Defense Witnesses
Harry Thaw Trial 1907
Jerome: ‘‘I now offer to prove by this witness the exact date on which these pictures were taken, which was, Mrs. Thaw testified, the day before she was drugged by Stanford White. And I further offer to prove that on that oeeasin Stanford White was not where she said he was.”
Smith: “Thaw sat down beside me, and offered me a cigar. I said, ‘No, thank you.’ He said, ‘How’s that, don’t you smoke at all?' I said I occasionally smoked cigarets. He then took out his cigaret case, offered me one, and I took it and thanked him. He struck a match and lit my cigaret, and his cigar. He asked me how I liked the play, and I said I did not care for it much. I thought it slow and not the sort of play for a roof-garden. He said, ‘It is different from those you usually see on the roof-garden. It is a relief to see it, and I think it will be a success.’ I said I doubted it.
“A few moments later he said, ‘What are you doing in Wall Street now—any speculating? I answered that I did not speculate in Wall street. He said he thought there was a great chance in copper; he mentioned Amalgamated and one other. And he also said Steel was good; he could not see why steel stocks were kept down; the company was doing a bigger business than ever. He said if he had any money he would put it in steel and copper, particularly copper.
“Then suddenly he said: ‘Where are you going this summer? I told him that I was going to Europe on Thursday. He wanted to know what ship I was going on, and when I told him he said he did not like the ship. He said he was going on the Amerika because he could get on that ship a large suite of rooms, where he could have his meals served in his apartments. Then he said: ‘Are you alone over here? I told him that I had left my wife in Paris.
“When Thaw left me he walked around several times, looking over the audience, toward the place where he subsequently shot White. Finally his friends arrived, and then I heard three pistol shots and saw a cloud of black smoke. I saw Thaw after the shooting, aiming his pistol toward the floor.
“I went to the entrance, keeping my eyes on Thaw all the while. Then I saw a man lying face downward on the floor. The man’s face was so blackened with powder I did not recognize my brother-in-law and left the place without knowing who the man was.”
[On cross-examination, Smith testified that Thaw was not intoxicated on the night of the murder.]