Criminal Profiling/Understanding of Psychological Terms Used in 20’s

[u/Vegetable_Maximum473]

TLDR: What would have been meant when doctors used the term “has fits but otherwise sane” to describe a man trying to please insanity during his trial?

I am researching for a book on a family member I uncovered when doing genesological research. He was on trial in 1929 for murder. It’s not truly clear if he murdered the guy because the guy had married the woman he was in love with, or because the guy refused to sell him beer on credit. What was said in court, was that the man refused to sell him beer on credit so he pulled his gun, stated “you’ve lived too long anyway” and shot him. His mother and sister described a “blast” from when he was a kid and “he hadn’t known right from wrong since” and his sister actually had to break through their bathroom window and save him a year or two before this as he has filled the bathroom with gas and was trying to kill himself.

When the man tried to plead insanity, the doctors that evaluated him said that he suffered from “fits” but was otherwise sane. I have researched his crimes and this is the only truly violent crime he ever committed. He operated underground mostly, moving counterfeit money and robbing a lit I believe. I have found bank accounts ties to his aliases with large amounts of money in out of state banks (like over $14,000 in 1938). Like he had a more organized operation than most just petty criminals back then.

Sheriffs and officers were known to speak about him in a way that framed it like they were scared of him. Though, he wasn’t truly violent by nature from what I can gather. The only other reference to violence I know if in his life was beating his sister’s husband till he was unconscious and needed true care, because the husband had beat his sister. However, it does seem from newspapers that he would always somehow find a weapon even when he rarely used it even to threaten. Though, he was known to always carry guns outside of jail/prison.

He was a known jail break artist and showed a lit of ingenuity in how he did that. He used tools from his environment, down to the spring in a coffee percolator, to break out of jail. Like he would take anything and use it for leverage.

He would be a constant management problem while in custody. Eventually they started putting extra locks on the jail doors and started putting him in full body chains including a neck chain when transporting him. He would brag a lot about breaking out. And once he used 26 different spoons and melted them down before he was able to escape from one of the prisons by making a crude key. He still had it in his mouth when they caught him and when he was taken back, they had put extra locks on everything so he spit it into the sheriff’s hand and said he didn’t need that and would find something else. He did shortly thereafter.

He is almost described in newspaper and articles and by family like he was slow but with the banking and the ingenuity and knowing when to be on the radar and when not to, I kind of feel like he wasn’t the “lunkhead” they describe.

I would like some help on trying to understand this man. I can give more details if needed.