When he was preparing to put me into an Insane Asylum, I asked him why he was so very anxious to put the stigma of insanity upon me, when he knew I was not insane?
"Marital Power Exemplified in Mrs. Packard's Trial, and Self-Defence from the Charge of Insanity"
Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard
Mr. Packard's church and people in Manteno, Illinois, withdrew from him their confidence and support, while I was incarcerated, instead of gathering about him, because public sentiment would not tolerate him, as a minister, with this stigma upon him; and it was the fear of lynch law which drove him from this State during the court, to seek shelter and employment in Massachusetts, his native State.
"Marital Power Exemplified in Mrs. Packard's Trial, and Self-Defence from the Charge of Insanity"
Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard
He saw himself shunned and despised, the faces of all men averted from him; all that had gone to make his life worthy, and even famous, forgotten in the stigma of an awful crime.
"The New Tenant"
E. Phillips Oppenheim