A
dispatch from Detroit says that Mrs. Nellie Kniffin, formerly of Simcoe,
Ont., who murdered her husband, a Deroit street car conductor, a month
ago, by splitting his head with an axe as he lay asleep, was taken to
State Anylum for Insane, at Tena, Mich., on Friday, a raving
maniac.
During the trip on
the train the woman ran the entire gamut of human emotions, first
calling her dead husband's name in tones of endearment and then becoming
violent and extremely vituperative. It was found necessary to shackle
the patient to a car seat to prevent her from attacking other passengers
in the car, whom she declared, were enemies.
The case is one of
the most pitiful with which the authorities have been called upon to
deal.
It is
possible, and, according to Dr. J. B. Kennedy, quite probably, that she
will be brought back to Detroit within a year to stand trial. "I
feel almost positive that if Mrs. Kniffen is operated upon her reason
can be restored," said Dr. Kennedy.
"Not
only would the operation restore her to her reason, but it would make it
possible for her to be placed on trial on the charge of killing her
husband. Drs. Dean and Babcock and myself will be ready and willing to
take the witness stand to testify that she was not in her right mind and
consequently not responsible for her act, and I see no other way out of
it for the jury but to acquit.
"She
does not appear to realize now that her husband is dead and frequently
asks the deputies at the jail of his whereabouts. Moreover, she does not
appear to appreciate the situation she is in and does not know that she
is confined to the jail, although the usual reasons for her forming such
an idea are "not kept from her."
