The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-03-10
DEFENSE ENDS
SUDDENLY IN
TORCH CASE
rrotmes Rests After Three
Witnesses Are Called
for Schroeder.
FATHER GOES ON STAND
Women in Courtroom Sob
as SorroWfuI Story
Is Related.
BIZ EDWARD C. FULKE

FEeClplLaLlu2 sudden enQ u
Harold Herbert Schroeders defens'
TO a charge of numbering an un
known man IN the High Schoo
torch car tragedy nine months ago
Ira Holmes, the accused mans at
torney, this morning rested his cas-,
after testimony by three witnesses
Apparently unable to produce ad-
ditional witnesses, Holmes sum-
nnarily closed Schroeder's defense
: and his fate will be submitted II
the jury probably Wednesday.
The state asks that the Mobile
radiator repair man pay for the
alleged crime with his life.
Witness Fails to Appear
After a brief session marked Will
the relatively unimportant testi
n1ony Of three witnesses, Holme
rested when man said to have wit
messed the accident, thirty-fve mile
west of Terre Haute, in which thu
unknown man died, according II
Schroeder. failed to appear in court
Judge Frank P. Baker resceSSec
the session, expectant Of the wit
ness arrival momentarily. After &
short wait, Holmes made hi!
startling statement.
II have no other witnesses,
Holmes told Baker. my case /:
rested"
All that remains in the trial nov
ts the hearing of testimony of two
alieniSts who examined the accused
man for sanity.
Tension Is High
Their testimony was to be heard
when court reconvened at p. m.
and closing arguments in the caSt
we're to follow. 1t Is probable tina
arguments will not be made unit
Wednesday.
Hundreds of spectators jammec
into the courtroom this morning
expecting to witness hard-fought
defense battle.
AS the session got under way
tension was at its highest point.
When Ernest Schroeder, white
haired father of the accused man
took the stand to bolster his sons
claim TO innocence, sobs Of women
onlookers broke the stiffness.
Bent and trembling, the 7l-year-
old man faced his son, and in low
trembling voice, told of the Schroe.
der family history.
Mother Was In Asylum
He told Of Schroeder,s mother be-
ing confined to an asylum in 1896
a year and half after Schroeder
was born.
The mother sat behind her son a.
the prisoners table and wept silent
~ as her husband told his story.
In the spectators section, womeI
sobbed while the prisoners father
looked first to the jury and ther
to the crowd. He tugged at hand
kerchief held in his hands, and hi
brow clouded now and then
He told of Schroeders child life
the story Of a country boy frolick
ing of to the country school eacl
morning, until, at the age Of 20, tht
boy left home.
Father Seems Puzzled
The witness seemed puzzled b.
the stifled sobS rising from the rea
of the courtroom.
He told of Harold's marriage
how he came back home
nov and then"-of working her
and there"
HE only went to school up to thu
time he was ID or Is. He never go
IN trouble"
AS II taxed by the ordeal, tn,
father stared blankly before hin
when Holmes completed his line o
questions.
"You may take the witness,
Holmes said to Prosecutor Herber
Wilson.
mo question" was Wilson'S re
Spouse.
Sob in Sympathy
AS Schroeder's father left tn
sand, limping and faltering, a
audible cry of sympathy went u
from group Of women spectators
Immediately afterward Holme
rose to introduce certified copies O
Iowa court records verifying testi
mony that Schroeders mother, Mr.!
Laura Schroeder, and his grand
mother, Mrs. Elizabeth King, wer
inmates Of the asylum The grand
mother died In the institution
Holmes disclosed.
Mrs. King, Holmes revealed 4
reading the record to the jury, wa
q victim of fear.
Investigation disclosed. Holme
read, that she had great fear o
being killed and her blood boile,
In a KETTLE On several occasion
she threatened suicide, the repor
disclosed
Shows bitches Exist
Nature of the insanity of Schroe
der's mother was not disclosed II
the report Holmes read to the jury
AS court opened this morning
Holmes launched his fight to shoy
the existence OF bitches in the vi
entity where Schroeder claimed tn
accident occurred.
w. ]. Ranke, 1926 Bancroft street
& travelling salesman. was calle'
by Holmes to testify that at mum
ercus points along the road dttche
Of VARYING depth exist. The wit
ness said he had been hired to in
yestigate characteristics of tn
road.
Holmes In direct examination
stressed the existence OF dee
bitches on the national highway q
the approaches to three creek
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