Czolgosz Will Die a Sane Man
No Change in His Mental Condition Since Conviction.
SIX LEADING ALIENISTS HAVE DECLARED HIM RESPONSIBLE.
Shut Off from the World the Miserable Assassin Awaits His End, Abhorred
Even by Inmates of “Murderers’ Row”—Isolated from Public.
Buffalo, Oct. 12.—The Auburn correspondent
of the “Express” says:
Czolgosz, the assassin, will die a
sane man. Those who feared his mind would break down need have no
further apprehension. The closest and most experienced observers
of the doomed wretch are said to be satisfied that in the few days
remaining of his life he will not lapse into insanity.
The fact that Czolgosz is sane and
responsible for his acts was not brought out at his trial by expert
testimony because his defense on such ground simply would have resulted
in overwhelming evidence that he is sane. It is well to have it
made plain now, on the eve of his death, that he dies a sane man.
It is a matter of duly preserved fact that five expert alienists
at Buffalo examined him and pronounced him sane and in addition
thereto, Dr. Gerin, the physician of Auburn prison, an excellent
medical man of great experience, who has watched Czolgosz during
his confinement here, finds absolutely nothing to cause him to disagree
with the other alienists.
Dr. Carlos F. MacDonald, state commissioner
of lunacy and the foremost expert on insanity in the country, has
reported to the proper legal authorities concerned with the conviction
and punishment of Czolgosz that the assassin is sane. He was summoned
by the attorneys of Czolgosz, before the trial, but informed them,
after examining the prisoner, that his testimony would be adverse
to the defense. Dr. MacDonald is sustained in his position by Dr.
Arthur W. Hurd, superintendent of the State asylum at Buffalo, and
an alienist of great experience with maniac cases. Dr. Floyd S.
Crego and Dr. Joseph Fowler of Buffalo, who saw Czolgosz almost
immediately after the crime and who observed and examined him during
his incarceration at police headquarters and elsewhere in Buffalo,
agree entirely with Drs. MacDonald and Dr. Hurd [sic]. So also does
Dr. James W. Putnam of Buffalo, who examined the assassin.
Thus Messrs. MacDonald, Hurd, Crego,
Fowler, Putnam and Gerin, six alienists who are well known and whose
standing and ability are not questioned, declare the assassin sane.
This fact is reiterated as a matter of public record at this time,
as it deemed [sic] wise, in view of the insidious attacks
made from certain quarters on Drs. Mann, Mynter, Park, Wasdin, Rixey,
McBurney and Stockton, who attended President McKinley. These attacks
on the prominent surgeons, who did all that could be done to save
the president’s life, fell to pieces when analyzed. But it is intended
to preclude any such matter in connection with the death of Czolgosz
by having it known and as widely as possible, that at least six
experts agree without a single detail of difference that Czolgosz
is sane, that he was responsible at the time he committed the crime
and at the time he was convicted and sentenced for the commission
of the crime.
No question can be raised after his
death as to whether he was accountable or responsible. Dr. Allan
McLane Hamilton and other alienists would be prepared at a moment’s
notice, if need be, to give their expert opinion. Dr. Hamilton was
at Buffalo, although he did not make an exhaustive examination of
the assassin. It is an instance where expert after expert has agreed
on the fact of the assassin’s sanity.
Czolgosz does not have very congenial
company in the chamber of the condemned. The four murderers in adjacent
cells show no lessening of their hatred of him. They despise him
and he is reminded of it frequently. He has been eating well. He
is aware of the antagonism of his associates in the chamber of the
condemned and they frequently count off the days before he goes
out through the clanging door into the chamber of death.
Requests to se [sic] the assassin
or to have a peek into the chamber of the condemned are futile.
Superintendent of Prisons Collins and Warden Mead have seen to it
that he spends his last days isolated from the world, apart from
the public and beyond contact with it. His last knowledge of outside
life, his last experience with the outer world was when he sank
down, wailing and cowering at the prison gate.
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