This is an interesting day in history, really.   Copernicus was born.  Edison patented the phonograph.   A whole wagon load of “this and that’s”.  Yes…. as I write, it is February 19th.   But one of the little known but highly important stories is this.   On this day in 1859….. Daniel E. Sickles, a New York Congressman, was acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity.

This is the first time this defense was successfully used in the United States.  The old “temporary I-lost-my-wits-and-all-about-me” defense.  I can hear the gavel hit the bench as I type.

Old Man Sickles killed his wife’s lover.  Shot him dead in front of the White House.  The stud-muffin’s name  was Philip Barton Key II.  Old Philandering Phil…. was … by the way… was the son of Francis Scott Key (the composer of the Star Spangled Banner).  How’s that for your dawn’s early light?

But back to Sickles.. and the outcome of his trial.  Boy oh boy….. did that ever open a can of worms. Insanity Plea.   It is not surprising though.  Sickles was a bit of a colorful and controversial character.  He plucked around scandal like a turkey farmer the day before Thanksgiving.

In 1852, Sickles married Teresa Bagioli against the wishes of both families.  He was a weeee bit older….  Danny Boy was 33 and his new wife Teresa only 15 years old.

He went on to cause a lot of trouble most everywhere he went.  Sickles’s career was replete with personal scandals.  He got hollered at…. sternly, I might add…. by the New York State Assembly…… for escorting a known prostitute, Fanny White, into its chambers.   He also took little Fanny all the way to England, leaving his pregnant wife at home….

That might of had something to do with his wife fooling around with Cutie-Pie-Phil.  Ya’ think?

At any rate.  They found Sickles innocent.  Yes.  He was out of his head with jealousy and rage.  Justifiable homicide.  And there you have it ….  The whole ball of wax.

Well… not quite the whole ball.  A few years later… the Civil War started. Sickles volunteered… and was eventually promoted to General.  And then he got his leg shot off by a canon ball in the Battle of Gettysburg.  Kapow.  Actually… it had to be amputated… but I won’t go in to all the details of that injury.  And that is the whole enchilada.

Well… not quite the whole burrito.  Some years later….. the Army Surgeon General  asked for “donations” of  “specimens of morbid anatomy”  …. as artifacts of the Civil War.  They wanted them for a display in the Army  Medical Museum in Washington, D.C.   Coolio.  The Display of Morbid Anatomy.

Well guess who kept his kicker?  Old nutty-man Sickles.   I bet he even named the thing.

He preserved the bones from his leg and donated them to the museum in a small coffin-shaped box.  He also wrote out a little card that said…. “With the compliments of Major General D.E.S.”  Sweet.   He should have just written… “To Sir… With Love.”

For several years thereafter, he reportedly visited the limb on the anniversary of the amputation.   Limped the whole way there and back…. I’ll bet ya’.

So.  Just a little chunk of history.  Not exactly main stream… but colorful.

Dan, the one-legged-whacky-man.  Yep.  That old temporary insanity defense had to get its start somewhere….. even if it was a LAME defense…..

“Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage.”  -Ray Bradbury