Independent Star-News from Pasadena, California • Page 102

ir. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde? Dr. Geia de Kaplany, who denied der of his wife, os he looked i trial. Lrcilcss mutilation, that no man could Uter his personality 30 times in a single ay as L'ierre and Kaplany had supposedly The district attorney also had Ruth Krucgcr, 28, flown in from Coburg, Gcr- nany.

She testified that she was the Bother of Kaplany's illegitimate son, An- Hreas. But she insisted under the most withering cross-examination that she had never known Dr. Kaplany as Pierre lloclie--just as Dr. Geza Kaplany. He had refused to a her on the false grounds that he was already married.

Kaplany's attorney declined to put the doctor on the witness stand. F.ven so, the took 9 hours and I 5 minutes to decide lliat Dr. Kaplany was legally sane. The sanity portion of the trial lasted 28 days. The penalty trial lasted only five days.

In weighing the penalty choices of life imprisonment or death in the San Quentin gas chamber, the jury of 10 men mid 2 women decided that Kaplany was "a sick man" and gave him life imprisonment. A day later his attorney called a press conference in the jail cafeteria. Here Dr. Kaplany formally apologized for the torture murder of his wife, then complained: "Had 1 been tried in another country, I would have been found insane. Hut I understand that because of the public opinion this was impossible.

You can hardly overcome the community feeling that is kept at a pitch." When one of the jurors read Kaplany statement, he said: "It's lucky for him he gave a press conference after the trial. If he had given out this sort of statement by LL Blamed for murder was doctor's other personality, dashing Pierre La Roche. during the trial, I assure you he'd he headed for the gas chamber right now. liven so, the jurors who spared the doctor's life were besieged by phone calls pro testing their leniency and asking, "How would you like some nitric acid thrown on you ur your wife?" The Kaplany case roues anew the entire quetiion of whether multiple person- alitij constitutes insanity or even mental illneu. After all, which one of us has not to ejcopc from the hard world of reality by imagining ourtelccs to lie Babe Ruth or Greta Garbo or Albert Schweitzer or even Iady GodicaP In our ivblimatioru and info dream worlds, are we not rcjtwnsiMe for our behavior? Are we not responsible in the eyes of the law for ads of violence? In Boston, socialite Suzanne Clift, niece of actor Montgomery Clift, recently murdered her Italian lover and pleaded guilty lo manslaughter.

She was freed contingent upon her continued psychiatric treatment on the grounds that she is mentally i In San Jose, Dr. Gcr.a Kaplany planned brutally to murder his wife and did so merely on the basis of an unverified rumor of infidelity gossiped to him by a friend. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after seven years. Why? Because the apparently believed some of his Dr. Jekyll and Mr.

Hyde story- Obviously, the entire question ut insanity as a defense for murder now needs most thorough investigation by the leading societies of law and medicine in this country. In many eases, murderers have used it to get away with murder. CANADA Travel Dividend: your dollar goes further in Canada! "Onmint of the Guud," PKliamcnl HiU.Otumi Canada, America's most popular vacationland, is ready to welcome you this summer. In this great and beautiful country you'll find time for relaxation: time for sport, for fun, for fairs, festivals and rodeos; time for leisurely gourmet meals; time for bargain shopping; time for all the family to laugh and play in the sunny sparkling days in Canada, FREE! Canadian Vacation Package CANADIAN GOVERNMENT TRAVEL BUREAU, OTTAWA, CANADA Please send Canadian Vacation Package to: ADDRESS Stick Ms coupon on any poslcanl or enclose in envelope.