Evening star., 1936-03-29
MISS STRETzGETS
READYFOR ORDEAL
Cross-Examination to Open
TueSday-To Continue
Story Tomorrow.
BY the Associated Press.

NEW YORK, March 2s.-vera
Stretz. the 32-year-old blond secre-
tary who ended a year of Illicit ro-
nance by firing four bullets into her
former employer from a snub-noSed
pistol, steeled herself in a prison cell
tonight against an ordeal of sharp
questioning by States attorneys.
Her compoSure has visibly been
broken whenever the gentle questions
of her attorney, Samuel Leibowitz,
turned toward her relationship with
the man she calmly admitted killing,
DR.. Fritz Gebhardt, head OF O Ger.
man export-import firm.
But she regained some of her COM
posure last night after she was re-
turned to the cell that has housed her
since her arrest.
Leibowitz declined to disclose to-
night what other witnesses he would
summon to support his clients i'm
piled contention she killed Gebhardt
to ward of brutal assault"
Nor would States attorneys dis
close the testimony they might offer
in rebuttal.
Pistol Phase Important.
Miss Stretz has before her at least
another dav on the stand under the
considerate questioning Of her own
attorney, but after Monday she may
look forward to a sharp cross exaIni-
nation by the State.
Leibowitz developed one angle that
appeared significant to court room lis
teners. They heard him draw from
the heretofore impasSiVe slayer testi-
mony that she had confded to Geb-
hardt's care the pistol which the
State says she used and at the sight
of which she paled on the stand when
Leibowitz produced it.
A murmuring court room, sprinkled
with notables, hung on her words this
week as she chokingly told some OF
the story of her clandestine relation
ship with the middle-aged husband
and father she is charged with mur.
dering.
The epilogue to her idyll that be-
came a tragedy is to be told In her
own words Monday under the direct
examination of her counsel, Samuel
S. Leibowitz who intimated that more
of the ardent love letters that passed
between the sweetheartS would be read
into the record.
Tells Details of Affair.
The sallow-cheeked defendant, be-
tween recurrent fits Of loud Sobbing,
during her first day on the witness
stand, blurted out some Of the details
of her affair with Gebhardt before
Jurors who remained as impaSsive as
spectators we're audibly sympathetic.
She met DR.. Gebhardt first on a
tropical cruise, she said, weeping
every time she mentioned his name.
He was gallant" He piled her with
attentions and gifts when she returned
to New York, persuaded her to be-
come his secretary at $40 week,
wooed her ardently in his native Ger
man and broken English, she con-
tinued.
She had been married IL years ago
but it was annulled. she went on, and
she had been living "in maze Of
camoufage" His courtship and pleas
Ito build things together" finally won
her, Miss Stretz whispered, and she
succumbed to his advances in little
country inn, where they had journeyed
to view 'the lovely countryside" dur
ing the Spring of 1885.
Although Leibowitz in questioning
venremen indicated that Miss Stretz'
defense would be that she fired in
self defense to protect herself from
"a brutal assault" his questioning
of the defendant so far has not led her
to an explanation.
without attempting to prove a mo.
tive in the Staying. the State closed
its case after enciting testimony from
policemen who arrested her that she
told them Gebhardt had not tried to
assault her and that there was no
self defense involved.