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 WALKED 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--TWO SHOTS CAUSED DEATH ALMOST
INSTANTLY--PANIC IN AUDIENCE AND ON STAGE--BEAUTIFUL WIFE EMBRACED
SLAYER--THE ARREST.
The killing of Stanford White by Harry Kendall Thaw, on the roof garden
of Madison 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 famous--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 the musical show,
“Mamselle Champagne,” was coming to a close.
There was a big crowd on the roof of the garden; a crowd which pretty
well filled the floor. Many people noticed a slightly built young man
walking backward and forward in front of the stage, among the tables set
here and there in an open space in front of the seats.
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 behavior. They thought it queer also that he
wore a long, thin coat.
At about 11:05 p. m. several persons noticed Stanford White enter the
roof garden and take a seat near the left hand side of the stage, pretty
well up to the front, dropping 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 afterward. 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 open enclosure in front of the stage, where the tables
were set, were palms and potted plants, which largely cut off the view
of the table where Mr. White was sitting.
Some persons were sure that a young woman was at the table when White
lounged in and took a seat. They went so far as to describe her, saying
she was young, slim, dark-haired and dressed all in white, with a big
white hat, from which a filmy veil fell over her shoulders.
Others who insisted that they observed White when he took a seat there,
said no woman was present. They were positive on that point.
On reaching White’s table Thaw backed off 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.
White hardly moved from his position at the table. 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 men to jump to their feet and rush toward the left side of the
stage.
Two women nearby, seeing what had happened and the blood flowing from
the man’s wounds, screamed. Two of the girls on the stage fled screaming
into the wings.
“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.
The music and the dancing kept going a while feebly; then it died away.
The musicians jumped from
[Illustration: MAZIE FOLLETTE
Actress named in the case.]
the pit and joined the crowd. The frightened chorus girls ran back on
the stage.
The employes of the roof garden thought for a time that the shots came
from the stage. Manager Lawrence had been intending to introduce some
revolver shooting in the duel scene where the line occurs, “I challenge
you, I challenge you to a du-u-el,” and the stage hands and other
hangers on at the garden thought the innovation had been put on a night
or two ahead of schedule.
They quickly found out their mistake, and had their hands full in a
minute or two handling the people, who were pushing right and left, the
women screaming to be let out.
During all the confusion and excitement nobody made any effort to stop
young Thaw. He looked at White’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 resistance when Brudi told him he would have to wait until
the police came. He was very pale, but otherwise cool and collected.
Brudi held Thaw lightly, while the crowd gathered around. It was a wait
of several minutes before Policeman Debes of the Tenderloin station,
appeared and took charge of Thaw. Debes telephoned to his station house
for the reserves to handle the crowd and the desk sergeant sent ten
policemen. Debes was waiting for the elevator to take Thaw to the police
station.
Just before the elevator started, a slender, dark, pretty young woman,
the same one with whom Thaw had been sitting before he sauntered away on
his errand of death, came running into the car. She threw her arms
around the prisoner and kissed him.
“Oh, Harry,” she cried. “Why did you do it, Harry?”
“It’s all right, dear wife,” he 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 they came in. Thaw seemed to
have been drinking and was very restless. He got up from the table
several times and, leaving his wife, walked back toward the elevators.
They were sitting at the Twenty-sixth street side of the house.
“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 talking 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 public. 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, photographed 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 tragedy.
The policeman who arrested Thaw, gave this account of the shooting in
the police court hearing.
“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 my life or wife.’ I don’t know which he said, but it sounded
like that. Then he went on saying: ‘That man ruined my home. I guess he
won’t ruin any 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 the arrest is this:
“We were all at a party in Martin’s. You can find out the names of the
others there, but 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 inquire what was the matter and she called a waiter
and wrote a note which 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, big and healthy, and then I saw her
and how she was.”
“Did White make any motion to attack you?” 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 carry their weapons in. He had $168 in cash and
several blank checks, besides a gold cigarette case.
Thaw did not display the least anxiety about his own welfare nor about
the effects of his shots. He never asked a question about White. He did
not ask any questions of the police at all. He seemed as unconcerned as
if bailing out a chauffeur instead of facing an accusation of killing a
man.
As he talked with a reporter he reverted again and again to his wife’s
attack of shivering when she saw White in Martin’s.
“That poor, delicate little thing, all nervous and shaking like a reed,”
he said, half to himself. “And there he was, the big healthy scoundrel.
God!”
While the coroner’s proceedings were in progress in the city next day,
the final scene of the tragedy as 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
experts. Finally, however, he allowed the examinations into his mental
condition.
[Illustration: STANFORD WHITE]