Now, you old reptile, on receipt of this you
will immediately discharge the chaplain; he has no business there.
When I get back I'll take his place, for I am Elijah III, the Lord's
anointed.

(Signed) "T. W. ELIJAH III, Station L, Washington, D.C."

In the meantime it was noted that the patient was very shrewd in his
various schemes for making his escape from the hospital; that he very
ingeniously managed to manufacture all sorts of weapons, and that he
seemed to be especially delusional when in conversation with the
hospital officials.

Soon after the patient planned and executed a very daring escape,
taking with him two other patients, but was soon apprehended and
returned to the hospital. All of this led me to suspect that the
patient was simulating a good many of his symptoms, and that, at any
rate, he was very much exaggerating his psychotic state.

However, there was a certain element of contradiction, a certain lack
of consistency, present in his behavior which is entirely atypical of
the pure malingerer. His explanations of his ideas were flat and
somewhat dilapidated, and resembled to a certain extent the
explanations of a dementia praecox case. In other words, there was no
doubt that the patient malingered, but there was likewise no doubt that
he suffered from a psychosis. On several occasions he refused to take
nourishment for several days at a time in reaction to his delusional
ideas.

Upon his return from his elopement it was felt that, owing to his
dangerous tendencies, a more thorough attempt at evaluating the
relative importance of the genuine and the malingered in his case ought
to be made with a view to returning him to the penitentiary.

He was accordingly again thoroughly examined on April 8, with the
following results: He reiterated his delusional ideas substantially as
given above. He insisted that he was not insane; that he was railroaded
to this hospital because the warden of the penitentiary and other
United States officials are trying to rob him of his property in Zion
City. "God Almighty meant that Zion City should belong to me." This was
decided on the night when he saw the cross.

"How many months in a year?" "Twelve."

"How many days in a week?" "Seven."

"Name the months." "March, April, June, July, August, October,
November, December, January, and February."

"What is the last month of the ye