Evening star., 1936-03-26
GOVERNOR SEEKS EVIDENCE.
Hoffman Tries to Fit Ladder Nail
Holes To Attic Beam.

Copyright. 1885 by the Associated Press)
TRENTON, N. j., March 26.-Gov.
Harold G. Hoffman went in person
today to Bruno Richard Hauptmann's
former Bronx home to test prosecu-
ton testimony that the nail holes In
one rail Of the kidnap ladder-"rail
16"-fltted nail holes in attic beams
Of the house.
The State successfully contended at
Hauptmann's F1emington trial that
rail 16 was originally part of floor
board in the Hauptmann attic Arthur
Koehler, Federal wood techonologist.
testified the ladder rail had been cut
from the floor board. part OF which
remained In the attic at the time Of
Hauptmann's arrest. The grain Of the
rail matched this floor board, he swore,
and the ladder rail nail holes fitted
nail holes In the joists. .-'-.
William Lasay, the Governors sec
retary, and Lieut.. Arthur Keaten Of
the New Jersey State police went to
New York with the Governor.
The car Of Lloyd Fisher, chief de-
fense counsel, was parked near the
two-family house where Hauptmann
lived at the time Of his arrest In Sep
tember, 1884.
Pardon Court Evidence.
The test was made at Gov. Hoff-
mans direction because he desired its
results to be available before the
Court Of Pardons meets to consider
Hauptmann,s second appeal for a
communication from the death sentence
scheduled to be carried out next Tues
day night at o'clock.
Meanwhile a close personal friend
of DR.. John F. Condor. the "Jafsie"
OF. the ransom negotiations, expressed
surprise at Gov. Hoffmann's refusal
to accept the conditions which Con-
don outlined for the interview with
him the Governor has been seeking.
Koehler, testifying regarding the
nail holes in rail 16, said at the
Hauptmann trial, ''those nails fit per-
fectly. Now that indicated without
any doubt in my opinion that the
rail had at one time been nailed
down there on those joists. There
are four nail holes certain distance
apart and o certain direction from
each other and in my opinion 1t
wouldn't be possible that there would
have been another somewhere with
cut nail holes in 1t, spaced exactly like
those nail holes are In the joists. the
same distance, the same direction
from each other"
Nails Fitted Perfectly.
The nails, he said, fitted mot only
as to direction and spacing, but
slant" The distance between the nail
holes was irregular, he pointed out.
The test, designed to check on
Koehler's testimony by fitting the cut
nails into the ladder rail and the
attic beams, will be conducted, it was
said, in the presence Of Gov. Hoffman,
Attorney General David T. Wilentz,
G. Lloyd Fisher. chief defense attor.
ney, and representatives Of the New
Jersey State police and New York
City police.
The Court of Pardons, If 1t decides
to hear Hauptmann's appeal, will
probably meet either Saturday or
Monday.
The Hauptmann defense fought the
kidnap ladder all through the Flem-
ington trial and have repeatedly at
tackled it since, charging that the
important rail 16 was framed"
against Hauptmann and that the lad
der itself was not used in the kidnap-
ing, but planted" at the Lindbergh
Hopeweu estate as q false clue.
Attacked by Defense.
The attack on the rail 16 nail holes
was based on the testimony Of DR..