The Hidden Witness to the Proposal.
MRS. CAINE TELLS HOW HARRY THAW OFFERED EVELYN’S MOTHER A VAST
AMOUNT OF CASH FOR HER HAND--EVELYN RECALLED TO THE STAND--TELLS OF
POSING IN STUDIOS--ANOTHER DAY OF TORTURE--THE VISIT TO THE “DEAD
RAT”--MRS. THAW IN TEARS--HUSBAND WEEPS WHEN SHE IS FORCED TO TELL
HOW SHE WAS FOUND BY A VISITOR TO WHITE’S STUDIO--ADMITS SHE
VISITED HIM OFTEN AFTER THE “MIRRORED STUDIO” INCIDENT--ALMOST
FAINTS ON STAND--HUSBAND IN TEARS--EVELYN IN DELIRIUM AFTER THE
ORDEAL.
The next sensation in the trial came when Mrs. J. J. Caine, of Boston, a
close friend of Evelyn Nesbit and her mother. Mrs. Holman, testified
that Harry Thaw pleaded with Evelyn’s mother for her hand in marriage.
The scene which she dramatically described, occurred in New York, in
1903. Mrs. Holman was entertaining Mrs. Caine in her apartments at the
time and when the young millionaire called, Mrs. Caine concealed herself
in a bathroom where she overheard all that took place.
Mrs. Caine testified as follows:
“Harry Thaw entered the room excitedly and at once told Mrs. Holman that
he wanted to marry Evelyn. He told the mother of his desire to send the
girl to Europe and said if she would marry him he would settle enough on
the mother and her son, Howard Nesbit, to keep them in comfort during
their entire lives. (Later testimony indicated this amount was
$200,000.)
Evelyn’s mother said she would try to fix it so the seventeen-year-old
girl would accept him. Mr. Thaw did not stay long, and when he left,
Evelyn’s mother said, “Now you see his intentions are honorable.”
Thaw had never before known his conversation was overheard by an
eavesdropper who would stand him in such good stead.
After Mrs. Caine left the stand Mrs. Evelyn Thaw was recalled for cross
examination. For hours she sat before the merciless Jerome under a
scathing cross fire of questions. Traps were laid and sprung, queries
were hurled in volleys to carry her off her feet and overwhelm her in a
tangle of contradictions, but all in vain; the mere slip of a girl met
the skilled prosecutor with a calm and effective resistance.
Jerome’s first step was to try to prove that Evelyn had posed in the
nude. He first showed her a photograph of herself taken in 1904. It
showed Evelyn in a kimono--the famous one given her by Stanford White.
There was nothing offensive in the pose as disclosed by a view of the
picture.
Mr. Jerome by his next few questions indicated that he did not intend to
spare the feelings of the young woman in any way. He interrogated her
sharply as to the details of her dress when she was posing for artists
in Philadelphia and New York, seeking to learn whether she posed in “the
altogether” or partially draped. The prosecutor persisted in certain
questions even after Mr. Delmas had objected, and insisted on having
definite answers, though Mrs. Thaw usually said she could not exactly
remember.
“Was there any exposure of the person or did you wear the so-called
artistic draperies?”
“I would not say that,” replied the witness. “I posed in a Greek dress
and a Turkish costume.”
Jerome questioned her especially as to her posing in New York, asking
whether she had ever been photographed or painted with her person
exposed. She answered positively that she had never posed in such a
condition.
“You are certain you never posed for a painting or photograph in such a
manner?” asked Jerome.
“I never did--I always posed with clothes on.” She moved her hands from
her throat to her waist and said: “Do you mean without anything on here?
I have posed in low-neck, but never, never like that.”
Then Mrs. Thaw told how she won her New York reputation as a model. She
sent a picture of herself, under the name of Florence Evelyn to a New
York magazine and soon was besieged by artists. Her mother aided her in
her search for work.
[Illustration: Jerome cross-examining Evelyn Nesbit Thaw.]
“Is it not true,” went on Mr. Jerome, reading from a paper, “that in the
spring of 1901, so far as your relations with your mother were
concerned, that you were getting unruly, that your mother still stuck by
you, that a married man -- --”
At this point Mr. Delmas interposed an objection to Mr. Jerome reading
from what he termed a statement by Evelyn Thaw’s mother.
“If the district attorney wants the mother’s testimony in he should
produce her on the stand,” he said.
“I’d like to, but you know that it is impossible. You know where she
is,” said Mr. Jerome.
The question regarding Evelyn becoming unruly was allowed to stand.
“No,” she answered decidedly.
“Is it not true that that married man was James A. Garland, and that he
was getting a divorce, and that you and your mother frequently quarreled
about him?”
“No, indeed.” Mrs. Thaw drew herself up indignantly and stamped her
foot.
“Is it not true that you went alone with him on the yacht?”
“Mamma and I, yes.”
“Were you made a corespondent in Mr. Garland’s divorce suit?”
Mr. Delmas objected. The record, he said, was the best evidence.
The question of photographs was resumed. Jerome asked:
“During this time did you ever pose for an artist in the nude?”
“Never.”
“Ever have any casts made in the nude?”
“No.”
“Did you not in the spring of 1901 have such a cast made?”
“No.”
“Do you know Mr. Wells, sculptor?”
“No.”
“Ever heard of him?”
“Never.”
“How long did you know Mr. Garland?”
“Not long.”
“When did your acquaintance with him cease?”
“When I met Stanford White.”
“Isn’t it true that Mr. Garland became very annoying when you lived at a
certain apartment house?”
“No.”
“Your recollection is clear that you posed in draperies the day before
the mirrored-room incident?”
“Yes.”
“Was there any exposure of the person?”
“The photographs were low-necked.”
The ivory cheeks of the fair witness suddenly flamed with color and a
look of mingled fear and
[Illustration: District Attorney Jerome and Harry K. Thaw, photographed
in court.]
anger crept into her big limpid eyes. She was about to break down when
the hearing for the day was ended. It was a spell of sorrow to her
husband and terror to the woman.
Another day of torture was in store and it came with the morrow. Jerome
had prepared to make the ordeal terrific and under his pitiless lash
Evelyn fell like a stricken doe. Jerome read his questions from notes
carefully prepared, realizing it was useless to attempt to ensnare the
witness any other way. Although he brought tears to her eyes, and caused
her to wince again and again, she stuck to her story bravely.
“Did you continue to believe all women were what Stanford White told you
until you talked with Thaw in Paris in 1903?” he thundered.
“Yes, sir,” replied Mrs. Thaw meekly.
Then Jerome proved that Mrs. Thaw had visited a place in Paris called
the Dead Rat in company with Harry Thaw.
“Before the time you left Paris, had you any appreciation that such
things as you have described were considered as improper and positively
wrong?”
“Not until my talk with Mr. Thaw.”
“Before that you didn’t believe it wrong; you did not think it
improper?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Very wrong?”
“Not particularly. I knew people said it was wrong.”
“Did you think it very indelicate and vulgar?”
“That is all.”
“That it was only bad taste?”
“Yes.”
“But you didn’t think it was wrong?”
“I didn’t fully realize it until I went to Paris.”
“But you thought it was wrong?”
“Yes.”
“Did you belong to any religious organization?”
“No.”
“You went to church and Sunday school in Pittsburg?”
“Not in Pittsburg.”
“In Paris it was impressed on you that White had done you a terrible
wrong?”
“In a way.”
“Before you left Paris you had begun to look on such relations as very
wrong?”
“Yes.”
“Had you come to a full understanding of the infamous character of
White’s act?”
“Yes--but not so much as I have now.”
“Yet it was this that induced your renunciation of Thaw’s great love?”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Thaw, as tears welled to her eyes.
“Did you refuse Thaw solely because of the occurrence with White?”
asked Mr. Jerome of the witness.
“Because I had been found out.”
“Who told you you had been caught?”
“Friends of Stanford White.”
“So it was not because of the occurrence but because you had been found
out?”
“It was both together. I had an instinct about it. When Mr. Thaw
proposed it was the first proposal I ever had and it all struck me very
seriously. It all came together.”
“You felt the most heinous wrong had been done?”
“I didn’t know anything about it at the time. All I remember is what I
felt like when I woke up. I remember that distinctly. I didn’t
understand what had taken place.”
“It outraged every maidenly instinct in you, didn’t it?”
“It did, and that is why I quarreled with Stanford White.”
“You were very bitter against White when you told Thaw, weren’t you.”
“Not then.”
“When you felt you were giving up Thaw’s love you didn’t feel bitter
against White?”
“Not intensely. Not until Mr. Thaw made me realize it.”
“Did you continue to have a feeling of enmity against White?” continued
Jerome.
“I wouldn’t say enmity--it was hostility against him for this one thing
and subsequent things.”
“What subsequent things?”
“The prosecutor caught up Mrs. Thaw’s own words?”
“Things with Stanford White,” replied Mrs. Thaw.
“Were they improper and indecent?”
“I don’t know what you would call them.”
Mrs. Thaw then testified that while she was in London, before her
marriage, her mother compelled her to write a friendly letter to White.
“While abroad did you tell your mother of your experience with White?”
“No.”
“How did you know Stanford White’s friends knew of your relations with
Stanford White?”
“One of them saw me with him at the East Twenty-second street studio.”
“Was there any impropriety there?”
“Yes.”
“So you continued to maintain relations with Stanford White?”
“Yes, for a time.”
Thaw buried his face in his hands. Tears were in Mrs. Thaw’s eyes and
she broke into sobs.
Mr. Jerome demanded the name of the man who had seen her at the studio.
He asked the witness to whisper it.
Mr. Delmas wanted it publicly announced. A wordy conflict ensued, in
which Mr. Jerome threatened to have the courtroom cleared. Justice
Fitzgerald finally settled the matter, saying the name might be given to
counsel, the court, and the jury.
“Did you tell Harry Thaw about these subsequent relations with Stanford
White?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t think to tell us on your direct examination?”
“No.”
“Can you fix dates as to these subsequent events?”
“No.”
“How did you know this man knew of your relations with White?”
“He saw me one day with Mr. White in one of his studios.”
“Were you and Mr. White alone?”
“Yes.”
“And this was about a month after the incident with drugs?”
“Yes.”
“How long did you continue to visit Mr. White?”
“Not after January, 1902.”
“How many visits did you make?”
“I do not remember.”
“Were they frequent?”
“No.”
“Ten times?”
“I can’t remember.”
“Where did these visits take place?”
“At the Twenty-second and Twenty-fourth street studios and in the
Tower.”
“And on these occasions were you two alone?”
“Yes.”
“Did you partake of refreshments there?”
“Yes.”
“Were you drugged again?”
“No.”
“Did you have too much wine?”
“Yes.”
“What time of the day did these incidents occur?”
“Usually after the theater,” replied Mrs. Thaw, wiping the tears from
her eyes.
As to the nature of the operation which was performed upon her while she
was at school in New Jersey the witness said she knew only what the
nurses and doctors told her, that it was for appendicitis.
“Why did you not tell your mother all about your visits?”
“I would rather have died than to tell her,” almost shrieked the girl.
During this period the prosecution established the following facts
adverse to her:
That this beautiful girl, in the critical character-forming time of her
life, was practically without religious instruction or training.
That she was an associate of various men of evil reputation and mingled
with the gayest set of the intemperate circles of Bohemia.
That she pursued a calling most dangerous to innocence and purity for
any girl.
That she lived off the bounty of the man who she alleges committed a
shocking crime against her.
That she held astounding and shameful ideas of morality.
This was Mrs. Thaw’s worst day on the stand, when her tears flowed
almost constantly. When she was forced to tell of her experiences in
White’s infamous studio, she almost fainted. With head buried in his
hands, Thaw wept aloud. It was a pitiful scene. The husband was so far
overcome that he could not take his customary notes on the trial.
Evelyn Thaw was delirious that night and fell in May McKenzie’s arms at
her hotel.
Is it a wonder that Evelyn Thaw wished to flee from further notoriety
after Thaw shot Stanford White, according to a member of the Thaw
household? She is said to have made hasty preparations to sail for
Europe. When the Thaw lawyers learned of this, a council was called
immediately, and Evelyn was induced to stay, as rumor had it, by liberal
concessions of the Thaws.