The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-01-08
BeWhiSkered Witness Puts
Finger on Bruno in
Testimony.
STATE SCORES SURPRISE
Defense Fails to Shake
Aged Mountaineer'S Story
of Seeing Suspect.
BY SIDNEY B. WHIPPLE
United Press staff Correspondent
Copyright. 1885. by United Press)


8. - Eighty-seven-year-o
Mandus Hochmuth placed a
palsied finger on Bruno Rich
ard Hauptmann today and
identified him as the man with
a ladder he saw near the Lind
bergh estate a few hours be-
fore Charles A. Lindbergh Jr.
was kidnapped and murdered
on March 1, 1882.
The aged and bewhiskered
resident of the Sourland coun-
tryside hobbled across the
tense and silent courtroom
where Hauptmann is on trial
for his life and laid a gnarled
finger on the defendants left
knee.
''That is the man." he said
in a cracked voice. His atti-
tude carried all the conviction
that he could muster.
II saw his face like a man
who had seen a ghost. He was
in a dirty green car. 1 saw a
part of a ladder.
Thus the state of New Jersey
struck its first smashing surprise
blow at the trial of the German car
penter who is charged with the
murder of the infant son of Col.
and Mrs. Charles "A. Lindbergh.
But the words Of Hochmuth, who
contended his eyes were good, failed
to shake the prisoner. His stone
like face remained unchanged.
Slowly he moved his head from side
to side in denial of the charge.
Otherwise, he did not move mus
Gle.
The ancient Hochmuth's testi-
mony dropped two bombshells for
the prosecution:
l. 1t was designed to place Haupt-
mann at the scene of the crime on
the day Of the crime, whereas he
has denied steadfastly he was ink
New Jersey at any time approxi-~
mate to March l, 1882.
Denies Testimony Framed"
2. 1t was designed to link him
with the kidnap ladder.
Hochmuth's dramatic identifca-
ton of Hauptmann was made dur
ing his direct examination by Atty.
Gen. David Wilentz.
After he had stepped down from
the witness chair-you could almost
hear his rheumatic bones creak as
he walked-and put what the state
hoped would be the finger of doom
on the prisoner, he was turned over
to Edward J. Reilly, head lawyer for
Hauptmann.
Reilly pounded at his testimony
in every conceivable form of queS-
ton to test his reliability, his sight,
his powers of observation. But Hoch-
muth, standing firmly by his guns,
refused to give way on any point.
When Reilly implied that State
Trooper had brought him to the
door of the courthouse yesterday
and pointed Hauptmann out to him,
Hochmuth's chin whiskers snapped
as he answered, mo, sir!"
He had seen Hauptmann in lane
near Col. Lindbergh's manor and he
meant to stick to it.
Tells Story of Ladder
The state then turned to Capt.
John j. Lamb of the New Jersey
state police, an officer who for 80
months has devoted his investiga-
tons almost entirely to the Lind
bergh case.
Capt. Lamb was called as a sup
porting witness to the states theory
that the three section ladder found
on the Lindbergh grounds, 10 feet
from the house, was the one by
which the kidnaper gained access
to the child's nursery-and that it
was Hauptmann that made and
used the ladder.
Justice Thomas w. Trenchard
had ruled yesterday that the lad
der could not be introduced m evil
dence-although it was marked for
| tification-until the state had
proved in what hands it had been
since it was found.
Government experts have exam
ined it and analysed its wood. Sec
tons of ii have been removed and
compared with wood found in
Hauptmann's garage in the Bronx.
1t has been taken apart so that its
nails could be compared with nails
found in one of Hauptmann's boxes.
Defense Wages Bitter Fight
Capt. Lamb proceeded, therefore,
to tell the jury that he himself had
had custody of the ladder, but out
lined the various hands into which
it had been committed for expert
mental purposes, since 1882.
At the noon recess, Hauptmann's
lawyers were fighting desperately to
exclude the ladder from evidence.
Lieut.. John j. Sweeney of the
Newark Police Department made .
dramatic witness. A breathless aus
dience heard him describe expert
ments made both with the alleged
fTrrPxs IN powa Thraal