"In short, Tibbetts believes her father, who admitted to being an alcoholic, was a political prisoner at Kings Park. But because so much time has passed, it's difficult to corroborate her theory.
"What is known, however, is that during his confinement, Crosby had cranked out an enormous amount of work, some described as brilliant. Short stories, essays, poems, political analyses, journal entries and a series of books on the arts he called his opus. Instead of horses and dancers, his drawings now were of fellow inmates, pathetic men with catatonic stares. Since many who knew Crosby at the hospital have since died, it is difficult to establish his mental state at the time of his confinement. All agree that Crosby was eccentric, but the question remains whether he was sane.
"Peter Cussen, 65, a former nurse at the Kings Park mental hospital, recalls Crosby as a stocky man with closely cropped, fair hair, blue eyes and a taste for fine clothes. Crosby wasn't a typical patient, Cussen said. He seemed 'very paranoid' and 'stood out.' He ranted endlessly about having his freedom stolen and the name of his cartoon character used without his permission, according to Cussen, a longtime resident in the Kings Park community."
Last month Tibbetts filed suit against Unilever Bestfoods North America over the trademark to the term "Skippy," which the company uses to sell peanut butter and which her father had believed since 1933 to be an infringement upon his character's trademark.
