Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 July 1909 — THAW’S LIBERTY SEEMS AT HAND [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THAW’S LIBERTY SEEMS AT HAND

Assistant Attorney General Is Impressed Favorably. HIS WIFE WILL HELP HIM Evelyn Postpones Her Vacation In Order to Go on the Witness Stand For Her Husband—Strong Probability That Commission of Experts Will Examine Prisoner and Declare Whether He Is or Is Not Rational. White Plains, N. T„ July 13—If counsel can agree, a commission of three alienists, mutually selected, will pass upon the question of Harry K. Thaw’s sanity. This was practically decided at a continuation of the hearing before Justice Mills in which coun-

sei tor Stanford White’s slayer is trying to establish his right to release from the asylum for the criminal insane at Matteawan. With all of the testimony so far offered in favor of Thaw and with the Indication that his wife, Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, will take the stand in his behalf; with District Attorney William Travers Jerome eliminated, Thaw’s chances for release appear bright. Roger Clark, deputy attorney general, informed the court that he had been so much impressed by Thaw’s intelligent interest in the issues at stake that he was willing to concede Thaw’s right to a full and impartial examination. Justice Mills favored the suggestion for a commission. Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, who has been living in retirement of late, may take the stand today. She has abandoned her vacation plans, it is announced, to appear for her husband. The testimony which was given by jailers, innkeepers, real estate dealers, clergymen, a dentist and a reporter—all called by Thaw—was uniformly to his advantage. Witnesses related conversations with him on music, dogs, cigars, literature. electricity, geology, prison life, sport, religion and the personality of the late pope, Peo XIII. A watchman learned from Thaw that the stone age should be placed some 500 years back. An innkeeper thought Thaw perfectly sane except that on one occasion he refused the witness' invitation to take a drink with him. He admitted under cross-examination that he had known rational persons to decline a drink.

EVELYN NESBIT THAW.