The Wife-Slasher Who Tried to Play Insane—and the Seattle Jury That Didn’t Buy It
McGee feigned madness so badly that the jury convicted him on the first ballot. A Steilacoom asylum doctor explained why three months of observation found no insanity—only a terrified wife.
The story, cleaned up
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McGee, the wife-slasher, feigned insanity so poorly that the jury before whom he was tried found him guilty on the first ballot. The crime is assault with intent to commit murder, and is punishable with fourteen years' imprisonment in the penitentiary as a maximum sentence. One of the principal witnesses for the state was Dr. Loughary, physician in charge of the insane asylum at Steilacoom, who testified as to McGee's condition during his three months' stay there some time ago. The doctor said that there was nothing whatever to indicate that the man was unbalanced.
“Then why did you keep him so long?” was asked.
“Because,” replied the doctor, “we had received letters from his wife, who seemed to be greatly afraid of McGee, asking that he be closely watched. We thought possibly there might be a development of some kind of insanity in him, and gave it every opportunity to develop, if the patient was really afflicted, but it never came, and we discharged him.”
Jailer Munroe also gave conclusive testimony as to the slasher's actions since he has been in jail, and there seemed to be no question that the accused was as sane as any man in the room, though not by any means choice in his habits.
McGee persisted in assuming his dejected position all through the trial, but as soon as removed from the courtroom put on a great air of indignation at the jailer, who he thinks should have shielded him. He has pronounced the “Irish curse,” with the sign of the cross, against Mr. Munroe.
“We had received letters from his wife, who seemed to be greatly afraid of McGee, asking that he be closely watched.”
More than a century before modern debates over the insanity defense and domestic-violence risk assessment, a Seattle jury had to decide whether a man who attacked his wife was mentally ill or simply dangerous. The case shows how courts then—and now—struggle to separate mental illness from violence, while the victim’s fear runs through the record.
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