The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1905-05-12
DIR. KOCH AGAIN ON TRIAL
Charged With the Murder of DR.. Gebhardt
at New Ulm.

ton with the Koch murder trial by
report that an attempt was made by
certain interested persons to reach
the jurors with written argument
In the corridors of the Blue Earth
county court house.
This report gained credence imme-
diately after the ADJOURNMENT Of court
last evening, and it was fostered by
instructions of Judge Cray to the jury
few minutes before the close, in
which the court ordered that the jur.
ors remain in their secluded room af-
ter the adjournment of court until all
persons had left the corridors of the
court house.
In Effort to impeach.
The defense launched it's heavy ar
tillery yesterday, in the testimony of
several witnesses put on the stand IN
an attempt to prove that the poison
package mailed to DIR. Gebhardt was
not sent from the village of Hanska
on the day DR.. Koch visited that town.
The two principal witnesses to this
were L. Leech and Nels Nelson, rail-
way mail clerks who have been run
ming on the Minneapolis & St. Louis
road between Hanska and New Ulm
for several ears. These men, accord
ing to their evidence yesterday, were
the only two mail clerks on the run
between these two stations the week
The Poison Package
was said to have been received by DR..
Gebhardt. Both declared that, in their
opinions, the blue box produced by
the state as the exhibit which con-
tanned the bottle of poison when it
was sent to DR.. Gebhardt was not
mailed from Hanska to New Ulm at
the time alleged. They said the post
II ark on the blue box was not the i'm
preston left by the stamp of either
clerk. AS the box, were it mailed
from lanska to New Ulm, must have
been stamped on the train, providing,
as claimed by several witnesses of
the state, it was mailed at the depot,
the defense evidently could convince
the jury through these witnesses that
the states testimony regarding the
IloiIlLES VI SAS poiSOu PcSNdSC IL III.
peached.
Mankato. Mimi, May Sit is prob
able that in five days more the jury
in the trial of DR.. George R. Koch,
charged with the murder of Dr. l.. A.
GeDhardt at New Ulm, will receive
the instructions of Judge Cray and re-
tire to find verdict. The defense
has already introduced about forty of
its witnesses. and as there are less
than hundred in all to be produced,
it is very likely that the arguments
will be made Thursday or Friday of
this week.
Good Day for Koch.
DR.. Koch left the court house Sat-
urday evening a happy man. Through
the pushing crowd of curious, morbid
men and women who had come TO get
a glance at him. he made his way
with the elastic step of man who
had suddenly been relieved of tor
menting cares.
For it was the defense's day in tho
murder trial. Witness after witness,
twenty in all, were introduced by the
defense and questioned in an appar-
entity successful attempt to show that
the accused man was not the owner
of the hammer found in the Office Of
the murdered man; that he wore the
same clothes for many days after the
murder that he had worn on the night
hot h,I oh
enmity for the murdered man, and
that it would have been impossible
for him to send the poison package.
Mankato. Mimi, May 10. - Prot.
Richard Fischer. state. chemist of
Wisconsin, and DR.. j. w. Andrews of
Mankato, two experts on chemistry
and poison. were on the witness stand
for the defense in the Dr. Koch MUIR
der trial yesterday afternoon, to
prove to the satisfaction of the jury
that it is impossible to compute the
exact proportion OF poison which ex-
listed in the bottle sent to DR.. Geb-
hardt
In the testimony of Prof. Fischer
yesterday the defense hopes it has
proven that it is impossible to say
whether there was sufficient poison in
the bottle to cause death, if thorough
ly compounded with the effervescent
salts and taken as directed. While
Prof. Fischer did not say that an or
binary dose of the contents Of the
poison bottle would not be sufficient
to cause death, provided the poison
was equally compounded with the
other mixture, he said that if only
few grains were analysed it would be
impossible to ascertain the general
of poison.
The chemist also said that strych.
nine was the most bitter substance
known, and this point was brought
out by the defense to show that
dentist, had he sent the bottle of
poison to Dr. Gebhardt, should have
known more certain means of ac-
complisking his purpose, as he would
have been aware that a dentise at
once would recognize the taste Of the