TOLD IN A TRANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 249, 17 October 1908, Page 15

TOLD IN A TRANCE.

HYPNOTISED PRISONER DESCRIBES A TRAGEDY. Yet another startling innovation in American criminal jurisdiction, it was made kuown on Monday, August 31, has been introduced in the shape of hypnotism, which has been allowed to play an unusual part in a murder case. The subject of the experiment was Mrs. Charlotte Hitchcock, awaiting trial In the Tombs Prison on a charge of murdering her husband. T.he latter, a prominent New York busines man, was found at his residence on November 20 last shot dead in bed, while lying beside him, suffering from serious gunshot wounds, was his young wife. When questioned she said that she had shot her husbiinil and had afterwards tried to commit suicide because he had threatened to put her in an asylum. Both the prisoner and her husband are alleged to have been addicted to the opium habit, and though Mrs. Hitchcock's story that she had committed the deed was beiieved, the authorities doubted her sanity. A. lunacy commission, comprised of Doctors Allan, McLane Hamilton, and Carlos MacDonald, who gave evidence in the Thaw case, was therefore appointed to inquire Into Mrs. Hitchcock's mental condition. The alienists, who had held several sessions, were startled on Monday by the evidence of Dr. Van Gieson, the head of the Pathological Bureau of the Board of Health, who told how he hypnotised Mrs. Ilitchcocl; in her cell, and then suggested that she saw the scene of the shooting. Dr. Van Gieson induced a hypnotic tranca by administering a dose of formaldehyde and then waving a lighted candle before the woman's eyes as she sat on a chair tilted against the wall of the cell, with her head resting against a pillow. When she passed into the hynotic state the doctor asked her to describe the shooting, and, with some hesitation, in low, lifeless, mechanical tones, she made the following statement in the presence of another doctor and a shorthand writer. "I went out that night and got a steak, and presently Bob, my husband, came home. After we had eaten Bob read a magazine, and then said, '! am in a dreadful difficulty. There U only one way out. We must cross the Jordan.' He took a uiDie, and said our •lives were ruined. Next he gave mc a sheet of paper, and made mc write that I was to blame. "Then he shot mc three times. I fell down, but went to the kitchen, where he helped mc to put out the fire in my blouse. I crawled back and tried to get the revolver, but he shot mc again and reloaded, lie stood up in bed and snot nimself twice and fell down. I pulled the clothes over him. A dark man came in, and asked who did it. I answered, 'I did.' " "Why did you say that?" asked Dr. Gieson. "My husband, told mc to say that,' the hynotised woman answered. Dr. Van Gieson, in answer to Dr. McLane Hamilton, said the woman was in a state of "submerged consciousness," in which condi tion she remained fifteen minutes. Upon waking she did not recollect having spoken a single word. The other witnesses or ur. Van Gieson's experiment testified that the doctor did not suggest the story or any detail of it, but simply asked her to describe the scene as she saw it. The alienists nre perplexed as to what course they should pursue, but it Is probable that they will accept Dr. Van Gieson's offer to repeat the experiment in their presence.