Assassin Czolgosz Ceases His Boasting
His Bravado Giving Way to Fear.
He May Try to Feign Insanity.
When Czolgosz is placed on trial
for his murderous attack on President McKinley it is believed he
will seek to avoid punishment by feigning insanity. District Attorney
Penney and the others who see him daily refuse to talk of the prisoner
and his actions, but it is understood the Cleveland anarchist has
lost much of the defiance which characterized him at the time of
the commission of his dastardly act. He no longer boasts spectacularly
of having “done his duty.”
On the contrary, he seems to have
come to a realization of the enormity of his act and of the universal
desire on the part of the people that the severest punishment the
law allows shall be meted out to him with all possible speed.
It is safe to assume that he desires
to avoid that punishment, and naturally enough the insanity dodge
would be the first ruse to suggest itself. It may be said right
here, however, on authority which cannot well be questioned, that
Czolgosz is not insane and was not when he brutally shot down the
President on Friday last. When his trial comes off the District
Attorney will be able to establish beyond shadow of a doubt that
Czolgosz was in his right mind at the time of his murderous attack
upon the Chief Executive.
Dr. Joseph Fowler, insanity expert
for the Police Department, has been with Czolgosz for an hour or
two each day since the arrest of the anarchist, studying his mental
condition.
When seen this morning the doctor
declined to discuss the prisoner’s mental condition. He would not
say whether Czolgosz was feigning insanity.
“I have elected to watch him at times
when the District Attorney and others were questioning him,” said
Dr. Fowler this morning, “because at such times I could devote my
entire attention to him, without having to think, myself, of questions
to ask him. District Attorney Penney, however, has requested me
not to talk about him for publication.”
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