The Saint Paul globe., 1905-01-15
DIR. KOCH DID NOT
SEND POISON TO
LATE DIR. GERHARD

Continued From Twenty-fifth Page
| witness either for the state or defense
has denied the fact, and there have
been scores interrogated on this one
point.
Bottle and Typewriter
The blue and white box and the al
legged bottle Of poison which it con-
| tained when DR.. Gebhard received 1t
figured prominently at both sessions
of the trial today. Typewriting and
handwriting experts were called upon
| to prove that the address on the box
! was not written by DR.. Koch on a
Smith Premier typewriting machine
which was In the Office Of the Minne-
sofa Mutual Fire Insurance company
at the time the poison was mailed, as
the state has alleged. and that the
word sample" on the bottle was not
written by him either. Senator Som
erville examined the witness today, but
occasionally L. L.. Brown ceased his
voluminous note taking long enough to
put sharp though low spoken ques-
ton to the witness, to have point in
dicated.
Sherlock Holmes Double
Mr.. Brown, who is to make the final
appeal to the jury, perfectly embodies
the illustrators conception of Sher-
lock Holmes. Were Mr.. Brown to
come into the court room in dressing
gown and slippers one would naturally
look around for DR.. Watson. The
same lean. long face and lean, long
body that characterize this sleuth of
| fiction characterize this lawyer of fact,
whose eloquence and logic may be the
means of saving mans life.
G. Singleton, a Minneapolis type
writing expert, was called before noon
and recalled after the recess. He
swore positively, as did the other ex-
perts called to testify to the typewrit-
ten address on the box, that the only
way of determining the work of indi-
viduality of typewriters was through
defective type when the type is off it's
feet.
Through the testimony of experts the
state has tried to prove that the fact
that certain letters in the address on
the box were out of alignment and that
sample work on the machine with
which the address was supposed to
have been written showed the same
letters out of alignment indicates the
probability of the defendant having
written the address. But the experts
today were positive in their statement
that the matter Of alignment depended
more upon the operator than the ma
chine and the state was not able to
shake their testimony.
State Weak on This Point
The general impression seems to be
that the state has made out a weak
case in this one matter at least. The
defense has shown that there were
other machines more accessible to the
defendant had he wished to use q type
writer and in the matter of the identi-
fication of the address itself experts
for the defense today were as con-
vincing in their contention and ex-
plantations as We're the states wit
neSSeS.
Mr.. Singleton testified that the per-
son who wrote on the box had had
considerable experience with typewrft-
ing machines. DR.. Koch has had none.
S. E. FaIkrut, of La Crosse, a Reming-
ton typewriter man, gave the same
testimony as Mr.. Singleton in regard
to determining the individuality of
typewriters. The experts were shown
policy made out on the machine
about the time the box Is supposed to
clared that the writing on the box and
on the policy showed slight differ
ence in the color of the ribbons and
that there was also a difference in the
shading Of the letters.
Not in Disguised Hand
Pages from DIR. Koc11's account book
and from his dental register were
shown Henry Somsen, who identified
the writing on them as the handwrit-
ing of defendant. It was these speci-
mems that the experts compared with
the word sample on the bottle Mr..
Curtiss explained that the characteristic
letters in sample" were the capital
IS" and the "p:D that experience has
proved other letters varied. Asked by
Mr. SomerviIle whether Sample look
ed as though written In a disguised
hand. the witness answered that he
saw no indication of it.
w w. Smith. OF Sleepy Eye. banker:
and foreman of the grand jury that In:
dicted Koch, testified that he had had:
Twenty-Five years experience in hand.
ling commercial paper and had reason