted to to keep Thaw out of New York, and to 
 protect myself I must help in every way I could. 
 
 "Mr. White said I must leave everything in. Mr. 
 Hummel 's hands. Then they sent for a stenographer, 
 and the lawyer said I must not interrupt him in what 
 he was about to say. I was very nervous and excited, 
 and I think I began, to cry. Then they began to 
 dictate and put in a lot of stuff that I had been car- 
 ried away by Harry Thaw against my will. I started 
 to interrupt, but the lawyer put up his hands and 
 stopped me. 
 
 "They put in that 1 had l)een taken away from 
 my mother and a lot of st'iff that was not true— that 
 
JUSTICE FITZGERALD 
 Judge in charge of trial. 
 
A TALE OF INTRIGUE 109 
 
 I had been treated badly by Mr. Thaw. Then they 
 sent the man out of the room. 
 
 "Several days later Mr. Hummel called me up and 
 asked if I had any letters from Mr. Thaw. 
 
 ' ' I said I did, but I could not see what that had to 
 do with it. Mr. White also called up and said if I 
 was not willing to help in every way they could not 
 protect me from Mr. Thaw. He said I must do just 
 what ^Ir. Hummel said. So I made the letters up 
 in a bundle and took them down to Mr. Hummel's 
 office. He said he did not want to read them, and 
 did not care what they contained. He asked, how- 
 ever, if they were love letters, and I said 'yes.' 
 
 "He said he jiLst wanted to hold them over Harry 
 K. Thaw's 'head. He sealed them up in a big en- 
 velope so I could see, he said, that he did not care 
 anything about them. 
 
 "Then he asked me why I did not sue Harry Thaw 
 for breach of promise. I said that was absurd, for 
 if there had been any breach of promise it was on 
 my part. He" said that did not matter. 
 
 "Mr. Hummel said a breach of promise suit would 
 be a fine advertisement for me. I told him I did not 
 care for that kind of advertising. He said lots of 
 actresses had done the same thing and he had won 
 lots of cases for them. He told me an English duke 
 had once been sued by an actress for breach of prom- 
 ise. He declared he could easily win a suit for me. 
 I said I did not want to sue anybody. 
 
no THE GEE AT THAW CASE 
 
 '^This made Mr, Hummel very mad and angry 
 and he told me I was foolish." 
 
 "What more did you tell Mr. Thaw?" suggested 
 Mr. Delmas, to give the girl witness a breathing spell. 
 
 "Mr. Thaw asked me if I had si^ed an}1:hing in 
 Mr. Hummel 's office and I said I had not. He said 
 that was funny, for if they wanted to cause trouble 
 I must have signed something. I said I had signed 
 absoluteh" nothing in I\Ir. Hummel's office. 
 
 "Mr. Thaw was very^ much agitated. He said 
 Hummel was a blackmailer and he said, I think, that 
 there was something bad in the air and he impressed 
 me that he was going to see ]\Ir. Longfellow, his 
 lawyer." 
 
 Mrs. Thaw testified to going to her own lawyer 
 and relating her experiences with Hummel. Her 
 lawyer, she said, was greatly incensed at what she 
 told him of her experiences in Hummel's oiBce. Mrs. 
 Thaw said : 
 
 "My lawyer, too, told me that Hummel was a 
 shyster." A laugh went around the room. Hum- 
 mel was at this time under conviction in a divorc" 
 scandal. Mrs. Thaw continued : 
 
 "Mr. Thaw told me that I had no business to speak 
 {lira in with Stanford White. He accused me of hav- 
 ing been imprudent with Mr. White since I came 
 back from Europe, and I said that it was a lie. Hi- 
 said it would look to people as if I was a blackmailer 
 l)y going to Hummel's office." 
 
 "Did you tell of another incident?" 
 
A TALE OF IXTRIGUE 111 
 
 "Yes,, I told him of one day when ^V]lite came to 
 the hotel Xavarre and he was terribly mad, and 
 walked np and down the room with a camp chair in 
 his hand. '^ly child,' he said, 'what did you tell 
 IMr. Hummel about me?' I said I had not said any- 
 thing, and then Mr. AYhite said I must have told 
 Hummel, because Hummel had just squeezed $1,000 
 out of him and he was not going to send another 
 $1,000." 
 
 The witness, continuing, said that she did not know 
 what she had signed when she signed the paper at the 
 request of Mr. White in his office in Madison Square 
 garden. 
 
 "I called Mr. AYhite up on the telephone after I 
 had talked to Mr. Thaw, and I demanded of ^Iv. 
 White that he put the paper in the fire. He said he 
 did not have it — but that it was in Mr. Hummel's 
 office. I said: 'Yery well,' and told him I was go- 
 ing down to Mr. Hummel's office immediately. He 
 told me to not talk about the matter over the tele- 
 l)hone, and I said I did not care who heard me. 
 Then White said he would meet me on the corner and 
 I met him. 
 
 "AVhen I met him we went down to Mr. Hummel's 
 office. He showed me the paper and showed me my 
 signature and asked if it was mine, and I said it was. 
 Then they put the paper in a big jardiniere and 
 burned it. Afterward I told Mr. Thaw all about it 
 uiid also saw ^Ir. Loiwfellow and told him. 
 
112 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 ' ' How did Mr. Thaw treat you from that time until 
 he proposed marriage?" 
 
 "He treated me very nicely: carried me up and 
 down stairs when I was sick and brought me flowers 
 and took me carriage riding." 
 
 After her marriage to ^Ir. Thaw the witness said 
 they took a trip through the west. While in Pitts- 
 l)urg, she said, she had lived at the home of her hus- 
 band's mother. She related how she had persistently 
 refused to marry Thaw before she finally did so. 
 
 ''What reason did you give him for not marrying 
 him?" 
 
 ' ' It was because of my reputation. I did not want 
 to separate him from his family. I knew it would 
 l)e a good thing for me to marry him, but it would 
 not be for him. It was because I loved him that I 
 would not marry. If I did not love him so much I 
 might have been anxious to marry him." 
 
 Mr. Delmas got the witness to relate how she met 
 some of the Thaw family in Europe. 
 
 "There was something happened which led you 
 to change your mind in. regard to marrying Thaw?" 
 asked Mr. Delmas. 
 
 "Yes," answered the young woman. 
 
 "You were given to believe that his family would 
 receive you as his wife?" 
 
 ''Yes.'' 
 
 "Did you meet ]\Irs. Thaw, his mother, in New 
 York." 
 
 "I did." 
 
A TALE OF INTRIGUE 113 
 
 ** After your marriage did you visit New York 
 from Pittsburg?" 
 
 ''We did." 
 
 ''Did you tell your husband of the efforts of Stan- 
 ford White to renew your friendship?" 
 
 "I did." 
 
 "What was the first occurrence you told your hus- 
 band about?" 
 
 "Once when I was driving on Fifth avenue, when 
 I passed Mr. White and he called out to me, 'Eve- 
 lyn.' " 
 
 ''Did you tell your husband?" 
 
 "I did, and he said it was not right for me to see 
 him and made me promise that if I ever met White 
 again I would tell him about it." 
 
 "Did you tell him?" 
 
 "I did." 
 
 "When did you see Mr. White again?" 
 
 "It was on Fifth avenue one day when I was riding 
 to Dr. Delavan to have my throat treated. I was in 
 a hansom and Mr. White was also riding in a han- 
 som, too. 
 
 "When I got home I told ^Mr. Thaw that at about 
 Thirty-fourth street I had passed ^Ir. White, both 
 of us in hansoms. lie did not attempt to speak to 
 me, but .stared hard at me. I looked away. When 
 I got down to the doctor's officii I found Stanford 
 White in his hansom coming there, I ran up the 
 steps, but. I was excited and nervous and I told the 
 
114 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 door porter that I would come some other time, so I 
 I'an back down the stairs, jumped into my hansom, 
 looked neither to the right nor to the left, and told the 
 driver to go back to the Lorraine as quickly as ever 
 he could." 
 
 ''How did ]\rr. Thaw act when you told him of 
 IhisT' 
 
 "Oh, he was always very excited whenever I told 
 him of my meetings with White. He bit his nails 
 and looked excited." 
 
 "Did you ever tell Mr. Thaw how you came to be 
 sent to school at Pompton, N. J., and if so, relate it 
 to the jury, and also wherein the name of Jack Bar- 
 rymore entered into the discussion, and tell what 
 your relations to Barrymore were." 
 
 "I met Mr. Barrymore when I was with the 'Wild 
 Rose' company at the Knickerbocker theater. Mr. 
 White gave a dinner to a whole lot of friends. I 
 was asked to attend and I went there and met his 
 friends at the party. Mr. Barrymore was there." 
 
 Mrs. Thaw privately mentioned the names of the 
 members of the party to Mr. Jerome. She said that 
 when she told White of "Jack" Barrymore 's pro- 
 posal he became very angry and said he would send 
 her away to school to New Jersey. She continued 
 to detail her relations ^'ith Barrvmore, and her be- 
 iiig sent to school. 
 
 "It all came about through a {|uarrel between Mr. 
 White, my mother ami iiiysclF over Mr. Bnrrymore, 
 
A TALE OF INTRIGUE 115 
 
 continued the witneSvS. One afternoon in ]\Iadison 
 Square garden ]\Ir. Barrymore said to me, 'Evelyn, 
 will you marry me?' " 
 
 Mrs. Thaw pronounced the name with a long- ''e." 
 
 *'I answered him, and said, 'I don't know,' " she 
 went on. 
 
 "White asked me if I would marry Barrymore 
 and said, 'If kids like you get married, what would 
 you have to live on?" 
 
 ** Every day after that when I would meet my 
 mother she would ask me if I intended 'to marry that 
 little pup Barrymore,' saying ]\Ir. White was afraid 
 I would. 
 
 "Mr. White then came to see me and said I would 
 be very foolish to marry Mr. Barrymore-. we would 
 have nothing to live on, would probably (juarrel and 
 get a divorce. He also said Mr. Barr^-more was a 
 little bit crazy, that his father was in an asylum, and 
 he thought the whole family was touched. lie was 
 certain Mr. Barrymore would be crazy in a few years, 
 and for that reason .said I ought not to marry him. 
 
 "Mr. Barrymore asked me a second time if I would 
 marry him, and again I said, 'I don't know,' and 
 hiughed. The upshot of the whole matter was that 
 ^Ii". White came and said I ought to be sent to school, 
 and I was." 
 
 Mr. Delmas had asked ]\lrs. Thaw if Thaw had 
 told her the fate of other girls 'at the hands of this 
 man White?' 
 
 V ■ • 
 
116 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 Mr. Jerome objected to further "defamation be- 
 ing thrown on the dead, who have no chance to an- 
 swer. The state is not permitted to controvert the 
 truth of a single statement in this testimony," he 
 added. "Stanford White is dead, and I object to 
 this question, which is along a path which we can not 
 follow." 
 
 Mr. Delmas said he had no desire to besmirch the 
 name of the dead. He was introducing letters by 
 Thaw to corroborate the question. 
 
 Justice Fitzgerald said he thought further com- 
 petent evidence as to Thaw's insanity should be in- 
 troduced before further testimony along the day's 
 line was taken. 
 
 "We are ready to submit the proof," said Mr. 
 Delmas. 
 
 The line of examination was changed and iMrs. 
 Thaw was asked to identify more letters. 
 
 One of the papers Mrs. Thaw was asked to identify 
 was Harry Thaw's will. 
 
 The old saying, "Nothing but good of the dead," 
 must have recurred again and again to Mr. Jerome 
 as the slender Evelyn told her story. It is a good 
 old saying, but there is another: "The dead are 
 safe— let us take care of the living." Jerome strove 
 to protect the cold and unresponsive dead. Delmas 
 tried to save the living, and the fragile little model 
 was the life-line in his hands. Evelyn Nesbit's story, 
 as she told it, showed new and curious lights and 
 shadows in the character of White. One thing was 
 
Best photograph of 
 DIST. ATTORNEY WILLIAM TRAVERS JEROME. 
 
A TALE OF IXTRIGUE 119 
 
 evident : White, onee possessor of a victim, wished 
 to cling to that victim through the years. Unlike 
 nearly all other men of similar stamp, he did not 
 east aside his playthings when wearied of them. Pos- 
 sibly he had been like other men in this regard — 
 possibly he had turned from many another victim 
 in the past. But the frail and pitiful little Evelyn 
 seemed to have enthralled his fancies, conquered his 
 vagrant passions. All his thoughts were for her, and 
 for her his future dreams. He lavished his bounty 
 on her, and he strove to keep her from all other men. 
 The story of Evelyn's affair with Jack Barrymore 
 was a page in real life that made the courtroom crowd 
 strain its eager ears. Barrymore, young, handsome, 
 and romantic, had appealed to the girlish mind and 
 eye. The burly White, with his 50 years, found him- 
 self fading into the background. lie seized an op- 
 portunity to pose as "the friend of the family" by 
 discrediting Barrymore and sending the little girl to 
 school. It was an index to White's soul— but it 
 showed that White, at least, had no idea of parting 
 from or wearying of his victim. 
 
 Wliat had Delmas done? 
 
 He made the jurors regard Stanford White as a 
 fiend whose slaying was a noble deed. 
 
 He made the jurors thrill with sympathy for the 
 fragile, pale-faced little Evelyn. 
 
 He showed cause enough ten times over for the 
 dethronement of reason in the brain of Harry Thaw. 
 What more could anv lawyer do? 
 
, CHAPTER X. 
 White on Verge of Arrest When Shot. 
 
 REV. ANTHONY COMSTOCK, THE FAMOUS REFORMER, 
 TOLD HOW HARRY THAW HAD HIRED HIM TO GATHER 
 EVIDENCE AGAINST ARCHITECT— PROOF OF ORGIES IN 
 MIRRORED DEN FOUND BY DETECTIVES— HARRY WANTED 
 TO PREVENT THE MAN FROM SEIZING IN HIS CLUTCHES 
 OTHER YOUNG AND INNOCENT GIRLS LIKE EVELYN 
 NESBIT— CASE OF CHILD ONLY 15 YEARS OLD LIKE 
 MRS. thaw's— HUSBAND MADE DESPERATE— ATTOR- 
 NEY DELMAS TELLS HOW EVELYN 's STORY SHOCKED 
 HIM — GREATER DISCLOSURES AHEAD. 
 
 Another blow to the prosecution, almost as great 
 as that dealt by Evelyn in her testimony, came when 
 Jerome learned that Thaw held in reserve the start- 
 ling story of Stanford White's entire past, and was 
 ready to produce it at any moment. Anthony Com- 
 stock, famous head of the Society for the Prevention 
 
 of Crime, had the documents. Mr. Comstoek pre- 
 pared a statement for the defense, part of which 
 is substantially as follows : 
 
 "I know that much of what Mrs. Harry Thaw 
 has stated on the witness stand is true. I know 
 that Stanford White's den in the tower of Madison 
 Square garden was arrang^ed as she described it» 
 and that it was the scene of revelries. I know of at 
 
 120 
 
WHITE NEAR ARREST 121 
 
 least one specific iastance. And what I know I 
 learned after I had been given the first clews by 
 Harry Kendall Thaw himself. 
 
 "My first knowledge of this case dates from the 
 summer of 1905— about a year before the killing, I 
 should sav. One afternoon a tall, well-dressed, well- 
 
 t/ 7 7 
 
 bred young man. came to me in my office in the Tem- 
 ple Bar building. He seemed to be laboring under 
 excitement, and it was evident that he was desper- 
 ately in earnest. He opened the conversation by 
 asking me if I were interested in the suppression of 
 vice. Then he wanted to know if my society gave 
 special attention to the arrest and punishment of men 
 who preyed upon young girls. I told him that we 
 did. He jumped up abruptly, said he would see me 
 again, and left without telling me his name. At the 
 door he stopped long enough to say he would see me 
 again. 
 
 ''A few days later he came back, still laboring 
 under strong emotion. He then introduced himself. 
 As nearly as I can recall he said : 
 
 " ' I am Harry Kendall Thaw of Pittsburg. I want 
 to tell you of a man who has betrayed more young 
 girls than any other man in New York. He is par- 
 ticularly given to pursuing the young girls of the 
 stage. It is a debt which society owes to itself to 
 halt him now, before he brings shame and sorrow to 
 any more victims.' 
 
 That in effect was his statement," continued Mr. 
 
 < < 
 
122 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 Comstock, ''although of course I asked him a great 
 deal more of the matter. He left after securing my 
 promise to investigate. He agreed to pay the cost 
 of looking" into the case. He at once mailed me a 
 check of sufficient size to defray tlie necessary ex- 
 penses, and subsequently wrote me several times 
 upon the subject of White, asking each time what 
 progress we were making. 
 
 ''Our investigation, confirmed to a great degree 
 what Thaw had told me. Our detectives were as- 
 tounded at what they discovered. We worked hard 
 and I learned a great deal, but of all cases these are 
 the hardest to prove under the rules of evidence, 
 and before risking an arrest I determined to catch 
 White. 
 
 "I learned that his rooms in the tower were as 
 Mrs. Evelyn Thaw had described them in the trial. 
 Two of our detectives endeavored to hire rooms in 
 the same tower in order to watch his goings and 
 comings. The deal was almost completed when one 
 of the detectives made a bungle. Something Avliich 
 he sjiid or did gave the alarm to the janitor, and, 
 although we were on the waiting list for a long time, 
 and although several times apartments in the tower 
 were vacant, we were never able to secure a suite or 
 a single room. 
 
 "We were still vainly trying to arrange a trap for 
 White from which there would be no escape when he 
 dismantled his room in the tower. 
 
"WHITE SEAR ARREST 123 
 
 '*I learned positively of one ease of White's con- 
 duct to a airl only 15 years old almost identically as 
 Mrs. Evelyn Thaw describes her own case, but the 
 girl was in the chorus of a road company, and we 
 could not reach her and make a witness of her. We 
 got evidence of other things— things that convince me 
 that what Harry Thaw's wife now swears is true. I 
 ])('lieve in her story and base that belief upon what 
 1 Imow of the man. 
 
 "The last time I saw Harry Thaw was only two 
 or three weeks before he shot White. He appeared 
 to be in a desperate state — like a man who is well- 
 nigh frantic. He said to me wildly: *You must keep 
 on, you must stop this man, he must be stopped now 
 —at once." 
 
 The defense, on the same day that it secured the 
 Rev. Mr. Comstock's statement, made another sen- 
 sational discovery. It obtained proof that the day 
 after the shooting of White, the police searched the 
 studio of White and discovered evidence that showed 
 that Evelyn Nesbit was not the only young girl wlio 
 had been lured into the ^ladison Square Garden mir- 
 rored-room within a few months. 
 
 In the room "with mirrors to left and to right, in 
 the ceiling and on the floor,'' in securely locked 
 drawers built into the walls, the police found this evi- 
 dence. That such a den of vice could have existed in 
 the very heart of the great metropolis seems well niuh 
 incredible. That such practices could have betitn 
 
124 THE GBEAT THAV^ CASE 
 
 known by men of social standino-^ and without pro- 
 test, is past belief. 
 
 Speaking after this discovery, Attorney Delmas 
 was confident of the acquittal of Thaw. 
 
 "Before we put Evelyn on the stand," he said, ''I 
 heard her story but once. There was no rehearsal 
 no attempt at dramatic play." 
 
 "The storv as she told it in court was not half as 
 dramatic as it was w^hen. she told it to me during our 
 preparation of the case. 
 
 "Only once in my life have I been so touched with 
 emotion as I was when Evelyn Xesbit first told me 
 her story. That was at the burial of my father. 
 
 "As I sat there as a lawyer listening to the girl 
 narrating the story of what she had suffered at the 
 hands of Stanford White, the tears welled into my 
 eyes and I fairly sobbed. 
 
 "She told me then that when she awoke and found 
 Stanford White was alone with her in that mirrored 
 bedroom he seemed to her like a big gorilla. 
 
 "His hair was disheveled, and the look in his face 
 was like an animal. 'I screamed with terror,' she 
 told me. She added many details, which, if she had 
 told the jury, there would have been no need on her 
 part to produce further evidence— as we had not re- 
 hearsed our part, I depended simply on her memory 
 as to facts. The presence of th.^ crowded courtroom 
 disconcerted her to the extent that she omitted some 
 of the most revolting features of that fatal night." 
 
EVELYN NESBIT, AS "THE SUNBONNET CHILD" 
 
 Picture taken just Ijefore she met Stanford White. 
 
I 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Harry Thaw's Startling Will Disclosed Fear of 
 
 Assassination. 
 
 DOCUMENT, INTRODUCED IN EVIDENCE AFTER A BITTER 
 LEGAL FIGHT, PROVIDED $50,000 OR MORE AS A FUND 
 FOR THE HUNTING DOWN AND PUNISHMENT OF ANY 
 PERSON WHO MIGHT ASSASSINATE HIM— $75,000 LEFT 
 TO CARE FOR YOUNG GIRLS WHO WERE RUINED BY A 
 BAND OF DISSOLUTE MILLIONAIRES LIKE WHITE — 
 MONEY FOR MRS. HOLMAN, WIFE^S MOTHER, AND FOR 
 HOWARD NESBIT— DOCUMENT ALLEGED TO PROVE THE 
 SLAYER INSANE— YOUNG MILLIONAIRE THOl^GHT OF 
 NOTHING BUT WIFE's WRONGS— PUT DETECTIVES ON 
 white's STRACK. 
 
 Th(^ day Evelyn Xesbit Thaw resumed the stand 
 was a pitiful one for her husband. Harry Thaw was 
 celebrating his thirty-sixth birthday— celebrating it 
 in a pris!;n cell, with the memory of his wife's shame, 
 told on the stand, rankling in his mind. 
 
 ''Be of good cheer," were the only words Thaw 
 heard addressed to him by his wife that day, "eveiy- 
 body snys you will be acquitted on the first ballot." 
 
 ]\[rs. Thaw was accompanied in court by her chorus 
 girl friend and chum, May McKenzie, and by anoth(M' 
 close friend, ^Ir.s. J. J. Caine of Boston. ^Trs. Thaw 
 lieai-d Dr. Bi'itton D. P^vans, a noted alienist, testify 
 
 127 
 
EVELYN NESBIT 
 -t age of twelve years. 
 
FEARED ASSASSINATION 129 
 
 that he had made three separate examinations of her 
 husband shortly after the murder, and on each oc- 
 casion found him insane. He swore : 
 
 "Thaw exhibited delusions of a personal character, 
 an exaggerated ego, and, along with them delusions 
 of a persecutory character. He thought himself of 
 exaggerated importance and believed himself perse- 
 cuted by a number of persons.'' 
 
 By an "exaggerated ego," Dr. Evans said he 
 meant "a disproportionate idea of importance of self, 
 a belief that one is clothed with powers, capacity and 
 abilit}' far above normal or above those actually pos- 
 sessed." 
 
 These symptoms, he said, were characteristic of 
 S'veral mental diseases. 
 
 One of the mental diseases indicated by Thaw's 
 actions, Dr. Evans declared, is known as adolescent 
 insanity. It is characteristic of the development 
 period of life— from 10 to 40 years. The person thus 
 afflicted is known as having a psychopathic taint, a 
 predisposition to mental unsoundness, the result of 
 heredity. 
 
 The death of the wife of Joseph B. Bolton, who 
 succumbed to pneumonia, delayed the trial for three 
 days after Dr. Wagner's testimony, and for a time, 
 grave fears that a new trial would be necessary, were 
 expressed. The day after the funeral, however, the 
 juror resumed his duties. Up to this point the de- 
 fense had expended $1,000,000 on the trial, and the 
 
130 TEE GREAT THA^V CASE 
 
 state had paid out $250,000. If Juror Bolton had 
 been incapacitated by his wife's death, all this ex- 
 pense would have been useless. 
 
 When the failure of the trial was feared, Mrs. 
 Thaw sought to cheer her husband. Perhaps her 
 woman's wit had warned her that she must look her 
 prettiest, for on her visit to the Tombs prison she 
 wore for the first time a new and modish little broAvn 
 frock, its coat set off with jaunty silk fixings. She 
 was radiant and smiling as she jumped out of her 
 cab and ran up the steps to the iron gates of the 
 Tombs. 
 
 As she waited to be taken to her husband, a jail 
 guard showed her a message which had come in the 
 mail for her husband. It was a postal card, a picture 
 of a bunch of violets, bearing in a childish hand this 
 inscription : 
 
 "Dear Mr. Thaw: T am a little Baltimore girl. 
 I send you this r.s a token < f my sympathy. Yours, 
 
 ''Lulu Bell.'' 
 
 The wife's face dimpled with pleasure. "Isn't 
 tliat sweet?" she said. "I know Hariy will appre- 
 ciate it." 
 
 Dr. Charles Wagner, the alienist, who took the 
 s'.and when the trial was resumed, declared there 
 could be not the slightest doubt that Thaw was in- 
 sane at the time of the shooting, and told the jury 
 tliat ITarry had declared a "sudden impulse" made 
 him slav AVhite. 
 
FEARED ASSASSINATION 131 
 
 "Mr. Thaw said in his conversation with me," as- 
 serted the witness, "that he had no idea of killing- 
 White up to the very time he shot him. Thaw said 
 his sole purpose had been to get evidence against 
 White to send him to the penitentiary for his offenses 
 against young women. 
 
 "White, declared Thaw, made a practice of his 
 sins against girls, to pick out young women who had 
 a disposition toward morality rather than toAvard 
 girls with an inclination toward immorality. 
 
 "Thaw told me," said Dr. Wagner, "that White 
 did not hesitate to use drugs or employ physical 
 force to accomplish his evil purposes. 
 
 Mr. Jerome protested at "thus attacking the name 
 of the dead," but in vain, and the doctor resumed : 
 
 "Thaw constantly referred to W^hite as 'this man, 
 this creature, the beast, the blackguard/ and said 
 the man had sought to pollute every pure minded 
 woman who came within the sphere of his ob-;erv- 
 at!on. 
 
 " 'I tried to save them.' ^Iv. Thaw said to us, and 
 added, 'I did all in my power, I never wanted to 
 shoot the creature. I never wanted to kill him. 1 
 knew he was a foul creature, destroying all the moth- 
 ers and daughters in America, but I wanted through 
 legal means to bring him to trial. I wanted to get 
 him into court so he would be brought to justice.' 
 
 "I then asked him why under such circumstances 
 he had shot Mr. White. 
 
132 THE GBEAT THAW CASE 
 
 '^ 'Providence took charge of it,' he replied. 'This 
 was an act of Providence. For my part I would 
 rather have had him suffer in court the humiliation, 
 the revelation of his acts would have caused. ' ' ' 
 
 "Did he tell you w^iat he had done, if anything, 
 to bring "White into court?" asked Mr. Delmas. 
 
 "Pie said he had gone to see Anthony Comstock, 
 District Attorney Jerome and a private detective 
 agency. He said Mr. Jerome had told him he had 
 better let the matter drop ; that there was nothing to 
 it. The detectives told him they would take the mat- 
 ter up, but they had not submitted a proper report. 
 As to Mr. Comstock, he said, he discovered that De- 
 lancey Nicoll, an attorney, w^as acting as legal ad- 
 viser both to White and to Comstock. He regarded 
 this as another link in the conspiracy against him. 
 
 "I asked him why he carried a pistol, and he said 
 that Roger O'Mara, a Pittsburg detective, had ad- 
 vised him to do so after he had told O'Mara that on 
 several occasions thugs had jostled him in an attempt 
 to get him into a street brawl. He said these thugs 
 Avere the hired agents of Stanford White, who did 
 not want to take the responsibility and danger of 
 making a personal attack. He said White had hired 
 the ]\Ionk Eastman gang to get him into a quarrel 
 and beat or kick him to death." 
 
 After these astounding statements, to which the 
 jury listened eagerly, the bailiff cried: 
 
 "Mrs. Evelyn Nesbit Thaw to the Stand!" 
 
 A thrill ran round the court. 
 
MAY McKENZIE 
 Beautiful actress friend of Evelyn Nesbit Thaw. 
 
FEARED ASSASSINATION 135 
 
 ]\Irs. Thaw looked pale and serious as she took her 
 place on the stand. She appeared in the same simple 
 grirlish costume that she had worn every day since the 
 trial begran. She smiled slightly as she caught her 
 husband's eye. Thaw returned the smile, and then 
 turned to Attorney O'Reilly, with whom he talked 
 for a minute excitedly. Then he kept his eyes fixed 
 on his wife's face. 
 
 After Mrs. TImw had sat in the witness chair for 
 nearly five minutes, Mr. Delmas began his examina- 
 tion. 
 
 "You have already testified, ]\Irs. Thaw, that you 
 are familiar with the handwriting of Stanford 
 White," said the attorney. "I now hand you a paper 
 and ask if from beginning to end it is in the hand- 
 writing of :\rr. White?" 
 
 Mrs. Thaw gazed at the paper, evidently a letter, 
 and said : 
 
 "It is his handwriting." 
 
 Letter hy letter, ]\Irs. Thaw id(^ntified forty-two 
 missives written by the architect. 
 
 As the examination of the letters was concluded 
 Mr. Delmas turned to the witness. 
 
 "How long have you known May McKenzie?" 
 
 "Since 1901." 
 
 "How long has Mr. Thaw known her?" 
 
 "Since 1904." 
 
 "Did you in May. 1906, relate to Mr. Thaw a con- 
 versation you had with ^lay ]McKenzie especially with 
 
136 TEE GREAT THA^Y CASE 
 
 reference to what she said to you regarding Stnnfor<l 
 White?" 
 
 "^lay McKenzie told me," said Mrs. Thaw, ''Stan- 
 ford White had been to see her and that she had told 
 hini that Harry and I were getting along finely to- 
 gether. She said she thought it was so nice the way 
 we loved each other. 
 
 *'She said Stanford White had remarked: 'Pooh, 
 it won't last. I will get her back.' " 
 
 "Did Mr. Thaw say anything when you told him 
 this?" 
 
 "He said he had already heard it from Miss Mc- 
 Kenzie. ' ' 
 
 "What was his condition when you told him?" 
 
 "The way he always was when on the subject of 
 Stanford White." 
 
 "How was that?" 
 
 "Very excited and nervous." 
 
 "You had a second operation in 1905, did you 
 not?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Who made the arrangements for it and paid the 
 cost?" 
 
 "Harry K. Thaw." 
 
 ' ' How much was the bill ? ' ' 
 
 "In all about $3,000. The operation itself was 
 $1,000." 
 
 The nature of the operation was not gone into. 
 Did ^Ir. Thaw have any conversation with the 
 
 < < 
 
FEARED ASSASSINATION 137 
 
 attending physician at that time regarding your 
 previous relations with White?" 
 
 *'No, sir; not in my presence." 
 
 ''Did Mr. Thaw at the time of your marriage and 
 subsequent thereto talk very much about the incident 
 in your life connected with White?" 
 
 "Yes. He always talked about it. He would 
 waken me often at night, sobbing. And then he 
 would constantly ask me questions about the details 
 of this terrible thing." • 
 
 "Did you visit May McKenzie at her apartments 
 in 1904?" 
 
 "Yes; she was ill and sent me a letter to come to 
 see her." 
 
 "While you were there did Stanford White come 
 in?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Did you tell Mr. Thaw of anything that then oc- 
 curred ? ' ' 
 
 "Yes. Stanford White spoke to me several times 
 and I always answered 'yes' or 'no.* He then came 
 over and started to straighten a bow on my hair. My 
 hair was short, having been cut oft* at the time of my 
 first operation. Then Stanford White tried to put 
 his arms around me, and wanted me to sit beside him 
 on the bed. I told him to let me alone." 
 
 Mrs. Thaw said that Harry Thaw always at- 
 tributed her ill health, the necessity of the second 
 operation, etc., to White. She also testified that Thaw 
 
138 THE GEE AT THA^Y CASE 
 
 had told her he was going to take up White's affairs 
 with Anthony Comstock. 
 
 "I told him it would do no good/' she added: 
 ''that White had many influential friends and that 
 l:e could stop it. I told him that lots of people would 
 not believe the things about White on account of his 
 personality. ' ' 
 
 Harry had begun to weep w^hen his wife told of the 
 operations, and continued to sob bitterly. 
 
 "Did you and Mr. Thaw discuss the fate of other 
 young women at the hands of Stanford White and 
 did you tell him certain names?" 
 
 Mr. Jerome objected. 
 
 IVIr. Delmas put another question: 
 
 "Did you and Mr. Thaw discuss the fate of the 
 'pie girl r" 
 
 "Yes, sir. It was in Paris in 1903. He asked me 
 what other girls I knew of who had suffered at the 
 hands of White. I told him I had heard of the 'pie 
 girl,' whose name was known to both of us. A girl 
 at the theater had told me about it and that night 
 when White came to my dressing-room I asked him 
 about it. He asked me where I had heard the story. 
 I told him a girl had told me. Then he told me all 
 about it. 
 
 "There was a stag dinner, he said, and the girl was 
 X)ut in a big pie with a lot of birds. She was very 
 young— about 15 years, I think he said. He also told 
 iiic tliat the girl had a beautiful figure and wore only 
 
FEARED ASSASSINATION 139 
 
 a gauze dress. He helped put her in the pie and fix 
 it, and .said it was the best stunt he ever saw at a 
 dinner. When the girl jumped out of the pie the 
 birds flew all about the room. 
 
 " 'But I came near getting into trouble about it/ 
 he said. * We put gold pieces in the girl 's shoes- and 
 in her dress and a lot of people heard of it. All the 
 newspapers got hold of it. I stopped it at all the 
 newspapers but one, but I could not stop it there. I 
 got a friend to go see them, though, and we finally got 
 them to stop it, too. We kept it out of the papers, 
 but it was close.' " 
 
 "I told ]\rr. White I had heard he ruined the girl 
 that night, but he only laughed." 
 
 The names of other girls ruined by White were 
 whispered by^ ]\Irs. Thaw to Jerome, but not made 
 public. 
 
 ''When did Mr. Thaw next talk to you about such 
 cases?" asked Del mas. 
 
 "The next time was in Pittsburg, when we were 
 married. lie told me that the girl was dead. He said 
 he had investigated the story and that it was true; 
 that afterward the girl married, but her husband 
 heard the story of her connection with ^Mr. White 
 and that he cast her off and she died in great poverty 
 and disgrace." 
 
 Did you and Mr. Thaw often speak of these 
 
 ( ( 
 
 Yes, there was a constant conversation. I could 
 
140 TEE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 not possibly tell you every place and every time we 
 discussed it. He told me something ought to be done 
 about the girls. I told him I could not do anything. 
 He then said I could help him. I tried to get his 
 mind on other things and then he would say I was 
 trying to get out of it. He said White ought to be in 
 the penitentiar}^ ; that he got worse and worse all 
 the time and something had to be done." 
 
 This closed the direct examination, and Mr. Delmas 
 then read a letter from Harry Thaw to Anthony 
 Comstock, the foe of vice in New York. In it Thaw 
 described the studio in the Madison Square tower, 
 and said it was filled Avith obscene pictures, and 
 should be raided. He also described the studio at 22 
 West Twenty-fourth street, which he said was ''con- 
 secrated to debauchery" and was used by ''a gang 
 of rich criminals." He described the studio and said 
 in it there were many indecent pictures. 
 
 In this building, the letter said, were the famous 
 red velvet swing and the mirrored bedroom. He in- 
 closed a sketch of the arrangements of the rooms. 
 "Workmen on the outside of the building," says the 
 letter, ''have frequently heard the screams of young 
 girls from this building." 
 
 The letter continued that the place was run by 
 "rich criminals," but was frequentl}^ visited by 
 young men who did not know its character. The let- 
 ter said that the place had been partly dismantled 
 three years ago. 
 
FEARED ASSASSINATION 141 
 
 The letter called attention to still another house, 
 saying : 
 
 *'You may also abolish another place at 122 East 
 Twenty-second street — a house used secretly by three 
 or four of the same scoundrels. 
 
 Mr. Delmas then asked permission to recall Mrs. 
 Thaw for one more question — a startling one. Mrs. 
 Thaw blushed violently and said in reply that White 
 was a monster given to such practices that they 
 would not bear repetition. 
 
 Evelyn Thaw, when first she told her story of al- 
 leged wrongs at the hand of the dead architect, did 
 not falter in details as to the approximate time and 
 circumstances. 
 
 'X'ounsel for the defense," said the attorney, in 
 speaking of the progress, "are greatly pleased with 
 ^Irs. Thaw and her testimony. What pleases us most 
 is that she followed the instructions given her, which 
 •were that she should tell the truth, no matter what 
 question was asked her. AVe told her she was not to 
 consider the effect upon herself or the defendant, but 
 to tell the truth bluntly and without consideration of 
 the consequences." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Hidden Witness to the Proposal. 
 
 MRS. CAINE TELLS HOW HARRY THAW OFFERED EVELYN 'S 
 MOTHER A VAST AMOUNT OF CASH FOR HER HAND— 
 EVELYN RECALLED TO THE STAND — TELLS OF POSING 
 IN STUDIOS— ANOTHER DAY OF TORTURE— THE VISIT 
 TO THE ''dead rat ^'— MRS. THAW IN TEARS— HUS- 
 BAND WEEPS WHEN SHE IS FORCED TO TELL HOW SHE 
 WAS FOUND BY A VISITOR TO WHITE 's STUDIO— AD. 
 MITS SHE VISITED HIM OFTEN AFTER THE ''mIRROREE 
 studio" INCIDENT— ALMOST FAINTS ON STAND— 
 HUSBAND IN TEARS— EVELYN IN DELIRIUM AFTER THE 
 ORDEAL. 
 
 The next sensation in the trial came when Mrs. 
 J. J. Caine, of Boston, a close friend of Evelyn Nesbit 
 and her mother, Mrs. llolman, testified that Harry 
 Thaw pleaded with Evelyn's mother for her hand in 
 marriage. The scene which she dramatically de- 
 scribed, occurred in New York, in 1903. Mrs. llol- 
 man was entertaining ^Irs. Caine in her apartments 
 at the time and when the yonno- millionaire called, 
 .Mrs. Caine concealed herself in a bathroom where she 
 overheard all that took place. 
 
 ]\Trs. Caine testified as follows: 
 
 '* Harry Thaw entered the room excitedly and at 
 once told Mrs. Holman that he wantcl to marry 
 
 142 
 
THE RIDDEN WITNESS 143 
 
 Evelyn. He told the mother of his desire to send the 
 girl to Europe and said if she would marry him he 
 would settle enough on the mother and her son, How- 
 ard Nesbit, to keep them in comfort during their en- 
 tire lives. (Later testimony indicated this amount 
 was $200,000.) 
 
 Evelyn's mother said she would try to fix it so the 
 seventeen-year-old girl would accept him. ^h\ Thaw 
 did not stay long, and when he left, Evelyn's mother 
 said, "Now you see his intentions are honorable." 
 
 Thaw had never before known his conversation 
 was overheard by an eavesdropper who would stand 
 him in such good stead. 
 
 After ]\Irs. Caine left the stand ]\Irs. Evelyn Thaw 
 was recalled for cross examination. For hours she 
 sat before the merciless Jerome under a scatliing 
 cross fire of (juestions. Traps were laid and sprung, 
 c{ueries were hurled in volleys to carry her off her 
 feet and overwhelm her in a tangle of contradictions, 
 but all in vain; the mere slip of a girl met the skilled 
 prosecutor with a calm and effective resistance. 
 
 Jerome's first step was to try to prove that Evelyn 
 had posed in the nude. He first showed her a photo- 
 uraph of herself taken in 1904. It showed Evelyn in 
 a kimono— the famous one given her by Stanford 
 White. There was nothing offensive in the pose as 
 disclosed by a view of the picture. 
 
 Mr. Jerome by his next few questions indicated 
 that he did not intend to spare the feelings of the 
 
144 TEE GEE AT THAW CASE 
 
 young woman in any way. He interrogated her 
 shari:)ly as to the details of her dress when, she was 
 posing for artists in Philadelphia and New York, 
 seeking to learn whether she posed in ''the alto- 
 gether" or partially draped. The prosecutor per- 
 sisted in certain questions even after Mr. Delmas had 
 objected, and insisted on having definite answers, 
 though ]\Irs. Thaw usually said she could not exactly 
 remember. 
 
 "Was there any exposure of the person or did you 
 wear the so-called artistic draperies?" 
 
 "I would not say that," replied the witness. "I 
 posed in a Greek dress and a Turkish costume. ' * 
 
 Jerome questioned her especially as to her posing 
 in New York, asking whether she had ever been pho- 
 tographed or painted with her person exposed. She 
 answered positively that she had never posed in such 
 a condition. 
 
 "You are certain you never posed for a painting 
 or photograph in such a manner?" asked Jerome. 
 
 "I never did — I always posed with clothes on." 
 She moved her hands from her throat to her waist 
 and said: "Do you mean without anything on here? 
 I have posed in low-neck, but never, never like that." 
 
 Then ]\Irs. Thaw told how she Avon her New York 
 reputation as a model. She sent a picture of herself, 
 under the name of Florence Evelyn to a New York 
 magazine and soon ^was besieged by artists. Her 
 mother aided her in her search for work. 
 
L 
 
 v 
 
 
 'I 
 
 ' -**t. 
 
 •w 
 
 % 
 
 N* 
 
 ■7P /|i 
 
 s 
 
 :.:, f 
 
 ^'j 
 
 ! JU*1 
 
 Jerome cross-examining Evelyn Nesbit Thaw. 
 
TEE HIDDEN WITNESS 147 
 
 ( c 
 
 Is it not true," went on Mr. Jerome, reading 
 from a paper, ''that in the spring of 1901, so far as 
 your relations with your mother were concerned, that 
 you were getting unruly, that your mother still stuck 
 by you, that a married man " 
 
 At this point Mr. Delmas interposed an objection 
 to Mr. Jergme reading from what he termed a state- 
 ment by Evelyn Thaw's mother. 
 
 "If the district attorney wants the mother's testi- 
 mony in he should produce her on the stand," he 
 said. , 
 
 "I'd like to, but you know that it is impossible. 
 You know w^here she is," said Mr. Jerome. 
 
 The question regarding Evelyn becoming unruly 
 was allow^ed to stand. 
 
 "No," she answered decidedlv. 
 
 "Is it not true that that married man was James 
 A. Garland, and that he was getting a divorce, and 
 that you and your mother frequently quarreled about 
 him?" 
 
 "No, indeed." Mrs. Thaw drew herself up india-- 
 nantly and stamped her foot. 
 
 "Is it not true that you went alone with him on the 
 yacht?" 
 
 "Mamma and I, yes." 
 
 "Were you made a corespondent in Mr. Garland's 
 divorce suit?" 
 
 Mr. Delmas objected. The record, he said, was the 
 ])est evidence. 
 
148 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 The question of photographs was resumed. Jerome 
 asked : 
 
 "During- this time did you ever pose for an artist 
 in the nude?'* 
 
 ''Never/' 
 
 ''Ever have any easts made in the nude?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Did you not in the spring of 1901 have such a 
 cast made?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Do you know Mr. Wells, sculptor?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 ' ' Ever heard of him ? ' ' 
 
 ' ' Never. ' * 
 
 "How long did you know Mr. Garland?" 
 
 "Not long." 
 
 "When did your acquaintance with him cease?" 
 
 "When I met Stanford White." 
 
 "Isn't it true that ^Ir. Garland became very an- 
 noying when you lived at a certain apartment 
 house?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Your recollection is clear that you posed in drap- 
 eries the day before the mirrored-room incident?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Was there any exposure of the person?" 
 
 "The photographs were low-necked." 
 
 The ivory cheeks of the fair witness suddenly 
 flamed with color and a look of mingled fear and 
 

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 u 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 ^ 
 
 rt 
 
 
 <u 
 
 Si 
 
 ^ 
 
 •— > 
 
 (-H 
 
 • — 
 
 >, 
 
 
 
 i) 
 
 ' /< 
 
 •73 
 
 r 
 
 
 K 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 o 
 
 X 
 
 n. 
 
 4-* 
 
 u 
 
 rt 
 
 < 
 
 
 
 
 ^■H 
 
 o 
 
 ■4-> 
 
 •-H 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 c 
 
 Im 
 
 
 X! 
 
 4-> 
 C/1 
 
 
 a, 
 
THE HIDDEX WITNESS 151 
 
 anger crept into her big limpid eyes. She was about 
 to break down when the hearing for the day was 
 ended. It was a spell of sorrow to her husband and 
 terror to the woman. 
 
 Another day of torture was in store and it came 
 with the morrow. Jerome had prepared to make the 
 ordeal terrific and under his pitiless lash Evelyn fell 
 like a stricken doe. Jerome read his questions from 
 notes carefully prepared, realizing it was useless to 
 attempt to ensnare the witness any other way. Al- 
 though he brought tears to her eyes, and caused her 
 to wince again and again, she stuck to her story 
 bravely. 
 
 "Did you continue to believe all women were what 
 Stanford White told you until you talked with Thaw 
 in Paris in 1903?" he thundered. 
 
 **Yes, sir," replied Mrs. Thaw meekly. 
 
 Then Jerome proved that Mrs. Thaw had visited 
 a place in Paris called the Dead Riit in company with 
 Harry Thaw. 
 
 "Before the time you left Paris, had you any ap- 
 preciation that such things as you have described 
 were considered as improper and positively wrong?" 
 Not until my talk with Mr. Thaw." 
 Before that you didn't believe it wrong; you did 
 not think it improper?" 
 
 "Oh, yes." 
 
 "Very wrong?" 
 
 < < 
 
152 THE QBE AT THA^V CASE 
 
 i i 
 i i 
 
 *^Not particularly. I knew people said it was 
 wron^r. ' ' 
 
 ''Did you think it very indelicate and vulgar?'* 
 
 "That is all." 
 
 "That it was only bad taste?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 But you didn't think it was wrong?" 
 I didn't fully realize it until I went to Paris." 
 ^"But you thought it was wrong?" 
 ^"Yes.'"^' 
 
 "Did you belong to any religious organization?" 
 
 "Xo."*^ 
 
 "You went to church and Sunday school in Pitts- 
 burg?" 
 
 "Not in Pittsburg." 
 
 "In Paris it was impressed on you that White had 
 done you a terrible wrong?" 
 
 "In a way." 
 
 "Before you left Paris you had begun to look on 
 such relations as very wrong?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Had you come to a full understanding of the in- 
 famous character of White's act?" 
 
 "Yes— but not so much as I have now." 
 
 "Yet it was this tli^it induced your renunciation of 
 Thaw^s great love?" 
 
 "Yes," said ^Irs. Thaw, as tears welled to her 
 eyes. 
 
 "Did you refuse Thaw solely ])ecanse of the oc- 
 
THE HIDDEX WITXESS 153 
 
 CTirrence with White?'' asked ^Ir. Jerome of the Avit- 
 ness. 
 
 ''Because I had been found out.*' 
 
 "AYho told vou vou had been caught?" 
 
 ''Friends of Stanford White." 
 
 **So it was not because of the occurrence, but be- 
 cause you had been found out?*' 
 
 •'It was both together. I had an instinct about it. 
 When ^Ir. Thaw proposed it was the fii-st proposal 
 I ever had and it all struck me very seriously. It all • 
 came together." 
 
 "You felt the most heinous wrong had been done?'' 
 
 "I didn't know anvthinir about it at the time. All 
 I remember is what I felt like when I woke up. I 
 remember that distinctly. I didn't undei'stand what 
 had taken place." 
 
 "It outraged eveiy maidenly instinct in you, didn't 
 it?" 
 
 "It did, and that is why I quarreled with Stanford 
 White." 
 
 "You were very bitter against White when you 
 told Thaw, weren't you?" 
 
 "Xot then." 
 
 "When you felt j'ou wi-re giving up Thaw's love 
 you didn't feel bitter against White?" 
 
 "Xot intensely. Xot until Mr. Thaw made me 
 realize it." 
 
 "Did you continue to have a feeling of enmitv 
 against White?" continued Jerome. 
 
154 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 "I wouldn't s;i\' eniuitv — it was hostility aji-ainst 
 liiiii for th!s one thing and subsequent things." 
 
 "What subsequent things?" 
 
 The prosecutor caught up Mrs. Thaw's own 
 words?*' 
 
 "Things with Stanford White," replied Mrs. 
 ^rhaw. 
 
 "Were they improper and indecent?" 
 
 "I don't know what you would call them." 
 
 Mr.s. Thaw then testified that while she was in Lon- 
 don, before her marriage, her mother compelled her 
 to write a friendly letter to White. 
 
 "While abroad did you tell your mother of your 
 experience with White." 
 
 "No." 
 
 "How did you know Stanford White's friends 
 knew of your relations with Stanford White?" 
 
 "One of them saw me with him at the East 
 Twenty-second street studio." 
 
 "Was there any impropriety there?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "So you continued to maintain relations with 
 Stanford White?" 
 
 "Yes, for a time." 
 
 Thaw buried his face in his hands. Tears were in 
 Mrs. Thaw's eyes and she broke into sobs. 
 
 Mr. Jerome demanded the name of the man who 
 had seen her at the studio. lie asked the witness to 
 whisper it. 
 
TEE BIDDEN WITNESS 155 
 
 Mr. Delmas wanted it publicly announced . A 
 wordy conflict ensued, in which Mr. Jerome threat-, 
 ened to have the courtroom cleared. Justice Fitz- 
 gerald finally settled the matter, saying the name 
 might be given to counsel, the court, and the jury. 
 
 "Did you tell Harry Thaw about these subsequent 
 relations with Stanford White?" 
 
 ''Yes." 
 
 *'And you didn't think to tell us on your direct ex- 
 amination?" 
 
 ''No." 
 
 "Can you fix dates as to these subsequent events?^ 
 
 "No." 
 
 "How did you know this man knew of your rela- 
 tions with White?" 
 
 "He saw me one day with Mr. White in one of his 
 studios." 
 
 "Were you and Mr. White alone?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And this was about a month after the incident 
 with drugs?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "How long did you continue to visit Mr. White?" 
 
 "Not after January, 1902." 
 
 "How many visits did you make?" 
 
 "I do not remember." 
 
 "Were they frequent?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Ten times?" 
 
156 THE GEE AT TUA\Y CASE 
 
 *^I can't remember.'' 
 
 "Where did these visits take place?" 
 
 "At the Twenty-second and Twenty-fourth street 
 studios and in the Tower." 
 
 "And on these occasions were you two alone?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Did you partake of refreshments there?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Were you drugged again?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Did you have too much wine?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "What time of the day did these incidents occur?" 
 
 "Usually after the theater," replied ]\lrs. Thaw, 
 wiping the tears from her eyes. 
 
 As to the nature of the operation which was per- 
 formed upon her while she was at school in New 
 Jersey the witness said she knew only what the nurses 
 and doctors told her, that it was for appendicitis. 
 
 "AVhy did you not tell your mother all about your 
 visits?" 
 
 "I would rather have died than to tell her," almost 
 shrieked the girl. 
 
 During this period the prosecution established the 
 following facts adverse to her: 
 
 That this beautiful girl, in the critical character- 
 forming" time of her life was practicall;^' without re- 
 ligious instruction or training. 
 
 That she was an associate of various men (►!■ evil 
 
 J 
 
THE HIDDEX ^yITXESS 157 
 
 reputation and mingled with the gayest set of the in- 
 temperate, circles of Bohemia. 
 
 That she pursued a calling most dangerous t > in- 
 nocence and purity for any girl. 
 
 That she lived off the bounty of the man who she 
 ^dleges committed a shocking crime against her. 
 
 That she held astounding and shameful ideas of 
 morality. 
 
 This was Mrs. Thaw's worst day on the stand, v/hen 
 her tears flowed almost constantly. When she was 
 forced to tell of her experiences in White's infamous 
 studio, she almost fainted. With head buried in his 
 hands, Thaw wept aloud. It was a pitiful scene. Tlie 
 husband was so far overcome that he could not take 
 liis customary notes on the trial. 
 
 Evelyn Thaw was delirious that night and fell in 
 ^liiy ^NIcKenzie's arms at her hotel. 
 
 Is it a wonder that Evelyn Thaw wished to flee 
 from further notoriety after Thaw shot Stanford 
 White, according to a member of the Thaw house- 
 hold? She is said to have made hasty preparations 
 to sail for Europe. When the Thaw lawyers learned 
 of this, a council was called immediately, and Evelyn 
 was induced to stay, as rumor had it, by liberal con- 
 cessions of the Thaws, 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 Lived on Bounty of Stanford White. 
 
 EVELYN THAW FORCED INTO FURTHER REVELATIONS — 
 PROVED THAT WHITE PAID HER BILLS— ARCHITECT'S 
 LETTERS AND RECEIPTS FOR MONEY PAID HER, READ- 
 THAW CALLED WHITENS CASH ^^ POISON '' — AMERICAN 
 OP^PICIAL DRAGGED INTO SCANDAL — JEROME PRODI' (T^S 
 E\^LYN thaw's diary AS A SCHOOLGIRL— EVELYN 'S 
 PHILOSOPHY — DECLARES HERSELF VERY '* SUSCEPTI- 
 BLE '* — ABE HUMMEL CALLED; LEAVES THE STAND 
 W^ITH STORY UNSHAJCEN. 
 
 More crnshino- than all the ordeals hitherto exper- 
 ienced, Evelyn Thaw wa*s next compelled to admit tlie 
 shameful fact that after her rnin she lived on the 
 hounty of her betrayer. Documentary evidence was 
 introduced to strengthen the hands of the merciless 
 Jerome. A dozen times she took refuge in the an- 
 swer, "I don't remember." 
 
 It was a bad day for the defense. The most sensa- 
 t'.onal feature of the session was the introduction of 
 her diary which picturerl her a whimsical, strange 
 little philosopher, even <;« a school girl. 
 
 Jerome sprang his coup with startlinu' suddenness. 
 Tie handed iNfrs. Thaw a bundle of receipts represent- 
 ing monoy paid to her rnd her mother by Stanford 
 White, and demanded that the fail- witnc^ss identify 
 iicr own signature on them. 
 
 158 
 
STAXFORD WHITE'S BOVNTY 159 
 
 There were fourteen receipts in all. They were 
 for various amounts received from the Mercantile 
 Trust company, where White had deposited a sum 
 of money for Evelyn and her mother. The amounts 
 varied from $65 to $110. The receipts were signed 
 "Evelyn Florence Nesbit,'* the mother and daughter 
 liaving the same name. 
 
 A letter and envelope addressed to White's private 
 secretary by the architect were next offered in evi- 
 dence. The letter said : 
 
 "Dear Ilartnett: Please telephone Mrs. Nesbit 
 to let you know whenever ]\Iiss Evelyn decides to go 
 on her vacation. Then send this note to the Mercan- 
 tile Trust company: * Please notify ^liss Nesbit that 
 on receiving word she is about to start on her vacation 
 you will send her the weekly checks for $25 and an 
 additional check for $200.' Yours truly, 
 
 "Stanford White.'' 
 
 Evelyn was then compelled to admit that for sev- 
 eral months in 1902 she lived at the exclusive Audu- 
 bon apartments and that White paid the rent. Then 
 she told of her meeting with Thaw and of her trip to 
 Europe with him and of her recital to him of the 
 story of her ruin, which, it was contended, wrecked 
 his mind. 
 
 ' ' When Harry learned I had a letter of credit from 
 Stanford White, he grew very much excited/' de- 
 clared Mrs. Thaw. "He said the money was filthy 
 and poisonous and that I must never touch it again. 
 
160 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 Tie said he would take it so I could not use it. He 
 said that he would give me anything I wanted, and 
 that if mamma wanted anything she would only have 
 to ask for it. 
 
 ''When Mr. White gave me the letter of credit it 
 was sealed up. I did not know what it was, and he 
 told me I must not open the letter until we were well 
 at sea. Whatever was used of the money was for 
 my mother. Mr. Thaw gave it to her after I had 
 given it to him." 
 
 Thaw gave her $1,000 while she w^as in Paris. 
 
 Jerome had in some mysterious and unexplained 
 way secured possession of a diary kept by Evelyn 
 while she was at school at Pompton, N. J., in 1902. 
 Rumor had it, that a handsome sum of money found 
 its way to a member of her family for filching the 
 booklet. Extracts from the diary were read to the 
 fair witness, who admitted theii- authorship. 
 
 Some of the remarkable excerpts were : 
 
 ''Mrs. De Mille (the head of the school) said to 
 come right in and I jumped with the agility of a 
 soubrette and began to get shy. 
 
 "I met Mrs. De Mille 's son, and I must admit that 
 he was a pie-faced mutt. 
 
 "My room here is neither large nor small. There is 
 a white, virtuous bed. I took a nap, and the last 
 thing I remember was, I wondered how far T am 
 from Rector's. Rector's is really not a proper place 
 for an innocent young person, but I always had a 
 Weakness foi" it." 
 
STANFORD WHITE'S BOUNTY 161 
 
 "When one comes to think it over it is good to have 
 lived. A girl who has always been good and never 
 had any scandal about her is fortunate in more ways 
 than one. On the other hand, not one of them will 
 ever be anything. By anything I mean just that. 
 They will, perhaps, be good wives and mothers, but 
 whether it is ambition or foolish, I mean to be a good 
 actress first. 
 
 "Of course, I can't live here all the time. And I 
 can't forget all the old people. They do not know 
 what they are doing here, but give them a chance to 
 get away and see what they would do. If I stay here 
 long I'll get just like the rest. I am very susceptible 
 and I'll soon be a " 
 
 "From the time you first became intimate with 
 Thaw in 1903 until the shooting of White, June 25, 
 1906, did you ever see anything in Thaw's condition 
 that was irrational?" asked Mr. Jerome. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 ]\Irs. Thaw then detailed several instances. She 
 said that one night while on Broadway in a cab, she 
 and Thaw saw White. Thaw became much excited. 
 
 "I don't know what you would call it," she said, 
 "but I would call it a fit. He cried and sobbed, and 
 bit his nails and talked rapidly." 
 
 "Did you ever see a man in an epileptic fit?" asked 
 Mr. Jerome. 
 
 "I've seen cats." 
 
 There was considerable laughter. 
 
162 TEE GFEAT THAW CASE 
 
 Mrs. Thaw said her husband told her that White 
 was circulating scandalous stories about him and was 
 plotting to have him killed. 
 
 Abe Hummel, a once brilliant and respected lawyer 
 in New York with a large practice among theatrical 
 people, was brought on the stand by the prosecution 
 prepared to swear that Mrs. Thaw had made an affi- 
 davit in his presence that Harry had beat her in 
 Paris. 
 
 The evidence was not admitted. Jerome tried, 
 however, to prove that she had made the affidavit. 
 Evelyn, who had left the courtroom, was recalled. 
 She came drying her eyes and showing sigiis of bitter 
 disappointment because she was not allowed to re- 
 main at her husband's side. 
 
 *' You've a brother, Howard Nesbit?" began 
 Jerome. 
 
 ''Yes, sir.'' 
 
 *'0n your return from Europe in 190-3, did you 
 tell your brother Howard, in substance, that while 
 you were abroad you had been brutally abused by 
 Thaw to induce you to tell lies against Stanford 
 White, and that these li^s were that he had drugged 
 and mistreated you, which story you told Howard 
 Nesbit was false?" 
 
 ''I did not." 
 
 ''Didn't you tell your brother you were compelled 
 at the point of a revolver to make some sucli state- 
 ment?" 
 
 ''I did not" 
 
ST AX FORD V\^HITE'S BOUNTY 163 
 
 ''Didn't yon tell Howard these facts in substance 
 at some time '? ' ' 
 
 ''I-did-not!" 
 
 Each time this answer was repeated witn greater 
 emphasis and a longer pause between the three words. 
 
 Evelyn was excused again. Jerome had been try- 
 ing to prove her a perjurer, but had failed. 
 
 This ended Evelyn's greatest oi'deal on the witness 
 stand. The slender girl was free to rest after a strain 
 that had taxed her vitality to the utmost. Although 
 she had suffered much in personal reputation, her 
 original .story was unshaken. 
 
 Dr. Evans, the alienist, was recalled for cross ex- 
 amination and remained on the stand two days. Tie 
 was given a terrific cross fire of questions. Summed 
 np Dr. Evans stated that he believed Thaw to have 
 been suff'ering from adolescent insanity in 190.'i and 
 at the time of his marriage, again on April 4, 1905, 
 and that when he killed Stanford White. June 25, 
 1906, he was the victim of an acute and recurrent at- 
 tack of the same mental maladv. 
 
 Important as was his testimony, it was quite lost 
 sitiht of by the public in the keen interest surround- 
 ing Evelyn Thaw, and the spirit of anticipation with 
 whicli the appearance of Harrv Thaw's mothei- was 
 awaited. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Thaw's Mother on the Stand. 
 
 AGED WOMAN WITH ALL HER WEALTH AND SOCIAL POSI- 
 TION, A PATHETIC FIGURE— BENT WITH GRIEF AND 
 SHAKEN WITH SOBS — TELLS HOW SON WEPT VIO- 
 LENTLY AT NIGHT — FIRST HEARD EVELYN NESBIT S 
 NAME ON THANKSGIVING BEFORE MARRIAGE— HARRY 
 CONFIDED TO MOTHER THAT GRIEF WAS DUE TO EVE- 
 LYN ^S FATE — CALLED HER VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCES 
 — MOTHER APPROVED OF MARRIAGE ON CONDITION 
 THAT MRS. HOLMAN SHOULD NEVER ENTER HER HOUSE 
 AND THAT EVELYN 'S PAST SHOULD NEVER BE RE- 
 FERRED TO — DEFENSE ENDS ITS CASE. 
 
 Pathetic as was the trembling fio-ure of Evelyn 
 Nesbit Thaw on the witness stand it paled into insi<»'- 
 nifieance as eonipared with the appearance of Mrs. 
 Williaiji Thaw, the aged mother of the defendant, in 
 the role of a witness, contribnting her share of humil- 
 iation to the sacrifice for her son's life. 
 
 Bent with t^^rief and shaken with sobs, the hans^hty 
 widow of the millionaire steel kinfi: appeared clothed 
 from head to foot in black. For the moment, pride of 
 family and of wealth disappeared before the misery 
 of the ordeal she had to nndersjo. Momentarily, slie 
 would show a flash of spirit, but it disnppeni'ed <il- 
 raost as quickly. Even the stern prosecutor softened 
 
 164 
 
MRS. WILLIAM THAW 
 Harry Thaw's aged mother. 
 
THAW'S MOTHER 167 
 
 in manner before the sorrow of the aged woman. To 
 attack her with the same ferocity as the wife of 
 the accused would have spelled ruin for him. He 
 read the handwriting on the wall and desisted. 
 
 Altogether Mrs. Thaw did not make as good a wit- 
 ness as did Evelyn with her wonderful composure and 
 ready wit ; but she impressed the jury and all hearc^rs 
 forcibly nevertheless. She herself seemed disap- 
 pointed when her examination came to an end. Her 
 disappointment centered about refusal of counsel to 
 permit her to deny that her son Harry suffered a 
 tnint of insanity by heredity. She was placed on the 
 stand immediately after Dr. Charles D. Wagner, an 
 alienist, had testified Harry Thaw was incapable of 
 viewing his action as wrong when he shot White. 
 
 Mr. Del mas conducted the direct examination of 
 .^frs. Thaw, which follows : . 
 
 "In what time of the fall of 1903 did your son, 
 Harry K. Thaw, come to your home in Pittsburg?" 
 
 **In October. He came two days after my other 
 son was married. 
 
 ''During the time that Harry K. Thaw was at your 
 home did you notice anything peculiar in his conduct 
 denoting a change?" 
 
 "When he first entered the house his manner was 
 such that it struck me at the time." 
 
 "Will you descri])e his appearance!" 
 
 "He seemed absent-minded and had a despairing 
 look." 
 
168 THE GREAT THA^V CASE 
 
 ''Did this continue ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "What followed?" 
 
 "This sort of thin": happened several times at 
 night. His room was next to mine and he sobbed 
 violently during the night." 
 
 It was at this point that the grief-stricken mother 
 first gave Avay to her overpowering emotion. Her 
 face, which had been as gray as her hair when she 
 entered the courtroom, flushed red and tears stole 
 down her cheeks. 
 
 She wiped away the tears with a black-bordered 
 handkerchief and continued her story in a hesitating 
 manner. Her tones were so low that several of the 
 jurors could not hear her. 
 
 "Had you proceeded to state that you had found 
 your son as late as 3 or 4 in the morning awake and 
 undressed ? ' * 
 
 "No; I said he was dressed." 
 
 "And you had proceeded to state what he said?" 
 
 "He said that a man— probably tlu^ worst man in 
 Xew York— had ruined his life." 
 
 "Had you made any inquiry of your son as to 
 what that man had done?" 
 
 "He said the man had wrecked the life of a young 
 girl." 
 
 "Did you learn more about that statement?" 
 
 "Yes. I could not learn who the girl wms who was 
 associated with this wicked m;in in New York." 
 
THA ^Y 'S MO THEE 1 G9 
 
 ? 1 
 
 *'Did you learn her name from your son? 
 
 ''Yes." 
 
 "Will you tell us just what he saidf" 
 
 "I learned more about it afterward." 
 
 "Was that all you learned up to Thanksgiving 
 day?" 
 
 Mrs. Thaw ])egan crying again and restrained her- 
 self only after a great effort. 
 
 Some of the jurors complained that they had not 
 leen able to hear the testimony. By direction of the 
 court, the stenographer read aloud the testimony of 
 Mrs. Thaw. Her testimony was as follows, eliminat- 
 nig questions: 
 
 "In November, 1903, a few daj^s before my second 
 son was married, Harry came there. It was the 18tli 
 of November. I noticed a change in his conduct 
 when he first entered the house. I had the habit of 
 going to the door, and when I saw him it struck me 
 that he looked absent-minded, as if he had lost in- 
 terest in c^-. erything. The impression grew on me. 
 
 "He appeared to b;' laboring with a problem. He 
 went to the drawing room and I heard the piano 
 I)laying violently at first and then the tone grew 
 softer and softer. This happened aft.T he would 
 come back, and after a while he would go to the draw- 
 ing room and resume playing in the same way, first 
 wildly and then softer and softer. 
 
 "But the most marked feature was his wakefulness 
 at night. His room Avas next to mine and I would 
 
170 
 
 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 hear him so])biiig. I would see a light under the door 
 at three or four in the morning. I woukl go into his 
 ro(mi and find him sitting up crying. 
 
 "I am not of a prying disposition, and I did not 
 inquire into his trouble at once. He finally told u'c 
 one night what the trouble was. He did not tell me 
 definitely at first. He first said that it was something 
 a wicked man in New York had done that had ruined 
 his life. That was as much as I could get from him at 
 first. He said the man was probably the worst in 
 New York. 
 
 ''On Thanksgiving I learned more. I did not ask 
 the girl's name. I learned from him one night what 
 the wicked man had done to the young girl. I did not 
 want to in(iuire any further. 
 
 ^'I told him thr.t sort of thing happened in New 
 York constantly and I asked. Why should that ruin 
 your life? But he insisted it had. 
 
 "I tried to influence him the other way, to show 
 him that it w^is not his place to look after the young 
 girls. 
 
 "He said the girl had the most beautiful mind of 
 jiny woman he had ever met and that if she had been 
 under the influence^ of a good mother she would have 
 l)eeJi the best woman that ever lived. I can ml i*e- 
 call the entire conversation, but that is the substnnof 
 of it. 
 
 **I only know tliat on Thanksgiving Day tliat inci- 
 dent 0<'curre(i. It was the first Thanksgiving Dav 
 
TEA ^y 'S MOTHER 1 Tl 
 
 iu our new church, and as it was very crowded Harry 
 and I had to stand under the gallery. I was glad 
 afterward that we had to. as we heard the beautiful 
 music. 
 
 "I heard a sob and when we drove home I asked 
 Ilarr}^, 'Why did you forget yourself in church?' 
 and he said it suddenly came over him— this dreadful 
 thing. 'If that dreadful thing had not happened/ 
 he said, 'she could have been here with us.' " 
 
 The reading ceased and Mrs. Thaw was questioned 
 further by 'Sir. Del mas. 
 
 '*Did you have further conversations with him,'" 
 
 "I think that was the substance of what he sai-'i 
 and what I noticed." 
 
 "After this conversation on Thanksgiving day, di»l 
 you notice anything about his wakefulness and dis- 
 turbed condition ? " ' 
 
 "Nearly every morning I saw him up early. The 
 same condition prevailed." 
 
 "Do you know whether Dr. Bingaman was in at- 
 tendance a few afternoons later?" 
 
 "Yes; I i-emember it was a gloomy afternoon. It 
 was the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I believe, lie 
 did so so frequently that I do not recall any single 
 occasicm." 
 
 ''While he (Dr. Bingaman) was in your home di'l 
 his reference to this young girl become more frequent 
 or less frequent?" 
 
172 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 "I am not sure. If anything it was more fre- 
 (liient." 
 
 "When did you learn who this vounf? "irl was?'^ 
 
 "I cannot recall that. I have tried to. Durin*:' the 
 Spring of 1904, before he went abroad, I am inclined 
 to think I learned that." 
 
 "At that time can you recall what your son said 
 about the young girl?" 
 
 "I can not recall it." 
 
 District Attorney Jerome here appealed to the 
 court to instruct the witness to answer yes or no to 
 this question. 
 
 "You have stated that you think you learned who 
 this young girl was before your son went to Europe 
 in 1904. Now, my question is, what did he say?" 
 
 ]\Irs. Thaw's examination was interrupted at this 
 time by a clash of counsel over the purpose of th(^ 
 (juestions. District Attorney Jerome insinuating that 
 if it was to show Thaw mentally unbalanced he W(;uld 
 ask for a lunacy commission. The clash did much to 
 disconcert the witness. Finally her examination con.- 
 tinued. 
 
 "What did your son say to you?" 
 
 "It Avas some time between Thanksgiving and ^vhen 
 lie went back to Europe that he told me who the 
 young girl was. I cannot recall the convei'salion we 
 had, but I think it was in March that he told me." 
 
 "What did your son tell you?" 
 
 "He said she had gone m ith he- mother to New 
 
THAW'S MOTHER . 173 
 
 Fork and she had met the wicked man who had 
 ruined her. I cannot recall all the conversation, but 
 know I learned her name. 
 
 "Have you now stated all the conversation you had 
 with your son between the time he got home and the 
 time he left for Europe?" 
 
 ''Yes: I have told all." 
 
 "Your son. then reappeared in your home in the 
 Fall of 1904?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 '■'Did he speak to you then about his contemplated 
 marriage to this young girl?" 
 
 "I remember expressing my disapproval about his 
 coming over from the other side with her, but he said 
 there was nothing wrong; that she had been the vic- 
 tim of circumstances." 
 
 "Will you state when he first manifested the inten- 
 tion of marrying that young girl?" 
 
 "In November, 1903, he tokl me he desired to 
 marry her, but that he had been frustrated at every 
 move he made." 
 
 "You went South in 1904?" 
 
 "In February. It may have been in 1905. I can- 
 n'ot remember dates." 
 
 "When you returned from the South you say your 
 son wa.s still intent on marrying this girl?" 
 
 "Yes; and I therefore came here to New York and 
 saw her. This was about a month before the wed- 
 ding." 
 
174 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 ''You came to see her? And did you talk with 
 your son about the wedding?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Did you finally give your approval? Kindly 
 state what conversation you had with your son on the 
 subject after your return to the hotel?" 
 
 "He asked me whether I would be willing he should 
 marry her and I said he could marry her at my home. 
 I said he could take her home— that I liked th(^ gii'l. 
 I told Harry I had no one at home now and would 
 take this girl to my home and her past would be 
 closed. I told him I would never ask her about it 
 nor permit it to be mentioned in my presence. I did 
 however, make one condition. I told him I would uo^ 
 have her mother in my house. So he made the ar- 
 rangements and on April 2 came home to be mar- 
 ried." 
 
 "Now, after you had given your approval, they 
 were married at your home in Pittsburg?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "How soon did the mai-riage take place?" 
 
 "Two days later." 
 
 "What seemed to be his condition just prior to tlu* 
 marriage ? ' ' 
 
 "He seemed to be in a better condition, but soiih^- 
 what depressed. He seemed to fear that the mothei' 
 of the girl wcmld withhold her consent to the mar- 
 riage. He said he fearcMl that at the very last her 
 mother would refuse her consent." 
 
TEA W 'S MO THER 175 
 
 ''What was the cause of this agitation on his wed- 
 dintj dav?" 
 
 "He felt that her mother would still try to inter- 
 fere. He was busy writing- nearly all day." 
 
 "Did you know that a will and codicil was being- 
 executed that day?" 
 
 ''Yes." 
 
 "At what time of the day?" 
 
 "At the early dinner." 
 
 "You say they left for the West that night?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "How did he appear when he came back?" 
 
 "Their life was clear and placid. They were with 
 me until October. I had an opportunity and care- 
 fully watched them." 
 
 Mr. Jerome then took the witness in hand for cross 
 examination. 
 
 "Did your son learn to play the piano?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "At some time subsequent to the death of 3^our 
 husband— or, rather, I'll put it this way— were you 
 the executrix or trustee of your husband's estate?" 
 
 Del mas objected. 
 
 "I am trying- to show that at a certain date the 
 executors of the late :\Ir. Thaw's will increased the 
 amount set aside for the defendant under the will," 
 said Jerome. 
 
 The question was changed as follows: 
 
 "Did .sucl/ a. I event take place?" 
 
176 TEE GBEAT TEAW CASE 
 
 ''Yes." 
 
 "At what date?" 
 
 "I cannot remember exactly." 
 
 "How did it come about?" 
 
 Del mas objected. 
 
 "I want to instruct the witness that the District 
 Attorney can ask any question he wants," he said, 
 "and that I can object to it if I want to, and I ask 
 you, Mrs. Thaw, not to answer until I have had a 
 chance to object." 
 
 ' ' There Avas a time when your son, under his f ath- 
 er's will, was to receive a certain amount of money 
 unless the executors saw fit to increase it and there 
 was a subsequent time when the amount was increased 
 ])y the executors, when wa.s that?" 
 
 "If you will state it Avas after June, 1903, I will 
 not object," said Delmas. 
 
 "I will not allow the question unless you set the 
 date subsequent to June, 1903," said Judge Fitzger- 
 ald." 
 
 J'-roine again put the ({Uivstion and was again over- 
 ruled. 
 
 "After the death of the defendant's father was Ik* 
 ill receipt of a certain income from the estate of hi.s 
 father?" 
 
 Delmas objected and was again sustained. 
 
 "After June, 1903, what was the income of the de- 
 fendant?" 
 
 "It was from his own estate." 
 
 "AYliat income did he receive before that?" 
 
CLIFFORD W. HARTRIDGE 
 One of Thaw's lawyers. 
 
THAW'S MOTHER 179 
 
 Delmas objected and was sustained; Jerome was 
 beaten at every point. 
 
 "When you spoke to him of his proposal of mar- 
 riage, did he say he wanted to shield the young girl 
 from a wrong?" 
 
 ''Yes." 
 
 "Did he relate to you the occurrences in Europe? 
 Did he tell you of his desire to make Evelyn Nesbit 
 his wife?" 
 
 "He did." 
 
 ' ' Did he express fear that he might not be married 
 at that time?" 
 
 "He said she had told him that it would make an 
 unsuitable match and that while he was very anxious 
 to make the girl his wife she was not so anxious be- 
 cause of this wrong." 
 
 "When they arrived from Euroue did he come to 
 your home in Pittsburg?" 
 
 "Not directly, but during that month." 
 
 "So that up to the time of the marriage you had 
 received no information of his former relations with 
 Evelyn Nesbit?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "I am through," said Jerome, 
 
 After the aged woman's testimony had been con- 
 cluded, Attorney Delmas suddenly threw a bomb 
 into the ranks of the prosecution b^ announcing in 
 ^ low voice the three words : 
 
 ^'The defense rests!" 
 
I 
 
PAULA DESMOND 
 Actress figuring in the case, 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 Scathing Denunciation By Jerome. 
 
 DISTRICT ATTORNEY MAKES ATTACK ON LIFE OF HARRY 
 THAW— ATTRIBUTES WILD ORGIES TO THE DEPENDENT 
 — THE ETHEL THOMAS TRAGEDY— ATTEMPT MADE TO 
 PROVE EVELYN THAW A PFRJURER— NEW LIGHT ON 
 THE CASE— ABE HUMMEL ON THE STAND— JEROME 
 TRIES TO PROVE EVELYN HAD SWORN THAT WHITE 
 NEVER WRONGED HER— CHARGES PLOT BY THAW TO 
 PUT ARCHITECT IN PENITENTIARY— FAMOUS ALIEN- 
 ISTS SWEAR THAW WAS SANE AT THE TIME OP THE 
 TRAGEDY— EVELYN ON THE STAND AGAIN. 
 
 With the testimony of Thaw 's aged mother fresh in 
 their minds the jurors heard District Attorney Je- 
 rome make a sensational attack on the past life of 
 Harry Thaw. Jerome insinuated that Thaw had in 
 his wild youthful days, indulged in wild orgies no less 
 iniquitous than those of which Stanford White had 
 been accused, although differing in character. 
 
 Attorney Frederick Longfellow, Thaw's personal 
 counsel, was a witness from whom Jerome fought to 
 draw this information. 
 
 Longfellow was an unwilling witness and every 
 answer had to be dragged from him, Delmas inter- 
 posing objections to the procedure throughout the ex- 
 amination. 
 
 182 
 
SCATHING DENUNCIATION 183 
 
 < ( 
 
 Did you represent this prisoner in the suit of 
 Ethel Thomas against Harry K. Thaw?" demanded 
 Jerome. 
 
 ''My firm did," Longfellow was allowed to an- 
 
 swer 
 
 It has been said that alleged acts of perversion 
 by White added to the fury of Thaw's mental unbal- 
 ance, ' ' Jerome stated. ' ' I want to show that he knew 
 all about such things— that they were set forth in the 
 complaint in this suit by Ethel Thomas, the papers 
 of which were served on him. 
 
 "I am not trying to show that Ethel's statements 
 were true. Anyway, this poor girl now is dead — 
 
 A hot fight came here, and Jerome was forced to 
 withdraw the words ''poor girl," while the jury was 
 cautioned to ignore what Jerome had said. 
 
 "Mrs. Thaw herself," Jerome fairly shouted, 
 "says she was told the story of Ethel Thomas!" 
 
 Longfellow was not allowed to testify to anything 
 about the charges contained in the Thomas girl's suit 
 against Thaw. 
 
 Jerome was burning with wrath. His expected vic- 
 tory had been turned to bitter defeat. 
 
 The next witness was Policeman Dennis Wright, 
 who was called to testify as to conversations he had 
 with Thaw the night of Thaw's arrest. The witness 
 said : 
 
 "When I was in Madison avenue I saw Thaw, I 
 
184 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 asked him what the trouble was. He said he wanted 
 me to take him away from the crowd, to take him to 
 the station-house." 
 
 *'Was there any more?" 
 
 "Yes. When Ave were in Fifth avenue some per- 
 son unknown asked me if I knew the prisoner ©r what 
 he had done. I said I did not. I asked the defend- 
 ant if he knew w^hat he had done and he said *Yes.' 
 I asked him if he knew who it was he had killed. He 
 said he would say nothing until he reached the sta- 
 tion-house. He asked me for a light, offered me a 
 cigar, and then wanted to take a cab to the station, 
 but I would not agree." 
 
 "Were his actions rational or irrational?" 
 
 "Rational." 
 
 Four other policemen testified Thaw appeared ra-. 
 tional after the murder. 
 
 Jerome here made an attempt to prove Evelyn 
 Thaw a liar. He was defeated, however, for his star 
 witness, Rudolph Eckmyer, a photographer, was not 
 allowed to tell the date he made the famous Madison 
 Square Garden photographs of Evelyn. 
 
 "If you will let me fix the date of these pictures," 
 he said heatedly, "I will show that on the night fol- 
 lowing the day they were taken, when Mrs. Thaw 's ex- 
 perience at White's studio took place, Stanford 
 AVhite was not in the Twenty-fourth street house at 
 all.'' - 
 
SCATHING DENUNCIATION 185 
 
 Jerome fairly shouted the last words and pounded 
 the table before him. Mr. Delmas said he must stand 
 upon his objection, and it was sustained. 
 
 ''I now offer," repeated Jerome, "to prove by this 
 witness the exact date on which these pictures were 
 taken, which was, ]\Irs. Thaw testified, the day before 
 she was drugged by Stanford White. And I further 
 offer to prove that on that occasion Stanford White 
 was not where she said he was." 
 
 James Clinch Smith, Stanford White's brother- 
 in-law, who was in Europe when the trial began, was 
 allowed to testify for the defense. Smith's story 
 threw much new light on the tragedy. It showed that 
 Thaw several times passed through the aisles on the 
 Madison Square Roof-garden, apparently seeking 
 some one, and always his eyes were turned on the spot 
 where Stanford White sat. 
 
 He sat down and talked to Smith on a variety of 
 subjects— Wall street speculation, the play, a trip to 
 Europe, common acquaintances, and many other top- 
 ics. 
 
 This story, Jerome sought to show, proved that 
 Thaw was sane the night of the murder, and that he 
 repeatedly sought for his victim on the roof-garden, 
 instead of killing him because of a sudden impulse. 
 
 "Thaw sat down beside me," said the relative of 
 AVhite, "and offered me a cigar. I said, *No, thank 
 you.' He said, 'How's that, don't you smoke at all?' 
 
186 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 I said I occasionally smoked cigarets. He then took 
 out his cigaret case, offered me one, and I took it and 
 thanked him. He struck a match and lit my cigaret, 
 and his cigar. He asked me how I liked the play, 
 and I said I did not care for it much. I thought it 
 Blow and not the sort of play for a roof-garden. 
 
 "He said, 'It is different from those you usually 
 see on the roof-garden. It is a relief to see it, and 1 
 think it will be a success.' I said I doubted it. 
 
 "A few moments later he said, 'What are you doing 
 in Wall street now — any speculating?' I answered 
 that I did not speculate in Wall street. He said he 
 thought there was a great chance in copper; he men- 
 tioned Amalgamated and one other. 
 
 *'And he also said Steel was good; he could not see 
 why steel stocks were kept down; the company was 
 doing a bigger business than ever. He said if he had 
 any money he would put it in steel and copper, partic- 
 ularly copper." 
 
 ' ' Then suddenly he said : ' Where are you going this 
 summer?' I told him that I was going to Europe on 
 Thursday. He wanted to know what ship I was go- 
 ing on, and when I told him he said he did not like 
 the ship. 
 
 "He said he was going on the Amerika because he 
 could get on that ship a large suite of rooms, where 
 he could have his meals served in his apartments. 
 
 "Then he said: 'Are you alone over here?' I told 
 him that I had left my wife in Paris, 
 
SCATHING DENUNCIATION . 187 
 
 ''When Thaw left me he walked around several 
 times, looking over the audience, toward the place 
 where he subsequently shot White. Finally his 
 friends arrived, and then I heard three pistol shots 
 and saw a cloud of black smoke. I saw Thaw after 
 the shooting, aiming his pistol toward the floor. 
 
 ' ' I went to the entrance, keeping my eyes on Thaw 
 all the while. Then I saw a man lying face downward 
 on the floor. The man's face was so blackened with 
 powder I did not recognize my brother-in-law and left 
 the place without knowing who the man was." 
 
 Smith on cross-examination asserted Thaw was not 
 intoxicated on the night of the murder. 
 
 Jerome next asked Abe Hummel this question : 
 
 ''Did you on October 27, 1903, see Evelyn Nesbit 
 Thaw in your office?" 
 
 "I did," replied the lawyer. 
 
 "At that conversation did Mrs. Thaw inform you 
 that Thaw wanted to injure White and put him in the 
 penitentiary and that Thaw had compelled her time 
 and time again to sign statements about AVhite and 
 that those documents charged White with having 
 drugged Evelyn Nesbit when she was about fifteen 
 years old and that she, Evelyn Nesbit, had told you 
 that Thaw had beaten her for not signing the papers ? ' ' 
 
 Hummel was not allowed to answer then, on objec- 
 tions by Delmas, but the witness said he was acting 
 for Stanford White at the time of the conference. 
 
188 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 The district attorney made an impassioned argu- 
 ment to secure the admission of Hummel 's testimony. 
 He said: 
 
 ''Your Honor has ruled and rules, as I believe, with 
 entire correctness, that as to the truth or falsity as to 
 whether Stanford White did do these acts, w^e on this 
 trial have nothing to do, the issue being, did the de- 
 fendant's mind become unhinged by these and other 
 things that have been proven in evidence? Was an 
 insanity induced by this revelation and the others 
 that appear in evidence which so swept reason from its 
 moorings that when he killed Stanford White that 
 night he did not know the nature and the quality of 
 the act and that it was wrong ? 
 
 ''Your Honor's rulings have reduced the case to 
 that, and have properly reduced it, in my estimation, 
 to that point. 
 
 "Now on that question of whether or not his mind 
 was unhinged by these revelations, whether or no 
 these revelations ever were made to him is surely most 
 important. It is not collateral. It goes to the very 
 root of the case. 
 
 "They claim that as Thaw sat in the hotel in Paris 
 that night and asked her to marry him and she said 
 she would not because of White, and she then cryingly 
 told how this man had drugged her when but a girl 
 of fifteen — they contend that this picture unhinged 
 his mind. Your ILmor has ruled we have nothinc: to 
 
SCATHING DENUNCIATION 189 
 
 do with the truth or falsity of her story. We have 
 nothing to do with whether Stanford White did or did 
 not do these things. The issue here is did or did not 
 this defendant's mind become unhinged when he 
 heard Evelyn Nesbit's story. 
 
 ''If this jury believes that she told this awful story 
 would it not be a fact that they would carry it in their 
 minds and would it not weigh heavily? 
 
 "If on the other hand I can show that Mrs. Thaw 
 did not tell Thaw in Paris that White drugged her it 
 will be a matter for the jury to consider seriously in 
 determining whether or not Thaw was insane when 
 he killed Stanford White. 
 
 *'If I can show that Evelyn Nesbit Thaw under the 
 solemnity of an oath swore that White had never 
 wronged her; if I can show that she repelled the ad- 
 vances of the man and that Thaw whipped and beat 
 her because she would not affix her signature to an affi- 
 davit charging White wronged her ; if I can show that 
 she said to Hummel: 'He beat me when we were in 
 Paris ; he lashed me with a whip because I would not 
 sign papers ; ' if I can show she swore ' Stanford White 
 never touched me'; if I can show that Thaw wanted 
 her to sign papers in order to put White in the peni- 
 tentiary—I can then show that the evidence in ques- 
 tion is of vital importance. 
 
 "If I can show that she has made contradictory 
 statements, the testimony of Doctors Evans and Wag- 
 
190 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 ner, which was based on her statement contained in the 
 hypothetical question, can be stricken from the rec- 
 ords. 
 
 ' ' There is the crux of the case as it appears in the 
 evidence, and the question becomes one of what the 
 law says on this subject of introducing contrary 
 statements of a witness. 
 
 "I was sincere when I said that I knew nothing in 
 history or literature could compare with the heroic 
 sacrifice made by Evelyn Nesbit when she refused 
 to accept the profit'ered hand of Thaw in Paris— if the 
 story told by Evelyn is true!'' 
 
 The court made no decision on the question at issue, 
 and examination of Hummel was resumed. 
 
 '*At the interview in your office," asked Mr. Je- 
 rome, 'Vlid Evelyn Nesbit, prior to your dictating any- 
 thing, tell you that she had told Thaw that it was not 
 true that Stanford White had drugged her?" 
 
 Mr. Delmas was on his feet to object, but before he 
 could do so and immediately after the district attor- 
 ney had ceased to speak, Hummel said, in a loud voice : 
 ''She certainly did." 
 
 Mv. Delmas looked at the witness, and, with scorn 
 in Ills voice, said: ''And you call yourself a lawyer!" 
 Then, after a bitter clash with the district attorney, 
 in which temper was shown on both sides, Jerome 
 being denounced, Delmas said, "Let the answer stand, 
 1 waive my right." 
 
 Jerome turned to Hummel again and asked: 
 
SCATHING DENUNCIATION 191 
 
 *'Did Evelyn Nesbit, as she was then known, say to 
 you that Thaw had prepared documents charging 
 Stanford "White with having drugged her when 
 she was 15, and insisted upon her signing them, 
 but that she told Thaw she would not, because the 
 statement was not true?'' 
 
 The court ruled this question could not be answered 
 until Evelyn Nesbit Thaw had been recalled and tes- 
 tified as to whether or not Hummel was acting 
 as her attorney or as White 's. 
 
 The next testimony was by Dr. Austin Flint, fa- 
 mous alienist for the prosecution. In response to a 
 question which required an hour and a quarter to read, 
 Dr. Flint said Thaw was sane when he killed White. 
 The question was practically a review of the trag- 
 edy and trial. 
 
 The other $250-a-day alienists for the state— Drs. 
 William B. Pritchard of the New York Polyclinic In- 
 stitute, Albert Warren Ferris of the College of Phy- 
 sicians and Surgeons, A. R. Dieffendorf of the State 
 Hospital of Middletown, Conn., and a professor of 
 mental diseases at Yale University, Dr. William E. 
 Mabon, superintendent of the New York state hospi- 
 tal for the insane on Wards Island, and Dr. William 
 Hirsch of the Cornell Medical College made the same 
 reply to the same question. All swore Thaw was 
 perfectly rational and knew what he was doing when 
 he shot White. 
 
192 THE GREAT THAW CA8:E: 
 
 Jerome had hurled his strongest attack against the 
 defense in this desperate effort to prove Thaw sane at 
 the time of the killing. While he was smiling in tri- 
 umph Delmas said: 
 
 ' ' Call Evelyn Nesbit Thaw. ' ' 
 
 Pale and apparently almost a nervous wreck the 
 beautiful child wife took the stand. 
 
 "Did you/' asked Delmas, "when you visited Abe 
 Hummel in his office call upon him then and there, in 
 a professional capacity with a view to having his legal 
 advice as a counsellor-at-law ? ' * 
 
 "I did/' was the answer. 
 
 Mrs. Thaw then left the stand. 
 
 Justice Fitzgerald then ruled that the defense could 
 not now plead the professional privilege in bar of 
 Hummel 's testimony for the privilege was involuntar- 
 ily waived when young IMrs. Thaw herself took the 
 stand and told of the occurrences in Hummel's office. 
 
 This was a hard blow to the defense and the Napo- 
 leanic Delmas was enshrouded in tempoi*ary defeat. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Shocking Disclosures in Famous Affidavit. 
 
 DOCUMENT DECLARED TO HAVE BEEN SIGNED BY EVELYN 
 THAW INTRODUCED IN EVIDENCE — CHARGES THAW 
 CHOKED HER, AND BEAT HER WITH A RAWHIDE WHIP 
 — ANOTHER ATTACK THE NEXT DAY— FAINTED IN AG- 
 ONY—BEATEN AND CHOKED AGAIN AND AGAIN— DE- 
 PENDANT DECLARED TO HAVE TAKEN EVELYN 'S DIA- 
 MONDS AND MONEY— THREATENED WITH BODILY IN- 
 JURY UNLESS SHE WOULD ACCUSE WHITE, IS CHARGE 
 — AFFIDAVIT ASSERTS WHITE DID NOT WRONG HER. 
 
 Startling charges that Harry Kendall Thaw admin- 
 istered unmerciful lashings to Evelyn Nesbit, and tor- 
 tured her because she would not accuse Stanford 
 White, were made in the famous affidavit prepared by 
 Abe Hummel and allowed by Justice Fitzgerald to be 
 introduced in evidence, after Hummel had sworn the 
 prisoner's sweetheart — Avhom he later married — had 
 signed and sworn to the document. 
 
 Threats of death were added to the pitiless whip- 
 pings and torture, some of which made the girl — then 
 traveling in Europe as Thaw's wife— faint in agony, 
 and on one occasion confined her to bed for three 
 weeks, so read the affidavit. In this document Evelyn 
 declared White did not injure her. With blanched 
 
 193 
 
(I 
 ( ( 
 
 194 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 face— shuddering— Thaw listened to the reading of 
 the document. He had never heard it before. The 
 full text of this affidavit, classed by many lawyers as 
 "the most remarkable exhibit ever introduced in a 
 New York law court," was as follows: 
 
 Evelyn Nesbit vs. Harry Kendall Thaw, 
 Supreme Court, city and county of New York: 
 Evelyn Nesbit, being duly sworn, says: 
 I reside at the Savoy hotel, Fifth avenue and 
 Fifty-ninth street, city of New York. I am 18 years 
 of age, having been born Christmas day, 1884. For 
 several months prior to June, 1903, I had been at Dr. 
 Bull's hospital at 33 West Thirty-third street. New 
 York city, where I had had an operation performed on 
 me for appendicitis during the month of June, and 
 then went to Europe with my mother, at the request 
 of Harry Kendall Thaw, the defendant above named. 
 ''My mother and I had apartments at the Hotel 
 Maintenon in Paris, France, and from there traveled 
 to Boulogne, during which time we were accompanied 
 by Mr. Thaw. Mr. Thaw left us once for London, 
 England. Mother and I remained at the Imperial 
 hotel about three weeks. 
 
 ''While the said Thaw was in London he wrote me 
 a number of letters. He then returned to Boulogne 
 and took my mother and myself and we went back to 
 Paris, where we stayed at the Langham hotel. We left 
 there about two weeks after and the said Thaw, my 
 
SHOCKING DISCLOSURES 195 
 
 mother and I returned to London, where we located at 
 Claridge's hotel; that is, my mother and I lived in 
 that place, while Mr. Thaw stayed in Claridge's hotel 
 for some little time and then removed to the Russell 
 Square hotel, in Russell square, London. 
 
 "I went with Mr. Thaw to Amsterdam, Holland, 
 by way of Folkestone. I was ill during this entire 
 period. ^Ir. Thaw and I traveled throughout Hol- 
 land, stopping at various places to make connecting 
 trains and then went to Munich, Germany. 
 
 "We then traveled through the Bavarian high- 
 lands, going to the Austrain Tyrol. During all this 
 time said Thaw and myself were known as husband 
 and wife and were represented by the said Thaw and 
 known under the name of ]\Ir. and Mrs. Dellis. 
 
 '* After traveling for about five or six weeks, the 
 said Thaw rented a castle in the Austrian Tyrol known 
 as the Schloss Katzenstein, which is situated about 
 half way up a very isolated mountain. This castle 
 must have been built centuries ago, as the rooms and 
 windows were all old-fashioned. When we reached the 
 place there were a number of servants in the castle. 
 I saw a butler, a cook, and a maid. They were the 
 only servants there. 
 
 "We occupied one entire end of the castle, two bed- 
 rooms, the parlor, and a drawing room. I was as- 
 signed to a bedroom for my personal use. 
 
 The first night we reached the Schloss Katzensteiu 
 
 (< 
 
196 TEE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 I was very tired and went to bed right after dinner. 
 In the morning I was awakened by Mr. Thaw knock- 
 ing on the door asking me to come to breakfast, say- 
 ing that the coffee was getting cold. I immediately 
 jumped out of bed and hastily dressed. I walked out 
 of my room and sat dowTi to breakfast with said 
 Thaw. 
 
 ' ' After breakfast, he said he wished to tell me some- 
 thing and asked me to step into my bedroom. I en- 
 tered the bedroom, when Thaw without any provoca- 
 tion grasped me by the throat. 
 
 *'I saw by his face that he was in a dreadfully ex- 
 cited condition. His eyes were glaring and his hands 
 grasped a raw-hide whip. 
 
 ''He seized hold of me, placed his fingers in my 
 mouth and tried to choke me. He then without the 
 slightest provocation inflicted on me several severe 
 blows with the rawhide whip, so severely that my skin 
 was cut and bruised. 
 
 ' ' I begged him to desist, but he refused, 
 
 ''I shouted and I cried. 
 
 "He stopped then for a minute to rest, and then 
 renewed his attack on me, beating me with the raw- 
 hide whip. 
 
 '*I screamed for help, but no one heard me; the 
 servants did not hear me for the reason that they were 
 in the other end of the castle. 
 
 ''Thereupon the said Thaw renewed his brutal at- 
 tacks until I was unable to move, 
 
SHOCKING DISCLOSURES 197 
 
 ''The following morning the said Thaw adminis- 
 tered another eastigation similar to the day before. 
 He took the rawhide whip and belabored me iinmer- 
 cifnlly. 
 
 "I swooned and I did not Imow how long I re- 
 mained in that condition until I regained conscious- 
 ness. 
 
 "He left me in a frightful condition. My fingers 
 were numb, and it was nearly three weeks before I 
 sufficiently recovered to get out of my bed and walk. 
 
 "When I had sufficiently recovered the said Thaw 
 
 took me to a -place in , where Italy and Austria 
 
 join and then we went to Switzerland, and stopped 
 at a place called the Switzer house at Santa Maria. 
 
 "The next morning I made some remark and said 
 Thaw took me to my room, and while in the room took 
 a rattan and beat me until I screamed ; when I began 
 to scream said Thaw again stuck his fingers into my 
 mouth. 
 
 "During all that time the said Thaw never attempt- 
 ed to make the slightest excuse for his conduct or state 
 what the provocation was. 
 
 "During all the time my mother and I remained in 
 
 England we occupied apartments at 5 Avenue . 
 
 I was constantly watched by detectives and other 
 hirelings of said Thaw, including the coachman and 
 the valet. 
 
 "When in Paris he assaulted me with a rattan for 
 
198 TEE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 half a day, at intervals of half an hour or so, striking 
 me severely. 
 
 ''One day my maid was in my room taking things 
 out of the drawers and I found a little silver box, ob- 
 long in shape, about two and a half inches in length, 
 containing a hypodermic syringe, and some other 
 small utensils. I asked Thaw what that was for, and 
 he stated to me that he had been ill, and had to make 
 some excuse. He said he had been compelled to take 
 cocaine. The first time I found he w^as addicted to 
 the taking of cocaine I saw the said Thaw administer 
 the cocaine to himself internally by taking small pills. 
 
 ' ' On one occasion Thaw attempted to compel me to 
 take one of these pills, but I refused to do so. 
 
 "While in Paris I suffered from sickness by reason 
 of the beatings he had administered to me and that 
 he had given me, and was confined to my bed in my 
 room about two weeks. 
 
 "While we were in Paris the said Thaw compelled 
 me by threatening to beat me to write a letter to a 
 M'iss Simonton, w^ho was staying at the Algonquin ho- 
 tel in the city of New York and knew my mother, 
 asking her to come to Paris. When she got there he 
 told her a lot of falsehoods and lies about me, telling 
 me previously that if I did not indorse what he said 
 he would kill me. 
 
 "AVliile we were at the Schloss Katzcnstein the said 
 Thaw took from me without my consent and still re- 
 
SHOCKING DISCLOSURES 199 
 
 tains in his possession two diamond rings, one sap- 
 phire ring with a diamond on each side, one pearl lock- 
 et, one gold purse and $400 in money consisting of 
 drafts from Thomas Cook & Sons. He had also in 
 his x^ossession in the city of Paris wearing apparel of 
 mine, consisting of five gowns, a number of hats, and 
 three parasols. 
 
 ' ' I had not seen my mother since I left her in Lon- 
 don, and I am informed within the last few weeks that 
 she returned to tlie city of New York from London 
 on the steamer Campania. 
 
 ' ' I arrived in this city Saturday, Oct. 24, 1903, hav- 
 ing returned from Paris by way of Cherbourg. 
 
 *' Before I left Europe the said Thaw had stated 
 to me that his lawyer, a ^Ir. Longfellow, would meet 
 me at the dock and asked me if I needed anything. 
 He said he would see that all my requirements re- 
 ceived attention. I had a letter from him to the said 
 Longfellow in which the said Thaw asked the said 
 Longfellow to have me followed by detectives and also 
 to see that everything I wanted was done and to see 
 that I was not troubled by anybody. 
 
 *'I had received a number of cablegrams from Thaw 
 which I have delivered to my counsel, Abraham II. 
 Hummel. 
 
 ''I have been repeatedly told by the said Thaw that 
 he is very inimical to a married man whom he said 
 he wanted me to injure and that Thaw would get him 
 
200 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 into the penitentiary ; that the said Thaw had begged 
 me time and time again to swear to written documents 
 which he had prepared, involving this married man 
 and charging him with drugging me when I was 15 
 years of age. This was not so ; and I so told him. 
 
 *'But because I refused to sign these papers said 
 Thaw not alone threatened me with bodily injury, 
 but inflicted on me the great bodily injury I have here- 
 in described. 
 
 ' ' Subscribed to before me this 27th day of October, 
 1903. 
 
 ''Sworn to before me this 27th day of October, 
 1903.'* (Signature of notary.) 
 
 ''The state rests," announced District Attorney 
 Jerome after reading the affidavit, and Attorney Del- 
 mas then attacked Hummel. He read the record of 
 Hummel 's conviction in the Dodge-]\Iorse divorce scan- 
 dal, in which the lawyer was accused— just as Evelyn 
 Thaw had accused him — of preparing a false affidavit 
 and false testimony. When Hummel was on the wit- 
 ness stand he denied that in drawing the affidavit he 
 was acting as counsel for Evelyn Nesbit; the docu- 
 ment itself proved that he was. The papei's were to 
 have been filed, it was stated, in a suit for damages 
 against Thaw. 
 
 More sensations were ahead. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 Jerome Calls Thaw Madman. 
 
 PHYSICIANS ASSERT YOUNG MILLIONAIRE TO BE DE- 
 MENTED—ANGRY PROTEST BY DELM AS— SENSATIONAL 
 ARGUMENT BY DISTRICT ATTORNEY— BAD F.VITH 
 CHARGED TO COUNSEL— LUNACY COMMISSION IS DE- 
 MANDED— THAW ^S LETTERS USED TO QUESTION HIS 
 SANITY— COURT TAKES QUESTION UNDER ADVISEMENT. 
 
 After the reading of the shocking affidavit, Dis- 
 trict Attorney Jerome swore five of the alienists for 
 the defense, at one time. He sought, through asking 
 them the same hypothetical question put by the de- 
 fense, to prove that Thaw was insane both at the time 
 of the murder and at the time of the trial. 
 
 *'I do not believe Harry Tha\v was sane at the 
 time he shot Stanford White, nor do I believe he is 
 sane now," declared Dr. Graeme M. Hammond. "I 
 do not know whether he will ever recover." 
 
 Dr. Smith Ely Jelliffe, professor at Columbia 
 Medical School, swore he was convinced Thaw was 
 crazed at the time of the murder, but that he "had a 
 sort of insane knowledge" of what he was doing. 
 
 Dr. Charles W. Pilgrim asserted Thaw "Did not 
 know the nature or the quality of his act on the 
 Madison Square Roof -garden." Dr. ]\Iinas Gregory 
 
 201 
 
202 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 also swore the prisoner was insane at the time of the 
 crime, and others made the same statement. 
 
 This was a startling change of base for the prosecu- 
 tion. Instead of trying to prove the young million- 
 aire was sane both at the time of the tragedy and at 
 the time of the trial, Jerome astounded the legal 
 world by endeavoring to prove him hopelessly insane. 
 The prosecutor had given up all hope of securing a 
 verdict which would make the death-chair the pen- 
 alty. 
 
 Delmas was angry. 
 
 **We propose/' he shouted, ** honestly to convince 
 you, Mr. Jerome, that Thaw was insane when he shot 
 Stanford ^\Tiite — and sane now — by the very wit- 
 nesses whom you have subpoenaed and brought into 
 court for the obvious and only conceivable purpose 
 of telling to this jury under oath the truth and the 
 whole truth." 
 
 The jury was ordered to leave during arguments 
 over further testimony of alienists. 
 
 In his startling argument after the jury retired 
 Mr. Jerome said: 
 
 "I want to explain and make my position clear. 
 As I understand the matter Dr. Hamilton, who was 
 originally called into the case by the defense, is ready 
 to testify that in his opinion this defendant was in- 
 sane, that he was of unsound mind when he com- 
 mitted the homicide, and that as he sits at the table 
 
CALLS THAW MAD3IAN 203 
 
 today he is suffering from a mental disease known 
 as paranoia, a disease in which the sufferer until the 
 last stages of the disease is capable of knowing the 
 nature and quality of his acts. 
 
 "I understand that Dr. Hamilton so advised the 
 defendant's counsel and that his counsel was then 
 changed. 
 
 *'I am willing to throw open the door wide, and 
 ask to let all these facts come out, but I will not agree 
 to yir. Delmas confining his questions to these four 
 visits and keep me down to the close limits of evi- 
 dence and not be allowed to go into the real facts of 
 the case. 
 
 ''Your honor knows,'* continued District Attorney 
 Jerome, "what my position here has been all along. 
 We have no right to be here trying this man if the 
 real facts are known. Your honor knows that I have 
 tried ever since this case opened to bring out these 
 facts and that I have not been able to do so. 
 
 "If the real facts as to the mental condition of 
 this defendant can be brought out the court would 
 be shocked and horrified and would stop this trial 
 instanter. So deeply have I been impressed with all 
 this that I have served notice on the attorney of 
 record that when this case is over, if I am convinced 
 they possess the facts that I believe they possess, I 
 will lay the matter before the Appellate division of 
 the Supreme court. 
 
204 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 ''There is not a man who has seen this defendant 
 sitting" there at the table who believes he is capable 
 of advising- counsel. We are today trying a man , 
 who is insane, while under the law he is sane. He is 
 a paranoiac, and while he is insane he is not insane 
 in the eyes of the law, for strictly speaking he knows 
 the nature and quality of his acts. 
 
 ''A man named Taylor went to death under ex- 
 actly similar circumstances. The Appellate court 
 said that he was insane, but he was a paranoiac, and 
 while his act was committed as the result of a delu- 
 sion, this delusion was not such as would have made 
 his act justifiable had it boen true. It was one of 
 the most gruesome acts the law has ever done. 
 
 "In five minutes time," cried the prosecutor, 
 banging his fist on the lawyers' table, *'I can show 
 that this man is incapable of advising his counsel as 
 he sits here in court. I will present facts which will 
 prevent this trial from going further!" 
 
 ''In view of the statement made by the district 
 attorney," said Justice Fitzgerald, "I now ask that 
 I be given all the information in the possession of 
 either counsel— all the evidence as to the defendant's 
 present state of mind which can be presented to the 
 court. I do this before instituting the proceedings I 
 understand have been asked for." 
 
 Mr. Delmas wanted to know if a commission in 
 lunacy was under discussion. 
 
CALLS THAW 3IAD3IAN 205 
 
 ( ( I 
 
 The court," replied Justice Fitzgerald, "is asked 
 to hear testimony while the jury is out of the room, 
 and then to determine its course." 
 
 "All of my own experts, Dr. Bingaman, the family 
 physician, and Dr. Deemar, the physician to the 
 Copley family, have informed me," said District 
 Attorney Jerome, "that this man is suffering from 
 paranoia. This paranoia is characterized by systema- 
 tized delusions. While suffering from one of these 
 insane delusions this man shot and killed Stanford 
 White." 
 
 "Did your own experts tell you that?" inquired 
 Justice Fitzgerald of District Attorney Jerome. 
 
 "They certainly did," replied Mr. Jerome, "but 
 from the record of the case I was prevented from 
 bringing this out. I was bound down to a hypothet- 
 ical question, and my witnesses testified only as to the 
 hypothetical question. There is heredity in this man 
 which he cannot avoid." 
 
 Mr. Delmas again arose and inquired if a commis- 
 sion in lunacy had been applied for. 
 
 "I so understand it," said Justice Fitzgerald, "if 
 the court shall so decide." 
 
 "We are prepared to combat that application," 
 said Mr. Delmas. 
 
 "I have made no formal application," explained 
 Mr. Jerome. "I submit to your honor the fact as he 
 sits there the defendant is incapable of directing his 
 defease. I leave the matter entirely to the court. 
 
 >> 
 
206 TEE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 Mr. Delmas declared Mr. Jerome's charges were 
 entirely unsupported. 
 
 "The district attorney's remarks were made under 
 his oath of office," said Justice Fitzgerald, with some 
 display of feeling. 
 
 "He has appealed to my conscience, and I now de- 
 mand the production of all the evidence which any 
 of counsel may possess." 
 
 Mr. Delmas said he understood Mr. Jerome to 
 imply unprofessional conduct on the part of the 
 defense in suppressing testimony. 
 
 "There was an implication of misconduct," said 
 Justice Fitzgerald. 
 
 "I hear of it today for the first time," said Mr. 
 Delmas. 
 
 Mr. Gleason here asked to be heard in behalf of 
 the defense. 
 
 "I desire to say," said Mr. Gleason, "that when 
 this case began I attempted to introduce evidence on 
 the very point v\^hich the district attorney now de- 
 mands, but it was ruled out on his own objections." 
 
 "I remember," said Justice Fitzgerald, "ruling 
 out such testimony on the ground that it was in rela- 
 tion to collateral lines." 
 
 "We have made a perfect defense here," asserted 
 Attorney Gleason, "and it is the duty of this court 
 to submit that defense to the jury " 
 
 *'This Qourt does not need any instruQtious as to 
 
CALLS THAW MADMAN 207 
 
 its duty," interrupted Justice Fitzgerald. ''That is 
 a matter the court can attend to for itself. All I 
 want is all of the information I can get on this sub- 
 ject. The court wants this information, but if I can 
 not get it, I will have to act as I see fit." 
 
 For a moment all the lawyers were talking excitedly 
 at once, and Justice Fitzgerald was forced to rap 
 sharply with his gavel. Finally Mr. Jerome made 
 himself heard. 
 
 *'The court has asked for all the facts I have in 
 my possession, and I will willingly furnish them. I 
 will give them in the form of an affidavit. I will 
 also furnish the affidavit of Dr. ]\Iabon and Dr. Mac- 
 Donald, and if his professional privilege is waived 
 I will have an affidavit from Dr. Hamilton." 
 
 ''The learned district attorney has just said that 
 this defendant is at this moment so insane as not to 
 be able to instruct his counsel," broke in Mr. Gleason 
 in an angry tone, "and now he asks that this man 
 whom he has dubbed insane waive a privilege." 
 
 "His attorneys can waive it for him," said Mr. 
 Jerome. 
 
 "The district attorney knows that that cannot be 
 done," was the reply. 
 
 "We will get the other affidavits first," said Jus- 
 tice Fitzgerald, "and then we will discuss that 
 matter." 
 
 Several other clashes took place, and ended in a 
 
208 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 formal demand by District Attorney Jerome that a 
 commission in lunacy be appointed to pass on the 
 mental condition of Harry Thaw, that the young 
 prisoner might be sent to a mad-house at once if 
 found insane. Justice Fitzgerald asked time to con- 
 sider the question, and demanded from both sides 
 the names of all the alienists involved in the case, to 
 guide him in selecting a commission. 
 
 Jerome was happy. He made this statement: 
 
 ''The situation is just what I have been looking for 
 all during the trial. A man who should be incarce- 
 rated in an insane asylum should not be on trial for 
 his life." 
 
 The justice held a special session of court, with the 
 jury absent, for the purpose of receiving affidavits 
 from alienists for both sides, to aid him in determin- 
 ing whether or not a commission in lunacy should be 
 appointed. Mr. Jerome called the court's special 
 attention to the following statements by Dr. Carlos 
 MacDonald : 
 
 "After careful examination of the exhibits and 
 the hypothetical question and the testimony and 
 affidavits of Mr. Cobb and assuming evidence stated 
 in the case to be true, my personal observation, in 
 court during the trial and also including certain 
 observations that I made of the defendant in the 
 library of the district attorney's office on the 27th 
 day of June, 1900, I am of the opinion that the 
 
CALLS THAW MAD3IAN 209 
 
 defendant is now and for some time past has been 
 suffering from a form of mental disease commonly 
 known among men skilled in mental diseases as para- 
 noia. Yet it is my opinion, based upon what has just 
 been enumerated, that when the defendant killed 
 Stanford White on the 25th day of June, 1906, he 
 was then suffering from said mental disease com- 
 monly known as paranoia, but that his then mental 
 state was such that he knew the nature and quality 
 of the act that he was doing . . . and that he then 
 and there knew such act on his part was against the 
 current morality of the people of this state and in 
 violation of law. 
 
 "I am of the opinion, upon the facts above enumer- 
 ated, that the mental disease commonly known as 
 paranoia, from which the defendant was suffering 
 on the night of June 25, 1906, is a form of mental 
 disease from which it is reasonably certain he will not 
 recover, and that the discharge of the said Harr^ K. 
 Thaw would be dangerous to public peace and safety, 
 and that he should be committed to an institution for 
 the insane." 
 
 In arguing to secure the investigation of Thaw's 
 mental state, Mr. Jerome said: 
 
 "As long as forty days ago. Dr. Austin Flint, one 
 of the state's alienists, came to me in my office and 
 told me that after watching Thaw in court every day 
 of the trial he was solemnly of the opinion that the 
 defendant was not capable of instructing his counsel. 
 
210 THE GREAT TEA^Y CASE 
 
 I was much concerned, and with my assistant and 
 Drs. MacDonald and Mabon held a long conference. 
 I then called in other alienists, and after submitting 
 to them all the evidence I had in my possession they 
 joined with the others in declaring Thaw a paranoiac. 
 
 "I am convinced Harry Thaw should be tried for 
 his life." 
 
 To strengthen his argument, the prosecutor gave 
 Justice Fitzgerald several letters written by Thaw to 
 J. Dennison Lyon, his Pittsburg banker. Some were 
 written before the tragedy and some while Thaw was 
 in the Tombs, but all, Jerome asserted, went to show 
 Thaw was insane. One of these letters, written from 
 the Republican Club, was as follows : 
 
 "Dear Denny— I'm sorry that the manager of Miss 
 N's (Evelyn Nesbit) hotel is an idiot. She stopped 
 one night at a place called the Cumberland, but was 
 disturbed by street noises. No one was moved, and 
 all meals were served. Now she has a better place, 
 with a nice woman— Mrs. Kane (Caine), a friend of 
 her family. 
 
 '*I never saw this Sweat, nor spoke nor wrote to 
 him. You know of her misfortunes. 
 
 ''Mr. Holman married her mother three years too 
 late. He is trying to keep her quiet, and must do so. 
 Should the facts come out, no one but would believe 
 she sold the child to the most notorious dastard in 
 New York. Everything proves it. 
 
 I, and a few other persons, know she did not 
 
 i( 
 
CALLS THAW M ADM AX 211 
 
 mean wrong, but since infancy she was jealous of and 
 disliked the child, and was gulled to an unbelievable 
 extent by this blackguard and " 
 
 Some rambling letters about transactions in stocks 
 followed thLs, and then came these letters: 
 
 "Dear Denny — I'm sorry to trouble you, but I 
 don't understand. I was overdrawn $10,063.36. 
 Paid in $8,982.70. (6370). (?) Did you make a 
 note for $10,000— leaving my balance near $9,000 or 
 make a note for $1,130.85, leaving no balance? 
 
 "I lost almost nothing at M. C. playing. Just 
 $1,400 for four weeks— a good deal less than the per- 
 centage. I bought some pearls and a strong auto- 
 mobile." 
 
 This letter was written after the trial started: 
 
 "Dear Denny— The package arrived safely, but I 
 can't send them the slip for 11 (eleven) days, as we 
 thought it best to leave bundle sealed in Gleason's 
 desk until he returns. He worked exceedingly hard 
 circumventing the crooked deal between Jerome's 
 first assistant and that judge— and will combine rest 
 
 with affairs. Friday he starts for Mexico with . 
 
 If needed a telegram will always catch him, then he 
 could be back in two days — if we see a chance for 
 an early trial before any other judge — but we believe 
 it will be first week January. 
 
 "All very well. Yours very sinc'ly, 
 
 "H. K Thaw. 
 
212 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 I 
 
 < i 
 
 P. S. — I hope these blackmailers try you again." 
 The following peculiar letter no one in court could 
 understand : 
 
 "Dear Denny — or Frank: Please try to remember 
 
 who was . K is said a relative of his is on my 
 
 jury. If he is friendly or neutral only write me a 
 brief answer, but if he had any trouble with you or I 
 or is unfriendly please telegraph, 'The iron is,' eh? 
 I will know what you mean. I hope he is all right, 
 we can leave jury as it is. Of course, this is very 
 secret. 
 
 "All well. Y in haste. H. K. Thaw.^' 
 
 The defense presented evidence equally strong, and 
 Justice Fitzgerald plainly was in a quandary. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Lunacy Commission is Appointed. 
 
 EVELYN THAW CARRIES TRYING INFORMATION TO HER 
 HUSBAND— ACCUSED ISSUES STATEMENT— PERSONNEL 
 OF THE COMMISSION — JEROME BALKS — REMARKABLE 
 INQUIRY IS RUSHED — THAW SUBMITS TO EXAMINA- 
 TION—HOW THE YOUNG DEFENDANT PASSED EASTER. 
 
 To the surprise of every one connected with the 
 case, Justice Fitzgerald on March 26, suddenly called 
 District Attorney Jerome and the lawyers for the 
 defense into a conference and announced his decision 
 to appoint a commission to pass upon the sanity or 
 insanity of Harry Thaw. 
 
 Upon the verdico of the three disinterested men 
 whom he selected was to depend whether Thaw would 
 ever face the jury again, or go directly to the Mattea- 
 wan asylum. 
 
 The decision was embodied in a written memoran- 
 dum, prepared for the minutes of the court. The 
 court based his decision on the conflict of affidavits 
 as presented by the opposing sides, saying they were 
 too diametrically at odds to permit of a decision 
 other than in favor of an impartial inquiry. After 
 citing the suggestion made in court by District Attor- 
 ney Jerome and the various affidavits presented on 
 both sides, Justice Fitzgerald's memorandum reads: 
 
 213 
 
214 TEE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 "I do, therefore, in pursuance of the statute in 
 such cases made and provided, hereby appoint Mor- 
 gan J. O'Brien, Peter B. Olney and Leopold Putzel, 
 M. D., three disinterested persons, a commission 
 forthwith to examine into the mental condition of 
 said Harry K. Thaw, and to report to the court with 
 all convenient speed the facts and their opinion as 
 to whether at the time of such examination the said 
 Harry K. Thaw was in such a state of idiocy, imbe- 
 cility, 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." 
 
 The task of announcing the decision of the court 
 to Thaw was allotted to his wife, who tearfully 
 accepted it. Messrs. Hartridge and O'Reilly went 
 with Mrs. Evelyn Thaw to the Tombs and there in 
 the hospital w^ard they met the prisoner. This ward 
 had been placed at their disposal because of the 
 crowd in the usual consultation room. Thaw was 
 cheerful. 
 
 * * It is all right, dearie, ' ' he said to his waf e, ^ ' I am 
 not afraid of a commission. I am a sane man now; 
 just as sane as the judge himself, and I am sure that 
 any fair-minded commission will so declare me." 
 
 The attorneys quickly withdrew from the confer- 
 ence and Thaw and his wife sat for a long time to- 
 gether discussing what the commission probably 
 
LUNACY COMiMISSION 215 
 
 would do. When Mr. Hartridge came out he de- 
 clared : 
 
 ''The fortitude of the boy [meaning Thaw] aston- 
 ishes me sometimes, and it certainly did today." 
 
 Later in the afternoon Thaw sent out a statement, 
 in which he said: 
 
 ''Everything is perfectly satisfactory to me. I am 
 sure I will be able to satisfy the commission that I am 
 sane at the present time. Anything Justice Fitz- 
 gerald does is all right. He has always acted in a fair 
 and impartial manner." 
 
 The brothers of the defendant did not go to the 
 Tombs, but hurried uptown with the news of the com- 
 mission to their mother and sisters, who were waiting 
 in their apartments. Thaw had divined the result of 
 the conference with Justice Fit^erald and was not 
 in the least surprised. 
 
 The personnel of the commission lent a new dis- 
 tinction to the already notable case. 
 
 Morgan J. O'Brien, a former justice of the Appel- 
 late division of the Supreme Court, was one of the 
 trustees, with Grover Cleveland, of the Hyde stock 
 in the Equitable Life Assurance Society purchased 
 by Thomas F. Ryan just prior to the insurance inves- 
 tigation. When he was a candidate for re-election 
 to the bench in 1901 as a Democrat, Justice O'Brien 
 was unopposed. President Roosevelt made a trip 
 from Washington to Oyster Bay to cast his ballot for 
 him. 
 
216 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 Peter B. Olney, formerly district attorney of New 
 York county, was a member with William C. Whitney 
 of the commission appointed in 1879 to revise the 
 laws of the state affecting public interests in New 
 York city. He was a graduate of Harvard. 
 
 Dr. Leopold Putzel, the third member of the com- 
 mission, was a graduate of Bellevue Hospital IMedical 
 School and had a long experience in that institution. 
 He qualified before the State Medical Board as exam- 
 iner in lunacy. 
 
 A surprise was ahead, however, for former Justice 
 O'Brien declined to serve as a member of the board, 
 after he had been sworn in. He gave ill-health as a 
 reason. Attorney David ]\IcClure, a well-known re- 
 form worker in New York, was appointed to fill the 
 vacancy. 
 
 When the commission was finally in court together 
 Harry Thaw was brought in and found all the mem- 
 bers of his family awaiting him. He looked exceed- 
 ingly well, and smiled a greeting to his' wife, mother, 
 sisters and brothers. 
 
 The commission began its hearings at once. At 
 the end of the session, which was held behind closed 
 doors. Attorney Peabody for Thaw announced : 
 
 "We are perfectly satisfied." 
 
 Hardly had the commission seated themselves when 
 Thaw appeared. He was directed to a chair within 
 the inner counsel rail and sat directly beneath the 
 
LUNACY COMMISSION 217 
 
 eyes of the men whose decision as to his mental ca- 
 pacity was of such vital import to him. 
 
 Thaw apeared to be in excellent spirits and sat 
 unflinchingly under the steady gaze they turned upon 
 him. In the big courtroom there were only the news- 
 paper reporters and three of the prisoner's family — 
 his wife, Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, who has never missed 
 an opportunity to be near him since he was placed 
 on trial; and his two brothers, Edward and Josiah 
 Thaw. Mrs. Thaw sat between the brothers. 
 
 After the session had formally been opened by the 
 reading of the court's order, Clifford W. Hartridge, 
 acting as counsel of record for Thaw, arose and stated 
 to the commission that his client was ready at any 
 time to submit to such examination as the commission 
 desired. His only request was that the hearing should 
 be private. 
 
 *' Being a prisoner on trial for his life," said Mr. 
 Hartridge, *'he feels he should be protected as far as 
 possible in this matter." 
 
 Chairman McClure then announced that whatever 
 examination of Thaw the commission might decide 
 upon would be held behind closed doors. 
 
 District Attorney Jerome protested. He remarked 
 that if the commissioners resolved themselves into a 
 body of medical examiners and undertook a physical 
 examination of the defendant in private, he would 
 not attend such an examination. 
 
218 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 < ( 
 
 But the law requires you to attend the session 
 of the commission," suggested Chairman MeClure. 
 
 "I shall attend all sessions of the commission sit- 
 ting as judges in lunacy," replied Mr. Jerome, "but 
 I am not required to attend a board of medical exam- 
 
 iners. " 
 
 Chairman McClure then said the inquiry the com- 
 mission had in mind was a simple one — to determine 
 whether at this time the defendant is capable of 
 understanding the proceedings against him and of 
 rationally advising his counsel. The commission de- 
 sires to limit the scope of inquiry as far as possible. 
 The court, he said, wished the inquiry to be brief in 
 order that the pending trial might be disposed of at 
 the earliest possible moment. The commission had 
 decided not to take into consideration the conflicting 
 affidavits submitted to Justice Fitzgerald by Thaw's 
 counsel and the opposing alienists, as they were con- 
 sidered as having been prepared solely for the infor- 
 mation of the court. 
 
 The first two days of the hearing were taken up 
 with a mental and physical examination of Thaw, 
 lie was asked scores of questions, but the nature of 
 these never was made public. 
 
 While the investigation was in progress Easter 
 came, and on that Sunday afternoon Thaw had a two 
 hours' conference with his wife in the Tombs prison. 
 The visit by Evelyn Nesbit Thaw was unusual. Never 
 
LUNACY COMMISSION 219 
 
 before had she called on her husband on Sunday. To 
 do so it was necessary for her to obtain from Commis- 
 sioner of Corrections John V. Coggey a special per- 
 mit. Mr. Coggey granted it when Mrs. Thaw explained 
 that she had been unable to see much of her husband 
 during the week and that she wanted to be with him 
 some time on Easter Sunday. Comissioner Coggey 
 went to the Tombs himself and remained there during 
 the time that Mrs. Thaw was there. 
 
 Before leaving the Tombs Mrs. Thaw said there 
 was no significance attached to her visit. She said 
 she merely wanted to visit her husband on Easter. 
 
 "Harry is cheerful and feels confident the commis- 
 sion will decide in his favor," she said. 
 
 Mrs. Thaw looked exceptionally pretty. She was 
 dressed in a plain brown tailor-made suit. She wore a 
 fiat, round hat of black straw, such as women wear in 
 riding costume. Her veil was white and heavy. She 
 looked just a little pale, and her expression was sad, 
 but she said she felt quite well. The trip to and from 
 the Tombs was made in the electric hansom that Mrs. 
 William Thaw, mother of the prisoner, uses in going 
 to and from the courthouse. 
 
 Thaw deviated from his usual custom and attended 
 special Protestant Easter services conducted in the 
 Tombs chapel by the Rev. Mr. Sanderson. A special 
 choir and orchestra was engaged for the service. 
 Thaw seemed to enjoy the music and the remarks of 
 the minister. 
 
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 commis- 
 sioners filed into court and Chairman McClure handed 
 the following report to Justice Fitzgerald : 
 
 * 'After careful examination of the defendant per- 
 sonally 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, keep- 
 ers, other attendants, and the probation officer these 
 
 220 
 
COMMISSION SAYS SANE 221 
 
 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 jur- 
 ors and the examination of witnasses. 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 pro- 
 duct 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 per- 
 sonally 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 in- 
 sanity 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, im- 
 becility, lunacy, or insanity so as to be incapable of 
 rightly understanding his own condition, the nature 
 
I 
 
 222 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 of the charges against him, and of conducting his de- 
 fense in a rational manner. 
 
 ^' David McClure, 
 ''Peter B. Olney, 
 ''Leopold Putzel/' 
 
 This was a staggering blow to Jerome, who pro- 
 tested 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 con- 
 veyed 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. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 Delmas, Nestor of "Western Bar. 
 
 SWAYS JURYMEN BY HIS ELOQUENCE— WAS BRILLIANT AS 
 A STUDENT— HONORED BY SANTA CLARA ACADEMY — 
 STARTS POOR, AMASSES A FORTUNE— DELMAS ' METHODS 
 —IMPORTANT CASES HE HAS CONDUCTED. 
 
 The supreme moment for the defense came on April 
 8, when Delphin M. Delmas, the master orator of the 
 Pacific coast bar, arose to address the jury in what 
 proved to be the greatest forensic effort heard in a New 
 York court since the days of Daniel Webster. 
 
 Twelve jurymen sat spell-bound under the sway of 
 his eloquence. One wept. A mute, absorbed and sym- 
 pathetic audience listened — the judge, bending for- 
 ward, his eyes fixed eagerly on Delmas ; the defendant 
 hanging on the words that he hoped would set him 
 free ; the wife, the mother, the sister — their faces dis- 
 torted with the pain of suspense — clutching their 
 chairs, clenching their hands — all the while, rising and 
 falling in waves of emotion, the voice of Delmas echo- 
 ing a masterful plea for the life of Harry Thaw. 
 
 Delmas himself proved little less interesting than 
 his wonderful argument. He first attracted attention 
 in 1856 as a brilliant young student in Santa Clara 
 college in California. 
 
 The following sketch of his life was published in 
 the History of the Bench and Bar of California : 
 
 223 
 
224 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 Mr. Delmas was graduated in 1862, and in 1863 re- 
 ceived the degree of Master of Arts with the highest 
 honors. Entering the law department of Yale College, 
 he received from that University, in 1865, the degree 
 of Bachelor of Laws, dnd at the same time was ad- 
 mitted to the bar of the State of Connecticut. Re- 
 turning shortly thereafter to California, he was ad- 
 mitted in February, 1866, in the Supreme Court. In 
 May of that year he opened an office in San Jose. 
 
 Mr. Delmas remained at the bar in San Jose for six- 
 teen years ; and, in that period, acquired a reputation 
 for skill and ability of the first order. He had also 
 great prosperity from the standpoint of finance. He 
 early held the office, so important and lucrative in 
 that rich section, of District Attorney. He was a 
 public speaker of acknowledged force and grace. By 
 his knowledge, talents and address he gathered around 
 him more friends and clients that any other man of 
 his age in the State. Setting forth without money re- 
 sources he amassed a fortune. It did not take long to 
 accomplish all this; and when his fame had spread 
 through and beyond the State, he left the field where 
 his most splendid visions had been realized, and es- 
 tablished himself in San Francisco. This was on the 
 1st of February, 1883. 
 
 When Mr. Delmas had been in San Francisco about 
 six years, we said of him that no lawyer in this State 
 I)ossessed broader knowledge or was a greater master 
 
DELMAS 225 
 
 of his profession than he. As an advocate he is the 
 admiration of the bar itself. His remarkable clear 
 vision, his subtle intellect, his piercing judgment, his 
 power of statement, have been applauded by the vet- 
 erans of the profession. Before a jury, he is argu- 
 mentative or pathetic, as the occasion demands. Unlike 
 some other advocates of brilliant parts, he keeps in 
 mind the fact that "the jury are sworn to make a true 
 deliverance, and that to address their passions is 
 equivalent to asking them to violate their oaths. ' ' Mr. 
 Delmas is very painstaking in the preparation of 
 causes and very skillful in their management. He has 
 great capacity for applying himself to his subject. 
 In the matter of evidence his method is noticeable. 
 His system is to make himself, before the case is an- 
 swered "ready," accurately, mathematically if pos- 
 sible, master of all the facts of the controversy, and 
 especially, of those which are favorable to his adver- 
 sary. Upon the trial, he takes full notes of every- 
 thing that is said and done. It is an article of faith 
 with him to state evidence to the jury with absolute 
 accuracy; and he almost invariably prefaces his argu- 
 ment with a courteous invitation to his adversary not 
 to hesitate to interrupt and correct him in case he 
 shoukl in advertently fall into an error. 
 
 It would be impossible to enumerate the cases in 
 which Mr. Delmas has taken part. His practice has 
 been confined to no specialty, but has extended to all 
 
226 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 branches of litigation. He has figured in almost every 
 important case which has been before the courts dur- 
 ing the last twenty years. The most celebrated of these 
 is, perhaps, that of Ellen M. Colton vs. Leland Stan- 
 ford, Charles Crocker, and C. P. Huntington, in which 
 Mr. Delmas, who had for associates ex-Chief Justice 
 William T. Wallace, ex-Judge John A. Stanly, Hon. 
 George R. B. Hayes and G. Frank Smith, was the 
 senior counsel for the plaintiff. This case, if regard 
 be had to the eminence of the counsel engaged, the 
 standing of the litigants, the amount involved, the na- 
 ture of the issues, and the duration of the trial, is, 
 doubtless, the most important that has been tried in 
 California in the last quarter of a century. The trial 
 lasted eighteen months— from November, 1883, to 
 May, 1885. The arguments alone consumed nearly 
 five months. Mr. Delmas closed the case, answering 
 Hall McAllister and J. P. Hoge, who had immediately 
 preceded him. 
 
 Since he was elected District Attorney of Santa 
 Clara County, in 1867, Mr. Delmas has never been a 
 candidate for any office, having devoted himself en- 
 tirely to the practice of his profession. He was, how- 
 ever, appointed a regent of the University of Cali- 
 fornia by Governor Stoneman, in 1884, and served 
 until 1892. While regent he was President of the day 
 on the occasion of the inauguration of Hon. Horace 
 Davis as President of the university, March 23, 1888, 
 and delivered the address of welcome. 
 
DELMAS 227 
 
 In 1869, Mr. Delmas married a daughter of Colonel 
 Joseph P. Hoge, of San Francisco. There are four 
 children of this union one of whom is the wife of 
 William S. Barnes, ex-District Attorney of San Fran- 
 cisco. Mr. Delmas occupies offices at 120 Broadway, 
 New York City. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 Delmas Moves Jurors. 
 
 DECLARES HE BASES DEFENSE ON LAW— EXPRESSES SYM- 
 PATHY FOR WHITENS WIDOW— ** SADDEST STORY EVER 
 HEARD IN A COURT OF JUSTICE ^^—^^ BETTER FOR STAN- 
 FORD WHITE HAD HE NEVER BEEN BORN^' — SCORES 
 EVELYN thaw's MOTHER WITHOUT MERCY. 
 
 "If your honor please, and you, gentlemen of the jury, 
 we have no more right, if the real facts were knowTi, to be 
 here trying this prisoner at the bar than if it was prohibited 
 by statute, ' ' declared Mr. Delmas in opening his masterful 
 address. 
 
 ' ' Had you heard these words from any irresponsible per- 
 sons, instead of having heard them from an official charged 
 with a public duty; had you heard them from a man given to 
 irresponsible talk, instead of in this court of justice and sol- 
 emnity; had the occasion on which they were uttered been 
 some trivial discussion about an insignificant topic, instead of 
 where the discussion is one of life or death — these words 
 might not have filled you with amazement, but this was a 
 statement made by the district attorney.. 
 
 ' ' To show the falsity of that, it will be necessary to call 
 upon all the energy in my power to reach a conclusion. And 
 to reverse, at least in a general way, the same points of the 
 evidence which you have heard for so many days I shall make 
 no attempt to inflame your passion, no appeal to make your 
 feelings warp your judgment. 
 
 ' ' I shall rely on no such unstable thing as the supposed 
 unwritten law. I will base the fate of this defendant on the 
 law of thig state — the law of the books, the written l?^w, 
 
 228 
 
JURORS MOVED 229 
 
 * ' In the performance of my task it will become my duty 
 to speak of the dead. I shall not be unmindful of the in- 
 junctions of the departed. Only that which is good should 
 be spoken, but T cannot forget the circumstances under which 
 the protection of the living demand that the truth shall be 
 told, no matter how it blights the memory of the dead or how 
 painful to the survivors. 
 
 ** Under that law we find ample protection for his rights 
 and life and to that law I shall resort as to the horns of the 
 altar, for his safety. In the performance of my task it will be 
 my imperative duty — unshunable duty — to speak of the dead. 
 
 "I shall not be unmindful of him and shall speak in no 
 other terms — if possible — than those of praise. I shall not 
 forget that for the protection of the living the truth must be 
 told, no matter how painful to the dead or those who survive 
 him. 
 
 ' ' Of those survivors I can speak in no other terms than 
 those of the most profound sympathy. For the widow who 
 mourns and the son who survives I have no words than those 
 of sympathy. Gladly would I remove from them, were it in 
 my power, the cloud which must henceforth accompany their 
 life, and gladly would I remove from the young man the 
 sentence that the sins of the father must be visited upon 
 their children to the second and third generations. 
 
 "Gentlemen, the story you have listened to is the story 
 of two young persons whom fate, by inscrutable decree, had 
 destined to link together, that they could walk through life 
 together. It is a story — the saddest, most mournful and 
 tragic which the tongue of man has ever uttered or the ear 
 of man has ever heard in a court of justice. 
 
 * ' Let me begin briefly with the story — one filled with in- 
 cidents with which a volume might overflow and a tragedy 
 night be filled, as though it were written by the hand of a 
 Shakespeare. 
 
230 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 ''She was born on Christmas, 1884, in the state of Penn- 
 sylvania, in the city of Pittsburg, The first years of her 
 childhood saw her lose her father and natural protector and 
 left her in charge of a mother who early manifested a char- 
 acter of frivolity and extravagance which was later to be at- 
 tended with such fatal consequences. 
 
 "At ten years of age the family began to feel 
 the pangs of want, the sufferings of poverty and the gnawing 
 of hunger. At twelve she began to be the family drudge, 
 assisting her mother in such acts as she could perform. And 
 thus the family continued moving from place to place without 
 any fixed habitation on the face of the earth. 
 
 "But nature having endowed her with beauty which 
 showed in early youth, we find her looking to it for the sup- 
 port of the family. At fourteen we find her in Philadelphia, 
 already embarked upon the perilous seas of an artist's model's 
 life. But New York was the market in which such gifts were 
 most eagerly sought and would be dearly paid for. And to 
 New York the family came, and by the efforts of the mother 
 the employment begun in Philadelphia was continued here and 
 the beautiful child went from studio to studio and at the end 
 of the week paid into the hands of the mother the scant few 
 dollars she had earned to support the mother, the brother and 
 the child. 
 
 "But the large metropolis afforded broader avenues of 
 gain than the mere studios of artists — the stage, with all its 
 tinsel and glare of dazzling lights lay before them and the 
 tempter came. 
 
 ' ' The theatrical manager found the girl at fifteen and em- 
 ployed her at $15 a week, where she slaved at night as she 
 did by day — posing for artists — but at night she appeared 
 on the boards of the stage. 
 
 "Tt could not be long, for the beauty with which she was 
 gifted attracted attention and the tempter came. He saw, he 
 
JURORS MOVED 231 
 
 desired to have, with the consummate cunning of a man whose 
 head had already grown gray. He had a wife and an ac- 
 complished son. He fixed his eyes upon the fated child and 
 determined to make her his. 
 
 ' ' To win her he had none of the graces which a man of her 
 own age might present. He was already married and had 
 a family of his own and any such thought of love — legitimate 
 love — between him and this child was out of the question. He 
 introduced himself into the family in the guise of a protector. 
 
 * * His tender solicitude manifested his intentions to 
 ameliorate their condition. He won his way into the con- 
 fidence of the mother; established himself in the position of 
 a protecting attitude toward the family. When his purpose 
 was secured he persuaded the mother to absent herself from 
 the city, assuring her the child would be safe in his hands in 
 hr absence, telling the family that they should rejoice that 
 they had such a careful eye to watch over the beautiful child. 
 She went. The child was left alone. 
 
 *'I wish, gentlemen, it were in my power to pass over the 
 scene which followed. I wish it did not have to be embodied 
 in the argument I have to make to you. 
 
 ' ' To one of those dens fitted with all the splendor and 
 dazzling beauty with which this man of genius endowed his 
 places, this child was one evening lured, under the pretense 
 that there were to be others there to share the supper that had 
 been prepared, and when she arrived she found herself alone 
 with the man who had promised to be her protector. 
 
 ' * Need I recount to you how the child was led from one 
 step to another until plied with wine and plied with drugs 
 she became unconscious and this man, who had promised to 
 protect the child, accomplished her ruin and downfall? Need 
 I recall to you the terrible scenes which you heard told from 
 the lips of this tortured victim? 
 
 * * Oh, better for Stanford White had he never been born. 
 
232 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 ''Better that his ears had never been opened that he could 
 not have heard the words of anguish of the victim. 
 
 ''For what had he — a man whose hair was already gray — 
 what had he done? Jle had perpetrated the most horrible 
 crime that can deface the human heart. He had lured the 
 poor, innocent flower that was struggling forth to life. He 
 had committed a crime which is a felony — which the President 
 of this republic in his last message to Congress said should 
 be punished by death. 
 
 "He who had erected altars and sanctuaries and churches 
 crowned with the emblem of the Redemption — had he forgot- 
 ten the words. 
 
 ' ' ' Who so receiveth such a little child in my name re- 
 ceiveth me, but whosoever offendeth such a little one, it were 
 better that a millstone were tied around his neck and he were 
 cast into the sea.' 
 
 "Oh, ye who have erected temples to the God of Abraham, 
 Isaac and Jacob, have ye forgotten the words of Jehovah, 
 when upon the return from Egypt He said: 
 
 " 'Ye shall not afflict a fatherless child. I will surely 
 hear that cry, and I will kill you with the sword and your 
 wives shall be widows and your children fatherless.' 
 
 "Oh, Stanford White, in the entirety of your hardened 
 heart, you imagined that the cry of the fatherless child which 
 that night was heard in the darkness of the great city, where 
 good citizens were at rest, the child without a father, the 
 child deserted by her mother, the child left alone in this city 
 of millions, would not be heard. 
 
 "Did your hardened heart imagine that God would not 
 hear that cry? Did you imagine that Ho had forgotten the 
 promise He made — that any one who afflicted a fatherless 
 child would surely die? 
 
 "Did you believe that the retribution would bo omitted? 
 
 "Better had it been for him had he died before that day, 
 
DELMAS 233 
 
 for then he might have died in glory — he might have died 
 when public mourning would have attended his obsequies; he 
 might have died before his name had become a byword; before 
 his genius had become an aggravation. 
 
 ''But fate had decreed it otherwise. The poor child, 
 returning to her senses, not realizing what had been 
 done, was taken back to her home, there to sit in lonely vigil 
 until he went back the next day to complete the pollution he 
 had but partially begun the night before. It remained for 
 him to destroy the last vestige of womanly honor in her mind, 
 and he performed that task after daylight that day. 
 
 * ' He went there — he, the strong man, kissed the hem of 
 her garment ; told her to dry her tears, and to stifle her 
 moans; told her that what she did was not wrong, that it was 
 but what all women did; that the only sin was to be found 
 out, and that if she would but keep the dread secret pent up 
 in her breast and not tell her mother all would be well; that 
 all women were wicked; that the only distinction was that 
 some succeeded in concealing their vices, while others were 
 found out. 
 
 * * And so he left her. And so he lured her again and again, 
 plying her with wine in the same dens for a couple of months. 
 
 ' ' Is this story true, gentlemen, or, rather, is the story 
 I have related to you the story Evelyn Nesbit told Harry 
 Thaw in June, 1903, in Paris — that, gentlemen, is one of 
 the main questions which you have to decide in this case and 
 in the elucidation of which I may be permitted to occupy a 
 little of your attention. 
 
 * ' The prosecution says this story is a clever lie — the result 
 of the imagination of this defendant's wife. Your first in- 
 quiry must be into the veracity of Evelyn Nesbit. If she 
 never told Thaw this thing, then she has been an untruthful 
 witness before you. 
 
 "She gave this testimony: 'And those things you told 
 
234 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 Mr. Thaw of the outrages at the hands of White were true?' 
 Her answer was, ' Those things were true. ' 
 
 *'In corroboration of the statement that these things did 
 take place, I beg to refer to the evidence and to the things 
 that have occurred before your eyes. You have seen Evelyn 
 on the stand for four days. You are men of the world — men 
 accustomed to looking through the souls of men and analyzing 
 their conversations — you are asked to judge if she were a 
 clever actress as she sat in that chair and related the horrors 
 of that night. 
 
 ''You saw when she came to the final occurrence of that 
 night — you saw her countenance — how the shadow of horror 
 overspread it. Although the story was to save the life of the 
 one person whom she loved, you saw how she shrank from 
 telling it. You saw the drawn face, you saw the brave little 
 girl struggling that she might save her husband, that she 
 might overcome the objectionable features of the story. 
 
 "For days and days you have seen her undergoing torture 
 of an examination unparalleled in the jurisprudence of this or 
 any other country. 
 
 "Did the District Attorney of your city, to whom I gave 
 the greatest acknowledgment of talent, confuse her? You saw 
 him using all the arts, resorting to all the strategies of a 
 practiced master to entrap a girl who had never testified be- 
 fore. Was she caught in a single falsehood, or contradic- 
 tion? 
 
 "You have seen learned men on the stand — tell me, if you 
 have ever seen a witness who has stood t*he excruciating 
 tests of cross-examination as well as this child? 
 
 "Gentlemen, in that cross-examination the merciless Dis- 
 trict Attorney — I say merciless without offense, because his 
 office is not one of mercy — you saw him extort from her 
 truthful but unwilling lips the confession that the misdeeds 
 of Stanford White did not stop with the first wrecking of 
 
DELMAS 235 
 
 her life, but continued until God asserted himslf in her and 
 she would no longer be the plaything and toy of this man. 
 
 ' ' I ask you, on your oaths, if this girl had fabricated this 
 story, would not she or the others who prompted the story 
 have for the sake of sympathy, said that the first drugging 
 was the only occurrence and that she had shrunk from further 
 dealings with such a man. 
 
 * 'Upon any other theory than that the story is true I ask 
 you the question, why did Stanford "White just at that moment 
 see fit to remove the mother — the only protector left this child 
 — from her post as sentinel? Why was the mother sent to 
 Pittsburg with money furnished by Stanford White? Why 
 was the brother sent to school? 
 
 ** Gentlemen, I desire to call your attention to this point. 
 During this time Stanford White made a contract to pay 
 Evelyn the sum of $25 a week during the time she should be 
 unable to obtain her own living on the stage. And during 
 that one year we have discovered — by a strange fatality which 
 ever seems to assist the cause of justice and to disconcert 
 the cause of injustice — there apears certain checks on which 
 the name of the mother was indorsed. 
 
 "And, according to a computation made by some gentle- 
 man in court, the mother, for the year following the ruin of 
 the child, received $2,500, in round numbers, $200 a month. 
 And yet the District Attorney tells you that at the same time 
 Stanford White was in embarrassed circumstances. 
 
 * ' One circumstance I desire to call to your attention. It 
 relates to the assistance which the prosecution draws in its 
 attempt to deprive Evelyn of her husband. You will recall 
 that when the name of the mother was spoken I disclaimed 
 having said anything that would cast upon the mother any 
 shame that would cast reproach upon her. 
 
 * 'Cicntlemen, at the time I made that declaration, I wish 
 you to bear in mind that three things had not been developed: 
 
236 THE GREAT THA^Y CASE 
 
 * 'First. Tliat the mother had been in receipt of $200 a 
 month from White. 
 
 **It had not been developed at that time that the mother 
 was assisting the prosecution in the work of this case. 
 
 "It had not been developed at that time that the mother 
 had given a written statement to the District Attorney by 
 which he might torture the soul of her daughter, a daughter 
 who had been left alone in the world except for a most un- 
 natural mother. 
 
 ''And when I saw the District Attorney with that paper 
 in his hand, when 1 heard him read from it on the cross- 
 examination of this girl, when I learned that every shaft 
 which he aimed at her heart came from a quiver furnished by 
 her mother, when I learned that every sore in her poor soul 
 had been pointed out to the District Attorney, that it was 
 a mother who was pointing out those sores, and when I learned 
 that the poor little girl had been sent away to school so that 
 she might get the money she desired from Stanford White — 
 I now retract what I then said. 
 
 ' 'Oh, most unnatural mother, you, who left the girl a vic- 
 tim of the lust of this gray-haired man! You who received 
 the wages of her downfall, funds with which you bedecked 
 yourself with diamonds and finery, now in the hour of her 
 supreme agony this mother assists the prosecutor of her hus- 
 band! 
 
 "Why, a beast that wants reason protects her young! I 
 have seen a poor little bird no larger than your fist while I was 
 out hunting. A number of young ones were playing in the 
 dust around her and I have seen a pointer come running upon 
 them and I have seen the little bird ruffle its feathers until it 
 looked as big and old as an eagle, making the dog pause and 
 return abashed. 
 
 ' ' I have now laid before you in outline what was given you 
 in evidence. I propose to prove by evidence that will demon- 
 
DEL3IAS 237 
 
 strate the truth, which ^\ill leave no hook upon which to hang 
 a doubt, that Evelyn Nesbit told the story she swears she did 
 in Paris in 1903. 
 
 ' ' In the first place, you have the undoubted, undisputed 
 fact that Mr. Thaw in September of that year, when Evelyn 's 
 mother returned to '^ew York — that Mr. Thaw narrated that 
 story in a letter to his counsel, Mr. Longfellow. In the first 
 letter he says: 
 
 ' ' ' Mistress Nesbit sails to-morrow for New York. Her 
 daughter can't be wuth her, because Miss N. was beguiled 
 by a blackguard when she was but fifteen years of age. 
 The child was drugged. 
 
 *'And in a later letter to Mr. Longfellow he says: 'Her 
 position could not be worse. She was poisoned at fifteen and 
 three-quarters. Also since.* 
 
 ^'Now, gentlemen, bear in mind that these two letters 
 were written by Mr. Thaw in Paris to his counsel, Mr. 
 Longfellow, in New York. I ask you who is the blackguard 
 referred to in these letters if not Stanford White? What is 
 the superhuman negligence of the mother, if not her trip to 
 Pittsburg, leaving her daughter alone in New York? 
 
 ''How was the child beguiled, if not by Stanford White's 
 paternal kindness and show of parental goodness? 
 
 ' ' I leave it to you as to what these two letters can refer 
 to if not to the story Evelyn Nesbit says she told Harry in 
 Paris in June, 1903. 
 
 "She told how she had learned this young woman's name. 
 He said he desired to shield her from the awful consequences 
 of the deed. W^hat was it the child that had come from 
 Pittsburg, that had first posed as an artist 's model, and had 
 then gone on the stage — Avhat was it she had told Harry 
 Thaw and what had he told his mother? 
 
 "The learned prosecutor says that he invented it all. 
 After inventing did he go home and tell his mother — the 
 
238 , TEE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 mother who had given him birth, who had nourished him at 
 her breast, who had watched him in his sleepless bed at night 
 as he was giving evidence of the troubles which \\ere to 
 have such a bearing on this case? 
 
 ''When he broke down in church and tears fell from his 
 eyes and a groan broke from his lips was he telling, was he 
 acting a lie; 
 
 Harry Thaw loved Evelyn. He had loved her ever since 
 he saw her in 1901. He had loved and wooed her honorably, 
 and honorably sought to make her his wife. 
 
 "I make these assertions just before seeking to make any 
 deductions from them. It is meet and proper that I estab- 
 lish them as facts. As early as 1901, when he found her on 
 the stage, be realized that was not a fit place for a young 
 girl like her. He was contemplating sending her to school — 
 that is to say for three years. Then she might come out, and 
 take her station in the world as his wife. 
 
 **Aud if not, even though she did not become his wife, 
 he would be amply repaid by the nobility of the act he had 
 performed. Evelyn Nesbit says he met her in 1901 and called 
 upon her frequently, but was not always at that time a wel* 
 come visitor. It seems her mind had been poisoned by the 
 same persons who afterward poisoned her mind against him 
 again. He says of her: 'When I first knew her she was the 
 most active, laughing, strong and fair child I ever saw.' 
 
 ' ' That was the time when she was the support of the 
 family, going about in the daytime from studio to studio and 
 appearing on the stage at night and pouring into the lap of 
 her mother her scant wages. 
 
 ' ' And what was the nature of the foul wrong done to this 
 child? 
 
 "What was the fatal deed which he said he would gladly 
 have purchased with his life if it could be undone? 
 
 <*I say to you, th^se letters refer to no other transaction 
 
JURORS MOVED 239 
 
 than the story she related on the witness stand — the story 
 she told you she told him in June, 1903. The letters were 
 private. They were to be locked up in Mr. Longfellow's 
 breast. Then ask yourself whether it is possible that Mr. 
 Thaw was telling his lawyer in September a falsehood or an 
 invention of his own brain? 
 
 ''That is not all. You remember Thaw returned to New 
 York in November and shortly thereafter went to his home 
 in Pittsburg and told his mother the selfsame story he told 
 his lawyer then in these two letters. 
 
 "I desire to give you the mother's testimony and ask you 
 whether I am not telling you exactly what occurred. 
 
 "Not only that but I invite interruptions if you desire 
 to set me right if I omit or tell anything that was not part of 
 the testimony. 
 
 "Now, the mother whom you have seen on the stand and 
 of whose veracity I believe not even the prosecution has any 
 doubt, this mother says that after he arrived home she found 
 him awake at night, and when she went to his room he said 
 it was because of a wicked man — perhaps the most wicked 
 man in New York. 
 
 "She learned before Thanksgiving that this was said about 
 a young girl, but did not at that time learn her name. Her 
 son told her he was interested in that girl. This she learned 
 one night when the mother found him in his room at dawn. 
 He had not been able to get sleep surcease from his tortured 
 brain. 
 
 "She said, the son said, that this girl had the most beau- 
 tiful mind he had ever known, that she had been neglected, 
 that if she had a chance and anyone looking after her she 
 would be all right. And then you remember, gentlemen. 
 Thanksgiving came. And the mother and the son went to 
 church together, and there, while the solemn anthem was 
 peeling, she heard tears dropping upon the paper which he 
 was holding in his hand, a stifled sob. 
 
240 TEE GREAT TEA^ CASE 
 
 *'In 1903 he intended to marry her. Writing to Long- 
 fellow, he says: 
 
 ' ' ' Miss N. and I may be married after Lady Yarmouth 
 comes. We could have been married without a row. If I 
 die, all my property goes to my wife.' And, writing to her, 
 he says: 'Mr. and Mrs. George Carnegie should be your 
 loving brother and sister-in-law. ' Gentlemen, no man of his 
 years, of his tempermcnt, ever wooed a woman in a manner 
 more respectable than Harry Thaw did Evelyn Nesbit. 
 
 "There is nothing to show that everything and every bit 
 of testimony does not confirm the statement of Evelyn that 
 in June, 1903, he proposed honorably to make her his wife. 
 
 "In corroboration of these facts told by Evelyn Nesbit, 
 that she told this story of Stanford White, that he. Thaw, 
 asked her to marry him, that it is not a cunningly devised 
 tale told by Harry Thaw for his own purposes. I ask you 
 these questions: Does a man who loves a woman, who has 
 lavished upon her for two years all the affections of his heart, 
 does a man who loves a woman honorably and sought to make 
 her his wife and besought her mother's consent — does a man 
 like that deliberately invent a story of this kind to defile the 
 object of his adoration? 
 
 * ' Until you can take from this case the fact that Harry- 
 Thaw loved Evelyn Nesbit, if any man says to you that he 
 deliberately invented this story to degrade the object of his 
 affections — the most degrading story any man could tell — it 
 is not in the human heart but to revolt from the allegation. 
 
 "If I mistake not, I have established to your satisfaction 
 the great, simple fact — that this story about Stanford White 
 is not an invention and that the statement that Evelyn Nesbit 
 (lid tell the story to Thaw is true. , 
 
 "As against this assertion, what evidence is there in 
 tliis case? What is there to contradict this statement of 
 Evelyn Nesbit, the statement that she told this story to Thaw? 
 
JURORS MOVED 241 
 
 *' Nothing except the testimony of Abe Hummel. I will 
 not speak of that unfortunate man in any harsher term thar 
 the exigencies of this case require. But it is a melancholy 
 sight to see a man in the declining years of his life, when 
 soon the sun must set for him forever, and he will appear to 
 give that account of his life that we are all called upon to 
 give after death — I say it is a melancholy sight to see a man 
 whose pathway has been wreathed with dishonest acts, 
 crowning his acts with perjury — resorting to perjury in 
 order to deprive a fellow of his life. 
 
 "Gentlemen, is this censure deemed excessive? Listen. 
 Air. Hummel is not lacking in intelligence — certainly is not 
 lacking in cunning. 
 
 ' ' Let me recall to your mind the photograph of the allqged 
 affidavit. You remember what weight the prosecution at- 
 tached to it and of what importance they considered it. Let 
 me call your attention to all the points in Hummel 's testi- 
 mony regarding this. 
 
 * ^ Thaw 's lawyer then tore Hummel 's evidence to bits, 
 showing that in one place he swore positively he sent for 
 the photographer and in another he swore as positively that 
 he did not. Continuing Delmas said : 
 
 "Which of these stories is true? They both come from 
 the witness sitting in that chair. They both have the sanc- 
 tion of his oath — the oath of a man already convicted for 
 subornation of perjury and conspiracy. Both of these stories 
 cannot be true. Which one is true? One of these two stories 
 is a deliberate falsehood, and which it is I care not. They 
 probably are both false. 
 
 "Abe Hummell testifies that this thing, miscalled 'affi- 
 davit,' was dictated by him in the latter part of October, 
 190,3, in his office, to a stenographer whose name he does not 
 rernembor and even whose individuality he has forgotten. 
 
 "Listen: If Abe Hummel dictated this illegal affidavit, 
 
242 THE GREAT THA^Y CASE 
 
 as he swears he did, in the latter part of October, 1903; if 
 this is his work; if these are his words, this his dictation, 
 then he committed deliberate perjury, gentlemen, and the 
 proof of this perjury was in the hands of the learned inter- 
 rogator. He held the paper before him while the witness 
 was in the chair and could not but know that at that time 
 the witness was swearing the proof of his perjury was lying 
 before him. 
 
 ''In order that Abraham H. Hummel could testify at 
 all — before his lips could be unsealed — it was necessary 
 for him to swear he was not acting in an official or profes- 
 sional capacity for Evelyn Nesbit when he dictated this 
 statement. Hence the absolute necessity that this wretched 
 old man. should swear that he was not acting as her attor- 
 ney. 
 
 "Hence he says, 'I was not acting for Evelyn Nesbit. 
 There was no action contemplated by her. She did not 
 consult me in my official capacity.' 
 
 "Hence there could exist no professional relations. He 
 said so. 
 
 "This is the famous paper by which Abraham Hummol 
 hoped to help the District Attorney send Harry Thaw to the 
 electric chair. Who dictated these words, which lay open 
 before the District Attorney as he questioned Hummel? 
 
 'I received many cablegrams from Mr. Thaw, which I 
 turned over to my counsel, Abraham Hummel.' 
 
 "Who dictated these words, if the paper was dictated 
 at all? Abraham Hummel, who came upon the stand and 
 swore he had never acted as her attorney — Abraham Hum- 
 mel! 
 
 " 'Howe & Hummel, attorneys for plaintiff,' are the 
 words that appear on the indorsement of this paper. And 
 who was the plaintifff Evelyn Nesbit. 
 
 "And the same man who tells you no action was cou- 
 
JURORS MOVED 243 
 
 templated is the man who dictated the first words of this 
 afl&davit, which read, 'Evelyn Nesbit, plaintiff, vs. Harry 
 K. Thaw, defendant.' 
 
 ''This is in letters as legible as I have ever looked upon. 
 Perjured when he tells you he was not counsel for Evelyn 
 iSTesbit, when he tells you no legal action was intended, 
 when he dictated this affidavit. 
 
 "You are called upon to convict her of perjury. 
 
 "You are called upon to do so upon the strength of 
 Hummel. And on that testimony you are called upon to 
 deprive a human being of his life. 
 
 "How did this paper have its birth? Miss Simonton, as 
 I have told you, came here after hearing in Paris the story 
 you have all heard. Arriving here, she went to Mr. White 
 in order to get confirmation or denial of that story. His 
 body turned icy cold when she told her story you have 
 heard. 
 
 "He knew that what he had done would not only <lisgrace 
 him, but would send him to prison. 
 
 "She was told that Harry Thaw was a married man and 
 that she should be protected against Harry Thaw, and he 
 took her to Hummel 's office. What was White's object in 
 taking her to Hummel 's office? It was to get from her by 
 some monstrous deception her statement of her story about 
 herself that would neutralize their efforts should they ever 
 attempt to bring up against him their -story of his outrage, 
 of his acts." 
 
 At this point ]Mr. Delma.s had spoken two and one- 
 half hours, and court was adjourned, with another 
 day of supreme effort ahead for the brilliant general 
 in command of the defense. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 "The Unwritten Law"--The Defense Ends. 
 
 DELMAS IN FINAL BURST OP ELOQUENCE CONCLUDES STORY 
 OF E\^LYN THAW^S SAD FATE — DECLARES STANFORD 
 WPIITE A MONSTER "WHOM THAW WAS JUSTIFIED IN 
 PUTTING OUT OF THE Wx\Y — CRAZED BY WRONGS DONE 
 TO EVELY^N— REMAREL\BLE SERIES OF LETTERS — DE- 
 FENDANT PICTURED^ xVS A BENEFACTOR TO SOCIETY— ^^I 
 NOW, WITH x\LL SOLEMNITY'', LEAVE IN Y^OUR HANDS 
 THE FATE OF HARRY K. THAW. ' ^ 
 
 In a final burst of elpquence seldom equaled before 
 the American bar, Attorney Delmas concluded his piti- 
 ful tale of the wrongs of Evelyn Thaw and her hus- 
 band, and concluded dramatically : 
 
 "I now, with all solemnity, gentlemen of the jury, 
 leave in your hands the fate of Harry K. Thaw." 
 
 Mr. Delmas made a direct appeal to the unwritten 
 law. lie said: 
 
 "Let me call the 'insanity' of Thaw 'Dementia 
 Americana.' It is the species of insanity that makes 
 every American man believe his home to be sacred ; 
 that is the species of insanity which makes him believe 
 the honor of his daughter is sacred; that is the species 
 of insanity which makes him believe the honor of his 
 wife is sacred; that is the species of insanity which 
 iMDkes liim believe that whosoever invades his home, 
 
 2U 
 
UNWRITTEN LAW 245 
 
 that whosoever stains the virtue of hLs threshold, has 
 violated the highest of human laws and must appeal 
 to the mercy of God, if mercy there be for him any- 
 where in the universe." 
 
 The point of Delmas' whole argument was that 
 Stanford White deserved his fate ; that Harry Thaw 
 in shooting the architect had acted as the champion of 
 purity and goodness, and that he had slain a foul 
 monster that had preyed upon the virtue of women. 
 
 The closing part of the summing up by Delmas was 
 as follows : 
 
 "I will relieve the long suspense which has been occa- 
 sioned by your labors by announcing that I will shortly 
 leave the fate of this defendant in your hands. Before 
 entering upon the remarks which I propose making it may 
 be useful to cast a rapid glance over what I have already 
 said, so that you may connect what I shall have to say 
 with what I have already said. 
 
 "I have endeavored to lay before the ej'es of the jury 
 the picture of the fate of these two young people. I had 
 tried to show the unfortunate occurrence which befell her 
 when she narrated to him in the summer of 1903 her awful 
 story of what had happened. I have shown, or at least 
 have endeavored to convince you, first, that the facts which 
 she swears she then related were true and, secondly, that 
 it was true that she did relate them to the defendant at 
 that time." 
 
 Here Mr. Delmas endeavored to prove these facts. 
 
 "Gentlemen, I shall prove to you from a number of 
 sources, and first, without adding any words of my own, 
 in the very language in which it was told by Evelyn when 
 she was testifying before you. , 
 
246 TEE GEE AT THA^Y CASE 
 
 "She says, after narrating what took place in Paris in 
 June, 1903: ^The effect of this story on Mr. Thaw was 
 terrible. To think of me — I was so young — and to think, 
 of this big, great yellow brute. It must have been fright- 
 ful. He could not think of it. He would walk up and 
 down the room exclaiming, "Oh, God; oh, God," and 
 kept sobbing, not like an ordinary sob, but a terrible sob. 
 He kept saying, "Go on, tell me the whole story." He 
 said it was not my fault — that I was simply a poor unfor- 
 tunate little girl; that he didn't think any the less of me 
 on account of it, and he said that no matter what hap- 
 pened he would always be my friend. He renewed his pro- 
 posal of marriage two months after. He said that I was 
 not to blame — that it was not my fault. 
 
 " *I told him that if I did marry him the friends of 
 Stanford White would always laugh at him — that they 
 knew about it and would be able to sneer at him after our 
 marriage; that it would not be right for us to get married; 
 that it would not be a good thing because of his family; 
 it would- get him into trouble in his social relations. He 
 kept saying that he could never care for or love anybody 
 else. He said he never could marry another woman and 
 that he wanted to make me his honorable wife. He said I 
 was an unfortunate person and he thought just as much 
 of me. 
 
 " 'He kept pressing me to become his wife, but T said 
 T could go on the stage. T said that if he ever met some 
 one he wanted to marry he would be perfectly free to 
 do so. 
 
 " 'I loved him so dearly, but during the whole period 
 r was refusing his offers of marriage because I loved him. 
 And T also respected him.' 
 
 " 'Sublime renunciation,' says the sneering district 
 attorney. 'Sublime refusal on her part to accept the hand 
 of a wealthy man when he offered her an honorable union.' 
 
V my BITTEN LAW 247 
 
 ''Incredible, he would lead you to believe. 
 
 " 'Impossible!' the district attorney says, and in the 
 same breath intimates that it is a falsehood from begin- 
 ning to end. 
 
 "I shall prove to you by evidence that will convince 
 you beyond every doubt that this renunciation by Evelyn 
 was sincere. But, thank God, the great Creator has placed 
 in the breast of gentler woman the noble sentiment and 
 renunciation for the consolation of the home and of the 
 world. 
 
 "But I shall prove to you that it is true. I shall prove 
 to you beyond the rJightest doubt that she did refuse him, 
 and refused him for that reason alone. 
 
 "Man, it may be, has not that great power of renun- 
 ciation, but in the sentler breast of woman do we find that 
 great gift of God, and in the breast of this little girl existed 
 this great strength that enabled her to put aside her one 
 love when she knew it was for the good of the one she 
 loved. 
 
 "Sublime renunciation! Ah, it indeed is. Do you re- 
 member the letters he wrote three months after this sub- 
 lime renunciation? He says in a letter written in Septem- 
 ber, 1903: 'Tnree months ago I asked her point-blank. 
 She thought, but said she would not; that it would shut 
 me out,' etc. 
 
 "The genuineness of this letter is not disputed; that it 
 was written to Mr. Longfellow is not denied; that Mr. 
 Longfellow was the trusted friend and adviser of Harry 
 Thaw ia admitted. Three months before September, 1903, 
 when this was written, was in the early summer of 1903. 
 Is not that true? Is it not true that she had refused him? 
 In this letter he says she thought she did not want the 
 man she loved to become an object of scorn. 
 
248 TEE GREAT THA^Y CASE 
 
 ''She looked up to the man she loved and she did not 
 want the man she loved to be pointed at with the finger of 
 scorn. 
 
 "In her little heart she said, 'Oh, Harry, I love you. I 
 love you so much that I will not drag you down. I want 
 to leave you free^ and the moment you say so I shall return 
 to my own sad way. You shall be free and happy and I 
 will go down until I, like many others, have disappeared 
 from the world.' 
 
 "The sneer, then, is unjustified. The sublime renuncia- 
 tion did take place, although we men may not rise above 
 our sordid occupations to realize it. Do you remember 
 how his mother saw him holding his vigil in his room; 
 heard him sob and moan, and how he told her about the 
 awful wrongs done to a little girl whom he loved? 
 
 "And he told her he desired to protect the child from 
 the vile wrong that had been done her; that he had pro- 
 posed marriage, and that she — I quote the very words of 
 the mother — that she had refused because she would not 
 drag him down. 
 
 "Has this gray-haired and venerable mother in Israel 
 come here to perjure herself, or did he deceive her when 
 he told her that he wanted to extend his protecting arm 
 over the girl whom the other had betrayed; that she, the 
 poor little girl who was earning her living by the talents 
 God had given her — she refused the man, not because she 
 did not love him, but because she thought it would not 
 be fitting to wed the man she so dearly loved. 
 
 "Sublime, indeed, was the renunciation of this girl, 
 unless the mother of Harry Thaw has not told the truth 
 upon the stand. I return to her story as told in her own 
 words. She says: 'He talked altogether too much of this 
 thing. He did not sleep nights. He cried too much about 
 it. It was not crying, but terrible sobbing. He would sit 
 
UNWRITTEN LAW ' 249 
 
 for hours without speaking or moving, and it was terrible, 
 terrible. He got worse about it. He would sit for hours 
 in a chair, just biting his nails. And then, in the midst 
 of it, he would suddenly ask me about Stanford White. It 
 seemed to be something that was ever present.' 
 
 ''This, gentlemen, was the condition of Harry Thaw 
 when, in 1903, he parted from Evelyn Nesbit and sent her 
 back ahead of him to New York. You have the first faint 
 dawn of that mental condition which manifested itself 
 three years after. The tower in which reason held its seat 
 did not topple over, but its foundations' were already be- 
 ginning to be undermined. 
 
 ''The storm had not burst forth, but the dark clouds were 
 gathering from the four quarters of the horizon, from 
 which lightning and thunder were three years afterwards 
 to burst forth. 
 
 "She says that he called upon her as soon as he arrived 
 in New York — the middle of November. She had got to 
 this city in the latter part of October. In the meantime 
 such things had happened here that when the man whom 
 she loved and whose hand she had refused called ujion her 
 she declined to see him alone, and she says: 'I saw him 
 at the Navarre. I would not see him alone. He came into 
 the room and sat beside me and said: "What is the matter 
 with you?" and T said: "I don't care to speak to you be- 
 cause I have heard certain things about you." He said ho 
 did not understand, and wanted me to tell him. 
 
 " 'I told him that I had heard terrible stories. He 
 said, "Poor Evelyn! They have deceived you!" I told 
 him that Mr. White had taken me to Abraham Hummel 's 
 office and that they had showed me papers which they said 
 were filed in a suit by a young woman against him. He 
 said, "Poor little girl! You can believe them if you wish." 
 The interview lasted ten minutes. I persisted I did not 
 
250 THE GEE AT THAW CASE ■ 
 
 ■want to have anything to do with him. At the parting he 
 kissed my hand and said no matter what happened he 
 would always love me and I would be an angel to him.' 
 
 ''Gentlemen, I ask you to picture yourself in the state 
 of mind Harry Thaw was in when he received such a greet- 
 ing from the woman he loved — the one he had parted from 
 but a few weeks ago; the one he had sworn to devote his 
 whole life to. I ask you to imagine what his condition of 
 mind was when he returned to New York and found that 
 she had had her mind so poisoned against him again by the 
 man who had been the cause of all her misfortune. 
 
 "She would allow White to fill her mind with these 
 •terrors of Harry Thaw to such an extent that she refused 
 to see Harry Thaw alone. And what must have been the 
 condition of mind of that poor man when he exclaimed, 
 'Oh, poor, deluded Evelyn!' and stooped and kissed her 
 and then parted, as she believed, forever from her. 
 
 "Gentlemen, what was the condition of his mind is 
 pictured to your eyes by documents of immeasurable worth, 
 telling the story of this epoch in Harry Thaw's life. 
 
 "The series of letters that voiced the wail that came 
 from his suffering soul is unparalled in history from the 
 time of the Greeks to the present day. 
 
 "He wrote to her the day after he had kissed her hand 
 and i)arted from her — she thought for all time — he wrote: 
 'Yesterday I saw you — you believed everything false people 
 told you. Poor little Evelyn! You have fallen back into 
 the hands of the man who poisoned your life — who poisoned 
 your mind. I have no reproaches to heap on your head, 
 for T know you are honest. 
 
 "'I must fight this battle alone,' his letter went on. 
 'T should liave In^t every cent in the world three weeks 
 ago that no hypnotism in the world could have made you 
 turn on me.' 
 
UXWRITTEX LAW 251 
 
 ''If this man (Hummel) who sat upon that chair and 
 perjured himself in your presence — had he kept away with 
 his smooth tongue and professional tricks and devices, poor 
 little Evelyn Thaw would not have turned away from her 
 the man who loved her and who was ready to sacrifice his 
 life for her. 
 
 ' ' She would not have broken the vow which she pledged. 
 She would have kept the purest thing from the pollution 
 of those double-minded, lying, deceitful, treacherous per- 
 sons. 
 
 " *I am changed, but not in truth or faithfulness. Alone 
 I cannot settle down. I am not responsible now, so I am 
 frivolous and not at all as I was before. 1 can do no more 
 than make the best of it, which was far from bad except 
 for regrets — every loss, every illness, everj' opportunity 
 missed — all these together are but as the raging sea of 
 water to a battling ship. Everything is trivial to me now.' 
 "Pages neither of poetry nor oratory contain a more 
 simple story of anguish than the one of this young man, 
 seeing the object of his affections won from him by this 
 man who had wrecked her life. 
 
 "All was lost to him and the world appeared to him 
 flat. He had nothing to live for — all the ambitions of his 
 life were gone and whatever could happen was but as a 
 glass of water in the sea in which a ship was battling. He 
 loft New York in November for his mother's home in Pitts- 
 burg in this condition. 
 
 "Up to that time Harry Thaw had been a man of cheer- 
 ful and sanguine temperament. His mother saw a change 
 had come over her son the moment he crossed the door. 
 His manner was entirely different. He had an absent- 
 minded look, as if he had lost everything, 
 
 "She told how she then in the dark of night had found 
 him sitting up on his bed fullj'- dressed — how she questioned 
 
252 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 him. 'It's no nse/ he said, 'I cannot sleep.' The mother 
 was allowed to peep into the heart of the suffering son by 
 the story she brought ont, little by little. 
 
 ''But even then he would not tell the girl's name, and 
 then you remember the scene in the church and while the 
 organ pealed; how the sob broke from his throat and the 
 tears gushed from his eyes, and how when his mother asked 
 him why he had sobbed he answered, 'But for him she 
 might have been with us today.' 
 
 "That was the condition of his mind; that one thing 
 was ever in his mind. 
 
 "He could not, he would not forget — great, courageous, 
 indomitable man, who believes he has a mission to fulfill, 
 to make one m.ore effort to rescue her from the hands of 
 vice into which Stanford White had lured her. He came 
 back to New York and met her in a drug store, where the 
 artificial means were found to supply the beauty she pos- 
 sessed, and he said: 'Oh, these things are not for you.' 
 And you remember how, afterward, they met as mere 
 acquaintances in the street and passed the time of day. 
 
 "Here again no words of mine could sui)pl3'' the picture 
 that is furnished by the words of the wife herself as they 
 fell from her lips on the stand. She says that when they 
 met at the Cafe Beaux Arts: 'I said I was going to a play, 
 and Mr. Thaw said I looked badly and wished I would not 
 go to the play. He would pay me my salary I would lose — 
 that ho would send it through a third party. He begged 
 me merely for the sake of my health not to go to the 
 theater. 
 
 " 'But I said that I would go; that I had no other 
 means of livelihood.' You remember they met a couple 
 of days afterward and he asked her to tell him of the stories 
 that had been told about him. 'I told him then,' she said, 
 'all they had said about him and that he was addicted to 
 
UNWRITTEX LAW 253 
 
 morphine and liad many other vices, and he said he could 
 easily understand that they had made a fool of me. He 
 urged investigation.' 
 
 *'She could find nothing in the stories. 'I never lie/ 
 Thaw told her. 'You never told me a lie in your life,' she 
 said. And while she was investigating these stories spread 
 by Abraham Hummel for the protection of Stanford White, 
 he told her all these things had been disseminated by Stan- 
 ford White and his friend. 
 
 ''When she discovered that these awful stories were 
 untrue — learned that they had been disseminated by Stan- 
 ford White and Abe Hummel for the purpose of separating 
 her from the man who loved her and whom she loved — 
 hope began once more to dawn upon him. 
 
 "The hour of reconciliation was at hand. The barriers 
 which had been set up between them were one by one fall- 
 ing to ruin and the two persons whom God and nature had 
 intended to be united were drawing nearer to each other. 
 
 "That night in December, 1903 — that night might have 
 been, gentlemen, the beginning of another tragic chapter 
 in the life of this poor child — the night when Stanford 
 White in the lofty room in the tower where he had spread 
 a banquet in celebration of the loirthday of his child vic- 
 tim — the night in which he was to lure her once again if 
 possible, and bring her under his influence — the night in 
 which, amid the glare of the lights and the splendor of the 
 treasures he had planned to renew his power over the child 
 victim. 
 
 "And the little girl, who had resisted the pleadings of 
 rescuing her came to her and snatched her from the clutches 
 of Stanford White — snatched her from the snares set for 
 her — from the man whose very existence had been a menace 
 to her and the curse of his whole life. 
 
 "He folded her in his arms; he snatched her away from 
 
254 TEE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 the old man. And that night began another series of 
 events. It was on that night that Stanford White, baffled, 
 his plans disconcerted, went about that theater in Madison 
 Square hunting for his victim, and, finding her not, pistol 
 in hand and with impotent rage in his heart, threatened to 
 shoot the man who had baffled his schemes. 
 
 ^'And that night Harry Thaw, as he walked the streets 
 of New York, found that his footsteps were being dogged 
 by hired malefactors in the pay of Stanford White, and he 
 learned in a few days of the threat of Stanford White and 
 his hirlings. From that moment the dread of his life being 
 taken away by this man added a grim specter to the one 
 that already had been haunting him. 
 
 ''And he from that time, as she relates to you, began 
 to think himself persecuted by Stanford White. The scur- 
 rilous stories circulated in newspa])ers and elsewhere he 
 attributed to him. He exjjressed apprehension of personal 
 violence and impressed upon her mind that if he died she 
 Avas to have his death investigated and to spare no pains. 
 
 ''He told her he would probably be set upon in New 
 York by some one in the employ of Stanford White. He 
 said the Monk Eastman gang had been hired to kill him 
 iind the fear of death constantly haunted him. 
 
 "Consider in this connection, consider the strange 
 clause in his Will— if you will not take it from Evelyn — the 
 strange clause ai)propriating the sum of $;")(),()00 to be de- 
 voted to the investigation into his death, should it occur. 
 
 "In 1904, in the latter part of the year, or the begin- 
 ning of 1905, a second operation was performed on Kvelyii. 
 And when she was convalescent the man who for two yenrs 
 had loved her, the man who had tohl her sad story to his 
 mother in 1903, w^ho liad been refused by her becans(» slio 
 thonglit their union would interfere with his family nda- 
 tious — that man, I say, such was the constancy and fervor 
 
UNWRITTEN LAW 255 
 
 of his love, persuaded his mother to come to the little girl 
 whose sad story she knew and whom in her heart she could 
 not but revere. 
 
 ''And she came to New York — she, embodiment of all 
 til at a good wife and mother means — she came and saw the 
 little girl and assured her that she would be welcome to 
 her home; that no allusion would ever be made to her sad 
 story. 
 
 "And the little girl, who had resisted the pleadings of 
 the man who had loved her and because she loved him, 
 could not resist the j)lea(lings of the mother, and on April 
 4, 1905, they were united at the altar, when he in return 
 for her love pledged to her before Almighty God that he 
 would protect her. And these two were then made one. 
 
 ' ' And after a trip westward they returned to the shades 
 of Lyndhurst, the old family hom(!ste-"^ They wore ha])py 
 in each other's love, happy in each other's confidence, for- 
 getting the past. 
 
 **Biit social or business exigencies would not ]irevent 
 them from coming to New York, and one day while riding 
 down one of your streets there appeared the form of the 
 man who had been the cause of so much anguish, and he, 
 though she was the wife of another man, stared at her, 
 and had the audacity to call her by her first name. 
 
 ''She went back to the hotel where her husband was, 
 and told him what had ha])pened. And he, in his anger, 
 cxclnimed: 'The dirty blackguard had no right to speak to 
 you — no right to speak your name.' And he extracted 
 from her the promise that no matter what happened slio 
 would tell him all. 
 
 " 'He made me,' she says, 'promise that if I ever saw 
 Stanford WHiite T was to come home and tell him of it.' 
 
 "They next met in Now York when she was going to a 
 physician. Their hansoms crossed at Thirty-fourth street. 
 
256 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 He stared at her, pulled at his mustache, and stared and 
 stared. She did not speak to him, but looked away and 
 turned into Twenty-second street. 
 
 *'He also turned, and as she ran up the stairs of her 
 doctor's he followed her. She became frightened, and ran 
 down the steps and jumped into a hansom and drove to 
 the Lorraine, where she told her husband. 
 
 *' 'He got excited,' she said, 'and bit his nails.' In 
 May, 1906, not long before the hour which was to be Stan- 
 ford White's last on earth, this is the story that she related 
 to her husband. She told him that Miss Mae MacKenzie 
 had told her that Stanford White had been to the hospital 
 to see her. That she, Mae MacKenzie, had said to him, 
 * Isn 't it nice the way Harry and Evelyn really do care for 
 each other?' and that she said that she had found it out, 
 and that Stanford White said: 'Pooh! I don't believe it.' 
 And ^riss MacKenzie had replied: 'Oh, yes; it is true. 
 I know it myself, and I think it is so nice,' and Stanford 
 White had remarked: 'Well, it will not last long. I will 
 got her back,' All tliis she related to her husband. 
 
 "Then, when she told her husband what Mae Mac- 
 Kenzie had told her, he became wild, and began to gnaw 
 his finger nails. Did he not have cause to get wild, to lose 
 that reason which in a civilized community one is sup- 
 posed to stifle? 
 
 " 'I stole her once from her mother, I will steal her 
 now from her husband,' Stanford White said. But between 
 him and the consummation of that act there remained the 
 strong arm of tiiat young man to protect her from his 
 snares. 
 
 "You remember how at Daly's Theater Harry Thaw 
 and his wife saw Stanford WHiite in a box opposite, and 
 how. when he saw him, lie became enraged. 
 
 "When he looked into those eyes, into which so many 
 
UNWRITTEN LAW 257 
 
 a young girl had looked before she -went down to her ruin, 
 his eyes grew wild and he just sat there and stared and 
 stared at the object of his thoughts. She says, describing 
 another meeting: 'At another time, when Harry and I 
 were passing Herald Square in a hansom, we saw Stanford 
 White on the street. Mr. Thaw grew white and his eyes 
 glared. He talked so fast that I could not understand him. 
 He carried on in this way for about fifteen minutes. I 
 believe Harry had a fit then and there. He sljook violently. 
 He moaned and clenched and unclenched his hands, and 
 .that was the way he acted when he saw Stanford White. 
 
 " 'One Sunday,* said Evelyn, 'he was sitting in a chair 
 in my room and suddenly he began to sob and cry without 
 any warning whatever, apparently gazing upon vacancy. ' 
 
 "His mind was always on this man. He cried until at 
 last his own wife could not but believe this subject — the 
 thought of Stanford White — had preyed so on his mind that 
 he had become insane. 
 
 "The man who had brooded over those pictures of hor- 
 ror for three years — this man would have been more than 
 human if he could have preserved a calmness of reason. 
 Now, gentlemen, place yourselves in the position of this 
 defendant. 
 
 "Recall the time, those of you who have wives, recall 
 the time that you led the one you loved to the altar, and if 
 possible do this defendant justice. You remember when 
 the little lady tells you that her husband on this subject 
 had lost his mind — do you remember in this connection the 
 spontaneous exclamation of the friend who, on hearing the 
 shctg fired on the Madison Square Roof-garden, made the 
 exclamation: 'This is the act of an insane man.' 
 
 "Oentlemen, nothing row remains for me to do but to 
 call your attention to the n-ents of the night of the tragedy. 
 With a view simply of el icidating the great point, fix your 
 
258 TEE GREAT THA^V CASE 
 
 attention on this point — that is, the condition of mind of 
 the defendant on that fateful night — you recall tliat Mr. 
 Thaw, his wife and two friends were seated at dinner at 
 the (,'ufe Martin, a place of public entertainment in this 
 city. The time was summer, the evening doubtless was sul- 
 try. Tables had been set upon the balcony, the veranda on 
 tho outside for the accommodation of those who desired a 
 cooler spot. 
 
 * * Now, while this party of four were seated at the 
 table, Stanford White, by accident or design, came into 
 the room in which they were seated. He came in through 
 such an entrance that Harry Thaw himself could not see 
 him. After White went out on the veranda on the Fifth 
 avenue side and remained there a considerable time. 
 
 "The wife, seeing him, forbore at the time to call her 
 husband's attention to him, and only when he was gone did 
 she call his attention on paper. She wrote upon it, ^Thc 
 
 B ' (meaning blackguard) 'was there, but has gone 
 
 out again.' 
 
 "As denoting the condition of mind of the defendant 
 at that time, he turned to his wife and said to her, *Are 
 you all right?' and her answer that she was mastered every 
 emotion he had in that public place and the incident had 
 no further consequence. Now, you will remember that dur- 
 ing the afternoon Thaw had procured four tickets for the 
 jxM-formance that was to take place that night at the gar- 
 den. He took with him his party and on the way took 
 along another friend to whom he gave his own seat. Ho 
 went about with his busy, nervous activity which charac- 
 terizes him until he found a seat beside the witness Smith. 
 "He sat by Mr. Smith for half an hour engaging in 
 such idle conversation as so-called men of the world indulge 
 in — men whose minds are not seriously engaged in the 
 serious problems of life. t 
 
UN WRIT TEX LA^Y 259 
 
 ''When Thaw saw White he walked quietly and slowly 
 down the aisle until he faced W^hite and then fired three 
 shots, 
 
 ''He then slowly and deliberately turned away — and I 
 wish to call your attention especially to this circumstance, 
 aparently slight, but to my mind of the utmost importance, 
 and testified to by the defense. Mr. Meyer Cohen, one 
 of the witnesses, said that as soon as he heard the shots he 
 looked and saw Thaw standing facing* the audience with 
 his arms spread out in the form of a cross, a circumstance 
 which has not been dwelt upon by any of the learned 
 experts for the State. 
 
 "Mr. Thaw stood as a priest might have stood after 
 some ceremony of sacrificial offering, saying, 'All is over,' 
 {ind dismissing the congregation. He turned his pistol 
 barrel down to indicate to the audience that there was no 
 danger to them. 
 
 "He then walked slowly to where his wife stood, and 
 when she said, 'Oh, Harry, what have you done?' he re- 
 ])lied: 'It is all right, dearie, I have probably saved your 
 life.' As he said this he stooped and kissed her. When 
 Ik; was disarmed he said, 'He has ruined my wife.' When 
 the policeman came he said: 'He has ruined my wife.' 
 
 "1 have dwelt upon these acts and declarations of Mr. 
 Thaw at that time to call your attention to the fact that 
 the safety of his wife was menaced by the man who had 
 followed her to the garden, the same man who had followed 
 her to Dr. Delavan, the same man who had said to Mae 
 MacKenzie he would get this young wife away from Thaw. 
 
 "What condition of mind must Harry K. Thaw have 
 b(M^n in when walking down the aisle he turned and sud- 
 denly saw th(! form — the hideous form — of the man who 
 h;i(l caused so much unhappiness. 
 
 "If you have been near death you know that at such 
 
2G0 TEE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 a time the rnind travels with the rapidity of lightning. 
 The mind goes back over the past like lightning. Then 
 Thaw, as he looked upon the hideous form of this man, saw 
 the whole panorama of White's life. He saw him making 
 his way into the family where poverty dwelt; saw him 
 laying bare his plans to ingratiate himself; saw him giving 
 the mother money to absent herself from the city that he 
 might perpetrate the deed of shame he had planned; saw 
 him inflaming her youthful imagination; plying her with 
 wine; saw her mind wandering under the fatal drug; saw 
 her losing consciousness; saw her in her shame; saw him 
 next day kissing the hem of her dress; heard his thousand 
 protestations of love; heard her refusing, and saw that 
 chamber in Paris where she told him the story of her 
 w^rongs; heard again his oft proposals to her; he saw that 
 terrible night when she had told him her story; he saw 
 himself as he walked the floor and cried, 'Oh, God! Oh, 
 God!' 
 
 ''He saw her return to New York; he saw her meet 
 this man who had wronged her; he saw her about to fall 
 into this villain's hands, and he saw himself rescue her 
 from this man. He saw himself again at the altar marry- 
 ing her. 
 
 "He saw her when her mind was poisoned against him 
 by the same man who had ruined her; he saw her rescued 
 from the man; he went over the happy months he had 
 lived with her in his mother's house; he saw this monster 
 and he heard his words,' 'I will get her back,' and he know 
 not, ho reasoned not, he struck as does the tigress to ])r()- 
 tect her home — struck for the purity of American homos — 
 struck for the purity of American maidens — struck for t!:«' 
 purity of American wives. He struck, and who shall s;iy 
 he was not right? 
 
 "Hg had appealed to the Pinkcrtous, to the district 
 
UNWRITTEN LAW 261 
 
 attorney, and that night he appealed to God, and God that 
 night answered that cry — the cry of the fatherless child. 
 And God then redeemed the promise He had made thou- 
 sands of years ago when He said He would hear the cries 
 of the afflicted and that He would make the wives of the 
 oppressors widows and their children orphans. 
 
 **Ah, gentlemen, what was his condition of mind at 
 that time? Men, judge your fellow-man as ye would be 
 judged. Place yourselves as far as in your power lies in 
 the place he stood. 
 
 '*Tt is for the district attorney to prove that the de- 
 fondant was sane, and if he fails to do this he has not 
 established his case. He must establish that he was sane 
 at the time. 
 
 "And I ask you not to violate any law, and I ask you 
 to judge by that law which bids you do unto otliers what 
 you desire others to do unto you. 
 
 **Send this young man to his death for what he did 
 when goaded into frenzy by the persecution he had suffered? 
 He turned at last as the weakest of created things will 
 turn — as a worm, it is said, will turn against his tormen- 
 tors — send him to his death for that? 
 
 "Ah, gentlemen, recall the language of the great book 
 in which is contained the wisdom and religion of the people 
 of old, and I say to you, Is Jonathan to die for ridding 
 Israel of its pollution? 
 
 "Is Jonathan to die for working this great salvation 
 in Israel? 
 
 "God forbid! Not a hair of hig head shall fall to the 
 ground, for he walked with God on that day, 
 
 "I now with all solemnity leave in your hands the fate 
 of Harry K. Thaw." 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 '*Thou Shalt Not Kill " - Jer ome. 
 
 PROSECUTOR IN TP:RRIFIC DENUNCIATION OF HARRY THAW 
 AS A COLD-BLOODED MURDERER — ATTACKS CHARACTER 
 OF EVELYN, THE ^^\NGEL CHILD WHO WAS ALWAYS 
 READY TO GO TO THE HUM^VN OGRE^' WHOM THAW 
 KII-LED — SNEERS AT THE YOUNG WIFE — WARNS JURY 
 AGAINST "dementia AMERICANA/^ PLEA — " NOTHING 
 TO SHOW DEFENDANT WAS INSANE; EVERYTHING TO 
 SHOW HE WAS SANE. 
 
 In his siipi'ome effort to send Harry Thaw to the 
 electric chair, District Attorney Jerome in his clos- 
 ing- speech savagely lashed the defendant as a delib- 
 erate, cold-blooded murderer. lie bitterly attacked 
 the characters of Thaw and his wife, referring to 
 Evelyn as "the iingel child," who was "always ready 
 to go to tlu; human ogre who stripped her of her 
 virtue," and d(H*lai*ed her story of her ruin by White 
 was absolutelv false. 
 
 Mr. Jerome lost no opportunity to sneer at the little 
 wife's tragic story and at the chivalry of her husband, 
 and he paid his respects to Delmas' sensational 
 "Dementia Americana," or unwritten law plea, by 
 asking if it was the higher law under whi(*li a man 
 may flaunt the woman through the capitals of Europe 
 for two years as his mistress— and then. kill. 
 
 262 
 
ii 
 
 THOU SHALT XOT KILL'' 263 
 
 The prosecutor warned the jury that it would be a 
 violation of their oaths to consider "Dementia Ameri- 
 cana," declaring it had no status on the Atlantic sea- 
 board. 
 
 Mr. Jerome said: "This is simply a common, vul- 
 gar, everyday, tenderloin homicide." lie denounced 
 the plea of Attorney Delmas as "an appeal to the 
 passions." There could, he said, be but one of four 
 verdicts— murder in the first degree, murder in the 
 second degree, manslaughter, or "not guilty because 
 of insanity." 
 
 The prosecutor also made a stirring appeal in be- 
 half of the slain architect, declaring that he had been 
 villainously maligned. ^Fr. Jerome said it seemed to 
 him that the voice of the murdered Stanford White 
 was crving out to him, "Can't vou sav one word for 
 me? Must I go down to the fires of hell unheard- 
 undefended." 
 
 William Travers Jerome, elected district attorney 
 of New York on November 5, 1902, won a great repu- 
 tation as a reformer and a foe of vice, gambling, 
 crooked politicians, and every other evil. Before be- 
 ing elected prosecutor, on a fusion ticket which over- 
 whelmed the corrupt Tammany hall machine, he was a 
 justice of the court of special sessions in New York 
 City. 
 
 As a private lawyer he was favorably known for 
 the intense earnestness he put into the eases of his 
 
264 TEE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 clients. As a platform orator; a campaigner and a 
 hustler for votes he had his name to make, and he 
 made it. He was the bright, particular star of the 
 campaign, and drew larger crowds and excited more 
 enthusiasm from innnense assemblies than any other 
 speaker during the campaign. 
 
 William Travers son of the well-known Larry 
 Jerome, grew from a puny baby to a boy too delicate 
 to meet the rough-and-tumble life of public schools. 
 He had a private tutor, and after he left the tutor's 
 care he entered Amherst College. He remained there 
 three years, and at the end of that time he left on 
 account of poor health. 
 
 But it was not in the Jerome blood to stay downed. 
 Next vear AVilliam Travers Jerome entered Columbia 
 
 ft/ 
 
 College Law School, and was graduated in 1884. 
 
 After that he traveled considerably, practiced law 
 a little and amused himself a little. By 1888 he was 
 ready to settle down, and in that year three important 
 things happened in his life. He was appointed As- 
 sistant District Attorney. He married IMiss Hart, of 
 Sharon, Conn. Lawrence Jerome, his father, died. 
 
 In the District Attorney's office Jerome made a 
 reputation among the other assistants as a man who 
 never gave up in the most thankless task, and as an 
 embryo politician who never worked for his own 
 pocket. Jerome has his failings and his friends, as 
 well as his foes, know this well. IHs chief weakness 
 
''THOU SHALT NOT KILL" ' 265 
 
 is a desire to sav startling:: thiims. He has said sev- 
 i'V'dl, the most remarkable beiug: an attack on William 
 C. Whitney and Boss Piatt and the declaration that 
 there was a plot hatched to either kill him or scratch 
 him at the polls. Jerome was called to time on these 
 propositions, and he retracted — but he did it without 
 crawling. Jerome is too outspoken to be a successful 
 politician. His ag-gressiveness and his fearlessness are 
 -idrairable. 
 
 Mr. Jerome ^s speech was as follows : 
 
 **If it please your honor and gentlemen of tlic juiy, 
 you seem, as far as I can judge, to have l)een wandering 
 through a weird deal of romance in the past few days. ]t 
 is not on statements such as you have listened to that the 
 life of a human individual on the one hand nor the safety 
 of the community on the other depends. 
 
 ''And important as it is that no human life shall be 
 l)ut out except justly, yet it is equally important that it 
 be put out if justice demands it. 
 
 ''As to this 'dementia Americana,' which 'prevails 
 from the Canadian line to the Gulf of Mexico' — and mostly 
 on the Gulf of Mexico — does it wait three years and glare 
 at its enemy and then kill? 
 
 "Does til is 'dementia Americana' flaunt the woman it 
 loves for two long years through the capitals of Europe 
 and then kill? 'Dementia Americana' never hides behind 
 the skirts of a woman; 'dementia Americana' never puts 
 a woman on the stand to lay bare her shame to protect it- 
 no woman could in the category where 'dementia Amer- 
 icana' prevails. 
 
 " 'When I discharged those shots into his head,' said 
 Thaw, 'I didn't know I was discharging shots. I didn't 
 
266 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 kuow it wag Stanford White. I didn't know I was killing 
 him, nor did I know it was wrong.' 
 
 ' ' It was wrong under the law. When the anarchists 
 threw the bombs in Chicago they had no personal grievance 
 against any of the four policemen who were killed. It is 
 not a question whether the slayer justified himself, not the 
 form of his own conscience. It is the law of the land that 
 must be satisfied. 
 
 ''Let me first deal with the dead man. A middle-aged 
 man, care-gray already, a man with a wife and children, 
 a man of position in the community, a man of genius. He 
 comes into the life of this girl. He assists her and her 
 family. Does he make a single insidious advance until 
 the night mentioned here? 
 
 "Does he give her a single rich gift? Why, it was 
 stipulated here that the gifts were trifles — a hat, a coat. 
 Did he ti-y to dazzle her with rich gifts? Did he try to 
 see if she -would yield to drink? N*o. Night after night 
 at dinners he would tell her she could have but one glass 
 of champagne. In the company of actresses, and those 
 miserable persons about town who seem to think that the 
 society of a chorus girl is the only one for them, did ho 
 not seek to protect her from them? 
 
 ''This angel child, as Delmas depicted her — this chaste, 
 good being, cannot recall the time within three months of 
 it when this brute ruined her. 
 
 "When she could not fix the time of her life's wreck 
 my learned friend from the Pacific slope concluded, 'Why 
 don't you prove an alibi for Stanford White? The doors 
 are thrown wide open.' When tlie people called Wittans 
 to testify that there was no such drug as she described the 
 door was closed. When Eichemeyer, the photographer, was 
 called to fix the date of the event — it occurred the night 
 of the (lay after this picture was taken — the door was 
 closed. 
 
"TBOTJ SHALT NOT KILL'' 267 
 
 ''The learned jivlge ruled justly. I offered this not as 
 new evidence, but to call the story of the 'angel child.' 
 
 ' ' Maidens know well enough to appreciate the distinc- 
 tion between right and wrong — their blushes, their reserve, 
 their shrinking would impress upon them indelibly the 
 time when any such attempt is made to destroy their purity. 
 Was she brought up more carefully than your own daugh- 
 ters? 
 
 "And yet she meets him again and again and again. 
 She meets him eight or ten times at the tower. She meets 
 him in the Twenty-fourth street place because she believed 
 others would be there. And then all these subsequent at- 
 tacks were attacks with liquor. After all these, there was 
 marked for identification, with greatest ostentation, a num- 
 ber of letters written };y Stanford White — this great ogre! 
 
 "And yet you will recall that on one occasion a Mr. P. 
 called at the Twenty-fourth street house and found the 
 angel child downstairs undressing. 
 
 "Was there one of tiiesc letters put in evidence? Is it 
 credible that if a single one of these letters contained the 
 slightest intimation of indecency that it would not have 
 been put in evidence? 
 
 "C'ould there have T)een these successive ill-treatments 
 month after month and yet not a single line in all those 
 letters except words of tender appreciation? CJontrast 
 tliose letters with this, for instance: 'Men celebrated for 
 licking toes,' the letter of this most modern St. George, 
 who leads the angel child up to the true liglit. After days 
 of description of the l)aseness and debauchery of Stanford 
 White, it seems as if the spirit of Stanford White itself 
 would have come here to say to Evelyn Thaw: 'Whiitl 
 Not one word of kindness — not one word to say for me?' " 
 
 Here Jerome's voice broke, his chin quivered, and he 
 solibed for a moment. Drying his eyes, he continued: 
 
 "The law will not allow it." (Jerome, still talking of 
 
268 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 the spirit of White, added: ''I am not on trial. I have 
 no one here to speak for me,") 
 
 Jerome's eyes filled with more tears as he went on: 
 
 * * * Can you not say one word for me ? Only one word 
 for me,' the spirit seemed to say." 
 
 The tears started down Jerome's face. He faced the 
 jury, holding aloft the photograph taken by Eichmeyer — 
 the one on the bear rug. Then he cried with evident 
 feeling: 
 
 "Can't you say for me something? On the stand she 
 said, *T know no one who was nicer or kinder than Stan- 
 ford White, except for this one awful thing. He was excep- 
 tionally kind to me and to my family. 
 
 " 'Outside of this one thing he was a grand man. And 
 when I said so to Mr, Thaw he said that only made Stan- 
 ford White the more dangerous. 
 
 " *He had a strong personality and had many friends, 
 and they believed in him and could not believe anything 
 bad about him. And even when they believed, they said: 
 "Too bad. He is so good." ' 
 
 "Can there be any grander, better panegyric, uttered 
 than this by this girl on the stand. I am here not to 
 defend Stanford White. That he had his faults, his gross 
 faults, no one will deny. 
 
 "But there is a difference between the brute, and the 
 unchaste. Her own words have ruined this .Jekyl and Hyde 
 theory. 
 
 "Next time, Mr. Hartridge, that you take things and 
 j»:ij)ers belonging to Evelyn Thaw out of a storage ware- 
 house, take good care that you do not leave behind such 
 a book as this. 
 
 " C^an it be possible that now, at twenty-two, she could 
 look back to the time when she was fifteen and pronounce 
 so grand a jianegyric upon a brute? 
 
"THOU SHALT XOT KILL'' 269 
 
 "A wealthy man, finding, God only knows why, enjoy- 
 ment in her company — see how young she seems today 
 (pointing to Evelyn Thaw) — think how young she must 
 have been then — that a rich man should have tried to help 
 her is consistent with his conduct. 
 
 "That when she was told by the manager of the 'Flo- 
 rodora' company, to whom she had applied, that they were 
 not 'running a baby farm' — that a man like Stanford White 
 should have taken care of her and protected her — is cer- 
 tainly not inconsistent with the belief that her relations 
 with him were pure. 
 
 ''Again, it is consistent that their relations were not 
 pure. This girl alone knows. But I submit this girl is not 
 telling the truth. There is no proof of the wrongdoing." 
 
 At this point Jerome asked that a recess be taken. At 
 the reconvening of court, Mr. Jerome resumed as follows: 
 
 "I have carefully laid out to you what we are here for 
 in our respective duties. I have presented briefly as I 
 could the facts that I have adduced. 
 
 ' * The head on which I am now dwelling is, ' What is 
 the defense that the defendant makes to this formal 
 charge?' I deem it necessary to dwell at some length on 
 the character of the three persons who figure most in this 
 case. However, much as we may disagree, we come back 
 to the issue: 'Did he know the nature and quality of his 
 act?' 
 
 " 'I did not know it was a self-cocking revolver and 
 I (lid not know 1 walked toward Stanford White and J 
 did not know it was against the law of the land to fire 
 the shots.' 
 
 " fn regard to the girl, we may esteem her, however 
 niiich or little we may think of her veracity. Nothing can 
 go out to her except our pity. If these things did m^t 
 
270 TEE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 occur, if she perjured herself it seems even more that she 
 needs our pity. 
 
 "What chance did she ever have in life? Her father 
 died early, her mother led a life of shifting about from 
 place to place. We all know what life on the stage is. 
 We all see some of it. Why do you suppose Garland, a 
 married man, was following this girl about; why do you 
 suppose even Thaw was pursuing her with flowers? This 
 little girl knew something of life before she met Mr. White. 
 
 ' ' Counsel for the defense speaks of her fatal gift of 
 beauty. It is ever thus. We are all men of the world and 
 we all pass along the great white way of this city and see 
 its effects daily. 
 
 ''Why do you suppose Garland was paying her atten- 
 tion? W^hy was Thaw sending her American Beauty roses? 
 Why did he pursue her even to her home? I don't wish to 
 speak too harshly of this mother. I will read what she 
 says of Garland. 
 
 " 'My mother was not entirely pleased with the rela- 
 tions of Mr. Garland.' 
 
 "What were the relations that caused the mother to 
 make objection? They were very poor and the accjuaiut- 
 ance of White and Garland was desirable. The girl, you 
 know, was sent to school. The whole situation centered 
 about the girl. It was she who, in the long run, brought 
 about all these occurrences. 
 
 "Next time, Mr. Hartridge, that j'ou take things and 
 papers belonging to Evelyn Thaw out of a storage ware- 
 house, take good care that you do uot leave behind such a 
 book as this." 
 
 Mr. Jerome displayed a flexible leather-bound book in 
 "which there appeared a good doal of written matter. Je- 
 rome then raised the <liary, or book, and shook it before 
 the jury. Mr. Hartridge objected at this i)oint and said 
 
i I 
 
 THOU SHALT NOT KILL'' 271 
 
 that there was no evidence that he had taken the docu- 
 ments from the warehouse. Mr. Hartridge was overruled 
 by Justice Fitzgerald. Jerome then read the one entry of 
 the diary which had been admitted in evidence. It was: 
 
 " 'J jumped right in and proceeded to be good. The 
 first thing I saw was my virtuous couch. I wonder how 
 far I am from Hector's — Hector's and the Great White 
 Way. ' 
 
 ** Significant, I consider that, indeed I do," said Jerome, 
 and then continued reading from the girl's school diary. 
 
 '' 'These things have always been of that kind. Not 
 one of them will ever be anything. Mrs. De Mille was 
 very nice and agreeable. 
 
 " 'I was taken into the house and shown all the celerity 
 of a soubrette and proceeded to get shy. When we drove 
 up to the house Mrs. De Mille 's son came out smoking a 
 j>ipo, and I must admit he is a pie-faced mutt. 
 
 *' *I was taken into the house and shown to mj' room. 
 Tt is neither large nor small; has Japanese paper on the 
 walls. There is a virtuous white bed, a girl's bureau and 
 a washstand.' " 
 
 Then Jerome went on: 
 
 *'Tliis shows that this child played one man against the 
 other. She went to Paris on Thaw's money with White's 
 letter of credit in her pocket. This child that believed 
 not at all in the virtue of women — this child who had been 
 in tile 'Florodora' company — this child who had been 
 yachting with Garland — this child who had been to the late 
 suppers where risque stories and intoxicated women pre- 
 vailed. This child thought it was nothing to l)e a good 
 inother — that she would rather become a great actress first, 
 and she arrived in Paris fully convinced that there is no 
 virtue in womankind, she being eighteen and a half at 
 *that time. 
 
272 THE GREAT TH.UY CASE 
 
 ' ' This is the angel child described by Mr. Delmas. And 
 then we are told that in Paris the child loved Thaw and 
 in the greatness of her love renounced him and was willing 
 to come back to the chorus and the studios. She made this 
 renunciation and when she had done so she traveled about 
 Europe with this St. George who had revealed to her that 
 there was chastity in women, and then she leaves him for 
 some reason, which I will dwell upon later, and comes to 
 Xew York with his money. 
 
 **She arrives in this city on October 24, 1903, and is 
 found a few days later in the office of Abraham Hummel 
 in the company of Stanford White, the man who had iSO 
 dreadfully ill-used her. If not another thing was found in 
 that affidavit than the signature of Evelyn Nesbit, this 
 date, which appears opposite that name, would be signifi- 
 cant. 
 
 "The significant thing is that within twenty-four hours 
 before she saw him on Sunday her great love had been 
 undermined so that she deserted this man for tlio monster 
 who had wrecked her life. 
 
 "By stories too evil to repeat, she says, she was turned 
 against Thaw. And then, when he returned, she tells him 
 of what she had heard about him, and he says, 'Poor little 
 Evelyn. Somebody has deceived you. ' 
 
 "And when I call her renunciation of this young man 
 sublime T did not do so with a sneer. Such a renunciation, 
 if it really occurred, is unparalleled in history. 
 
 "Great actress, indeed! She thought slie could ])lay on 
 you like so many cliildren. Look at those i)ictures taken 
 when she was sixteen years old — does she look anything 
 like the way she appeared in court? 
 
 "She appears in these early photogra])hs in a way which 
 you could not allow a daughter of yours of sixteen to ap- 
 pear. 
 
(( 
 
 THOU SHALT NOT KILL'' 273 
 
 ' ' She comes here in her little school-girl dress — her 
 little white, turned-down collars, which cover all but the 
 flowing ends of a pretty childlike bow-tie. She sits in the 
 witness chair and tries to impress on you this assumed, 
 youthful childishness. 
 
 ' * There she was a poor, wronged, orphan child, whom 
 Thaw would take to his arms and protect. Sir Galahad took 
 that angel child — took her from her mother and flaunted 
 her through every capital of Europe. 'Dementia Ameri- 
 cana* — the higher, unwritten law! Why, you may paint 
 Stanford White in as black color as you wish, but there 
 are no colors in the artists' box black enough to paint 
 this Sir Galahad. Why should this Sir Galahad be aban- 
 doned by this girl? Why should she leave him? For some 
 reason she did leave him. Why? Let us go into the Hum- 
 mel affidavit. 
 
 ''What <lo we find Thaw doing? We find him wrapping 
 $;")() around American Beauty roses and sending them to 
 her. Is that the course of honorable courtship? 
 
 " 'Rector's, I know, is not the proper place for an inno- 
 cent young person, but I always had a weakness for it.' 
 (Mr. Jerome read from the diary.) 
 
 " 'Tt is my. ambition to see things and then settle 
 down; but I want to be a good actress before I settle down 
 to u hiiindiiim existence.' " 
 
 Jerome again read from the diary of the girl, Evelyn 
 Nesbit. 
 
 "You have heard what took j)lace in Paris — mother, 
 daughter and Thaw were living together. Thaw asked her 
 there to be his wife and she refused, and when he asked 
 her why she said: 
 
 " 'Because.' And he asked, 'Is it Stanford White?' 
 and she said, 'Yes.' And then we are told she gave him 
 the entire story. 
 
 k 
 
274 THE GREAT TEA^Y CASE 
 
 ''She had nothing ahead of her. There was a man she 
 saw she loved. He offered her his wealth in return for 
 that love. She laid it aside — all the comforts of life. 
 Wasn't that a sublime resignation? 
 
 ' ' He offered her a haven of rest — rest K)r the wanderer. 
 And yet so great was that love for him that she would not 
 accept him. Those were noble words for this man to say. 
 This girl's renunciation was truly sublime — if true. She 
 might not have known how Stanford White, like tlie brute 
 negro of the South, would look upon his victim with pas- 
 sion, but she did not know that it was wrong. 
 
 ''I don't think Hummel is an upright man, and he is in 
 the position he is in just because I put him there. He 
 will go to jail and he will stay there just as long as I can 
 keep him there. He has lived as a blackguarding black- 
 mailer for twenty years and anything coming from his 
 hands must be viewed by you justly with suspicion. 
 
 "But Abraham Sn^^decker swore that he took that affi- 
 davit to Evelyn Nesbit there in the Madison Square tower 
 and that she read it and signed it. Let us see what she 
 herself says about that affidavit. The itinerary set down 
 in the affidavit corresponds exactly with her description 
 of it. Were all these things put in there by Hummel f 
 Strange touches for this old blackmailing, blackguarding 
 scoundrel to have put into that affidavit — such little 
 touches as reference to a watch and to a hypodermic 
 needle used for morphine, which she saj's she found in 
 Thaw's trunk. 
 
 "I will concede that this story may have been dressed 
 up by the lawyer. Can we think of the suggestions in her 
 own testimony of the Kthel Thomas suit? Can we think 
 of the rumors of Dillingham's story? Can we fail to re- 
 mark upon that passage in his lotter in which he says, 
 *He will never hurt you/ referring to himself? 
 
"THOU SHALT NOT KILL'' 275 
 
 "Snydecker says that affidavit was taken to the Twenty- 
 seventh street studio and her signature appears exactly 
 opposite the date. 
 
 "Strange that after her return from Europe — from 
 Thaw — she should immediately have gone to him, to White. 
 
 **A knight of old, redressing the wrongs of injured 
 maidens, would not have gone to Eector's at 2 o'clock in 
 the morning, would not have gone to cakewalks and cafes, 
 to the Dead Eat in Paris and resorts in other places, to 
 remain there all night and go home when the market 
 wakes. 
 
 ' ' Almost within earshot of his wife he asked Smith — 
 this knight of old asked: 
 
 "Would you like to meet a nice, buxom brunette? Are 
 you much married? I am going abroad and I can put you 
 next. ' 
 
 "Every element, gentlemen, in this case is simply an 
 ordinary, mere, vulgar, every-day, Tenderloin, low, sordid 
 murder. 
 
 "If this rich young man instead of being Harry Thaw, 
 the son of a millionaire of Pittsburg, had been a poor Ital- 
 ian and his victim, instead of a man of artistic tempera- 
 ment, a maker of plaster casts, and a girl whom they quar- 
 reled about was a chorus girl in the London Theater, how 
 long would brainstorms and paranoia have prevailed? 
 
 "Simply a mere, ordinary Tenderloin homicide. Be- 
 cause she has a pretty face and a child-like manner, she is 
 coming here to toll ;i tissue of lies to prevent you gentle- 
 men from putting a deliberate, cold-blooded murderer un- 
 der ground. 
 
 "Will you gentlemen acquit a cold-blooded, cowardly, 
 deliberate murderer on the ground of 'dementia Amer- 
 icana"? 
 
 "Thaw himself, the girl swore, accused her of having 
 
276 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 resumed relations with White after she returned from 
 Paris. Where does this man's conduct show aught that 
 he did not know, the quality and nature of his act? We 
 have the letters A to I. The girl says that at times in 
 1903 Thaw was drinking heavily." 
 
 Jerome argued that neither Thaw's letters nor his will 
 indicated insanity, but rather showed that he possessed 
 a knowledge of legal limitations. His letters he described 
 as erratic and vulgar, the product of a rich illiterate." 
 Jerome continued: 
 
 '*He knew enough to automobile through Europe with 
 this girl. He knew enough to warn Longfellow to be on 
 the lookout for legal actions, and yet he did not know 
 that when he shot White he was doing wrong. Even the 
 codicil drawn in his own language runs in the legal way. 
 
 * * Everything shows a sane mind. There is not a thing 
 to indicate a crazy mind. There is evidence here that he 
 consulted Roger O 'Mara before he carried a revolver. He 
 was afraid of the Monk Eastman gang. 
 
 "Is it such an unknown thing that a man should be 
 followed by a gang of hirelings f Was the arrest and trial 
 of the Monk Eastman gang in Jersey a few years ago a 
 figment of inmgination ? Where was the delusion in that f 
 How easy it is for a man of this kind to store away his 
 'dementia Americana' for three years! Where is the delu- 
 sion in a man's believing that he is in danger from a 
 gang'? 
 
 "Don't let's blow hot and cold at the same time. In 
 one breath we are told that there was such a gang hired, 
 and then we are told it was all a delusion, 
 
 "There was such a gang — and i am sorry to have to 
 admit there was, 
 
 "Why did he leave his money to the iSociety for the 
 fcjuppression of Vice? Was that a delusion? 
 
(( 
 
 THOU SHALT NOT KILL'' 277 
 
 *'And he says in a letter that they could find pictures 
 in White's studio which were lewd, but perhaps within 
 the law. Was that a delusion? 
 
 * ' Will you gentlemen acquit a cold-blooded, cowardly, 
 deliberate murderer on the ground of 'dementia Amer- 
 icana?' 
 
 ''If the only thing that lies between every man and 
 his enemy is a brainstorm, then let every man pack a gun. 
 There are two things I want to say. They are: 'Vengeance 
 is mine, saith the Lord,' and that other law that was thun- 
 dered from Mount Sinai: 
 
 " 'Thou Shalt not kill!' " 
 
"CHAPTER XXIV. 
 The Judge's Charge to the Jury — Thaw in Collapse. 
 
 JUSTICE FITZGERALD DEALS BLOW WHEN HE TELLS THE 
 TWELVE ^^GOOD MEN AND TRUE^^ THEY MUST IGNORE 
 THE ^^ UNWRITTEN LAW '^ — READS THE STATUTE GOV- 
 p]RNING INSANITY AS A DEFENSE — BURDEN OF PROOF OF 
 MADNESS PLACED ON THE DEPENDANT — TELLS WHAT 
 VERDICTS MAY BE RENDERED — " YOU MUST BE GLIDED 
 ENTIRELY' ON THE EVIDENCE; CLAMOR, PREJUDICE, OR 
 SYMPATHY MUST NOT PREVAIL.'* 
 
 Upon the heels of District Attorney Jerome's clos- 
 ing address, Justice Fitzgerald dealt a terrific blow to 
 the defense in his charge to the jury. Every word 
 that he uttered seemed to the lawyers attending the 
 trial to be a plea that the jurors ignore the most tell- 
 ing i)oints of Delmas' address and confine themselves 
 strictlv to the facts and the law on the statute books, 
 ignoring the "unwritten law." 
 
 Thaw heard the charge with rapidly paling face, 
 and he almost collapsed when the judge said that the 
 (h'f'endant must prove his insanity before he could 
 look for a verdict of acciuittal. This charge and the 
 bitter closing speech of Jerome so worked upon the 
 Feelings of Harry that he was in a sad coiulition when 
 he was taken back to the prisoner's room. A call from 
 his wile, however, cheered him up, ami he said: 
 
 278 
 
JUDGE'S CHARGE 279 
 
 ' ' Well, dearie, we must make the best of it, anyway. 
 Cheer up, little girl, everything will come out all 
 right." 
 
 The members of the Thaw family were low in spir- 
 its, especially when they heard that the keeper of the 
 prisoners' room had said: 
 
 ''The judge's cold-blooded charge has scared Harry 
 half to death. He has finally been made to realize what 
 he is 'up against,' " 
 
 The charge of Justice Fitzgerald was as follows : 
 
 ''Gentlemen of the Jury, it now becomes my duty to 
 give you such instructions as are necessarj^ to enable you 
 to perform your duty as jurors and to define for your in- 
 formation the legal principles by which you are to be gov- 
 erned in reaching your conclusion of the evidence. 
 
 "It is particularly gratifying to me that you were 
 selected by the people and the defense as fair-minded 
 men, after the examination of 337 men and the peremptory 
 challenges on each side had been exhausted. The care with 
 which you were severally selected to ascertain the condition 
 of mind of each of you as an impartial juror must have 
 impressed you with the sj)irit of justice. It must have im- 
 pressed you with that spirit of justice with which the stat- 
 utes regulating the acts of the orderly are governed. 
 
 "The admonition so frequently given at the close of 
 the sessions of this trial were given in accordance with 
 the law, that you might remain impartial. Let me impress 
 on you the importance of the issue you are to decide. 
 
 "The life of tlio deceased was in the protection of the 
 law and had been taken by the defendant. And the de- 
 fendant is here to answer to the law for that. 
 
 "You must take the law absolutely from the court, but 
 
280 TEE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 of the facts you are the sole judges. A defendant to a 
 criminal action is presumed to be innocent until the con- 
 trary can be proved, and in the case of a reasonable doubt 
 he is entitled to it. 
 
 "Let me begin by instructing you on the law of homi- 
 cide. The statute on homicide is divided into two di\ i- 
 sions. which are again subdivided. The two chief divi- 
 sions are homicide that is criminal and homicide that is 
 not. 
 
 "Criminal homicides are classed as murder in the first 
 degree, murder in the second degree and manslaughter in 
 the first and second degree. Homicide unless it is excus- 
 able or justifiable is murder in the first degree, when com- 
 mitted with deliberate design to effect the death of the 
 person killed. 
 
 * * If committed with design to effect death without pre- 
 meditation or deliberation, it would not constitute murder 
 in the first degree but would constitute murder 
 in the second degree. If committed without design to 
 effect death in the heat of i)assion with a deadly weapon 
 that would constitute manslaughter in the first degree. 
 
 "AH lesser criminal homicides are embraced within the 
 definition of manslaughter in the second degree. 
 
 "Homicides not criminal are classed as justifiable and 
 excusable homicide. Homicide is justifiable when com- 
 mitted in the lawful defense of the slayer or his wife or 
 child or master or servant or anybody connected with him 
 in close relation. 
 
 "The defense here is that the defendant was insane at 
 the time he committed the act and the law applicable in 
 the defense of insanity is found in sections 20 and 21 of 
 the Penal Code. Section 20 provides that an act done by a 
 person who is an idiot, imbecile or lunatic is not a crime. 
 
 "But section 21 limits section 20 as follows: 
 
JUDGE'S CHARGE 281 
 
 '' 'A person is not excusable from criminal liability as 
 an idiot, imbecile, lunatic or insane person except upon 
 proof that at the time of committing the alleged crime he 
 was laboring under such a defect of reason as either not 
 to know the nature or quality of the act or to know that 
 the act was wrong,' 
 
 "Before murder in the first degree can be done, a 
 distinguished jurist has said, it must appear that there was 
 some act of deliberation and premeditation. This, of 
 necessity, is for the comprehension of the jury. 
 
 *^If you are satisfied that there was a design to effect 
 death, but without deliberation and premeditation, you 
 may find murder in the second degree. The defendant may 
 be convicted under this indictment of murder in the first or 
 second degree or manslaughter in the first degree. 
 
 "When it appears that the defendant committed a crime 
 and there is reasonable doubt of which degree he is guilty, 
 he can be convicted of the lowest only. 
 
 "As I have tried to impress upon you since this trial 
 began, the character of the victim furnishes neither excuse 
 nor justification. The general character of tha victim is 
 not the issue, and no matter how bad he might have been 
 he was entitled to the protection of the law. 
 
 "The personal avenger of private or ])ublic wrongs is 
 not recognized under our law. Every person is under the 
 protection of the law. Good or bad, exalted or humble, all 
 are alike covered by its shield. 
 
 "The plea of not guilty is a denial of every material 
 allegation charged aaginst the defendant, and such evi- 
 dence may be presented as will offset those allegations and 
 establish his insanity at the time of the commission of the 
 act. 
 
 "The law presumes that sanity is the normal condition 
 
282 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 of man, and wherein insanity is the plea that becomes the 
 crucial question for the jury to decide. 
 
 **If there existed in the mind of the defendant an in- 
 sane illusion it is not an excuse unless the illusion is of 
 such a character that if true it would result in his injury. 
 
 ''Proof of partial or incipient insanity is not sufficient 
 as an excuse. The settled law of the state is that so long 
 as that power to appreciate the nature and quality of the 
 act is present no man must commit crime if he w^ould 
 escape the consequences. 
 
 "Under the rules of evidence the story, claimed by the 
 defendant prior and subsequent to this tragedy and prior 
 is admittd, not as affecting the character of the deceased, 
 but that you might consider what effect such a story had 
 on the defendant's mind. 
 
 *'In considering her story, her credibility as a witness 
 is highly material, and everything that she has said or 
 done must be taken into consideration. Her admissions re- 
 garding the relations 'existing between herself and the 
 defendant prior and subsequent to this tragedy and prior 
 to her marriage or any other act should be weighed in con- 
 nection with her story. 
 
 "A wide latitude was allowed on cross-examination. 
 You should give due credit to all that was developed along 
 with other facts. 
 
 ''There has been no denial entered here that death 
 resulted from pistol shot wounds inflicted by the defendant, 
 he committed the act. It was not incumbent upon the 
 prosecution to introduce preliminary testimony to show 
 that he was sane. The burden of proof is upon the defense. 
 Whoever denies sanity must prove that insanity is present. 
 The burden of proving a crime is on the prosecution, 
 but the burden of overthrowing sanity is on the person 
 claiming it. 
 
JUDGE'S CHARGE 283 
 
 ' ' The hypothetical questions which were answered by 
 the experts assumed certain facts and the answer whs 
 only the opinion of the expert on those assumed facts. 
 
 ''You are not obliged nor are you permitted to accept 
 opinions as you would facts. In considering the testimony 
 of medical experts, you are to consider their experience 
 and knowledge, and you should consider the quality of the 
 medical testimony and not its quantity. 
 
 "The so-called irresistible impulse has no place in the 
 law and is not an excuse, nor is every person of a dis- 
 ordered mind excused. While the burden of proof of in- 
 sanity is on the defendant, he is also entitled to every 
 reasonable doubt on the subject. If the defendant knew 
 the nature or the quality of his act, or knew that the act 
 was wrong, then he committed a crime. 
 
 "As to the distinction between reasonable doubt and 
 a possible doubt you were thoroughly examined when you 
 were about to become jurors. 
 
 "The law does not require that the prosecution shall 
 eflPaee every possible doubt. 
 
 "It only requires that the prosecution shall go l)eyond 
 a reasonable doubt. Nothing in this world is beyond all 
 doubt. The defendant is entitled to every reasonable doubt 
 and that is all. 
 
 "You may in this case, let me say once more, find tho 
 defendant guilty of murder in the first degree, guilty of 
 munlor in the second degree or guilty of manslaughter in 
 the first degree. 
 
 "If you vote for acquittal on the ground of insanity 
 you may state that ground in your verdict. 
 
 "You must be guided, gentlemen, entirely on the evi- 
 dence. Clamor, prejudice or sympathy must not prevail. 
 You must be guided by your reason and your judgment." 
 
284 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 The ease was given to the jury immediately upon 
 the conclusion of the reading' of the charge, and at 
 5 :15 p. m., Wednesday, April 10, 1907, the jury was 
 locked up to begin its deliberations. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Deliberations of the Jury. 
 
 TWELVE MEN UNABLE TO REST OR SLEEP, HAVE HARD TIME 
 —ANY ONE OF SIX VERDICTS COULD BE GIVEX, 
 S.VID LAWYERS— THAW GLOOMY— VISITED BY WIFE — 
 MOTHER WORN OUT BY ANXIETY— JURORS HAVE PART 
 OF EVIDENCE READ AND RETURN FOR MORE BALLOTING 
 —EVELYN ALMOST MOBBED BY CROWD— VARIOUS 
 RUMORS AFLOAT. 
 
 From the moment they left the court room, the 
 jurors had a hard task before them. The situation 
 was complex. According to legal experts there were 
 six verdicts from which a logical choice could be made, 
 as follows: 
 
 1. ^Murder in the first degree, the penalty for 
 which LS death. 
 
 2. Murder in the second degree, the penalty for 
 which is life imprisonment. 
 
 3. ^Manslaughter in the first degree, the penalty 
 for which is imprisonment for twenty years. 
 
 4. Manslaughter in the second degree, punishable 
 by fiftfM'n years' imprisonment. 
 
 5. Not guilty, on the ground that the defendant 
 was insane at the time of the shooting. 
 
 G. Not guilty, without any explanation. 
 When the jury went out. Justice Fitzgerald ex- 
 
 285 
 
283 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 pected a verdict soon, and remained in the court room 
 until 11 p. m., ready to receive it. At that hour no 
 word had come from the jury, and the judge ordered 
 the twelve men locked up for the night. Thaw's 
 cheerfulness had entirely disappeared, and it was 
 plain that he was in a mood of deepest gloom as he 
 was led back into the prinoner's pen. There his wife 
 visited him for a short time, endeavoring to cheer him, 
 and then she went to dinner at a near-by restaurant 
 with Dan O'Reilly, a member of Thaw's counsel, not 
 wishing to be away from her husband if a verdict 
 should be returned. 
 
 In spite of District Attorney Jerome's masterly 
 speech, the members of the Thaw family had a faint 
 hope for an immediate verdict, and remained in the 
 courtroom for half an hour. Finally it bcame ap- 
 parent that their stay was useless. ]\Irs. William 
 Thaw, worn out with anxiety, was forced to go to her 
 hotel. 
 
 Though the long delay seemed to many close ob- 
 servers to preclude a verdict of acquittal, it was taken 
 as indicating that a verdict of guilty also could not be 
 reached, and the impression began to gain that there 
 would be a disagreement, which would render the 
 twelve weeks' trial useless. 
 
 Members of Thaw's family were fearful, however, 
 lest under Justice Fitzgerald's charge the jury might 
 bring in a verdict for one of the lesser degress of mur- 
 der or for manslaughter as outlined by the court. 
 
JURY DELIBERATES 287 
 
 One of the prison guards with Thaw received word 
 from his home that his little girl, who had been ill for 
 several days, was dying. Thaw turned to him and 
 expressed the greatest sympathy. 
 
 "You are in a worse predicament than I am," he 
 said to the guard, "and I am very sorry." 
 
 When Justice Fitzgerald re-opened court the next 
 morning he sent a bailiff to ask Foreman Smith if tlic 
 jury had reached a verdict. "No, we have not," was 
 the only reply. 
 
 At 11 a. m. the second day the jury sent word it 
 would come into court for further instructions. 
 
 A moment later they filed in, headed by Deming B. 
 Smith, their foreman. Nobody needed to be told that 
 they had sat up all night. They looked it. The look 
 of weariness and anxiety and sleepiness was all over 
 them, but they did not look like men who were ready 
 to quit. They looked like men who knew the gravity 
 of their task and who were determined to discharge 
 it properly if there was any way of doing it. 
 
 Justice Fitzgerald came in a moment later and as 
 soon as he had taken his seat Clerk Penny advanced 
 to the rail and said in the quiet manner he might use 
 in asking for a glass of water: "Harry K. Thaw 
 to the bar." 
 
 There was a ])rief delay, then the pen door opened 
 and Thaw came in ahead of a prion keeper and took 
 his place, smiling a trifle at his wife and mother. 
 
288 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 Thaw's relatives had been in the building: an hour or 
 so before the jury came in. They all bore them- 
 selves in the same impassive manner. Grave they 
 were, but none of them appeared in the least excited. 
 Evelyn Thaw herself looked as if she has passed a 
 wretched ni»iht. She was paler than usual and her 
 eyes looked as if she might have been weeping. Dis- 
 trict Attorney Jerome and Assistant District Attor- 
 ney Garvan wTre in their usual places, as also were 
 all of the prisoner's counsel. 
 
 Justice Fitzgerald, in taking the bench, said : 
 
 **I have received a request from the jury to be al- 
 lowed to examine and have possession of the foH ow- 
 ing exhibits : 
 
 ''1. The plan or diagram of Madison Square 
 garden. 
 
 "2. Exhiibts A to I— the letters from Thaw to 
 Attorney Longfellow. 
 
 "3. The will and codicil. 
 
 "4. The Comstock letter. 
 
 **5. Mr. Delmas' hypothetical question. 
 
 "6. Mr. Jerome's hypothetical question." 
 
 "The people have no objection," said Mr. Jerome. 
 
 ''The defense has none," said Mr. O'Reilly of 
 Tliaw's counsel. 
 
 Foreman Smith stated that the jury desired not 
 only the typewritt(*n copies of the Thaw letters, will 
 and codicil, but the oi'iginals ns well. The pap(M's 
 
JURY DELIBERATES 289 
 
 were gathered together by Clerk Penny and made 
 into a bundle. 
 
 The reading of the testimony of Policeman, Den- 
 nis Wright and John Anthony and Peter Barrett, 
 doormen of the Nineteenth precinct police station, 
 followed. 
 
 Meyer Cohen's testimony had been largely a per- 
 sonal demonstration by himself of Thaw's attitude 
 after the shooting and his manner of approaching 
 KStanford White. Henry S. Plaise was with Cohen 
 the night of the tragedy. 
 
 Finally the jury asked to hear again the testimony 
 of the doormen on duty at the Tenderloin precinct 
 police station the night of Thaw's arrest and Avho 
 gave testimony as to the defendant claiming to hear 
 the voices of young girls. 
 
 Juror Pink, who undoubtedly was in very bad 
 shape, delayed the reading of the testimony to tlie 
 jury by asking permission to retire for a few minutes. 
 He tottered from the room accompanied by an officer 
 and seemed near a collapse. 
 
 After an absence of five minutes he resumed his 
 place in the jury box, looking very pale and tired. 
 
 Lastly the jurymen asked to have read to them the 
 testimony of Evelyn Thaw so far as it related to the 
 shooting, the testimony of Thomas McCaleb as to 
 where the party was sitting on the roof garden, and 
 the testimony of Dr. Allen McLane Hamilton so far 
 as it was allowed before the jury. 
 
290 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 Foreman Smith also asked to have read that por- 
 tion of Justice Fitzgerald's charge relating to the 
 testimony of Drs. Evans and Wagners. 
 
 After hearing a review of the evidence for two 
 hours and a half the jury retired to its room at 1 :30 
 for a luncheon and further balloting. 
 
 Evelyn Thaw was almost mobbed by the hundreds 
 of curious persons outside the courthouse as she left 
 the building to go to luncheon with Attorney Dan 
 O'Reilly. Evelyn separated from the other mem- 
 bers of the family at the door and started to w^alk to 
 a restaurant in Franklin street. 
 
 The crowd surged about her by the hundreds, 
 growing constantly with every foot traversed. Sev- 
 eral policemen rushed to her assistance, but they 
 were unable to keei) back the mob, which crowded 
 about her close enough to touch her garments. 
 
 When she had entered the restaurant hundreds 
 took up their station outside to await her appearance. 
 
 When the other members of the Thaw family left 
 the building it required several policemen to pro- 
 tect them from the curious ones. 
 
 Nothing further was heard from the jury room the 
 st'cond day. The twelve men were taken out to a 
 meal early in the evening, and Justice Fit/gerald, af- 
 ter awaiting a verdict until lip. m., orders the jurors 
 locked up for the night. Thirty-one hours of deliber- 
 ation had passed then. 
 
JUEY DELIBERATES 291 
 
 This was the second night that the jury has been 
 locked up in the bare jury room, whose only furni- 
 ture was a long' table and some hard chairs. Con- 
 trary to what has occurred at many other famous 
 murder trials no information leaked out of the jui-y 
 room regarding the attitude of the jurors towards 
 conviction or acquittal that could be regarded as in 
 the least reliable. 
 
 Various rumors were afloat. Most of them had it 
 that the jury stood 10 to 2 or 9 to 3 for conviction, 
 but on investigation it provided that all of the ru- 
 mors were nothing better than guesses. 
 
 Soon after it was announced that the jury was to 
 be shut up for the night. Thaw was taken from the 
 pen back to his cell. As he left the pen he handed 
 out to the reporters this note : 
 
 '*It is a great satisfaction that all of my family con- 
 tinue well. I regret that so many officials and others 
 have so much extra work." 
 
 On the morning of Friday, April 12, rumor had it 
 that nine of the jurors had agreed to find Thaw guilty 
 of one in these three degrees: 
 
 Murder in the second degree; penalty, life impris- 
 onment. 
 
 Manslaughter, first degree; penalty, twenty years' 
 imprisonment. 
 
 Manslaughter, in the second degree; penalty, fif- 
 teen years' imprisonment. 
 
292 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 The nine, it was reported, were veering- most 
 strongly to manslaughter in the first degree and the 
 three holding out for acquittal. 
 
 At noon the crowd about the courthouse was so 
 great that traffic was practically stopped. More than 
 5,000 people gathered about the building and when a 
 rumor that any member of the Thaw family was 
 about to leave the building they surged from one cor- 
 ner to another, sweeping the few policemen who were 
 trying to preserve order almost oft' their feet. 
 
 A call for reserves from several nearby precinct 
 stations was responded to by half a hundred men, 
 who were distributed on both of the streets on all four 
 sides of the building. 
 
 Inspector McClusky issued orders that no crowd 
 was to be permitted to congregate. No one was al- 
 lowed to stand on the sidewalks, all of the curious 
 being obliged to keep moving. 
 
 The jury did not go out to luncheon, but had its 
 meals sent in, and this added strength to the rumors 
 that a verdict was near, 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Ending of the Trial — ^Jury Disagrees. 
 
 AFTER HAVING DELIBERATED MORE THAN FORTY-SEVEN 
 HOURS, THE TWELVE JURORS ARE FAR APART IN 
 THEIR OPINIONS — LAST BALLOT SHOWED SEVEN FOR 
 CONVICTION FOR MURDER IN THE FIRST DEGREE, WITH 
 DEATH AS PENALTY, AND FIVE FOR ACQUITTAL— THAW 
 ALMOST COLLAPSES— EVELYN BEARS UP IN COURT 
 BRAVELY, BUT IS OVERCOME LATER— THAW BACK TO 
 CPLL IN TOMBS PRISON. 
 
 After having been out forty-seven hours and ei^ht 
 minutes, the Jury at 4:25 p. m., April 12, 1907, filed 
 into the court room, and at exactly 4 :31 announced a 
 disagreement and was discharged. 
 
 The disagreement was unexpected, as the fact that 
 the twelve men had not asked for further instructions 
 led to the belief that the minority were being won 
 over to the views of the majority. 
 
 News that the jury was about to report was taken 
 to Justice Fitzgerald by a bailiff, and Attorneys Del- 
 mas, Jerome, and the other lawyers in the case were 
 summoned at once, while Harry Kendall Thaw was 
 brought from the prisoner's room to face the panel. 
 
 After Justice Fitzgerald had taken his seat on the 
 bench the jury was polled and then ordered to stand 
 up. Thaw was also commanded to rise, and the clerk 
 asked him to look upon the jury. 
 
 293 
 
294 TEE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 The usual formalit}^ of ''Jury, look upon the de- 
 fendant, defendant look upon the jury," followed 
 and the clerk asked the foreman if they had aoTe(?d 
 upon verdict. 
 
 "We have not" replied the foreman. Justice 
 Fitzo^erald thereupon told them that as they had fail- 
 ed to agree he would discharge them. The jurors 
 quickly left the court room and Thaw sank back in 
 his chair, almost overcome with disappointment. 
 Evelyn Thaw and the defendant's mother bore up 
 bravely and on leaving the court house hurried over 
 to the Tombs, to see Harry, who was taken there in 
 a few minutes. 
 
 Mrs. William Thaw's face was hidden behind a 
 heavy black veil. She sat with her daughters, the 
 Countess of Yarmouth and Mrs. George L. Carnegie, 
 and all began to Aveep as soon as the verdict was 
 announced. Evelyn Thaw, sitting beside her hus- 
 band, uttered a little shriek and then turned deathly 
 pale, almost collapsing. She revived quickly, how- 
 ever, and begged the bailiff to be allowed to follow 
 her husband out of the court room. Thaw himself 
 uttered not a word, and made no sign of his great dis- 
 appointment. He turned extremely pale, however, 
 and was so weak that two guards had to support him 
 on the way to the Tombs. 
 
 Soon after Thaw was placed in the Tombs his wife 
 arrived. 
 
ENDING OF TRIAL. 295 
 
 ''My dear, my dear," she sobbed. I am so sorry— 
 so sorry," and then she collapsed utterly. 
 
 Shortly after the .jury had been discharged it was 
 stated that the final vote stood: Seven for conviction 
 of murder in the first degree, with death in the elec- 
 tric chair as the penalty, and five for acquittal. Re- 
 ports as to the earlier votes varied greatly— in fact, 
 hardly two jurors told the same story, but it was ad- 
 mitted that the division throughout was, on most of 
 the ballots, about half for ac(j[uittal and half for con- 
 viction, although the degree favored by those who 
 demanded punishment from Thaw varied considera- 
 bly. 
 
 Estimates made as to the expense of the trial at- 
 tracted nearly as much attention as did the probable 
 outcome of the long hearing. 
 
 Apparently authentic estimates indicated that the 
 trial cost considerably over $300,000. Of this sum, it 
 is estimated probably $235,000 had been spent bj^ the 
 Thaw family, while the expense to the state had been 
 in the neighborhood of $80,000. 
 
 At the district attorney's office it was stated that 
 the trial had not cost the county over $30,000. This 
 does not include salaries and such expenses as come 
 out of the general sessions fund. Conservative e?Jti- 
 mates gave $80,000 as probably the minium cost to the 
 state. 
 
 The expense Thaw had incurred in his own de- 
 
296 THE GREAT THAW CASE 
 
 fense was estimated as high as $1,000,000. As a mat- 
 ter of fact he had probably not spent over $235,000. 
 Neither Thaw nor any of his rehitives could tell ex- 
 actly, however, what the defense had cost. 
 
 Thaw's alienists, it was said, cost him $45,000, and 
 his attorneys $145,000. To offset his expenses, the 
 jurors who listened to the long drawn out trial, paid 
 at the rate of $2 a day, got only $1,536 for their com- 
 bined services. 
 
 As soon as the verdict was announced. District At- 
 torney Jerome, declared he would, rush preparations 
 for a new trial. He was smiling; Delmas was heart- 
 broken. 
 
 The day after the trial ended, the jurors stated the 
 final ballot was as follows: 
 
 For Conviction — 7. IMurder in the first degree. 
 Deming B. Smith, foreman, George Pfaff, Charles H. 
 Fecke, Harvey C. Brearley, Chas. D. Newton, Joseph 
 II. Bolton, Bernard Gerstman. 
 
 For Acquittal— 5. On the ground of insanity. 
 Oscar A. Pink, Henry C. Harney, Malcom F. Fraser, 
 John S. Dennee, Wilbur F. Steele. 
 
 Eight ballots were taken by the jurors during their 
 deliberations, with the following results: 
 
 First Ballot— 'Eight for conviction on the charge 
 of murder in the first degree and four for unqualified 
 acquittal. 
 
ENDING OF TRIAL 297 
 
 Second Ballot— ^ight for murder in the first de- 
 gree and four for acquittal. 
 
 Third Ballot— Y^ighi for first degree murder and 
 four for acquittal. 
 
 Fourth Ballot— Seyen for murder in the first de- 
 gree, one for manslaughter in the first degree and 
 four for acquittal. 
 
 Fifth Ballot— One for murder in the first degree, 
 six for manslaughter in the first degree and five for 
 acquittal. 
 
 Sixth Ballot— One for murder in the first degree, 
 six for manslaughter in the first degree and five for 
 acquittal. 
 
 Seventh Ballot— One for murder in the first de- 
 gree, six for manslaughter in the first degree and five 
 for acquittal. 
 
 Eighth Ballot-Seven for murder in the first degree 
 and five for acquittal on the ground of insanity. 
 
 THE END. 
 
Chronological Story of the Thaw Trial. 
 
 June 2 5, 19 0G — Thaw killed Stanford White. 
 
 June 2 8, IDUG Indicted by grand jury. 
 
 Jan. 21 — Case set for trial. 
 
 Jan. 2 3 — Trial began. 
 
 Feb. 1 Jury completed. 
 
 Feb. 4 — State presented its testimony. 
 
 Feb. 4 — Defense introduced its first witness, a minor character. 
 
 Feb. 7 Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, wife of the defendant, called as 
 
 a witness. 
 
 Feb. 11 Dr. C. C. Wiley, expert on insanity called by defense 
 
 and sevei'ely cross-examined by District Attorney Jerome. 
 
 Feb. 1 2 — Delphin Michael Delmas assumed full charge of the 
 defense. 
 
 Feb. 1 2 — Dr. Britton D. Evans, chief medical expert for the 
 defense, called to the witness stand. 
 
 Feb. 14 — Trial delayed by the death of Juror Belton's wife. 
 
 Feb. 19 Evelyn Nesbit Thaw recalled. 
 
 Feb. 2 0-2G Evelyn Nesbit Thaw cross-examined. 
 
 Feb. 2 7 — Evelyn Nesbit Thaw recalled by defense. 
 
 Feb. 2 8 — Dr. Evans cross-examined. 
 
 March G — Mrs. William Thaw, mother of the defendant, testi- 
 fied. 
 
 March 7 — Trial delayed by death of a relative of Justice Fitz- 
 gerald, presiding judge. 
 
 March 8 — Defense rested. 
 
 March 1 1 — State began rebuttal testimony. 
 
 March 12 — State called James Clinch Smith, brother-in-law of 
 Stanford White. 
 
 March 1 5 — Thaw declared sane by state's experts. 
 
 March 18 Couit admitted the Abe Hummel affidavit in which 
 
 Evelyn Nesbit is alleged to have denounced Thaw. 
 
 March 20 — District Attorney Jerome asked court to appoint a 
 commission in lunacy to examine Thaw. 
 
 March 21 — Lunacy commission appointed. 
 
 April 4 — Lunacy commission pronounced Thaw sane. 
 
 April 8-9 — Attorney Delmas made his plea to the jury. 
 
 April 10 District Attorney Jerome closed for the state. 
 
 April 10 — Justice Fitzgerald read his charge to the jury. 
 April 11 — Jury called for rereading of evidence after having 
 retired. 
 
 April 1 L' — Jury annoimced disagreement, and was discharged. 
 
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