The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-04-26
KOCH'S LAUGH IS
HEARD IN COURT.
Evidence Of German Girl Dispells
Gloom Of Murder Horror for
a Moment.
STATE MAY PUT BROOKS
ON THE WITNESS STAND.
Judge Webber Himself and Other
Witnesses May Be Called
to Impeach.

to Impeach.
BY w. p. Mcclure.
Mankato, MINI, April 26.-Local in
terest in the Koch trial is waxing.
When court opened this morning every
seat In the big room was occupied. DR..
Koch was accompanied by his father
and his brother William. Mrs. 7. E.
Zelle, at whose home DIR. Gebhardt
lived, was in court with Henry and
Emma Gebhardt.
Spectators, counsel, jurors and even
George r. Koch, the defendant, laughed
outright in court today, despite the re-
1peated admonitions of Judge Cray that
quiet must be preserved in order that
sen Of plgh mot be any
statements Of witnesses. Cecilia Mer-
tlnka, with her quaint German accent
and idiom, created the merriment and
relieved the proceedings of some of
their awsome features, as she graph
ically, described the sound she heard
OF the struggle in DR.. Gebhardt's office.
Miss Mertinka is the girl who, with
Joseph Polta and Frances Roesch, was
attracted by the cries of the dying dem
fist. She is II, has red face and
auburn hair, which was partly covered
by brand-new, wide brimmed straw
nat, on which trembled dozens of pink
rosebuds., In striking contrast was her
new bright-blue dress.
Under cross-examinatiOn by Senator
Somerville, the testimony was anus
ing, In spite Of the evident sincerity
OF the witness and her painstaking en-
deavors to comprehend and answer in
telllglbly. At times tears glistened in
her eyes, but she stoutly held them
back; and while admitting that at the
first trial she was so scared that she
could not tell accurately as to the time.
she maintained that she was not scared
| bit today.
Defense confuses Witness.
She became confused under Senator
Somerv1lle s close, sharp questioning
and couldn't tell how MANY
minutes there were in an hour,
nor now many seconds in a
minute, nor whether she had left home
tnat night at - quarter to nine'' or
three-quarters to nine,' and when
pressed for an explanation of what she
meant by three quarters to nine'' she
could give none.
Her testimony as to what she heard
on the night of the murder when she
stood with her companion across the
street from, and then directly below,
IDr: Gebhardt,s office, was substantially
/ the same as that given by Joseph Polta,
who preceded her on the stand. She
said that they heard loud cries or
shouts like somebody in pain' coming
from DR.. Gebhardt's office. When
! asked to describe these cries she said
that they were like Gov, o-w. ,,
She shouted these EXPLANATIONS in such
q loud, shrill tone that the spectators
laughed, apparently. failing to note, in
IN Of ri 10
how terribly significant they were.>
Prolonged Cries.
She declared, as Mr.. Polta, that the
cries continued while she and her COM
panions walked across the street and
for two or three minutes when they
| stood there. In that time, she said,
a man. whom. she did not know, but
whom Polta described as Brooks, came
he was walking slowly at the time.
This man, she said, spoke to another
man there on the sidewalk and the two
went upstairs. The cries continued,
but she said there was no noise as Of
scuffing or stamping of feet nor any
conversation that she could hear-ts only
the howling.'' When the two men went
Miss Roesch went on up Minnesota
street. They could hear the cries until
they had walked nearly half block.
Polta said that he had heard, besides
the screams, noise which he thought
was that of. the knocking over of a chair
followed by bump and a rumbling as
tho a metal spittoon had been bowled
over and had rolled across the floor.
Polta fixed the time at which he heard
these noises as $3.50.
The circumstance which he related
was that he had walked three blocks
/ from the Ottomeyer block when the
clock struck fifteen minutes to 10. He
explained his slow progress by the fact
that he was with only one Of the girls
at that time.
Behnke's Dramatic Story.
i A dramatic story Of the discovery Of
i the fact that murder was being done in
DR.. Gebhardt Is Office and of the break.
1 ing into the room where the dead man
.ay was told by Frank Behnke.
Behnke was the first man, after
Brooks, to rush upstairs. He passed
Policeman Weisenborn on the landing
on the way up. They tried all the doors
Il and found them locked. Weisenborn
n rushed downstairs and got stool from
! the Review Office, Standing on this
u he looked over the transom, and then
! yelling, ooh, mercy!" jumped down
again.
] He kicked at the door several times
j Then Behnke said, Let me get at it. =
!. He thereupon broke in the door. Hi
description of the position of the body
the overturned chair, the ruffled rug
and the spattered blood on the floor
map and safe, all indicating, as he
said, that there had been scuffle OF
fight, was the same as he gave at the
first trial. He then told of picking uI
the hammer and handkerchief in the
receptionroom, three feet from the oper
atingroom door.
4 This afternoon, when Behnke's tes
timony was finished, William Cava.
naugh, the plumber who went upstairl
with Brooks, was called.
Judge Weber May Testify.
AS interesting as conversation relat
ing to the trial itself is the continuous
discussion here of the situation as tt
: Asa p. Brooks. Stories of plans fol
: radical action in the case of the New
Ulm newspaper man are heard on every
hand.
Persons closely associated in this tria
. with counsel for the state declare tina,
the prosecution has made elaborat,
preparations to impeach the testimony
!, Of Brooks, who at the last trial declared
:. that he saw the murderer, that it wa
! not Koch, and that he did not know VIII,
| it was.
, It was said this afternoon-b q mai
iwho has worked for the state in thi
i matter that a large number of witnesse
Continued on I'd Page, 18th Column.