Histories

Newspaper Date : 12/13/1889 12:00:00 AM Volume : 13 Number : 37 Page : 1 Column : 3 Newspaper : Review Description : Duncan McArthur declared insane; will go to the asylum. Transcription : HE IS INSANE. McArthur Pronounced So by His Peers and Will Go to the Asylum. Last Saturday afternoon Duncan J. McArthur whose terrible unprovoked assault upon Geo. Sousie of Black River on the morning of Sept. 30 is still fresh in the public mind, was brought into the probate court by Sheriff McDonald. He had been previously visited in his cell by Drs. Norton of Killmaster and McCormick of Black River, whose observations went to confirm the findings of Dr. Lansing, the Bay City expert. A jury consisting of Jas. McClelland, Robert Southgate, Jas. Gray, E. W. Chapelle, Jeff Waters and Henry Fox had been previously summoned. It was Judge Ritchie's first important case. The small room in which the examination was conducted was filled with witnesses. McArthur, looking well and acting calm and collected took his seat in a corner of the room and glanced furtively up at each person entering or leaving. During the taking of testimony that followed he seems to be the most unconcerned person in the room. The testimony exclusive of that submitted by the physicians went to show that McArthur is sorely afflicted with a dangerous hallucination of the mind and establishes his insanity beyond any reasonable doubt. As stated in these columns he imagines himself to be the victim of a conspiracy and that everyone is plotting against him. The jury was out but 20 minutes their finding being that he is insane. The physicians pronounce his case as aggravated in the extreme the chances of complete recovery being very slender. His type of insanity is of a dangerous character, as evinced by his unprovoked and sudden assault upon Geo. Sousie. McArthur left for the asylum at Traverse City Wednesday morning in charge of the sheriff. He will be confined there at the expense of the county for a period of two years unless previously discharged cured. After two years if still insane he becomes a state charge.