‘Hiroshima Pilot’ Declared Insane
(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) GALVESTON (Texas), Dec. 8. The “Hiroshima pilot,” Claude Eatherly, aged 46, has been declared insane by a jury after a court hearing.
Eatherly had been accused of robbing Mrs Mario Dellosso of 32 dollars on September 25. He will never be tried for the alleged crime because jurors yesterday ruled him insane at the time of the offence. Two psychiatrists testified that Eatherly is suffering from chronic schizophrenia. Eatherly flew a reconnaissance 829 bomber over Hiroshima and sent back word that everything was clear for the first atomic bomb drop in 1945. Experts have said he now has a guilt feeling for taking part in the bombing. 14 Minutes Jurors took only about 14 minutes to decide that he was insane. The verdict was returned as his wife sat in the courtroom with her seven-month-old daughter, Claudette.
The former air force major claimed that on September 25 he had suffered a black-out and remembered nothing. He made the same claim after being arrested in previous hold-ups. His defensive lawyer, Andrew Baker, said Eatherly apparently would be committed indefinitely to a State hospital. Mr Baker said he felt Eatherly was “more of a threat to himself than to society.”
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Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30619, 9 December 1964, Page 21
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205‘Hiroshima Pilot’ Declared Insane Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30619, 9 December 1964, Page 21
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