The Life of Guiteau and the Official History of the Trial of the Guiteau for Assassinating Pres. Garfield (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 Excerpt: ...to this point in connection with people supposed to be insane? A. I have seen probably five or six cases of simulation. Q. Is it easy to detect them? A. In the vast majority of cases very easy. Q. Do you think it possible that a person who had never seen a case of insanity, or not more than two or three, could successfully simulate insanity? A. A layman could not make even an approach to simulating insanity under those circumstances. Q. You were asked in regard to the Gosling case; state what connection yon had with that case. A. The connection that I had with that case was that I was approached by both sides; by letter by the wrong side and personally by the right side; that I declined by letter to go for the wrong side, and went for the right side, and I was asked then about what the prosecution terms the " horse doctor business," the question being instigated by the same medical politician who instigates them now, and who was approached by both sides. Q. How did you know which was the right side? A. - By the fleath of the patient from the very form of insanity we predicted he would die from. Q. Who were "we?" A. The experts--Drs. Hammond, A. E. McDonald and myself; there may have been others. Q. Explain more fully your expression that the crime in this case was the result of a morbid project based on a delusive opinion. A. By delusive opinions in this case I mean extravagant interpretations of outward circumstances that would strike a sane man differently from what they struck this prisoner. Mr. Scoville then summarized all the evidences of insanity which, according to the witnesses for the defence, had existed in the prisoner's family, and asked the witness whether if those facts were proven they constituted a proper claim for a...