"True! Nervous very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad." I would say that this man is very mad, insane in fact. He killed an old man, one he claimed he cares for, because of his eye. After the dead he says he cut the man up, and threw him under the floor boards. Alas after hiding the body he says he could hear the old mans heart beating, and in a scene of rage and desperation he told the authorities that he committed the deed. I say he is insane. What man does these things? If you wish to hear more allow me to rein count the story.

This young man is accused of murder, yet I say he has no idea what he has done. He explained to me the entire situation. He feared the old man's "Vulture eye" as he put it. So he planned a plan, that he states was so cunning, to kill the old man. For a week he was so nice to the man, nicer than ever before. Then at midnight he would slowly open the door, which he states took an hour. Then he would peak his head through the door, along with a lantern. Then he would slowly open the lantern hatch, and place a small beam of light on the old man's eye. Every night he did this for a week. Then on the eighth night he accidently awoke the old man. He stood there still for hours, yet the old man did not go back to sleep. Later in the night he opened his lantern, and shot the beam towards the eye. He saw the eye open, and in a fit of rage he killed the old man. He cut him up and placed the body parts under the floor boards. Later that night the police came, and as they were talking to him he claims he heard the heart. He says it kept beating louder and louder. Finally in a fit of rage he pulled up the floorboards and admitted the dead. This stinks of madness.

Now my reasoning for my claim is in plain sight. He killed an old man because of an eye! What sane person would do this? He also only talks about the eye, I sounds as if he doesn't even understand that the old man is dead. He talks only of the so called Vulture eye. Next he says he hears the old mans heart. This is the reason he gave himself up. "It was a low, dull, quick sound; much such a sound a watch makes when enveloped in cotton." These are his exact words. This sounds of madness alright.

Now you may say "Oh but he was in full control, and knew exactly what he was doing." Well I say nay. He speaks only of the eye being gone, never of the old man. He seems to believe in only the eye, it's as if the old man is still alive. I say, with strong feeling that he does not realize that the old man is dead. He only believes the eye is gone.

So with the power vested in me I say he is mad. The evidence shows signs of madness in his mind and body. I say he was not in control of his actions. I also say he should not be held accountable for the murder, but he should be placed in a mental institution. For he is quite insane.