The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-02-03
1t Threatens Charles S. Silver
son With Death Soon.
Advises Him to Drop Prosecu-
ton of DR.. G. R. Koch.
Others Ought to Be Slain, the
EpistIe Declares.
Especial to The Free Press.l

| Especial to The Free Press.l
New Ulm, Jan. 26-Mayor Charles S.
Silverson and Attorney Albert Pfaender
have been threatened with death. This
is the latest sensation connected with
the Koch case. Last night Mayor Sill
version received an anonymous communi-
cation, which for vileness presses the
limit Much of it is unfit for print. The
letter refers to the mayor and the at
torney in violent language, and says
that these gentlemen and others in New
Ulm ought to be killed. In closing his
communication, the writer states: eff
you don't pull out of the case you will
be killed soon."
The letter was mailed at st. Cloud.
Mayor Silverson is of the opinion that
the communication was written by some
one in New Ulm and forwarded to ST..
Cloud to be mailed The letter itself
is not dated, but the envelope bears
| q St. cloud postmarK.
Mayor Silverson has handed the let
ter to the postmaster in New Ulm, and
an effort will be made to apprehend the
author.
During the session of the council
Tuesday evening, City Attorney Somsen
| rendered his resignation. Mr.. Somsen is
brother-in-law of George r. Koch.
| Attorneys for the state declare that
Falls to the effect that Gebhard's body
was eXhumed Sunday night, bears the
earmarks of ''fake." About two weeks
before the trial commenced Gebhard's
body was exhumed for the purpose of
comparing his. hair with that found in
| the dentists office.
| The finger prints We're blurred and so
much soaked into the wood as to be use
less to the finger print experts, and there
were no lines visible at all. This answers
question which has been uppermost in
great many minds since the trial of
DR.. Koch closed; why was it that the
prints left by the murderer in his flight
on the underside of the window sash in
Dr. Reineke's reception room, did not
pray a more important part in either
clearing or convicting the accused man?
| The prints were cut out of the sash
and kept by Detective A. E. Rydell until
the trial began, when they were turned
over to the prosecution and it was not
generally known just what the prints
looked like. They were made by the
last three fingers on the left hand and
about an inch of the fingers from the
first joint down seems to have been
pressed against the wood.
| But in lifting the window the fingers
slipped just little so as to spoil the
[outline of the fingers. The wood is
pine and the blood soaked into it so
freely that the lines always left by a
print on hard surface like glass or
steel, were entirely obliterated.
These finger prints before the trial
were one of the most widely advertised
| features of the case, and finger print
experts all over the country were in
| terested.
1t was because they were so largely
advertised that large number of peo-
pie of the northwest and the whole Unit
ed States who were convinced of neither
| the guilt nor the innocence of DR.. Koch,
were placing their hopes in the prints.
Here was a piece of evidence which was
unprecedented and could not be impeach-
| ed. 1t would not convict an innocent
man but guilty man could not escape ;
| it was the only absolutely sure piece Of
evidence in the trial They are now
naturally greatly disappointed.-New
Ulm Review.
In conducting the trial of George R.
Koch, accused of the murder of DIR.
| Gerhard, General Childs has shown
himself to be a man who refuses to
stoop to the tricks and subterfuges that
characterize many attorneys, and in the
estimation of all he has proven him
self man of honor, protesting against
wrong of any kind and seemingly anx-
ious that right only shall triumph. He
| is in every sense a man. and in his selec-