Evening star., 1935-01-17
Doctor Who Performed Au.
topsy Declares Death 0c-
Cured Instantaneously or
Few Minutes After Blow.
WITNESSES DESCRIBE
DISCOVERY OF BODY
New Jersey Police Inspector Iden-
titles Muddy Garments and
States He Punctured Skull With
Stick During Investigation at
Grave in Woods.

(Copyright 1895. by the Associated Press
FLEMINGTON, N. j., January II.
An autopsy operator told the
Hauptmann murder jury today that
Baby Charles A. Lindbergh, jr., died
of a skull fracture inflicted while it
was alive and that death was either
instantaneous or within few minutes.
Bruno Richard Hauptmann, the
alien carpenter accused of kidnapping
and numbering the child, sat unmoved.
but alertly interested, as this teSti-
mony was given by DR.. Charles II.
Mitchell. Mercer County physician.
The physicians report. in which
he also dissolved rumors that the
baby had been shot, followed recital
by others of the gruesome details of
the finding of the baby's body in a
thicket several miles from the Lind
bergh home on May IL. 1892
months and II days after it was
stolen from its crib.
Not Killed by Bullet.
DR.. Mitchell, replying to a cross
examination that appeared designed
toward showing that something other
than a skull fracture caused death,
said:
"A bullet of the size of that hole
would blast out the other side of the
skull"
He referred to a hole which a
previous witness said he had made in
advertently with a stick at the scene
of discovery.
On the stand besides the discoverers
of the body and the autopsy operator
today were several employees of the
j. p Morgan Co., who told Of the
preparation of the Lindbergh ransom
money.
Another development of the day was
revelation by James M. Fawcett.
Hauptmann'S former counsel, that he
had at one time discussed with Attor-
ney General David T. Wilentz the
possibility of a life sentence for
Hauptmann in the event of a confess
sion, with a view to learning the
identity of possible accomplices. The
attorney added though that there
is nothing to indicate Hauptmann
guilty"
There was no question as to the
cause of DEATH" DR.. Mitchell said.
The child died of a fractured skull -
Would you say it was caused by
external violence" a prosecutor asked
The fracture gave every indication
of it."
Death Was Instantaneous.
Then, replying to a question over
the objections of the defense as to
the time of death in relation to the
fracture, DR.. Mitchell declared:
Il would say that death occurred
instantaneously or within q very few
minutes after the fracture. The frac-
ture occurred on the living child. II
bled. There was blood clot still on
the skull. The blood clot could not
come there If the child was dead.
The autopsy report was considered
important to the States contention
that the Lindbergh baby was killed
beneath the window of the Lindbergh
nursery as it fell with the kidnaper
from a breaking ladder
This would place the murder scene
in Hunterdon County, where Haupt-
mann is on trial. The body was found
in Mercer County.
The defense. though it had an
nounced previously that it would not
do so. may yet challenge the identifi-
cation of the body. This was indicated
in some of the cross-questions shot at
witnesses who today related the find
ing of the body on May II. 1882, in
a thicket off Mount Rose road. In
quiries about the possible shift in
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