Atlanta Georgian. [volume], January 18, 1914, ATLANTA, Image 51

About Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939

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■ Harry Thaw, Who Started the Hoodoo on the Night of
I June 25, 1906, When He Shot Stanford White—And
I Who Has Himself Been Pursued by the Mon-
F ster of His Own Creation Ever Since.
at the hospital, a mere wreck of her former self, she had lived
at a Pittsburgh hotel as ‘‘Mrs. Jessie Rogers," well supplied with
money, but almost never going out. of the hotel.
A few hours before her death she deepened the mystery of her
conduct by saying to a hospital attendant:
"I have nothing to live for. My life was ruined by a man, and
I must live it out alone. The end cannot come too scon."
It was said at the hotel and at the hospital that during all those
nine months her only mt le vie'tor had been a brother. She was
I billed beside her father the late Supreme Court Justice Leslie
W. Russell, at Canton, N'. Y
When Hartridge had been finally crowded out of the
| Thaw defense, he sued Harry Thaw’s mother to recover a claim
I for legal services and moneys disbursed by him iii connection
I with the ease. The totaJ amount named was somewhat in excess
I of *593,000, of which $39,000 represented his expenditures in draw-
I Ing the stings of some 200 underworld disreputables.
f That these peculiar expenditures had actually been made was
' denied by Harry Thaw, and vigorously disputed by attorneys for
the Thaw family. Hartridge's bill of particular was naturally
incomplete. The suit was decided in the elder Mrs. Thaw’s
favor. Hartridge found himself the subject of charges brought
by the New York Bar Association looking to his disbarment —
on the ground that his declared efforts to suppress testimony
were subversive of the course of justice and therefore unprofes
sional and Improper.
Hartridge Struggles Against the “Hoodoo.’*
It was Hartridge who had put forward the "brain storm" theory
of Harry Thaw’s act in killing Stanford White. To the Griev
ance Committee of the Bar Association he justified big under
k world campaign in this way:
L He had not wished the District Attorney to learn about cer
'tai’ of Harry Thaw's alleged habits, because if Mr. Jerome had
known it and Thaw had taken the stand, the District Attorney in
cross-examination would have saiid:
“Here Is a man whose defense is that his mind was upset by
the horrible story that White had injured Mrs. Thaw, and here
come two or three people who say that he has done the same
thing or worse. How could his mind be upset!”
The disbarment proceedings, by a vote of three to two, were
dismissed by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. Hart
ridge wag still a member of the New York Bar —but he had been
| compelled to hear, and to know, that it would be widely pub
ished, this comment by the counsel for the Grievance Com
infftee:
"It would seem that the guide for an attorney s conduct should
jbe, not what the letter of the law tells him he may do, without
rendering himself punishable, but what plain decency and a
i sense of honor tell him he ought to do.
B “,|n attorney may undertake to act for a filthy client, but
he should not wallow in the filth."
Before he entered the Thaw case Clifford W. Hartridge was a
man who was In, to say the least, easy circumstances. Since
then he has lost his wife under the most distressing conditions.
He has been sued on account of unpaid notes, and for an account
ing to the Thaw estate, and he is poor.
Thus two lawyers 'have fallen under the great “Thaw Blight."
There is a third whom the case has obsessed to bls own very
treat harm, say his friends.
Jerome.
I WJat has the “Thaw Case" done to William Travers Jerome —
Inert to Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, Its most spectacular figure?
Is not the "Thaw Case” Jerome's Frankenstein?
Did not he do more than any other individual to create the
tfiousand-tentacled monstrosity for which the "hoodoo” is the
conveniently written symbol? Can he ever hope to escape from
the grasp of it?
How long ago was it that William Travers Jerome was a
popular Idol in New York—iwhen whatever be cared to ask of
die people the people were ready to give htan?
Recall him ae a robed Judge of Special Sessions, armed with
an axe, beating in the doors of gambling houses —a personal
Jterror to all evil-doers. Everybody forgot that constitutional
Kndency to emotional collapses which, when he was under the
prolonged strain or defending some sensational murder case,
caused his fellow lawyers to dub him ’'Weeping Willie.”
All that was before the “Thaw Case” engulfed him. Twice
a great popular vote swept him into the office of District-Attor
ney. Midway of his second term in that office Harry Thaw
killed Stanford White.
For a time Jerome’s energy and resource in prosecuting the
accused murderer, member of one of the richest families in the
country, blinded the public to his neglect to keep his ante-elec
tion promises. Thus Jerome before the votes were cast:
"I will follow this trail up (Metropolitan Street Railway cor
ruption) if you elect me, if it leads to the Republican organiza
tion. I will follow it up if it leads into the ranks of the re
formers.”
But, after a while, sated with Thaw sensations, the people
who had elected Jerome realized how safe the Metropolitan
Street Railway and other corruptionists were. Thereafter, in
editorials and cartoons and public addresses, "Weeping Willie"
became “Sleeping Willie.”
What had put Jerome into such a sound slumber?
There never had been a candidate who had spoken so plainly
to the people. When Jerome, rattling the braes checks that told
the sordid story of the white slaves of the crowded East Side,
hurled the facts in the teeth of his bearers, and told them that
through their smug complacency, their failure to do their duty
as citizens, they were responsible, his fight was won.
When he promised to put the "fear of the Lord" into the hearts
of criminals in high places, criminals the heads of great cor
porations, criminals who controlled judges and debauched courts;
when he named a famous millionaire as one of the worst offend
ers and pledged that he would follow the trail no matter where
it led, he was believed.
But when in 1909, near the close of his second administration
of the office of District Attorney, Jerome —with the Mayoralty
bee buzzing in his brain —asked a New York audience to 'teten
to -him, he was hissed and hooted almost to the point of riot.
Jerome’s Career Affected by “the Case.’’
To this day a multitude who listened to Jerome’s daring and
fiery arraignments of the mighty believe that if he had kept his
pledges, and had not run after false, gods, he would have become
Governor, and then President; but now, as they picturesquely
put it, “Jerome couldn't be elected dog-catcher.”
His friends declare that Jerome always has been and still is
honest; that not one dishonest penny has ever crossed his palm.
What is the matter with him? They answer:
"His vanity; his unalterable obstinacy—and the Thaw
Case.’ ”
"Keeping Harry behind bars became the dominant idea of
Jerome’s life. He was always willing to sacrifice anything to
that end. The case obsessed trim; it assumed an entirely exag
gerated magnitude in his mind. It sapped his energies as it bad
so many others, and left him time for no other work.”
So great had been the decline of Jerome that, when he ap
peared before a Canadian court to procure the extradition of
the escaped Harry Thaw, he was at first denied recognition.
He was even arrested for playing a game of poker.
And this the "Thaw Case” has done for Jerome.”
The “silver-tongued," courtly Delphin M. Delmas, most dis
tinguished member of the California bar, was summoned by the
Thaws at a princely retainer to restore to Harry Thaw his lib
erty.
Mr. Delmas gave up a large part of his lucrative practise on
the Pacific Coast and came to New York, frankly expecting to es
tablish himself among the mighty of his profession In the Eastern
metropolis.
He was a gracious, dignified figure among all the lawyers on
either side In that trial—and he went back to bls neglected
Pacific Coast practise without having made, apparently, the
slightest impression upon the forces which make and control the
fortunes of lawyers in New York.
Has the name of Delphin M. Delmas ever been heard where
rising reputations are discussed, either in the East or the West
—since the "Thaw Case" lured him into its circle?
Colonel Franklin Bartlett and A. Russell Peabody, who bore
the brunt of the complicated management of the Thaw defense,
and of the Thaw family financial entanglements on that account;
who engineered Mrs. Mary Copley Thaw's later repudiated plan
to get Evelyn Nesbit Thaw to sue for the annulment of her
marriage to Harry Thaw, are both dead, after many years of
worry and struggle. Killed 'by the Thaw Case without a doubt,
say their friends.
Ex-Judge W. M. K. Olcott, one of the earliest authorities in the
Harry Thaw defense; authority disputed, put under, superseded,
bothered, afterward, by continual calls on his time and informa
tion, came under the malign influence of the "hoodoo."
Ex-Governor Frank Black, "Thaw Case” lawyer, was a sick
man when he entered the case. He is now dead, partly at least
from its worries.
John B. Gleason, another of Harry Thaw’s lawyers, is the vic
tim of endless litigation in attempts to collect his unpaid fees.
The late Governor of New York, William Sulzer, mentioned as
Involved In an attempt to get Harry Thaw out of Matteawan, re
moved from office Superintendent Scott of State Prisons for con
necting him with the case.
And then be himself was thrown out of the Governorship.
These are merely contributory evidences of the activity of
the malignant influence of the case.
The Stanford White tragedy enacted on its roof appears to
have been the beginning of the end of Madison Square Garden,
for so long the greatest amusement structure on the continent and
borne of the fashionable New York Horse Show, of the Circus
and "Buffalo Bills," of great conventions and International ath
letic events.
it has been announced that the corporation controlling the
famous structure, tired of meeting huge annual deficits, will soon
tear it down and erect a modern office sky-scraper on its site.
Among the misfortunes suffered by those intimately associated
with the Thaw family, one accident might be construed by the
very superstitious to indicate that even the heavens were con
cerned in them. Dr. Wiley, one of the Thaw family physicians,
was struck by lightning and seriously injured.
The family of Stanford White has, of course, been a constant
sufferer. Incidentally, it was affected by the most terrible ocean
disaster on record.
J. Clinch Smith, a brother of Mrs. Stanford White, lost his
life when the Titanic went down.
A few months later Mrs. J. Clinch Smith—who had never re
covered from the ebook of her husband’s dreadful fate —died in
Paris, Orckeobeorted.
And here foUffws an amazing Incident of what might be called
the Indirect powers of the “hoodoo.”
Prior to the trial of Harry Thaw, E. R. Thomas was a million
aire, one of the leading financiers of New York, and bappl'v
married to one of the famous beauties of the South. He came to
be the reputed friend of Mrs. Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, although- noth
he and Mrs. Thaw have denied this. Following printed reports
that he bad been asked to leave the dining room of one of the
big Broadway hotels because he had appeared there as the
escort of Mrs. Evelyn Thaw, his wife divorced him.
This association of the names of Mr. Thomas and Mrs Thaw
is undoubtedly one of the Injustices to be charged against the
“Thaw Hoodoo." The denials of the two brought to light the
almost incredible existence of a "double" for each of them Al
though hundreds of eyes seemed to see EL R. Thomas, the well
known financier, with Mrs. Thaw tn the hotel episode, at a meet
ing of the Sunset Club and elsewhere, It was another man bear
ing the same name and a remarkable resemblance to hi-m, with
the ’’double" of Mrs. Thaw —so Mr. Thomas declared!
At another time, when EL R. Thomas, the financier, was posi
tively identified at the racetrack, and Mrs. Thaw was said to be
with him, the woman In the case was Mrs. Thaw's "double"—said
to be the same as was named in Mrs. Thomas's divorce ap
plication.
But before the truth could be known, financial entanglements
of various sorts had m tied up Mr. Thomae's estate that he was
left in possession of an Income so email as to be entirely out of
keeping with his habitual manner of living. And to crown all
this, an automobile accident crippled him for life.
In New York official and political circles the “hoodoo," con
cealing Itself in the efforts of Harry Thaw to get out of his
Matteawan prison, nas checked several flourishing careers.
Dr. John W. Russell lost his position as Superintendent of the
State Asylum for the Criminal Insane.
Colonel Joseph Scott was dismissed from his office of Superin
tendent of New York State Prisons.
Both these officials lost their offices as a result of the con
spiracy charge that Lawyer John Nicholas Anhut had offered a
bribe of $20,000 to secure the release at Harry Thaw from Matte
awan.
When Superintendent Russell accused Anhut of offering the
bribe. Governor Suiter had been in office a little over a month.
Russel) brought the new Governor's wrath down upon his head
by making this statement for publication:
“Anhut, in making this offer last December, said: ’Governor
Sulzer wants this dene right away. He wants the matter out of
the way before he goes Into office, so that it will not embarrass
his administration. If you will do this for him the Governor will
see that you are well taken care of when he goes to Albany."
In the Investigation which promptly followed, Harry Thaw ap
peared as a witness. He said:
"Anhut was not the first to talk over the matter with me. Dr.
Russell had talked about It long before I met Anhut. Dr. Russell
told me he bJieved I was sane, and he wanted to get rid of me.
He raid he was. willing to sign a certificate attesting to my
sanity, hut such an action would subject him to a great deal of
adverse criticism, and he should be reimbursed. Later he sent
Anhut to me, and I considered Anhut as his agent in handling
the money,
“Anhut agreed to return half the money it I was still in the
asylum on January 1 of this year, and the remainder if I was
still there on July 1. He said that all Dr. Russell would have
to do would be to discharge me—that it would not be necessary
to file the certificate about my sanity with a court.”
Thaw testified that, according to the agreement with Anhut,
about half of the bribe money had been returned to him.
The conclusion of the affair left Anhut disbarred and under
indictment for bribery, and both Superintendent Russell and
Superintendent Scott out of their positions.
But Governor Sulzer had put himself within the range of in
fluence, and only a few months later Governor Suiter was
thrown out of his elective office.
The sensational escape of Harry Thaw from Matteawan
caused warrants of arrest to be Issued against five men charged
with conspiracy to procure that escape. lOne of them was held
in a Canadian prison, and for some time left without legal coun
sel, change of clothing, money or any sort of attention or help.
All of them have been in perpetual trouble ever since—with
prospects of more trouble to come.
These accused persons are:
Ex-Assemblyman Richard J. Butier—charged with being the
"brains" of the plot.
Howard H. Barnum, the keeper of the asylum gate at Matte
awan. through which Thaw escaped
Eugene Duffy, “the mayor of Ninth avenue," a cronv of Butler,
who helped him perfect the plot,
"Educated Roger” Thompson, a Lnngacro square chauffeur.
Thomas Flood, a chauffeur who owns his own car.
Michael O’Keefe, said to be a brother-in-law of Butler. •
Howard Barnum, the Matteawan gate keeper, being promptly
locked up, protested that he was beinz maue the scapegoat of a
lax institutional system. After Thaw's escape it appears Hist
the eystem was tightened again. And so the unfortunate In
mates of Matteawan all feel the touch of the “hoodoo.” Many
little liberties afforded them before Thaw's escape are now de
nied them.
The “Hoodoo” Strikes Abroad.
The baneful spirit of the “Thaw Case,” which has manifested
itself In so many and in such varied forms to citizeno of ths
United States, also has its victims in other countries.
In -the most unexpected manner, the "hoodoo" fastened
Itself upon "Honest John" Andrews, the grizzled town con
stable of Coaticook, hi Canada, where Harry Thaw for so long
fought against extradition. The mass of Canadians were very
sympathetic for Thaw, and particularly resentful toward Jerome,
whom they considered In the light of a "human bloodhound on
the trail of an Innocent and persecuted man."
Sharing this quite general feeling, the town constable seized
the first .opportunity to get Mr. Jerome into trouble. He caugut
the famous Thaw prosecutor "sitting in" a game of “penny ante"
poker, arrested him forthwith and took him to the lockup.
Mr. Jerome was very wroth—especially when all the news
papers on both sides of the boundary line made much of Harry
Thaw's amiable offer to go on his bail bond. He was released
and apologized to by Canadian officials—but he didn't forget
"Honest John" Andrews.'
When Harry Thaw had been extradited to New Hampshire,
Jerome's turn came.
He learned from a U. S. Immigration inspector that there was
a warrant out for "Honest John,” because he had brought a
Canadian pauper into the United States. The penalty is a fine
of SI,OOO, or two years in jail, or both.
Jerome set a watch on the Coatfcook town constable. Present
ly "Honest John" uncautiously stepped across the boundary
line, and was pounced upon. He was brought to Colebrook, N.
H„ where Mr. Jerome had the satisfaction of seeing him safely
jailed.
The Earl of Yarmouth— that champion specimen among needy
English noblemen—is a distinguished foreign victim. His mar
riage to Alice Thaw. Harry’s sister, was annulled, and the
fortune which came to him through t hat alliance was taken a wav
from him-leaving him worse off than ever. This, however, Is
one of the few really good things the "iioodoo" has done. The
Earl deserved his "misfortune” if any one did.
The Earl’s family treated the new Countess cavalierly from the
start. She was never happy in her new position. Suddenly
came the shocking news of Harry Thaw's arrest, for the shoot
ing of Stanford White, She would fly to hlrn and plav a sister's
part. The Earl and his family were incensed, and trouble began.
But the Pittsburgh lawyers had Inserted a clause in the mar
riage contract which, when the marriage came to be annulled,
restored the bride's property to her. Nothing, however, could
make up for the distressing experience* she endured throughout
all this activity of the "Thaw Hoodoo."
Because she Is the mother in the case, who can doubt that
Mrs Mary C. Thaw has borne, and Mill bears, the heaviest in
dividual burden of any one connected with the "Thaw Case,"
For years her mind and heart have been subject to constant
torture. Virtually her whole life has been turned into this
tortuous channel which seems io u«»ve no end.
At times the great Thaw estate has fell severely the strain
upon ft for cash to meet the multitude of pressing emergencies
growing out of efforts to save the life and then the libertv of
Stanford White's slayer. It has been estimated that the sum
Os $1,000,W0 would not cover these expenditures.
Upon two or three such occasions large blockc of coke and
coal Mock belonging to ..he general estate have been thrown
upon tbe market At such time* it has been reported that Mrs
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Evelyn Thaw and the “Hoodoo.”
Thia Portrait Shows How the Sweetness and Youthful
Innocence Has Faded from the Face That
Charmed Stanford White and Once
Fascinated Harry Thaw,
Thaw han made Important retrenchments in ber household ex
penses.
There remains one person that the “hoodoo" has not yet
touched —Evelyn Thaw's little son Russell, whom Harry and his
family repudiate.
What has the monster—raised when Stanford White rolled
dead on Madison Square Garden Roof —In store for this child?
And, whait has It still In store tor Evelvn Thaw?
Beginning Next Sunday—
Why I Shot Wm. E. Annis.
By Capt. Peter C. Hains, Jr., U.S.A.
Annis had invaded Captain Hains's home, had taken ad
vantage of the Captain's absence on army duty and. aided by
the cunning deceitfulness of .Mrs. Hains, had almost succeeded
in persuading the injured husband that his suspicions were
groundless. How the full truth wan unexpectedly wrung
from the lips of Claudia Hains, his wife; how his heart froze
with despair, and then, with the rebound of fury, how he set
forth to avenge the wrong—how he found Annis and exe
cuted him—all this Captuin Hains relates for the first time.
And the trial, conviction, the long weeks in the death cells in
Sing Sing and the final pardon by the Governor is told.
In justice to himself and for the sake of his children. Can
tain Haina now feels it his duty to take the public into his
confidence, to lead them behind the scenes in his domestic
life, to show them the forces which worked the ruin of his
home—and to let the public judge whether the death of Annis
at his hands was justified.
The First Chapter of this renicrkable series o< evelnti. ns
will appear on this page next Sunday.