The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-12-16
KOCH CASE IS UP TO THE GRAND JURY
That Body Will Convene Tomorrow in New Ulm---
An Indictment Against the Defendant
Is Expected By the People.
County Attorney Einar Hoidae Lays His Troubles
to Unfriendly Newspapers
Too, naintains Silence.

ings might easily be interpreted as fav-
orable to the prisoner
The arrest of DR.. Koch seems to have
given general satisfaction at New Ulm
Yet there are many who stand by him
of the buttermaker of the Milford and
Cottonwood Cooperative Dairy associa-
ton, at whose creamery DIR. Koch is be-
lieved by many to have washed his
hands and possibly burned blood
stained coat on the night of the MUIR
der. This creamery stands in a seclud-
ed hollow, just below Herman park, and
is on the way from the business part of
the city to the home of Dr. Koch. Up
stairs in this building the Muhs family
reside. Below are churns, machinery.
furnace and other apparatus. This base
ment is never locked. Anybody can
obtain entrance, night or day. Mrs.
NUNS, declares, however, that when she
is in the dwelling part of the building,
if she happens to be awake, nobody can
obtain entrance to the basement with
out her hearing it. She told The Free
Press man yesterday that on the night
of the murder she was up until eleven
o'clock. She heard nobody enter the
basement. She is sure that nobody did.
AS far as she knows, none of the detec-
tfves found any buttons in the ashes,
or other evidence that coat had been
burned in the furnace on that night.
She had herself often burned up old
garments in this furnace.
Blood stains on the door of the
creamery first attracted the attention
of the detectives to the place. A little
boy by the name of Kiesling first call
ed attention to the blood-stains. The
chief of police, Adolph Klause, and De-
tectiye Rydell, the Pinkerton man from
st. Paul, came to investigate. They
caused part of the door to be removed
for evidence at the trial. Mrs. Muhs
scouts the idea that the stains were
of human blood. She declares that her
husband and Will Koch often went
hunting together. They would skin
their rabbits down in the basement of
the creamery building and it was no
unusual thing for them to spatter rab-
bit blood around From much that Mrs.
Muhs said it was evident that the fam
lily are intimate friends of the Kochs.
Other people said so too.
One of the members of the citizens
committee told The Free Press man
that in all likelihood little use could be
made of the bloodstained door, except
as link in the chain of evidence. When
the blood spots were first discovered
they were deep and vivid. The detec-
tive requested that they be not touched,
but when some men came to cut out a
part of the door, the stains were indeed
faint. Evidently, they had been washed
and it is feared that not enough is
left of the stains to enable experts to
determine whether the blood is human
gore or not.
Nearly everybody thinks the doctor
l. Il. ~
allow his hands to be examined and
prints of the fingers taken. Yet this
refusal was in accordance with advice
by the doctors attorneys. The Free
Press man had quite talk over this
matter with the chief of police. On Fri
day night Lawyer Abbott, of the firm
of Brown & Abbott of Winona, retain
ed by the defense, came to the Jail and
told Sheriff Julius that if he attempted
to take the finger prints by force, that
official would be prosecuted. The
sheriff was not to he intimidated. With
help of the chief of police he secur-
ed the prints, though poor ones, after
a terrific struggle with the imprison-
ed doctor. Hand cuffs had to be used.
The sheriff has the strength of three
ordinary men and the chief is himself
uncommonly powerful; yet DIR. Koch,
with his slender limbs, gave them a
tremendous tussel. The chief said he
believed the prisoner is as powerful, if
not more so, than DR.. Gerhard was.
1t is understood that the defense will
fight against having the finger marks in
PRODUCED as evidence at all; that the
attorneys for the doctor will cite the
constitutional provision which says that
a man cannot be made to testify against
himself; and that to compel the doctor
to give the prints of his fingers, for the
purpose of comparison with the prints
of the murders bloody fingers, they will
claim, is the same thing as to make
the prisoner testify against himself,
though not by word of mouth.
As far as can yet be learned, the only
motive that can be assigned for the