The Washington times., 1935-01-18
BREAK IN TRIAL
V|V|DLY TOLD
BY WRITER
By ADELA ROGERS ST. JOHNS
Copyright. 1895, by International
News Service)

N~OpyA4BhIs 1SOOS ny hSbiohAA
News Service)
PENNINGTON, N. j., Jan. 10.
Events move on, but the tide Of
yesterdays great moment still
Hibrates in the courtroom.
Like a moving screen in front
pf today, we still see Bruno
Hauptmann'S sudden wild pro-
test, as he rose to his feet, a
gaunt, weird figure, arms out
stretched, fingers pointing. and
tor the first time we heard his
Gutteral voice screaming:
Mister, you stop lying. You
are making up a story"
Nobody can forget. Everybody
still talks, whispers, questions.
1t came so swiftly, that it had
rocked the courtroom like an
earthquake and was over before
we could realize it, and so today
we sit trying to remember
exactly what happened. recalling
the way it looked, arguing
about exactly what he said.
There are 20 different versions
but all begin:
"Mister, you stop lying"
SAW BREAK" COMING
Hauptmannesque, in this as in
everything, he chose the worst
moment in the trial, the worst
witness to accuse.
Funny, too. All morning we
had been on edge, panicky, wait
ing for something to happen.
We knew the break was COM
ing, but we thought it was Lind
bergh.
When he came in, he looked
desperate, as though he had not
slept. AS he came, he stood a
moment, not looking like Indy
at all. The fine dignity was wear
ing very thin.
Then he sat down only one seat
removed from Hauptmann!
Our nerves tingled.
Not one person in that court
room would have been surprised
if suddenly Indy had risen from
his seat and grasped Hauptmann
by the throat. I think we were
waiting for it.
But when Indy came back
after lunch he had regained con-
troll of himself.
Haggard, but calm. And he
took his old seat, four seats away,
The tension grew worse.
Then Comes Sisk
Came young Mr.. Thomas Sisk,
Of the United States Department
Of Justice.
Tommy SiSk has been in charge
OF the Lindbergh kidnapping inves-
tigation for the D. j. boys since
sometime last year. Hard to be.
lieve. He looks so young, so slight,
so almost delicate. I understand
he is over thirty, but should have
taken him for % or %.
Yet the boys who know about
these things tell me that Tommy
Sisk, slim and young and blond,
q sort of American Mr.. Fortune in
his speech and manner, is one of
the toughest, shrewdest, most re-
lentless men in the Department Of
Justice.
1t was Tommy Sisk who put the
finger on Bruno Hauptmann that
day on Park Avenue, who said:
1--WE want, to talk to you,
Hauptmann."
Quietly, Tommy progressed with
the story of Hauptmann'S arrest,
Of their return to his home. For
q moment you didn't quite be-
lieve it. Not until he told Of the
search of that house, of seeing
Hauptmann constantly peeping
out the window at the garage,
of going into the garage at last,
where the ransom money was
hidden, did the steel under that
gentle youthfulness get through
to me.
Damning Testimony
One by one. still quietly, he
dropped in those damning, deadly
things.
He asked Hauptmann If he
didn't want lawyer and Haupt-
mann said:
whats the use?"
He painted that picture of
Hauptmann, face to face with the
United States Government, found
with a twenty-dollar ransom bill
in his wallet, continually looking
out the back window at the
garage, and he did it so imper.
sonally that we saw Hauptmann
standing there at the window.
A chill swept over the court
room, as this young man went
relentleSSly on, damning Haupt-
mann with every word he said.
Then Tommy SiSk said:
1--WE found a crock buried in
the garage, about a foot under
ground. And Hauptmann ad-
mitted to me that until two
weeks before he had had money
hidden in that crock"
Like an explosion, the picture
changed.
The rigid. gray green figure
came to life.
Silence Shattered
The Shrllnken silent man in