The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1905-05-12
THE KOCH TRIAL.
The State Closes it's Case after Spir-
tied Contest over the Question
of Brooks Testimony.

the GeOnarQC muruer WeTo hdoc Il uS>'
day by E. G. Hage, banker of Hans
ka, and J. NJ. Thompson, Minneapolis
& St Louis station agent in that town.
The nub of Mr.. Hage's testimony
was that on Oct. %, 1904, he saw DIR.
Koch at the railway station in Hanska
and at the same place a few minutes
later he saw a package with bunch
of letters, which he said was similar
in appearance to the poison package
received by DR.. Gebhardt and exhib-
tied in court.
Station Agent Thompson, on exami-
nation by General Childs, said that he
remembered that a package was han
ded to him shortly after dinner some
time before the murder of DR.. Geb-
hardt, but he did not remember the
day and place exactly.
ITO whom was it addressed?" Gen
eral Childs asked.
81 remember it was marked DIR. L.
A. Gebhardt, New Ulm, Mimi"
He described the box and said that
his brother had thrown it into the
mail car.
Mankato, Mimi, May 4.-Sparring
over Asa P. Brooks began yesterday
morning in the Koch trial. General
Childs, council for the state, gave no.
tice when Prof. c. Hubert C. Carel,
chemist in the department of medicine
at the university, was on the stand
that the state had produced lone Asa
P. Brooks" but that it would not call
him as witness. Counsel for the de-
Tense intimated its determination to
compel the state to call Mr.. Brooks.
The state laid the foundation for the
handwriting expert, who will proba-
bly, be introduced, as in the frst trial,
in rebuttal. ]. Fl. Haenza, editor of
the Hanska Herald, said that he had
received letters from DR.. Koch and was
familiar with his handwriting. When
shown the word "Sample," which had
been written on the label of the blue
bottle sent to Dr. Gebhardt and asked
whose writing that was, he said with
out hesitation: "It's DR.. Koch's."
On cross-examination, witness adj
mitted that he had seen defendant but
three or four times; that he had never
seen him writing.
Mankato, Mimi, May 5.-''Dr. Geo.
r. Koch is not the man 1 saw" said
Asa P. Brooks Yesterday afternoon to
the jury, and upon the faith put in
those words by twelve good men rests
the fate of the young man whose life
is at stake in this bitter fight
Will the jury believe the New Ulm
editor? That is the question which
$4,000 people in Mankato are asking,
and that is the question which 500 who
packed the court room yesterday, in
the defendant himself, sought
to read in the faces of the jurors as
they sat in their box listening and
bordering.
Will the jury believe Asa P. Brooks2
He told his story simply, frankly,
and without a hitch. He
made good witness, an excellent wit
ness, in fact.
"Dr. Koch is not the man saw"
He did not hesitate but spoke the
words with firmness and positiveness
of one in whose mind there is no doubt.
The cross-examination was fierce but
it did not bother Brooks one bit. Some
of his testimony yesterday differed
slightly from his former testimony at
the last trial and before Justice Hen
nington, but he admitted it without
an explanation and let it go at that.
The eyewitness was called by the
defense and Mr.. Somerville's prelimi-
nary question had the sole purpose of
establishing Brooks creditability with
the jury.
Mankato, Mimi. May 6-Dr Koch's
attorneys began their assault yester-
day afternoon on the strong chain of
evidence, which the state has placed
before the jury, and picked out an es-
pecially weak place to be attacked
first, namely, the three of the states
star witnesses, Mrs. Caroline Dahms,
Miss Lena Weiderman and Edgar
D.ngler.
Dingler they proved to be a boy
whose reputation for truth and veracity
in the whole town is bad and who
went about before the first trial, ac-
cording to the witnesses examined,
Boosting that there was money in it
for him.
They were successful in casting about
a portion of the hammer testimony and
the story of the madly rushing foot
steps had such an air of uncertainty as
TO rob them of great deal of weight
with the jury.
Miss Weidermann's story of seeing
Koch in his Office shortly before the
murder, apparently placing something
in his pocket, they proved improbab BILE
by men who had tried looking into the
window from the woman's porch and
who swore they couldn't recognize
even a we'll known friend. The foot
steps which Mrs. Dahms declares
aroused her from her bed at $3.50 on
the night of the homicide, they proved
oy reliable witnesses could not posi-
bly, have been heard.
The impeachment of witness Dingler
is old, as it was enacted at the Brown
county trial