THE EARLE HERMANN CASE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2413, 19 March 1915, Page 6

THE EARLE HERMANN CASE

EVIDENCE AS TO' SANITY "PURPOSELESS STUPIDITY," (Rec. March 18, 11.35 p.m.) (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) Sydney, March 18. At the trial of Joseph Earlo Hermann on three counts of forging and uttering promissory notes involving £17,391, the medical superintendent of Callanpark Asylum, where Hermann stayed for tliree-weeks, gave evidence that he had come to the conclusion that Hermann's delusions were not genuine. He was a sane man, and not an epileptic. Counsel for the defence, addressing the jury, said that on the evidence shown he could not ask for the outright acquittal, but he asked for a verdict of not guilty on the grounds of intermittent insanity, adding: "If ever we heard of a purposeless piece of stupidity it is this —a man forging the thing for fun and leaving his footprints with the certainty of detection." Council for the Crown contended that the careful systematic acts involved in tho case were those of a sane man. No saner acts were ever shown. HERMANN NOT CUILTY OF FORCERY. (Rec. March 19, 1.25 a.m.) Sydney, March 18. The jury found Hermann not guilty of forgery, but guilty of uttering, and strongly recommended him to mercy on account of his being the victim of intermittent epilepsy. Sentence has been deferred.