Imperial Valley press., 1935-01-08
GIVES
SEVERE BLOW
To DEFENSE
Continued from page u

Continued from page u
I blow at the trial of the German
carpenter 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. fail
ed 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 a mus
Gle.
The ancient Hochmutlas testi-
mony dropped two bombshells for
the prosecution:
/ It was designed to place Haupt-
mann at the scene of the crime on
the day of the crime, whereas he
has steadfastly denied he was in
New Jersey at any time approx
mate TO March l, 1882.
?. 1t was designed to link him
with the kidnap ladder.
Hochmuth S Identification of
Hauptmann was made during his
direct examination by Attorney
General David Wilentz.
After he had stepped down from
the witness chair 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
Hochmuth. standing firmly by his
guns, refused to give way on any
point.
When Reilly implied that a state
trooper had brought him to the
door of the court house yesterday
and pointed Hauptmann out to him,
Hochmuth's chin whiskers snapped
as he answered, no, sir"
He had seen Hauptmann in q
line near Col. Lindberghs manor
and he meant to stick to it.
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-
tions almost entirely to the Lind
bergh case.
Lamb was called as a supporting
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 who made and used the
ladder.
Justice Thomas w. Trenchard
had ruled yesterday that the lad
der could not be introduced in evi-
dence-although it was marked for
identification-until the state had
proved in what hands it had been
since it was found.
Government experts have exam
ined it and analyzed its wood. Sec
tions of it have been removed and
compared with wood found in
Hauptmanns 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.
Lamb proceeded, therefore, to tell
the jury that he himself had had
custody of the ladder but outlined
the various hands into which it had
been committed for experimental
purposes, since 1882.
At the noon recess, Hauptmann IS
lawyers were fighting desperately
to exclude the ladder from evidence.
Lieutenant John j. Sweeney of
the Newark police department deS-
cribed experiments made both with
the alleged kidnap ladder and with
a ladder taken from the Lindbergh
garage.
Before he left the stand, the
state had proved that the kidnap
ladder had been placed against the
side of the Lindbergh home; that
it had left marks on the wall, be-
low the window, where the top
piece had Scraped away some of the
paint.
It had proved that it would have
been possible for kidnaper to en-
ter the Lindbergh nursery in the
manner the state charges Haupt-
mann did, for Sweeney gave the
jury a picture of howe he, 180-
pound man. climbed into the nur-
sery from the Lindbergh ladder, and
did it easily" stepping over a suit
case that had been placed by the
window exactly as it was on the
night of the kidnapping
In cross examination, Chief De-
fense Counsel Edward J. Reilly
brought from Sweeney the admission
that when he crawled through the
window from the ladder, he had to
use both hands, the inference be-
ing that it would have been i'm
possible TO carry baby out Of the
nursery and down the ladder.