The Spectacles of Mr. Cagliostro Read online

  CHAPTER XV

  RE JONATHAN DOE

  CASE-HISTORY OF JONATHAN DOE. (DOE NO. 46).

  Cook County, Illinois.

  Jonathan Doe (constituting the 46th commitment in Cook County under this legal appellation, but referred to hereinafter simply as Jonathan Doe) first drew upon himself the attention of the authorities at the wedding ceremony of a Miss Pamela Martindale and a Mr. Carleton van Ware, Chicagoans, held at nine o’clock on the evening of October 9th, 1924, in St. Andrew’s Church, Chicago. As the minister asked the usual formal question as to whether anybody present had anything to say against the carrying out of the nuptials, said Jonathan Doe rose up in his seat and, standing upon it, shouted in a voice loud enough to be heard over the entire church: “I forbid the marriage. I am the affianced husband of Pamela Martindale. I am Jerome Herbert Middleton. I forbid the marriage!” (See attached affidavit of, and attached transcript of testimony of, in insanity proceedings, of Benjamin Forsythe, head usher at St. Andrew’s Church.)

  Said Jonathan Doe was quickly taken into custody by Officers Egan and McInernan, detailed to the front doors of the church from the North Central Police Station in charge of the district where the wedding was being held. Said Doe, on being questioned while being held for arrival of the patrol-wagon, reaffirmed that he was Jerome Herbert Middleton, and questioned the officers themselves as to what right they had to molest him or to restrict his liberty. (See attached testimony in affidavit form of Officers Dennis Egan and Michael Mclnernan, North Central Police Station, Chicago.)

  On being examined before Sergeant Gearty at the North Central police headquarters, said Jonathan Doe again reaffirmed this identity, which is that of the only son of a pioneer medicine manufacturer, recently deceased, of Chicago, and who functioned recently as recipient of considerable newspaper notoriety with respect to his father’s will. (See “Chicago Morning Despatch” newspaper story with pictures included, date of September 21st, 1924, attached.) Said Jonathan Doe proceeded to peremptorily order the sergeant to call up Mr. Luther Fortescue, residing at the Sheridan Arms, to corroborate his identity, said Luther Fortescue being general representative and general manager of the Middleton estate. Said Doe was, at the time of his arrest, in a deplorable physical state, his clothes being practically rags, his shirt unironed and minus buttons, his shoes gaping with holes and containing string instead of laces, his hat greasy and filthy; his face unshaven for days; there was, in brief, the usual appearance of one who has not had any human care or desire for any for a considerable number of days.

  Prior to Doe’s arrest, the North Central Police Station had been called on the telephone by one Charles Henley, clerk in a cigar store situated at State and Kinzie Streets, Chicago, who stated that a detective in disguise had just come in his shop and declared that a group of anarchists were holding a meeting in a building adjacent to a vacant house situated at Number 44 East Kinzie Street, and were plotting to kill a man named Jerome H. Middleton. In Jonathan Doe’s examination, both preliminary, and later before Dr. George Wexney, ambulance surgeon to the North Central Police Station, he acknowledged, in addition to reaffirming his identity, that he had been the man who had entered Henley’s shop and warned the latter. (See testimony before Dr. Wexney, Sergeant Gearty, and Officers Cassidy and Wheeny.)

  Police who had answered Henley’s telephone call to Kinzie Street were compelled to come away mystified, for the only building at and to the direct east of No. 44 East Kinzie Street was an old frame cottage the title to which had been kept for many years by someone, around the two sides of which and back of which a giant storage warehouse had been built in the shape of an inverted “U”, but the owners of which had never succeeded in securing the site of the cottage to serve as a court. This warehouse, being of the cold storage type, held no windows whatsoever in it; hence from no window, door or any other point of vantage in Number 44 could be seen anything but solid brick to the height of seven stories up. (See attached architectural blue-print provided by courtesy of the American Cold Storage Warehouse Company, Chicago.)

  The actual examination of the premises at No. 44 by detectives Whortman, Considine and Lalago disclosed only a musty old house, damp and full of cobwebs, in the front room of which was a dirty mattress which showed signs of nightly occupancy, a small pile of soiled socks, a matchbox, numerous burned matches, a tin pan, and affixed to the wall a large broken piece of a mirror, around which were pinned in great profusion all the pictures and all the newspaper stories concerning Jerome Herbert Middleton that had appeared in Chicago papers under date of Saturday, September 20, and Sunday, September 21. Also pinned thereto were clippings concerning the impending Martindale-van Ware nuptials. (See sheets attached herewith with all clippings and pictures pasted thereon — and diagram of same by examining officers.) Also in the room was a pile of second-hand books about Australia, such as volumes of travel and guide-books, etc., and a recently published business biography of Digby Middleton, much dog-eared and freely marked. Also present among the litter was a large-sized gloss print of a photograph of a pair of spectacles recently figuring in the notoriety that accompanied the making public of the Middleton will. Also found unburned in the fireplace were receipted bills for 3 dollars from the Inter-continental News Service for this original photo corresponding to the reduced form in which it appeared in one newspaper, and 7 dollars from A. Krantz and Company, workers in art glass and leaded glass, of 2112 Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, for making one pair of square lensed spectacles like picture out of plain blue glass and solid lead tubing. (See testimony and attached affidavits of Detectives Whortman, Considine and Lalago. See also further in re investigation concerning Krantz and Co. receipted bill; also Inter-continental News Service receipted bill.)

  Mr. Fortescue, having attested that he and Mr. Jerome Middleton were together in his apartment, playing cribbage, at the time of the Martindale-van Ware wedding, Dr. Wexney had in the meantime signed a medical warrant placing said Jonathan Doe in the Psycopathic Detention Station at Chicago for further observation and inquiry into his sanity. (See detention station commitment certificate No. 4557 herewith attached.)

  Jonathan Doe, while in the detention station, was perfectly quiet and well-behaved, only stating that he expected to be taken out very quickly. He made no trouble, but on examination by Dr. Updegraff refused to give any information about himself or to affirm or deny that he was the said Jerome Middleton. (See Dr. Updegraff’s official report attached here with; also transcript of his expert testimony at insanity hearing, October 13th.)

  Said Jonathan Doe, while incarcerated in the detention station was visited by Charles Henley, the cigar clerk who had been accosted on the evening of October 9th and was identified as one and the same man who had entered the cigar store. (See affidavit of Charles Henley, attached herewith.) Doe was also visited by Mr. Luther Fortescue of the Middleton interests who at once recognised him as one William Clendenning. (See transcript of detailed testimony rendered by Mr. Fortescue, insanity proceedings.)

  Mr. Fortescue, as will be seen by examination of his testimony, had immediately recognised said Jonathan Doe as being a man whom he had engaged as his valet in response to a help-wanted advertisement sometime around the 4th of September, about two weeks prior to the arrival of Jerome Herbert Middleton from Australia. The newly-hired valet, during all the time of his employment with Mr. Fortescue, wore a full beard and moustache. It was not, so Mr. Fortescue claims, until the arrival from Australia of Jerome Middleton himself that he first noted that there was, at least in the eyes and forehead of his valet and his employer’s son, a marked resemblance; and on this same fact Mr. Jerome Middleton himself later commented on meeting the valet in Mr. Fortescue’s apartment.

  The name given Mr. Fortescue by his valet when the latter was first hired was that of “William Clendenning,” but he later confided in his employer that this name was fictitious, and that he had forgotten his true identity after having been shell-shocked in the recent war. The conduct
of the valet was exemplary until the arrival of Mr. Jerome Middleton from Australia, at which time he began to exhibit a marked interest in all the discussions between the two men, asking questions and attaining a familiarity with names and persons connected with the Middletons, father and son, to an extent which puzzled Mr. Fortescue greatly. Particularly in this respect did the names of Mr. Andrew Lockwood, an attorney for Mr. Digby Middleton senior, and Mr. Searles, vice-president of the Mid-West Trust Company, trustee for young Jerome H. Middleton’s estate, participate in the morbid interest which the valet bestowed on all and everything connected with Mr. Jerome Middleton himself.

  The first definite signs of a mental disturbance were, perhaps, the finding of a set of illustrated books on Australia in the valet’s room, and his letting down in his duties on account of reading these volumes too late at night. But it was not this, however, which led to the valet being discharged. What directly brought about the discharge was the fact, as develops in Mr. Fortescue’s testimony, of his having brought home from his offices the contents of Mr. Digby Middleton’s private safe to turn over to the latter’s son. These contents consisted only of a series of private brief letters written by Jerome H. Middleton to his father weekly, from boyhood up, over the period between his seventh and twenty-fourth years, and minus one year in which correspondence ceased entirely between them. Going one day to the bookcase in which he had packed and locked the letters, Mr. Fortescue found the lock broken and the letters entirely missing. He made at once for the valet’s room, and confronting him with the loss, forced from the latter an admission that he had stolen all the letters, had read them from beginning to end, and had then deliberately burned them.

  Recognising now that the man was either badly disturbed mentally, or else extremely dishonest, Mr. Fortescue gave him a week’s pay and discharged him on the spot.

  Mr. Fortescue did not connect with the departure of the valet, Sunday night, September 28, the disappearance of one of the tagged keys belonging to all the various pieces of the Middleton properties, to which as general manager of the Middleton estate he held duplicates to all keys held by real-estate firms and agents, all mounted on a board in a room in his apartment. But the subsequent developments in the case of the former “William Clendenning,” now Jonathan Doe, allow us to assume with little difficulty that Jonathan Doe, after his discharge, made his way with the tagged key he had stolen to the deserted house and there took up an abode where his psychosis, if not already fully formed, came to utter completion. (All testimony of Mr. Luther Fortescue is appended hereto.)

  An inquiry made by Attorney Lockwood as to the pair of leaden sun-spectacles found on Jonathan Doe at the time of his arrest, said inquiry being directed by the receipted bill for same found, elicited the fact that an unshaven man, somewhat down at heel, came to A. Krantz and Company, workers in leaded glass on or about the 3rd of October, and presenting a complete photograph of a pair of like spectacles ordered an exact duplicate made of them. This they did, their chief workman following the photo very carefully. (See affidavit Kranz and Company, appended hereto.) A like investigation at the offices of the Inter-continental News Service, 12, South Market Street, Chicago, elicted the fact that a man of this description appeared there on the 2nd of October, and paid for a gloss print of the spectacles which had been so prominently featured in the Middleton case. (See attached affidavit of Donald Marks, clerk in the offices of the Inter-continental News Service.)

  Inquiries at San Francisco, where Jerome Middleton was born, elicit the fact that one child and one child only, a boy, was born to Digby and Nell Middleton on November 12, 1899, and there recorded in the department of birth registration. This fact therefore fails to account for the semi-resemblance present between the bearded valet and Mr. Jerome Middleton, which must therefore be considered a chance one. The San Francisco investigation was made by Andrew Lockwood, former attorney for Digby Middleton, in order to complete the case. (See telegram from registrar of births and deaths, San Francisco court house, herewith attached.)

  At a meeting of those intimately connected with the Middleton estate, Mr. Jerome H. Middleton himself presiding, and Mr. Fortescue, Mr. Lockwood and Mr. Searles of the Mid-West Trust Company, trustees for the estate, it was unanimously agreed upon that said Jonathan Doe should be sent to an institution for treatment to restore his mental status if possible, but particularly to make certain that he can do no bodily injury to those connected with the estate to which he feels that he is rightfully entitled. The petition to the county judge for private hearing and commitment are appended herewith.

  EXAMINING DOCTOR’S REPORT.

  As examining doctor I have made no Binet-Simon tests on the patient, as his mentality is well in the adult stage if not above it. Blood test and spinal fluid are negative with respect to Wasserman reaction; blood also negative with respect to Abderhalden. This in itself alone strongly contra-indicates neuro-syphilis, paresis and dementia prœcox.

  Education of patient is very good. Extremely careful and accurate in small details, as found by a 100-per-cent. perfect crossing out of the “e”s in the “e” test showing an ability to build up a delusional system that will be perfectly rational as a delusion. This is further corroborated by a very vivid — almost too vivid — imagination as found by a very detailed picture of supposititious life on the planet Venus. Orientation both in space and time, is exact: he has perfect knowledge of where he is and the date. Whether he has assumed to himself the age which he thinks is that of Jerome H. Middleton, or whether he gives his own actual age, cannot be ascertained; but there is no discrepancy between the two. His logic is clear and perfect, outside of the delusion under which he suffers.

  His explanation of his being in Birkdale is the usual one; namely that he is the victim of a plot. He fails to explain the plot itself as yet, but already has constructed in his mind a series of explanations as to how and why he has become a victim of this “plot.” He fails thus far to explain the identity of the man whom he considers is usurping his place. He names Mr. Luther Fortescue, his former employer, as the active brain in the plot, and, as is usual, all of his explanations radiate like spokes from the person of his persecutor.

  After having been shaved completely in the receiving ward of the State hospital, his personal appearance takes on a striking similarity to the published newspaper pictures of the man whom he considers has usurped his position, and this similarity can be found to exist in more than mere brow and eyes as was first noted in his case. Indeed, the similarity opens a rich field of speculation in his case as to the true classification of his psychosis. This will be further discussed under Conclusions and Diagnosis.

  CONCLUSIONS AND DIAGNOSIS.

  The extremely slovenly appearance of Jonathan Doe, 46, would point, with many inexperienced practitioners, to dementia prœcox; but it will be noted that he does not exhibit the usual lack of interest in his surroundings and apathetic attitude characteristic of this disorder; also the Abderhalden test on his blood is negative, and in addition he is well up in the twenties, quite beyond the point of usual onslaught of this condition.

  The self-aggrandisement feature of the hallucination which preceded his attempt to stop the Martindale-van Ware nuptials, namely, that he was selected over Rockefeller and Ford as a candidate for death, suggests an early paresis, except that all evidences of brain lesions are absent, and spinal fluid and blood are negative.

  The only diagnosis possible is paranoia, the central delusion being one of transference of personality to that of one Jerome Herbert Middleton, with attendant delusions that he is being persecuted by being kept in an asylum. There is, however, in his case, a very strong possibility that he presents the long looked for clinical picture, in America, at least, of Von Zero’s Psychosis, or Auto-Hypnotic Pseudo-Paranoia, which would give Birkdale the first authenticated case to be uncovered in this country. I postulate this due to his marked similarity to Jerome H. Middleton to begin with, the evidences of long staring in a mirror on hi
s part as found in the place where his psychosis, already well under way, fully developed, and the many clippings pinned around the mirror which he evidently compared hourly with his own features. So obsessed did he gradually become, apparently, by the fact that he might be the real Jerome Middleton, that he secured a pair of leaden spectacles exactly like those which Middleton fell heir to, in order to complete the meticulous comparisons of himself with the other; I believe we could safely infer that at or about this time the complete transference of personality took place. It is regrettable, indeed, that the development of the psychosis must possess a hidden gap corresponding to the time when he lived in seclusion in the deserted house.

  I give little credence, also, to the patient’s previous story to Mr. Fortescue that he had been shell-shocked in the war and had forgotten his identity. Had this been the case, he would have retained a smooth face in order to be recognised the more easily by someone who had formerly known him. Indeed, the fact that he allowed himself to be heavily bearded and moustached, so much so that his true similarity to the real Jerome Middleton never did fully come out until his commitment to this institution, evidences that he was remaining in hiding on account of some serious legal trouble of probable criminal nature, into which he had allowed himself to be drawn. And this very factor will no doubt cause a powerful inhibition serving to prevent his recalling that identity, now that it is lost, and which, if he were a victim of pseudo-paranoia, he could regain according to Von Zero.