Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1904-04-23
SLEEP REVEALS CRIME
Mrs. August schrader Gives
Remarkable Testimony In
Trial of Husband
she FEARED FOR HER LIFE
Rocker. When Informed That He Had
Enacted a Tragedy in His Drunken
Slumbers. Threatened to Kill Woman
For Whom 1t is Alleged He Commit
ted Murder.
Special to es-Republican.

l
Rock Rapids, April 23.--In the trial
ut Charles Rocker for the murder of Au-
gust Schroeder yesterday Mrs. August
Schroeder, who after the murder of her
husband, according to her story, mar
Iried his murderer, went upon the stand.
Her story is one of the most remark
able ever heard upon the witness stand
In Iowa. According to her testimony
she first learned that her first husband
was murdered by the man who be-
came her second husband thru the lat
ter enacting the tragedy in his sleep.
August Schroeder on June 80, 1900. The
crime has been mystery. Two years
ago Rocker married the relict of the
dead man and in her testimony she told
jury alow, tortured by his conscience
Rocker rose from his bed one night in
q densented condition and while sound
asleep, enacted before her yes the en-
tire tragedy of her first husbands tax
Ing of. Rocker. big and bu,1y, sat un-
moved wslldle the woman for whom, 1t
Us alleged, he had done murder, told
her, STORY.
After Mr., Schroeder's DEATH" she
said, 1--WE went to Elkton, S. D.. and
there married Mr.. Rocker. We lived
contentedly together until DIN April
1903, when my baby was born. Rocker
wanted to kin this baby. He wanted to
throw DIT In a we'll. I was horror
struck. From that time on ne was
cruel to me. He was inhuman. Last
September when he was threslsing, he
became angry at my little boy. He
STRUCK him ON the head with a monkey
wrench. hrsalcing bones of the skull.
and all but killed him. We Quarreled
about this
sNlen he went to town. He came
home drunk, at o'clock in the morn
Ing. He went to bed with me. but
unuttered and n1oaned and occasionally
4uf7ted over. Suddenly he sat up,
struck mo in the face and made my
nose bleed. With his hand on me he
said these words to me in a heartless
voice: August, YOU -
have got you now He went mutter-
ang, sometimes incoherently, again in
clear topes talking of crime until
gathered that, without doubt, he had
murdered my first husband. I was
hOrridied beyond measure. The night
q spent was something never to be for
gotten. was in terror of my life. But
ut last he became more calm and slept
= troubled sleep till morning.
Next morning, asked him what he
meant. Keep your damned mouth
shut he said: you always talk too
much Again that day, I told him 4
wanted to know what he meant by say
Ding that he had August at last. Then
1T was he told mo about it"
The witness paused and shuddered.
and was silent for a moment to collect
her self for the revolving story. He
told me on the day OF a picnic at Doom,
to which he went with us, he went to
a drug store and bought chloroform
and morphine. Heputthds DIN whisky and
gave 1t to August. When we got home.
he left me and August to put up the
horses and he stayed outside. He said
he knew August would come ont to
yonrst. August did go out, ana sat
down on a beer keg. Then, Rocker
said. he paralyzed him. He put him
on q barrel cart and took him TO the
barn and pulled his body up over a
Hoist. When he told me this, he took a
revolver from his pocket pressed 1t to
my head and made me get on my
knees. and he said, .Now, You. IL
you ever tell this, will kill you; ] win
kill you, surely