Harry Kendall Thaw (February 12, 1871 - February 22, 1947), son of a Pittsburgh coal and railroad baron.
He was expelled from Harvard because of a shotgun incident. He married the famous actress and artist's model Evelyn Nesbit and became increasingly angry at the stories she told him of her sexual abuse at the hands of her former lover Stanford White. On June 25, 1906 Evelyn and Harry saw White at a restaurant (the Cafè Martin) and ran into him again in the audience of the old Madison Square Garden's roof theatre at a performance of Mamzelle Champagne. During the finale, "I Could Love A Million Girls" ,Thaw fired three shots at close range into Stanford White's face, killing him.
There were two trials. At the first, the jury was deadlocked: at the second, pleading insanity, Evelyn testified. Thaw's mother told Evelyn that if she would testify that Stanford White abused her and that Harry only tried to protect her, she'd receive a divorce from Harry Thaw and one million dollars in compensation. She did just that, and performed in court wonderfully: he was found not guilty Evelyn got the divorce, but not the money. Thaw was incarcerated at the Asylum for the Criminal Insane at Matteawan, New Jersey, enjoying nearly complete freedom. In 1913 he walked out of the asylum and was driven over the border to Sherbrooke, Quebec. He was extradicted back to the United States, and in 1915 another jury found him sane.
He moved back to Pittsburgh, and his subsequent life was also filled with scandalous brawls, affairs, and lawsuits. The year after his release, he was accused of horsewhipping Fred B Gump, Jr., a teen-aged boy, and was adjudicated insane, and sent to an asylum where he spent seven years, being released in 1924.
He died of a heart attack in Miami, Florida.
He may or may not have been the father of Evelyn Nesbit's son, Russell William Thaw. She claimed that he was; Thaw disagreed repeatedly, though his will stated that if Evelyn did not survive him, her large bequest was to go to her son.
Books
Fictional works based at least in part on the Thaw/White murder
