People v. Delfs

The defendant, now 76 years of age, was arrested on October 1, 1940 and charged with the crime of murder in the first degree. At the time of his apprehension, the defendant was suffering from severe self-inflicted injuries. The facts surrounding the crime basically were that the defendant believed that his wife, who was then 55 years of age, had been having an affair with another man and had aborted a child conceived by that man. The defendant, believing this delusion, killed his wife by striking her with a hatchet. After killing his wife, the defendant struck himself in the head with the…