The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-05-12
JURY MAY HAVE
CASE BY NIGHT
Declares, Gould Have Com
mitted the Crime.
KOCH DOES NOT QUAIL
UNDER THE ARRANGEMENT
Asa Brooks Held Up as a Poltroon
or Knave and Unworthy
! Of Belief.

of Belief.
BY w. p. Mcclure.
Mankato, Mimi, May l2.-General
Childs in his argument to the jury that
is to decide whether or not DR.. Koch .
tack today on Asa P. Brooks, whom tho
state refused to call as witness be-
cause, as General Childs said, at that
time, it believed him to be entirely
untrustworthy.'
General Childs severely criticized Mn
murder, when he looked over the trans
som and saw the assassin at his work.
and of what the speaker described al
Brooks Hself-contradicting testimo-
nyo on various occasions since that
time.
kna7ea ~ asked aRenepal child h0G IN OPEN
ing this subject. doesn't he know
what happened when he looked upon
that scene that night or has he wilfully
spoken an untruth on the witness
stands IF he stood on that banister
five seconds and did not know what
was going on inside, he ought to be
the fact. If he stood there two sec
onds, he should have been prompted by
every instinct Of the heart to make an
investigation.
Where Brooks Failed.
t'For who was DR.. Gebhardt7 He was
Brooks friend, and when Brooks loked
over that transom and saw bending over
a PROSTATE body a man whom he knew
was not his friend and whose eyes were
SO terrible that as he himself said, they
riveted his gaze the first glance must
have satisfied him, as it must have salts
: fed any man, that an extraordinary
1. AS silent as the sphinx on the banks
on the Nile, he stands there mute and
: speechless, and then quietly gets down
: and descends the stairs and crosses the
, street. Wouldnt he, If in possession Of
(, his faculties, have cried out Or. Geb.
) hardt, what is the matter9'
) But no, he got down after view
! ing that scene with feeling, as he said,
j that he was trespassing. He had tried
the doors. They were locked. He said
tract attention. He attracted the at
tention of he murderer, who looked up
. in the midst Of his feast of blood with
y eyes which riveted his. Then he quietly
got down and went downstairs. And he
:. s sSWe4ars, too, upon cross-examinatio1,
:, that the expression he saw on that man 8
face was the expression of a dog when
4 he is caught doing something he ought
not to do. And he gets down with a
sense of shame-thinks it is dental
operation.l
8 Not Entitled to Credence.
! wonder if that is trueq I won.
der if Asa P. Brooks got down with any
:, idea in his mind as to who he saw bend.
:, ing over the body Of DR.. Gebhardt9 ]
> wonder, If in his soud he said, Il know
J, who he is: it is a brother-in-law of my
h friend Somsen, a son of E. G.. Koch, q
member of prominent family7' he
"a goes upon the witness stand and says il
was not George R. Koch, but shortly
"a after the murder he was in Doubt
il General Childs then took up the testi
mony OF many witnesses as to what Mr.
I Brooks had said previous to the frs,
), trial about his uncertainty as the iden
D. tity Of the murderer and declared thai
the. jury, should not give the slightest
IT. only to his original statement, made
q. when the impression of the face Of thai
"a murderer was still fresh on his mind
- that it resembled George R. Koch.
"a General Childs spoke for an hour yes
snd half the morning TOT After
A. Of but one hour he closed his speecl
in thirty minutes. In his summary b,
declared that the jury might go all owe
he the world and 1t could find but one mai
to whom the facts and circumstances Il
this case could apply, and that man wa
DIR. George R. Koch, the defendant.
W New Hammer Evidence.
Az In his discussion of the new hamme
Ist evidence, General Childs referred t
to Dingler, the young man who testifie
IT. that he had seen the fatal tool on tn
Koch premises in 1908, and to Reinhol
We Dahms, who said he had used that ban
on mer many times when he was chore
We boy at Koch s place. Of Dingler b
We said:
We EDO you suppose the authoritie
er searched out this young man and pu
10, into his mind and upon his tongue
m. story which was falseY No; the reE
list resentatives of the law do not do sue
ep things"
g. The speaker said that the Damn
ne woman and boy, Like many others !
al New Ulm, at first said in their heart!
1T cannot be, it cannot be, whe
at the trial in New Ulm General Child
said the facts were marshaled int
place.
N tConscience told Mrs. Dahms,'' sal
| the speaker, "that she must bear ht
~ secret no longer. Conscience said
the soul of that boy, You must NJ
speak falsely. speak the truth. -
ldr General Cn1lQS was DltGer III las "
nunciation of the act Of the defense
bringing in several seemingly old bar
mers. He declared that two were mac
but recently to simulate the appearan'
of age, but so crudely that the eviden'
of the trick was apparent. By the
red several exhibits so similar, he said, Il
or defense had confused Mrs. Kaess, WI
n.y. was unable to identify the hamm
ate which she had positively identified !
ght previous occasions, and he ask
has whether the defense believed it was fl
Tor thering or strangling the cause of j,
Tha tice by this method.
ght Pencil Belonged to Koch.
viii The pencil, he said, could have |
longed to no once except the defendal
aay The defense had introduced in eviden
till pencil like the. one found
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