Hallett - EP - declared insane
Source: Crawfordsville Daily Journal Thursday, 18 Sept. 1890
Some time ago, E. P. Hallett of Ripley Township, residing within half a mile of Bluff Mills, while suffering slightly from melancholy, requested that he be adjudged insane and sent to the Asylum at Indianapolis for treatment. So at his own request a lunacy commission sat and he was sent to the asylum. He rapidly grew better there and performed the duties of an attendant regularly. After a season he asked and was promptly granted a 60 days’ furlough to go home and see to his farm. He passed his time there in work and good order as usual, but one night three days before the expiration of his furlough his father-in-law, John Newkirk, of Fountain County, accompanied by his two sons and a man named Etter, who takes a great interest in Hallett’s affairs for some reason, came to Hallett’s house, forced him into a wagon and bringing him here, carried him to Indianapolis and lodged him in the Asylum. Of course, Hallett felt greatly incensed at the outrage as any man would, but bore himself very calmly under the indignity. Shortly after this rude incarceration, Hallett wrote to his wife requesting her to come to Indianapolis and secure his release. She replied that she would do nothing of the kind. This stirred Mr. Hallett up considerably and he at once sat down and wrote, as anyone might under the circumstances, that if her action was due to the influence of the Newkirks and Etter, that he would make the country too hot to hold them upon his release. This letter the Newkirks took to Indianapolis to Superintendent Wright, warning him that Hallett was a dangerous man and should not be set at liberty. So when Hallett applied, he was refused on the ground that he had made threats. Mr. Hallett is still in the Asylum, doing the work of an attendant and declared by all the assistants there to be a sane man. He is the victim of a plot his friends claim, and the appointment of a guardian by the circuit court this week is the preliminary step looking to his release. His guardian, Henry D. Vancleave, will first demand his liberty and if not granted will begin habeas corpus proceedings at once. There are a few juicy facts connected with the wish of the wife’s family to keep him in the Asylum which are not ready for the public just yet.
Source: Crawfordsville Daily Journal Monday, 22 Sept. 1890
John Newkirk of Fountain County, the father-in-law of E. P. Hallett, who is now in the insane asylum at Indianapolis, was in the city today. He is taking legal steps toward preventing Hallett being brought back. He states that Hallett was never sent to the asylum at his own request but by his wife’s, that while he is sometimes perfectly rational, he is at the other times very violent and has made repeated attempts to kill his wife and mother, that it was after one of these violent demonstrations that he was taken by Mr. Newkirk’s sons and Joseph Etter back to the asylum, that before his removal he had stated his intention of killing Mr. Newkirk at sight, that his wife lives in deadly fear of him and is now at Mr. Newkirk’s home in fear that Hallett may be released. Mr. Newkirk’s story is a harrowing one and he says that while he has only sympathy for Hallett, he believes it would greatly endanger several lives to release him. He roundly denounced the attendants who have written back to various parties that Hallett is perfectly cured and showed a letter from Supt. Wright stating that Hallett was no better. Mr. Newkirk further says the above facts can be proved by all the neighbors who fear Hallett almost as much as his wife does.