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 THOUGHT OF NOTHING BUT WIFE’S WRONGS--PUT
DETECTIVES ON WHITE’S TRACK.
The day Evelyn Nesbit Thaw resumed the stand was a pitiful one
for her husband. Harry Thaw was celebrating his thirty-sixth
birthday--celebrating it in a prison 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, “everybody says you will be acquitted on the first
ballot.”
Mrs. Thaw was accompanied in court by her chorus girl friend and chum,
May McKenzie, and by another close friend, Mrs. J. J. Caine of Boston.
Mrs. Thaw heard Dr. Britton D. Evans, a noted alienist, testify
[Illustration: EVELYN NESBIT
At age of twelve years.]
that he had made three separate examinations of her husband shortly
after the murder, and on each occasion 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 persecuted 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 ability far above normal or above those actually
possessed.”
These symptoms, he said, were characteristic of several 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 defense had expended $1,000,000 on the trial, and the
state had paid out $250,000. If Juror Bolton had been incapacitated by
his wife’s death, all this expense 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 brown 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: I am a little Baltimore girl. I send you this as a token
of my sympathy. Yours,
“LULU BELL.”
The wife’s face dimpled with pleasure. “Isn’t that sweet?” she said. “I
know Harry will appreciate it.”
Dr. Charles Wagner, the alienist, who took the stand when the trial was
resumed, declared there could be not the slightest doubt that Thaw was
insane at the time of the shooting, and told the jury that Harry had
declared a “sudden impulse” made him slay White.
“Mr. Thaw said in his conversation with me,” asserted 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
toward 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 White 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 observation.
“‘I tried to save them,’ Mr. 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. I knew he was a foul creature, destroying all the mothers 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.
“‘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 what he had done, if anything, to bring White into
court?” asked Mr. Delmas.
“He 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 matter up, but they had not submitted a
proper report. As to Mr. Comstock, he said, he discovered that Delancey
Nicoll, an attorney, was acting as legal adviser 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 advised 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 were 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 Monk 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.
[Illustration: MAY McKENZIE
Beautiful actress friend of Evelyn Nesbit Thaw.]
Mrs. Thaw looked pale and serious as she took her place on the stand.
She appeared in the same simple girlish costume that she had worn every
day since the trial began. 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. Thaw had sat in the witness chair for nearly five minutes,
Mr. Delmas began his examination.
“You have already testified, Mrs. 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 handwriting of Mr.
White?”
Mrs. Thaw gazed at the paper, evidently a letter, and said:
“It is his handwriting.”
Letter by letter, Mrs. Thaw identified 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 conversation you had with
May McKenzie especially with reference to what she said to you
regarding Stanford White?”
“May McKenzie told me,” said Mrs. Thaw, “Stanford White had been to see
her and that she had told him that Harry and I were getting along finely
together. 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 McKenzie.”
“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 Mr. Thaw have any conversation with the 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 occurred?”
“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 off 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 attributed her ill health, the
necessity of the second operation, etc., to White. She also testified
that Thaw 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 he 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 when 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.
Mr. Delmas put another question:
“Did you and Mr. Thaw discuss the fate of the ‘pie girl?’”
“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 put in a big pie
with a lot of birds. She was very young--about 15 years, I think he
said. He also told me that the girl had a beautiful figure and wore
only 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 Mr. 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 Mrs. Thaw to
Jerome, but not made public.
“When did Mr. Thaw next talk to you about such cases?” asked Delmas.
“The next time was in Pittsburg, when we were married. He 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 girls?”
“Yes, there was a constant conversation. I could 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 penitentiary; 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 with obscene pictures, and should be raided. He also described
the studio at 22 West Twenty-fourth street, which he said was
“consecrated 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 inclosed 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
frequently visited by young men who did not know its character. The
letter said that the place had been partly dismantled three years ago.
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 alleged wrongs at the hand
of the dead architect, did not falter in details as to the approximate
time and circumstances.
“Counsel for the defense,” said the attorney, in speaking of the
progress, “are greatly pleased with Mrs. 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. We 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.”