THINK HE FEIGNED INSANITY.
Case of John M. Crane.
ST. JOSEPH, MO., April 29. -- The escape of no patient among the criminal insane at the State Hospital for the Insane, No. 2, has caused so great a sensation as the leavetaking of John M. Crane of Kansas City last night.
Although the asylum officials admit Crane's escape, and that he is much wanted, they are making only perfunctory efforts to apprehend the wife slayer's whereabouts. Physicians at State H ospital No. 2 do not hesitate to say that in their opinion Crane has been feigning insanity.
His malady is diagnosed as katonia or stereotypeism, a disposition constantly to the same words and acts, but the physicians say this form of insanity does not manifest itself in persons of his age. He is nearly 50 years old.
Physicians in charge of his case say he talks of his wife as though she were still alive. They say they believe he learned the art of shamming of one Neeley Harris, a "trusty" who was in the hospital ward in the jail at Kansas City where Crane was confined for several months.
