In re Strittmater’s Estate

Louisa Strittmater died shortly after executing a will leaving her estate to the National Woman's Party (the Party), rather than to her distant cousins; her long-term physician believed she suffered from split-personality paranoia, and evidence (largely from margin notes in her books) showed her formerly affectionate feelings toward her deceased parents had turned to hatred, along with vehement, extreme hatred of men as a class, alongside erratic acts like destroying a clock and killing a kitten, even though her dealings with her attorney and bank remained entirely normal. Strittmater had joined the Party years before her death but only became actively involved and developed her strong feminist views more than a decade later; the Orphan's Court found her insane and invalidated the will, and that finding was appealed.