The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-04-14
IT WILL NOT FIGURE
Alleged Newly Discovered Evil
dence Will Not Be Used.
Defense in the Koch Case Will
Not Suggest Theories.
Bundle of Clothes and The Hat
Stories to Be Ignored.
One of the States Witnesses
Cannot Be Found.
From Tuesdays Daily.

The defense in the Koch case does not
expect to put on evidence materially
different from that which was put ON at
the trial at New Ulm. There has been
a good deal of talk in the newspapers
about what new evidence has been dis
covered on both sides, but there is lit
tie or nothing to it. 1t was stated
awhile ago that detectives for the de-
Tense had found a man who on the
morning after the robbery had picked up
a bundle of clothing on the road be-
tween Mankato and New Ulm, and that
he had not divulged this before because
he was engaged in a chicken coop raid
that night. This story was foolish up
on the face of it, and it is now learned
that nothing of this sort will be brought
out in the evidence in the case. The
defense noticed the newspaper accounts
of the alleged find, but never traced it
up.
1t was sprung in the papers soon after
the trial at New Ulm that new evidence
had been discovered by the state, in that
some students of a college had found a
hat on the road from the scene of the
murder to the Koch residence. 1t is
fact that hat was found, but it was
found two days after the murder and
both sides knew all about it. Three
students found the hat by the road and
placed it upon post. 1t was new
brown derby hat, and how it came to
be in the road has never been satisfac-
torily explained. 1t disappeared from
the post very mysteriously one day and
nobody knows who took it. The hat was
not found until the second day after
the murder. 1t was said that the MUIR
derer wore similar hat. Koch had such
a hat and he wore it down town the
morning after the murder and every day
thereafter. He had but one brown
derby hat. The hat that was found had
no bloody marks upon it. While it
was found on the street that leads di-
rectly from the DR.. Gerhard office to the
Koch residence it was block out of the
way if the owner was to have gone from
the office to the Koch residence by way
of the creamery. For this reason the
state did not make any point of the
finding of the hat, so it is said, for it
would not have conceded with the the
DRY that the murderer went to the
creamery.
The defense makes the point that if
the hat had been Kochs he would not
have left it two days beside the road
where anybody conuld have found it and
used it as evidence against him. He had
plenty of opportunity to get it or send
a member of his family for it,.
In the coming trial the defense will
not endeavor to show that any partic-
ular person may have committed the
crime. 1t will take the stand that it is
for the state to find the murderer and
not for the defense to suggest clews,
as that would look as though the latter
was trying to distract attention from
Koch for purpose.
The defense has probably paid more
attention to the matter of the handker-
chief than any other feature of the
case, as it is the states strongest point.
sets of handkerchiefs bought in dollar
lots at different times. The first lot
were marked by himself Geo R. Koch"
The second lot were marked in large
letters by his sister &C. R. KOCH" the
third lot by his sister in fine hand SC. |
H." and the fourth lot were marked by |
Koch Sc. R. K" The handkerchief |
found in DIR. Gebhard's office beside the |
hammer is marked in a different hand |
and has different hem and is of cheap !
er texture than any of Koch's handker- |
chiefs
lie tueOTy Vi ucleIlSe Is l0dC the |
murderer was probably New Ulm man
who had a grudge against both doctors
and murdered one and tried to cast sus-
picion on the other. One or two New
Ulm parties have been talked about in !
this connection, but whenever the coun- !
ty attorney attempted to get evidence
against anybody else than Koch the cry
was raised that an attempt was being
made to shield Koch. |
A dispatch to the Minneapolis Journal
from New Ulm says:
Edgar Dingler left this city for parts
unknown last week, and is being hunted I
for by the prosecution in the case of
the state VS.. DIR. G. r. Koch.
He is the witness who swore that he
had seen the hammer in the Koch barn
and also on the window in the house,