The Prosecutor and the Show Girl
by Richard F. Hamm
This
web site (a supplement to my lecture) focuses on the most dramatic moments
of the Harry Thaw trial: first, when Evelyn Nesbit directly testified and
second, when New York District Attorney William Travers Jerome cross examined
her. On June 25, 1906, Harry Thaw, a wealthy playboy, shot and killed Stanford
White -- the noted architect. Thaw shot White in front of hundreds of witnesses
at the Roof Garden Theatre and Restaurant, at Madison Square Garden. Thaw's
wealthy mother, Mary Thaw, paid for a team of lawyers, mental experts, and
others to defend her son from the charge of murder. Thaw's defense was that
the knowledge that Evelyn Nesbit had been drugged and deflowered by White
(long before Thaw's and Nesbit's marriage) had driven him temporarily insane
and made him not culpable for his action. If found temporarily insane (instead
of permanently insane) Thaw would be free not even confined to a mental institution.
The lynch pin of the defense at this first
trial (which began on January 23, 1907) was Nesbit's testifying about what
she told Thaw about her relations with White. Nesbit -- a former Gibson girl
and former
member of the Floradora sextet -- told a version of the so called "white slave"
narrative used to explain the prevalence of prostitutes in the city. It was
the story of a young girl new to the city, who is taken advantage of by a
mature and wealthy man and thus looses her virginity and descends into a life
of shame. This defense strategy, pushed by lawyer Delphine Delmas, had the
added benefit of portraying White as a sexual predator who deserved to die
under the so called "unwritten law." She also testified to Thaw's attempt
to act as an anti-vice crusader further vilifying the victim.
To meet the defense strategy of blackening
White's name, the prosecution lead by the New 
York
District Attorney, William Travers Jerome, took two courses. First, Jerome
attacked the credibility of the chief witness. Jerome used a lengthy cross-examination
to imply that Nesbit was sexually immoral, that she long retained a relationship
with White after the incident she so graphically described. Second, he developed
evidence that Nesbit had sought the help of White's lawyer Abraham Hummel
to protect her from Harry Thaw before they were married, implying Thaw was
permanently insane -- and not just temporarily insane. Hummel, who was one
of the greatest shysters in American history, specialized in acquiring affidavits
that were highly embarrassing, that could be used either for blackmail or
other purposes. Jerome read an affidavit in Nesbit's name into the record
which undercut her credibility and painted a picture of Thaw as a man who
was not temporarily insane but a sadist and drug addict.
Evelyn's Nesbit's Story 1: Innocence Defiled
Evelyn's Nesbit's Story 2: Harry Thaw as Anti-Vice Crusader
Thaw as Vice Cursader Jerome Attacks Nesbit's Character: Cross Examination Selections
Nesbit on Cross Jerome Attacks Nesbit's Character and Thaw's Sanity: The Hummel Affidavit
Note all trial testimony adapted from: Charles Samuels, The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, (New York: Gold Medal Books, 1953, re-printed Mattituck: Aeonian Press ND)