The Washington times., 1935-01-24
LADDER CALLED
FATAL LINK To
HAUPTMANN
BY ADELA ROGERS ST. JOHN
Copyright, 1895, by International
News Service)

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mann trial had arrived.
A short stocky man with a very
bald head looked with keen blue
eyes at two mute pieces Of wood.
Ordinary wood, pine wood, such
as you and I see every day.
One piece Of wood came from
Bruno Hauptmann's attic.
The other piece came from the
side Of the kidnap ladder, the
broken ladder from which a little
baby crashed to hideous death.
Holding one piece in each hand,
stood the greatest expert on wood
in the United States, the Govern.
ment's head laboratory man on
wood.
Once Same Plank
Would he unite those two pieces
Of wood, would he make of them
the plank along which Bruno
Hauptmann must walk to the elec-
trio chair, convicted kidnaper and
murderer Of 20-months old
child? Would he unite them with
q new science and nail Bruno
Hauptmann upon them with
Hauptmann's own nails, as the
Lindbergh kidnaper?
If my heart was pounding, my
breath short, what must Haupt-
mann'S have been? How must he
be feeling as he sat there in that
courtroom, waiting for that word
which must be his death sentence?
Said Mr.. Koehler in a crisp de-
cisive voice:
"ThOse two pieces of wood
were once one piece"
For a moment, no one moved.
Prisoner Looks Away
Hauptmann's head went for
ward an inch, as though a rope
around his neck had jerked it. The
face of his wife, for the first time,
was Sodden with hopelesSness.
They did not look at those two
pieces Of wood, that science un-
dreamed of so short a time ago
had welded together. They did
not look at each other. It was as
though red mist, the mist of
murder, swan about Hauptmann's
head, and he was grayer than
ever against it.
Could there be any recourse
from this? A deadly conviction
swept over everyone in that court
room.
Soon Hauptmann will be on the
witness stand. Our hearts are
sick with certainty, with a feeling
that no human being could have
avoided as those two pieces of
wood grew together by modern
magic before our very eyes.
For, oh, none of us had ever
really wanted to look upon the
Lindbergh kidnaper. We have all
had a sort of bravado about it.
I think that is one reason many
Of us have said poor Hauptmann."
We just didn't actually want to
look upon a fellow human being
who had done this awful thing.
Modern Science
We are witnessing in this court
room probably the greatest piece
of modern detective science ever
seen in this nation.
A few years ago Bruno Haupt-
mann would have been safe
enough. He could have built that
ladder and never have had it rise
against him as it rose in the
courtroom yesterday.
mifV9nccn0 in this
trial have meant nothing-noth"
ing!
Anne and Lindy-ah yes, to
make us remember what man
ner of crime this was. But &C.
tually the human witnesses have
not mattered. It has been the
trial of silent witnesses left be-
hind by the kidnaper, who never
thought of them, didn't realize
how they could be traced by
science, so that every step would
be revealed.
They took a piece of wood from
the kidnap ladder to a scientific
expert, Arthur T. Koehler, head
of the United States Forestry
Laboratory.
Blow to Prisoner
He took that piece of wood, in
New Jersey, he followed it to
Carolina, he followed it into the
mills. BY great microscopes and
special knowledge, of planes that
have eight blades and make spe-
cial groves, he traced that lumber,
As carloads of it.
And in October, 1888, a year
before Hauptmann was ever heard
of in this case, he traced that
piece Of wood to the National
Lumber Company in the Bronx.
The tracing of that wood, the
finding of it, were the result of
detective science-and they were
so damning to Hauptmann that
you could see the blows as they
struck.
Crushing Blow
In the little collection of coinci-
dences am making, I mean the
ones that would be condolences
if Hauptmann is innocent, how
about the odd fact that out of
the six chisels in every good car
penter chest, three-quarter inch
chiSel was used to make the Lind
bergh ladder, three-quarter
inch chisel was found on the
scene of the crime and the only
chiSel missing from Hauptmann's
tool chest is a three quarter inch