Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1912 — FEARED THAW WOULD KILL [ARTICLE]

FEARED THAW WOULD KILL

Former Landlady of Slayer of Stanford White Became Hysterical on Witness Stand. White Plains, N, Y., June 21. —Mrs. Susan Merritt, Harry K. Thaw’s former landlady, became hysterical and screamed in court here that she did not wish to testify in the Thaw insanity hearing. She said that on one occasion Thaw beat two young girls almost Into insensibility and that when 6he broke into the room he rushed at her. “I though! he would kill us all,” she said. Mrs. Merritt swore that $7,000 in SI,OOO bills was paid to one of the girls to silence her and that upwards of 201*1 girls received money in large amounts. Evelyn Nesbit Thaw testified that her husband made a proposal in New York in 1900 that they both commit suicide. He had the details all planned, she said. She refused.