The Codman Will Case. 
BY 
WALTER CHANNING, M. JD., 
Brookline, Mass. 
a&ejmnt 
FROM 
The American Journal of Insanity, 
Utica, October, 1888. THE CODMAN WILL CASE.* 
WALTER CHANNTNG, M. 0., 
Brookline, Mass. 
In December, 1886, John A. Codman, of Boston, died of 
cirrhosis of the liver. He had suffered from oedema for perhaps 
two years before his death, had been tapped several times, and 
had every warning that a mart in his condition could have that 
death was impending. 
He was a member of an old, well-known family, which was both 
aristocratic and respectable, and comparatively rich, and had not 
his conduct during life been both extraordinary and disgraceful, 
and his will a climax of such a life, it is probable that no litigation 
would have taken place, and hence no publicity attached to the 
name. 
The provisions of the will were'of such a nature, however, that 
it seemed wrong to Mr. Cod man’s widow and surviving child, to 
have the will admitted to probate. Undue influence was urged 
before the Judge of Probate, but he decided to admit the will. 
Exceptions were taken and the case appealed to the Supreme 
Judicial Court, and tried before a jury. The contest was here 
made on the grounds of undue influence and insanity. 
The will was a voluminous and artfully worded document, and 
impossible for any but a skilled lawyer to thoroughly understand. 
The whole property, which was upwards of 1400,000, was left 
in trust for the widow and surviving child, a daughter, with the 
exception of two legacies, one of $20,000 to a former mistress, and 
one of $40,000 to a mistress still maintaining relations with him. 
The greatest ingenuity was displayed in the further provisions 
of the will, which were firstly drawn in favor of mistress number 
two, Mrs. Kimball, and secondly in favor of the lawyer. Under 
clause ten this woman was to have, in the event of Mrs. Codman’s 
death, the income of $87,000, and under clause eleven, in the event 
of Miss Codman’s death, the income of $lOB,OOO. In case of the 
death of mistress number one, she would get the income of $20,000 
more. Altogether she would eventually receive, if she outlived 
the others, the income of about $300,000. As. Mrs. Codman was 
*Kead at the annual meeting of the Association of Medical Superintendents of 
American Institutions for the Insane, held at Old Point Comfort, Ya., May 15-18,1888. 2 
already toward 65 years of age, and the daughter a sufferer from, a 
serious form of chronic disease, there was a fair chance of such a 
contingency. This money was further to he handed down to her 
children, illegitimate or otherwise, should she have any. 
The lawyer might receive, on the death of Miss Codman without 
issue, and Mrs. Kimball without issue, and a Codman brother, 
$84,000. 
Mr. Cod man’s mother died of softening of the brain at 55, and 
his father of dropsy. One brother was weak-minded from birth, 
and had a guardian appointed for' himself, as he felt unable to 
otherwise resist the importunities of the people in whose house he 
lived. 
Pie was suspended in college and did not return; then he studied 
law one year. He had a little aptitude for painting, and sold, 
during his life, one picture. Otherwise than this he did no wmrk, 
and had no occupation, and led an idle, aimless life. 
Pie married at the age of 26, and lived with his father imme- 
diately after marriage. He had a very small income, which Mrs. 
Codman managed to pay most of the bills with, when not, the 
father was called on. Even in the early years he seems to have 
been too lazy and indifferent to keep accounts, or pay bills himself. 
Mrs. Codman says in her testimony that he did not wish to look 
after money when his father died, so he left much of the work to 
her; she paid the bills, made leases and examined them to see that 
they were correctly drawn. She also made out bills for rent. 
He had two children, a boy (Amory) and girl (Martha C.), both 
born between 1850 and 1860, and these were all the children he 
ever had. Of both these, especially the daughter, he was ex- 
tremely fond. 
Pie was a good-looking man, of pleasant, genial manners, 
courteous to every one, and especially polite to the members of 
his own family. 
With these pleasant manners was combined considerable selfish- 
ness, and there has been no evidence that he ever attempted to do 
anything beyond gratifying his own desires. From the beginning 
he had little idea of social, domestic or moral obligations. He was 
either born with deficient moral sense, (paranoia), or a lack of 
will-power, which rendered it impossible for him in the beginning 
to carry through any duty that required force of character. With 
his affluent surroundings and nothing demanded of him, he was 
most favorably situated to develop any latent weaknesses, and 
what made it the more easy, was the lack of interest he manifested 
in work or employment of any sort or kind. 3 
But the influence which more than any other contributed to the 
ultimate result of mental and moral degeneracy, was the pernicious 
character of his habits. These were bad from a very early period. 
As long ago as 1858, there is evidence that he held criminal 
relationship with women. At this early period, however, and for 
many years after, in fact until brought into association with the 
notorious “ Violette ” Kimball, he had not so far lost moral will- 
power as to outrage his domestic and social ties by an open 
exhibition of the adulterous relation. He was careful to do any- 
thing immoral or licentious, as far as his mistress was concerned, 
sub rosa, and the world at large was totally ignorant of his 
libertinism. 
With these low moral tendencies was associated an addiction to 
alcohol and tobacco. For a long series of years he was a steady 
drinker, and he smoked immoderately from morning to night. 
He also showed eccentricity in some of his personal habits in the 
early years, which persisted and became exaggerated in later life. 
He would, for instance, not handle money without putting gloves 
on, and would hand it to others wrapped in paper, and he would 
not touch the door-handles without putting gloves on. He also 
constantly washed his hands when about to do the most trifling 
thing. 
Passing over a period of twenty years, the details of which do 
not enter into the evidence which is being passed in review, we 
come to the year 1872, or the year after Mr. Codman met “Mrs.” 
Kimball, 
What may have been Mr. Codman’s history in these years we 
do not know, beyond the fact that he continued drinking steadily 
and had a mistress named Mary Burditt, who (with the Kimball 
woman) continued for some years to pander to his evil passions, 
until crowded out of the field by the superior prowess of the 
latter. 
The relationship of Mr. Codman and Mrs. Kimball, with all its 
revolting details, bears, even on a superficial examination, on its 
face proof of the moral degeneracy and mental impairment into 
which Mr. Codman had been slowly drifting. 
The Kimball woman was said to be divorced from her husband, 
but she was a woman of the lowest tastes, lacking in refinement, 
half educated, coarse and voluptuous in appearance, and in every 
way a fitting example of the elite of the demi-monde. 
It would have been natural for a man of Mr, Codman’s bringing 
up to have sought even in a criminal connection, a woman with 4 
some semblance of refinement, and it is evidence of mental impair- 
ment that he thought this indecent, cunning and treacherous 
woman a paragon of purity and innocence. 
The depth, strength and intensity of his delusional belief in 
regard to Mrs. Kimball is demonstrated beyond all contradiction 
in the vast correspondence he carried on with her. In a little over 
fourteen years he preserved nearly nineteen hundred of her letters. 
These letters were found carefully arranged in series, numbered 1, 
2 and 3, in a trunk in the storage warehouse, after his death. In 
the same trunk were some indecent nude pictures, and pictures of 
Mrs. Kimball. 
These letters are filled with sickly sentimentality, coarse and 
disgusting allusions and suggestions; the plainest demands for 
money; brutal criticisms of Mrs. Codman, broad suggestions as to 
the desirability of getting her out of the way, and marrying Mrs, 
Kimball; allusions to mistress Ko. 2, &c. 
All of the filth, scandal, passion and general wickedness is after 
the style of a silly school-girl, and would nauseate a very strong 
and toughened palate. Kearly every letter shows on the face of it 
that it is written for the purpose of extracting money out of a 
soft-headed imbecile, though their glaring intention is supposed to 
be artfully concealed behind expressions of tender regard and love. 
But Mr. Codman’s judgment and moral perception were too 
impaired to discern the self-evident truth, and he accepted all of 
these letters precisely as if Mrs. Kimball had been a woman in his 
own social circle, and their relations had been proper, and she had 
written him refined and lady-like letters. 
The many comments made on the letters in Mr. Codman’s hand- 
writing are all the proof needed of this assertion: “She is his 
darling,” “she has no faults,” “she is just about perfect,” “he 
loves her only,” “ she has owned him for years and he will never 
disown her,” Mrs. Kimball refers to beef-steak, of which he is 
fond, and he says, “I thank the great spirit that you always think 
of me my own true darling.” At this very time, it may be said in 
passing, Mrs. Kimball was entertaining other lovers, nearly every 
evening being passed in this way. Of letter 528 which was very 
insulting to his family he says, “that God can spare you out of 
heaven is one of the strongest proofs of his willingness to make 
mortals happy, and of the riches in store for them here, if they 
could but know you as I do.” “’Tis you, darling, who are a 
saint;” “darling of my heart, how I pity you;” “the kingdom of 
Christ is not.” One extraordinary letter sent to Mrs. Kimball was 5 
in the form of along list of minute questions as carefully elaborated 
as those in a civil service examination. These questions referred 
to the most trivial details, such as when Mrs. Kimball got up, 
went to bed, which w7ay her bed was set in the room, at which end 
her head, &c. 
As an instance of the weak-minded and juvenile absorption of 
Mr. Codman in Mrs. Kimball, the fact may be mentioned at this 
point (being brought out from the letters) that he one night put 
on his dress-suit at just the time Mrs. Kimball had a party in 
Montreal, and remained up in his room, imagining that he was at 
the party; and Mrs. Kimball encourages his infatuation by saying 
she reserves dances for him. 
These and many other comments, all of the same general tenor, 
bear constant witness to the dominant idea which ran through Mr. 
Codman’s mind for many years. 
Why he saved so criminating and damning a correspondence is 
past belief if he is viewed as a sane, well-balanced man. Yet be 
filed all the letters away; arranged them in series; made self- 
accusing notes which showed him guilty of not only base marital 
infidelity, but of endorsing criminal acts and schemes in another. 
If he had had a sane regard of the most common kind for his 
wife, his daughter, or his family name even, he would have 
destroyed the letters. If he had had a sane respect for his own 
name, he would have destroyed the letters. If he had had any 
rational regard for the feelings or reputation of his mistress, he 
would have destroyed the letters. 
The ordinary sane, well-balanced man, if immoral enough to 
have a mistress, conceals it from the world while the relation 
exists, and guards every loophole that may make its existence 
public either now or in the future. He destroys all letters, covers 
his tracks, and sees to it that it may never bring disgrace on his 
family name. He is ashamed that such a relationship should be 
heard of, and avoids every source of notoriety and scandal. Such 
a course would be followed at the dictation of common worldly 
wisdom, and would call for no high moral tone to suggest it to 
the mind. 
Mr. Codman did the exact opposite, and treasured up the largest 
collection of scandalous letters that I have seen recorded. He 
was as careful to bring disgrace on himself and his family as if he 
were bringing undying glory ; any little opportunity to show how 
nasty and dirty and depraved a woman can be, was preserved in 
these letters, and these letters were by implication a reflection of 6 
himself. Is it possible to imagine that Mr. Codman realized the 
curse he was bringing’on the name of Codman? 
The answer to this question must be, no; his moral perception, 
judgment and conscientiousness were so perverted and weakened, 
that what would have been criminal and foolish in the ordinary 
sane individual, seemed to him wise and right. As far as “Mrs.” 
Kimball was concerned, as far as the letters were concerned, and 
as time went on, as far as most of the acts requiring any moral or 
will power were concerned, he had lost the mental power of clearly 
distinguishing between right and wrong. 
Returning again to the evidence and examining into the mental 
and physical condition of Mr. Codman as he appeared in 1872, it 
will be seen that considerable deterioration had taken place, as 
already intimated, dui’ing the twenty years, which is the period 
about which comparatively little evidence has been offered in 
court. 
The Kimball acquaintance had been formed in 1871, and the 
Kimball soil was just the soil to develop the weak, brutish and 
silly tastes over which Mr. Codman had largely lost control. It is 
certain that in earlier years he would have shown more strength of 
mind in dealing with her, and not have figured so largely as the 
foolish, half-witted, imbecile dupe, but he had already gone a long 
distance down the hill of cerebral degeneracy, and the time was 
ripe for him to be caught in the toils of a cunning and designing 
adventuress. 
In 1872 he began to lose interest in his home and family, and 
became rude, cross and irritable as he had not been before. He 
was especially irritable toward his wife, and began to use profane 
language in the house, which he had never done before. It was 
also about this time that he began to have paroxysms of crying, 
which lasted down to the time of his death. These attacks were 
often very violent, the tears streaming down all over him, and 
they sometimes lasted for half an hour. They occuri'ed at first at 
varying periods, from once a day to once in ten days, and in the 
later years sometimes as often as four times a day. Once or twice 
Mr. Codman was agitated when these attacks came on, but other- 
wise neither he nor any one else could assign a cause. As far as 
can be seen they were due to a loss of will power, and a weakened 
condition of the nervous system, and are corroborative evidence of 
the deterioration which had taken place in him. 
In 1874 the Codman family went to Europe, Mrs. Kimball also 
being in Europe, and in the same cities, and sometimes only across the street, Mr. Codman now neglected the family almost entirely. 
He was away the entire day and evening, only coming back to 
meals, his time being presumably passed in, the society of the 
Kimball woman. 
While in Europe he grew more violent and abusive to his family, 
and at Nice got into a violent rage with his daughter, of whom 
he had previously been very fond. She refused, from, accidental 
causes, to take his arm in going out of the drawing-room, where- 
upon he hurst into a flood of tears, and went up to their rooms. 
The son shortly came in, and he cried out, “ one, two, three, all of 
you may he d d, and go to hell.” 
Another instance of his coarseness and brutality was shown in 
Paris shortly after the death of his son, when seeing Mrs. Codman 
in tears he said “ it served you right, if you had never home him 
you could have lived with me as a mistress.” 
These two occurrences are striking examples of the change 
which had come over Mr. Codman, as he was naturally pleasant 
and polite with his family, and had never been known to use 
coarse or abusive language. 
O O 
In 1876 he began to drink heavily; rum and water he drank at 
all times of the day, beside drinking wine at' dinner. Sometimes 
he got drunk. The excessive smoking continued to the end. 
For many of the latter years of his life he had a boon com- 
panion, who dined with him each day, after which they retired to 
a smoking-room in the upper part of the house, where they 
remained carousing until midnight. After 1880 Mrs. Codman and 
the daughter could not be at the same table with them, and took 
their tea on a table under the stairs, while Mr. Codman and his 
boon companion dined in the dining-room. 
In money matters he was reckless to an extraordinary extent. 
On the return from Europe he mortgaged the estate to the extent 
of $25,000, part of this sum no doubt being needed for the 
Kimball woman. His income at this time was large. He gave 
his wife $6,000, then spent it without her knowledge. He allowed 
tax bills to go unpaid, and it was common for mother and 
daughter to pay these out of their own income. 
He lavished money on the Kimball woman, but felt too poor to 
clothe himself properly, and after 1879 began to look shabby and 
slovenly, having formerly been very particular in dress. He 
finally became ragged, and for several years his wife bought 
clothing for him. During the last five or six years of his life he 
often would not brush his hair when he got up in the morning, and 
would leave it unkempt during the day. Much of the time during 8 
the last two years of his life he wore no trousers in the house; his 
usual costume was an overcoat, drawers, and an old handkerchief, 
when in-doors. He even went to the table without trousers on, 
which impressed his wife and daughter as very strange, and can 
hardly he explained away on the ground that he may have been 
suffering from oedema of the legs. If he was well enough to go 
to the table for his meals, he was probably well enough to dress 
himself properly. 
Both Mrs. and Miss Codman testified to the extreme and 
abnormal fear Mr. Codman possessed in regard to burglars. 
Every night he went all over the house armed with a loaded 
pistol searching for them. He kept a loaded pistol under his 
pillowy and several loaded pistols in other places, and after his 
death twelve loaded pistols were found. He would get up in the 
night and search for burglars, and often had nightmares when he 
thought burglars were in the room. Once he confronted Mrs. 
Codman with a loaded pistol and lantern. 
Before going to Europe Mrs. Codman testified to Mr. Codman’s 
defective memory—he did not remember the day of sailing, for 
instance. The daughter also testified to weakness of memory. 
In addition to swearing when talking to others he developed a 
habit of muttering and swearing to himself, especially noticed 
after the return from Europe in 1876. The daughter says he 
talked to himself aloud continually—often he seemed to be enraged 
with some one. Once he said, “ liars all of them,” but usually he 
could not be understood. 
Though death was clearly approaching, he continued his bad 
habits to the end. According to his nurse, he drank a quart of 
New England rum in each forty-eight hours up to the end. The 
nurse tried to prevent his drinking, but failed, as he could not 
leave it off. She also tried to prevent his smoking, but failed. 
He said to the nurse, “ don’t let her knife me,”—he was afraid of 
the inside man—thought he would kill him. He cried often and 
as if his heart would break. In answer to the nurse’s questions, 
he said he could not leave things as he wished—could not provide 
as he wanted to. He evidently said something about suicide, for 
the nurse put a razor and knife out of his way. 
The history of Mr. Codman which has been given above, though 
not filled out as fully as would be desirable, in the description of 
physical changes and symptoms, were the patient still living, 
furnishes none the less a striking case of the mental degen- 
eration accompanying chronic alcoholism in the intermediate 
stage, if we care to divide it into stages. Marked mental, and 9 
with this intellectual degeneration, has taken place. And, more 
than all, great moral 'changes show themselves. A profound 
change has already taken place; as Magnaq says,* “a profound 
action has been produced, nutrition is altered throughout all the 
organs, systems and tissues. Under the influence of alcohol a 
double morbid process has developed itself; the system as a whole 
has been struck, as it is said, with premature old age, and has 
undergone fatty degeneration. * * * Organic changes appear 
moreover * * * in the muscles and the glands ; and as regards 
the liver in particular, we know that either cirrhosis, or fatty 
degeneration is the concomitant of chronic alcoholism.” * * * 
“The memory is weakened; the judgment less sure, and incapable 
of discernment; * * * the moral sense is greatly blunted. 
Apathetic, indifferent, stupefied, the chronic alcoholic bestows no 
attention on his person, he takes no care of his family, he is 
lowered in all his intellectual, moral and social faculties, and finds 
himself yielded defenseless to the caprices of instinctive appe- 
tites.” A maudlin, sentimental condition becomes added to the 
indifference and apathy. The sleep is disturbed by dreams and 
nightmares, and Mr. Codman’s fears of robbers, and his nightmares 
about them were characteristic of alcoholic degeneration. 
The convulsions of weeping were very striking in Mr. Codman’s 
case; as Bucknill and Take say,f “the feebleness of mind, the 
blunted moral sensibilities, and yet the tendency to weep on the most 
trivial occasions ” are all marked characteristics of this condition. 
One of the terminations of alcoholic degeneration is premature 
old age, and the evidence presented above shows that Mr. Codman 
was drifting into this condition when he first met Mrs. Kimball. 
He proved himself to be silly, childish, even babyish in his whim- 
sicalities in reference to Mrs. Kimball, and she was quite right in 
calling him “ her baby,” as he showed plenty of indications of 
second childhood. 
I have frequently questioned myself as to why Mr. Codman was 
not put under guardianship, or into an asylum, as he showed such 
marked mental incapacity. This has been explained privately to 
me by Mrs. Codman, who said she would have been afraid of 
losing her life had she made any such attempt. There was an 
actual reign of terror in the Codman house, which explains much 
of Mrs. Codman’s apparent indecision. 
To sum up, then: Mr. Codman was, for many years before his 
death, the subject of a progressive mental and physical impair- 
♦Page 155. 
+ Page 392, ment caused by alcoholic and other excesses. This change, at first 
functional, became organic and permanent. 
As a consequence of the mental degeneration, which of course 
includes the moral, various and frequently repeated acts were 
committed, all going to prove a clearly recognizable degree of 
mental unsoundness, and no evidence to my knowledge has been 
produced which contravenes the correctness of this opinion. 
At any time during the last fifteen years of Mr, Codman’s life 
it is my opinion that he was incapable of assuming the responsi- 
bilities and duties of life in the full sense of the word. He was 
all the time managed like a weak-minded child, his lawyer and his 
wife attending to his business affairs, and his mistress and boon 
companion providing diversion and amusement. He never appar- 
ently knew it, but he was constantly in the bands of others. 
Had Mr. Codman been situated like other men, and had actual 
work and duties to perform, it is my own opinion, that with the 
mental instability and unsoundness he exhibited, he would have 
broken down totally, and either have been placed under guardian- 
ship, or in a lunatic asylum. As it was, we see that he was under 
the restraint of the strong wills of his mistress and lawyer, and 
had money not been the object of Mrs. Kimball, and his lawyer a 
man of worldly wisdom, he might have been led to commit some 
overt and criminal act. Had he committed such an act, it is 
almost certain that he would have been held irresponsible on the 
ground of mental unsoundness. 
The verdict brought in by the jury rejected the will on the 
two grounds of unsound mind and undue influence. Their verdict 
was rendered in the form of questions and answers. 
A few days afterward the Court heard a motion for a new trial, 
and set aside four findings of the jury. Two of these referred to 
the testator’s mental condition, which the Court held was sound, 
and two to undue influence on the part of the lawyer, and a 
beneficiary for a small amount in a codicil. 
The other findings of the jury as to undue influence on the part 
of Mrs. Kimball were however sustained, and the decision of the 
probate court, that the will be admitted to probate, was reversed. 
The Court showed the same unwarranted and unreasonable 
prejudice against expert testimony, as at the earlier stage of the 
trial. The judge said in substance, “he could not see how the jury 
could come to the conclusion which they did that Mr. Codman 
was not of sound mind at the time of signing the will itself.” 
He expressed a distrust on his own part of the effect which the 
testimony of medical experts in a case like this might have on the 11 
minds of the jury, and intimated that had it been within his 
province he should have been willing to exclude from this trial 
evidence of this kind. 
One would suppose that the Court would hate welcomed expert 
testimony, which would tend to clear up doubts which might exist 
in the minds of the jury, instead of throwing discredit on such 
testimony. 
The prejudices and freaks of courts in medico-legal cases are 
however, often inexplicable, and lead to the most gross injustice, 
as for instance, witness the rulings of Justices Day and Field, 
mentioned in the April number (1888) of the Journal of Mental 
Science. Justice Day said in the first case that he would not 
allow the medical men to give their opinion as to the prisoner’s 
sanity, as they would by so doing usurp the functions of the jury. 
They could only state facts. Justice Field was studiously rude to 
the medical witnesses, would allow them to give no opinion of the 
prisoner’s mental condition, and said, a medical gentleman “ could 
no more dice into a mail's state of mind than 1 can.” 
The evidence upon which the experts were to base their opinions 
in the Codman case, was put into the usual form of a hypothetical 
question, and the limitations of such a question and the intolerance 
of courts toward expert evidence was exemplified by the follow- 
ing remarks: 
Expert Witness.—My reasons would cover the ground in the 
hypothetical question, and also take in other evidence in addition. 
“ Counsel.—You may state your reasons. 
Counsel.—You must not take any other evidence. 
Court.—That is just exactly the difficulty with such a question, 
and the utter inutility of it to my mind. You will have to limit 
your answer to the question put. Take it exactly as it is stated, 
not adding anything and not subtracting, and not varying any- 
thing a hair’s breadth. Take it exactly as it is put, that is the 
question, assuming those facts, and no others.” 
Again the Court said : 
“It is impossible for me to carry a question of that sort, and to 
understand what the doctor’s opinion will be based on exactly, 
and for that reason I was prepared to exclude the question.” 
Of hypothetical questions in general, it is not my purpose to 
speak here, beyond emphasizing, as has been so often done before, 
their entire inadequacy for the purpose for which they were 
intended. Sometimes of value, sometimes not, they create sus- 
picion and distrust, as in the present case, and detract from the 
standing and dignity of the medical expert in court.