Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 59, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 March 1907 — THAW CASE DRAGS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THAW CASE DRAGS.

Tide of Public Sentiment Seems to Have Token a Torn. There seemed perceptible a turn against Thaw in the tide of sentiment last week. It is another case of sudden hero-worship failing to last. A New York correspondent says that if the case Had gone to the jury within aT week after Evelyn Thaw told her story the prisoner would have been set free an hour after the completion of the judge’s charge. Rut the trial is so prolonged that much of the effect is being lost. When Jerome, with his barbarous probe after facts, began to drag out the truth from Thaty’s expert doc-

tors and to make them proye, however reluctantly, that Thaw either was and is incurably insane or never was insane, a good many people began to get the idea that the wonderful defense in the Thaw case is very much like a stage play, a highly artistic and emotional production. Jerome’s task is a hard one. The main purpose of his rebuttal will be to assail, so strongly as to destroy them, the “brain storms” upon which the defense has pinned its faith in Thaw’s acquittal. In this effort he will have the assistance of nine experts, and by the preponderance of numbers, dignity and prestige in the world of medical science of these men the prosecutor expects to bring the jury to the belief that when Thaw shot White he was thoroughly responsible and that he rationally deliberated and executed the murder. He is supported in his theory o; the crime by Drs. Flint, Mahon and MacDonald, who have studied Thaw throughout the trial. The task before Jerome's nine experts, all of whom may not appear on the stand but will take part in the preparation of questions is to account for every act by Harry Thaw on the theory of sanity. Each instance indicative of “brain storms,” according to the defense experts, is to bs logically and scientifically construed into proof of the mental soundness of Thaw, by the prosecution authorities on the brain. Mr. Jerome will have his alienists support the theory that If there was anything unusual or unnatural in the appearance of Thaw at the time he killed Stanford White the exhilaration of Intoxicants was responsible. The district attorney wilt also dtjvelop the theory that Thaw’s hostility to White was due to jealbusy, rational jealousy of his wife’s fondness for his rival. Although the general public has learned the details of but one quarre) among the lawyers who are defending Harry Thaw for the murder of Stanford White, it Is known among those who have been In close touch with the proceedings before the scenes of the great case—and behind them—that other disagreements, just ns violent, have raged from time to time among the six counsellors who are working so hard to steer for the young millionaire a course that dodge the reefs of the death-chair nnd the shoals of the madhouse. Yet the defense is moving forward in a fairly harmonious manner. Harry K. Thaw's fight to save the life the State contends lias been forfeited by the death of Stanford White will cost the young man close to $250.000 according to an estimate compiled from authoritative sources. The expense of the State's attempt to send the wealthy Pittsburger to the chair will be In excess of SIOO,OOO.

ATTORNEY JEROME.