Page:The Great Harry Thaw Case.djvu/282

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resumed relations with White after she returned from Paris. Where does this man's conduct show aught that he did not know the quality and nature of his act? We have the letters A to I. The girl says that at times in 1903 Thaw was drinking heavily."

Jerome argued that neither Thaw's letters nor his will indicated insanity, but rather showed that he possessed a knowledge of legal limitations. His letters he described as erratic and vulgar, the product of a rich illiterate." Jerome continued:

"He knew enough to automobile through Europe with this girl. He knew enough to warn Longfellow to be on the lookout for legal actions, and yet he did not know that when he shot White he was doing wrong. Even the codicil drawn in his own language runs in the legal way.

"Everything shows a sane mind. There is not a thing to indicate a crazy mind. There is evidence here that he consulted Roger O'Mara before he carried a revolver. He was afraid of the Monk Eastman gang.

"Is it such an unknown thing that a man should be followed by a gang of hirelings? Was the arrest and trial of the Monk Eastman gang in Jersey a few years ago a figment of imagination? Where was the delusion in that? How easy it is for a man of this kind to store away his 'dementia Americana' for three years! Where is the delusion in a man's believing that he is in danger from a gang?

"Don't let's blow hot and cold at the same time. In one breath we are told that there was such a gang hired, and then we are told it was all a delusion.

"There was such a gang—and I am sorry to have to admit there was.

"Why did he leave his money to the Society for the Suppression of Vice? Was that a delusion?