New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1904-12-21
KOCH TRIAL OPENS TUESDAY
Continued from First page,

INVOu 1I11n6 Ol6UO 1O6OOn1
i Continued from First page.
/ list, he took his customary road home
down Minnesota street as far as Cen
ter street. Alfred Heinz, who work
in Simmet's barbershop, met Koch i
front OF Pfeferle's drugstore cominI
up the street. He stopped him an,
asked concerning Tom Kretseh an
then according to the boy, walked a
far as Fesenmaier's hardware store
looked in and turned around AM
came back.
PASSED STAIRWAY NEAR $50 P. NJ
He then entered the barbersh op
according to testimony the state vii
offer, at between 9:25 and $50 p. m.
inquired for Arnold Stamm, and no
finding him in walked out. In pass.
ing the Review Office he was seen by
the Baltrusch boys at work at the
cases, and shortly after steps were
heard ascending the stairs.
This establishes the time DIR. Koch
was in the neighborhood. The state
will endeavor to fix the time of the
murder at about 9:45 p. M, that is, it
will seek to prove that by that time
the victim was dead and the murderer
mad made MS escape.
The now famous handkerchief
covered with blood and bearing the
initials &c. R. K" is also to play an
important part. 1t was found lying
spread out just in front of the door
leading from the operating room into
the reception room. and the state will
try to show that this is the prisoners
own piece Of linen and was dropped
there by none other than himself.
LEAD PENCIL AS EVIDENCE.
It will again try to convince the
jury that the lead pencil found in the
pool of blood by the men who broke
in the door and found the body Of
DR.. Gebhardt was one which dropped
from Koch's vest pocket as he bent
over the body. 1t was an unsharpened
pencil, so evidently had not been
carried long, and was one of the kind
bearing the advertisement of the A. J..
Vogel Lumber company. The state
will say that these pencils had not
been in circulation more than a few
days and that DR.. Koch was one of the
men who were known to have received
one on the very night of the crime.
The bottle Of poison sent DR..
Gebhardt week before the murder is
also to bear an important part. It
has been shown by the testimony OF
chemists who analized it, that the
white powder in the bottle was nothing
other than strychine. DR.. O. G.
Stricken, who occupies a joint re-
ception room with DIR. Koch, testifes
that he had missed a quantity Of the
poison from his medicine chest setting
in the reception room and that as far
as he knows no one was familiar with
the place where he kept it but Koch.
MATTER OF INJURED HAND.
The state will also try to prove that
Koch's hand was injured before he
burned it with alcohol on the Thurs
day following the crime, and that this
latter injury was merely for the pur-
pose of covering up the scratches or
bruises. Koch, it will be remember
ed, first burned himself with acid and
then on the advise of a physician ap-
piled alcohol to ease the pain. AT
ter such an application he went down
to fix the furnace at his home and
the alcohol caught fire, inficting
burns.
The hammer with which Gebhardt' s
skull was crushed is also to be intro
duced as evidence against the accus
ed. A boy who does chores near thu
Koch residence claims to be able tt
identify the hammer as one belonging
to Koch. If this can be established
it will, of course, be a damaging
piece of evidence.
DR.. Koch's own story of his action
on the fatal night is to beinsed agains
him. He says that as he was passin,
through the park he saw "a rabbit am
after stepping into the house he wen
at once out into the woodshed to &C
his gun, but not finding it came bac
in few minutes.
CALLS RABBIT STORY. ABSURD.
The prosecution will say that thi
story is absurd, that it would hav
been impossible to have seen a rabbi
on the night in question as there wa
no moon and more Impossible stl
for any one to have found it agai
and shot it. It will further claim tn;
from the nature of the knife cuts IL
| criminal must have had an intima
| knowledge of anatomy.
The state is prepared to expla
| Koch's action on that night in tn