1848-1919
Dr. Allan McLane Hamilton, MD, LLD, FRS,[1] the grandson of founding father Alexander Hamilton, was one of the leading “alienists” or psychiatrists of his day. Dr. Hamilton was in great demand during the Gilded Age, offering expert testimony in several “of the greatest cases of the time,” and in more than 100 murder trials, including the trials of the assassins of Presidents Garfield and McKinley, as well as the notorious cases of People v. Thaw, People v. Harris, and People v. Stephani.[2] His expertise was especially sought out in criminal cases involving mental competency and the insanity defense.
In his 1916 autobiography, Dr. Hamilton observed that the introduction of the electric chair had served to make state sponsored executions a more distant and impersonal process.
I had seen men hung years ago in the yards of the Tombs—and for the most part those executions were solemn affairs. Even the ward politician and the political healer who had ‘gota ticket’ were awed, and reverently followed the prayer of the black-robed priests, and everything seemed to be decent and in order . . . I am sorry to say that the method of electrical execution did not give this impression, and there was a more or less decided feeling that every one thought more of the success of the procedure than that a human being, no matter how wicked, was being sent out of the world with so short a shrift.[3]
[1] Fellow of the Royal Society, a prestigious title bestowed on those who have made significant contributions to science, engineering or technology.
[2] “Dr. A. M’L. Hamilton, Alienist, Dies at 71,” New York Times, Nov. 24, 1919.
[3] Allan McLane Hamilton, Recollections of an Alienist – Personal and Professional, George H. Doran Co., (1916), at 383.