Com. v. Eisen

• Decision Date: 26 February 1971
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. Karl G. EISEN.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

Page 229

267 N.E.2d 229

358 Mass. 740

COMMONWEALTH v. Karl G. EISEN.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Plymouth.

Argued Jan. 4, 1971.

Decided Feb. 26, 1971.

Alexander Whiteside, II, Boston (Reuben Goodman, Boston, with him) for defendant.

Brian E. Concannon, Asst. Dist. Atty., for the Commonwealth.

Before TAURO, C.J., and CUTTER, SPIEGEL, REARDON and QUIRICO, JJ.

TAURO, Chief Justice.

The defendant appeals under G.L. c. 278, §§ 33A--33G, from convictions of murder in the first degree of his wife and daughter on or about November 2, 1966. The jury recommended that the death penalty be not imposed.

The defendant argues three points: (a) That the court erred in the admission in evidence of certain incriminating statements made by the defendant on the ground that the defendant was mentally incompetent to make them. (b) That the court erred in admitting hearsay evidence concerning the defendant's mental condition and in not striking out opinion evidence based on this hearsay evidence. (c) That the court erred in submitting to the jury the issue of extreme atrocity and cruelty and in the alternative that G.L. c. 265, § 1, 'is so vague and indefinite, as regards extreme atrocity and cruelty, that it is unconstitutional.'

The evidence pertinent to these issues is summarized. The forty-one year old defendant, his wife and four minor children had lived in Kingston, Massachusetts, for several years. The defendant was employed in a local appliance store and enjoyed a favorable reputation in the community. The bodies of the decedents were found in the defendant's home on November 4, 1966. There was expert testimony that both victims had died approximately twenty-four to forty-eight or as many as seventy-two hours prior to the autopsies performed the evening of November 4. The defendant's wife Margot Eisen died as the result of an extensive wound over the right eye, inflicted by a heavy, blunt instrument and his fourteen year old daughter Gabrielle Eisen died as a result of multiple (nine) blunt injuries to the head. The examination of an axe found in the defendant's house revealed the presence of human blood and hairs. Human blood was also found on the defendant's clothing at the time of his arrest. The defendant was seen by a neighbor going into his house the day following the killings and leaving the house after a brief stay. He was arrested on November 5, 1966, in Connecticut. The defendant was committed for observation to Bridgewater State Hospital on November 7, 1966. On December 2, 1966, no diagnosis had been made and he was granted another period of observation. On December 29, 1966, a diagnosis was made of psychotic depressive reaction and he was found to be incompetent to stand trial. Approximately one year later, the defendant was adjudicated as competent to stand trial.

Subject to the defendant's exceptions the following evidence was admitted. On Friday, November 4, 1966, Marcia Reid received a telephone call from the defendant who asked her to call the police; the defendant did not sound excited or disturbed. She turned the telephone over to her husband Kenneth Reid. The defendant told him that he had done something terrible; that his wife and daughter were dead at home, but 'he couldn't go through with it with the other children,' and had them locked in a motel room.

On the morning of November 4, 1966, the defendant telephoned Mrs. Margaret Bernardo and told her that his wife and daughter had been dead at home for two days and that he was in Canada with three of the children. He asked, 'What shall I do?' On the same day Mrs. Bernardo received a letter in a handwriting similar to the defendant's. The substance of the letter was that the defendant was in love with Mrs. Bernardo and that he was going to kill himself to prove it. Mrs. Bernardo testified that in early October, 1966, the defendant had forced her car off the road and told her that he hated his wife. 'He wanted me to go away with him, and if I didn't, that he would kill himself and his wife and his children, because his children and his wife couldn't get along without him if he were dead.' About one week before November, 1966, Mrs. Bernardo received a telephone call from the defendant who said that he would kill himself and his family if she did not go away with him.

James R. Goonan, chief of police of Kingston, testified that on November 5, 1966, the defendant had said to several policemen, 'I know I haven't got to say anything, but I got to say this. How can you people be so nice to me after what I have done?' One Milton Young, who had been hunting in Connecticut on November 5, 1966, testified that the defendant approached him and said, 'I killed my wife and daughter. Call the police. I've had it.'

Somewhat similar incriminating statements to other people were admitted without objection. Detective Charles Sanga of the Connecticut State police testified that on Saturday, November 5, 1966, he had been called to a State forest in Connecticut. When Detective Sanga saw the defendant, he asked him if he was Karl Eisen, and the defendant replied, 'Yes I am, I did it, I did it, I did it.' Another State police officer who accompanied Detective Sanga testified to the same effect.

Dr. Samuel Allen, who was the acting medical director at Bridgewater State Hospital, testified that the defendant was suffering from a psychotic depressive reaction at the time he was admitted to Bridgewater State Hospital on November 7, 1966; that he was rational before that time; and that the onset of the mental illness probably occurred when the defendant became aware that his wife and daughter were dead. In Dr. Allen's opinion, the principal cause of the illness was the defendant's knowledge of the deaths and his possible involvement in them; also for several months the defendant got progressively worse after admission to the hospital.

Dr. Robert R. Mezer, a psychiatrist called by the defence, first saw the defendant on November 11, 1966, and diagnosed his condition as 'psychotic depressive reaction.' This reaction was described as an abnormal sadness, depression and melancholy, a depression where the individual is so ill that he loses contact with reality and becomes unaware of what he is doing. In the opinion of Dr. Mezer, the reaction began sometime between March 21, 1966, when Eisen's wife attempted suicide, and May, 1966, when she was discharged from the hospital. In his opinion, the defendant was suffering from this condition on November 2, 1966, and it prevented the defendant from substantially conforming his behavior to normality or rationality, and the defendant's confessions and the killings themselves were consistent with a psychotic depressive reaction. If the defendant had awakened and found the bodies of his wife and daughter and had had no memory of the events of the preceding evening, in the witness's opinion, the defendant would have believed that he was responsible for the killings.

The defendant's past life, as he outlined it to the jury, was fairly uneventful prior to the killings except for a period of years during World War II when he was a German prisoner of war in Russia.

The defendant testified that on Wednesday, November 2, he did not eat all day; late in the evening he had two small glasses of cognac and a bottle of beer and a sip from a second bottle of beer; he did not feel well--he was sick to his stomach; he arrived home about 10 or 10:30 P.M.; he felt miserable, he went to bed; the ceiling seemed to be turning. During the night he heard somebody crying. He could not awaken his wife; she did not move. He went upstairs to his sons' room and tucked them in bed. He next remembered awakening in broad daylight. He was kneeling by his son Dean's bed. He went downstairs and saw that his wife was dead. He covered her face with a pillow. He went upstairs and saw that his daughter was dead. The defendant woke up his other children and drove off with them. After completion of the defendant's direct testimony counsel moved to strike out the defendant's 'admissions, confessions or statements.' The court denied the motion and ruled that they were made voluntarily.

In rebuttal for the Commonwealth, Dr. Allen testified that the defendant was normal and rational on November 2 and that on November 3 he was no longer rational, normal and...