The Ely miner., 1935-02-08
HAUPT PTMANN TAKES
STAND in DEFENSE
Defendant Claims Alibi for
Night Ransom Was
Paid.
BY w. c. WEBER

ELEMINGToN, N. 1.-THE state
rests it's easel"
David T. Wilentz, attorney gen.
eral of New Jersey, turns to his seat.
The court recesses for lunch. When it
reconvenes. defense attorneys indulge
in the customary legal maneuvers.
Then dapper. florid Edward ]. Reilly.
chief defense counsel, turns and cries
loudly:
Bruno Richard Hauptmann to the
stand"
The courtroom buZZes as the pale,
thin-faced German makes his way to
the stand Over the wires flashes the
news that the defendant in the most
spectacular trial of recent years is on
the stand fighting to escape the elec-
trio chair for murder of the first-born
son of Col. Charles A. Lindbergh.
Hauptmann appears nervous. He has
lost weight during his ordeal in court
and his clothes hang from his big
frame He sits slightly hunched over
in the witness chair. his hands clasped.
He is wearing the same dark suit he
has worn every day of the trial, a light
faded blue shirt and polka-dotted tie.
Less than twenty feet away sits
Colonel Lindbergh, father of the child
whom Hauptmann is accused Of hav-
ing killed to satisfy his desire for ease
without working and to indulge in
stock market speculation. When the
ex-carpenter takes the stand. it is the
first time Lindbergh has looked at him
for more than a few seconds. Once
when he was on the stand he glanced
at Hauptmann as he identified him as
the man whom he believed guilty or
the crime, and again when Hauptmann
cried out at testimony presented by the
state, the colonel looked at him for a
second or two. Now he stares at him
as if fascinated, as Attorney Reilly be-
gins his examination.
Carefully, step by step, the famous
New York criminal lawyer leads
life up to the time the kidnapping
occurred. Hauptmann answers slowly
in thick, cultural voice, pauslng be-
fore making replies as though he has
difficulty in choosing the right words.
His English is none too fluent, and his
accent is very marked.
Finally Reilly asks Hauptmann If
he left home on the night of April 2,
1882 (the night the $4,000 ransom
money was paid by DR.. ]. F. Condor to
a man in st. Raymond's cemetery.
The crowd strains forward to catch
Hauptmann's negative reply. The busi-
ness of establishing an alibi has begun.
What surprises the defense will
spring can only be conjectured. Reilly
is noted for his ability to turn seem
ingly hopeless cases into victories for
his clients. 1t is admitted that the
state has built up a strong circumstan-
tial case against Hauptmann. Almost
every type of evidence with the excep-
tion of eyewitnesses. fingerprints and
footprints has been presented. Among
the most dramatic blows the state has
struck were those presented by Arthur
Koehler, federal wood expert, who tes-
titled that Hauptmann's tools were
used to make the ladder left on the
Lindbergh estate out Of wood pur-
chased at a lumber yard where Haupt-
mann often worked, and part of
it with wood taken from the attic of
Hauptmann's own home in the Bronx.
Koehler told of an amazing piece of
detective work-the tracing of the lum-
ber used in connection with construc-
tion of the ladder. His investigation
showed that one of the knives of the
planning machine used in finishing the
wood had nick in it. Other calcula-
tions, he said. indicated that the ma
chine had eight blades trimming the
top of the board and six blades trim
ming the bottom when the board went
through the machines. and that one of
the blades was Slightly out of line.