The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-13
BRUNO'S KINDLY
PASTOR SURE OF
HIS INNOCENCE
Certain of Brief Reprieve,
Hopes for Miracle to
Save 'PariShioner.'
BY FORREST DAVIS
Times Special Writer

BY FORREST DAVIS
Times Special Writer
TRENTON. N. j., Jan. 13.-The
Rev. John Matthiesen, pastor of
Trinity, the mother church of Luz
theranism in this section of the
Delaware Valley, is an erect, twink
ling, gray-haired Clergyman. He
serves Bruno Richard .auptmann
"a Lutheran man"-as spiritual
comforter in the death house of the
Egyptian tomb that IS New Jersey
State Penitentiary.
He believes with all the sincere
passion of a simple, pious man of
God that Hauptmann did not COM
NIT the odiouS Lindbergh crime.
Yesterday was DR.. Matthiesen's
busy day. His service began at 10,
lasted until 1912 noon. In the aft
ernoon, tedious ordeal, the Trim
ity congregation held its annual
meeting in the stone church on a
by street.
Wherever you have five Germans
you have six opinions" said DR..
Matthiesen today. reviewing the
event which kept him from the
death house yesterday. He sat in
the living room of his comfortable
parsonage and discussed the pros
pect for his death house parish
ioner"
He recalled that Mrs. Anna
Hauptmann. seeking the consolation
of her own faith and kind, sat I'M
der his pulpit yesterday as he
preached, bit lengthily, on the
precocity of Our Lord before the
elders at Jerusalem. "She is a
Christian woman, churchly wom-
an" said the pastor.
Feels Sure of Reprieve
DR.. Matthiesen expressed con-
fldence that Gov. Harold G. Hoff-
man will grant a stay to Haupt-
MAMA 90-day stay, in 30-day par
cels-and that meantime, miracu-
lousy or otherwise, evidence will
turn up compelling a new trial.
Nine out of 10 persons in this
snugly ancient capital of New Jer-
sey share DR.. Matthiesens belief.
The best guess today, in a city
nearly bereft of it's senses in the
unending clash of opinion on the
Hauptmann case, is that Hoffman
will not act until Wednesday at the
earliest. Hauptmann is slated to die
at p. m. Friday. His lawyers may
attempt, in desperate last.-minute
gesture, to interest a Federal Judge
in habeas corpus writ. A better
reason for the delay is that the New
Jersey Legislature meets for it's 1886
session on Tuesday.
Governor Prepares Message
The Governor today is up to his
elbows in work on the final draft of
the annual message and the budget
report. He delivers the message on
Tuesday. After that he will be rela-
lively free of pressure from the leg
islative arm.
Dr.. Matthiesen, educated in his
native Germany, has held pastorates
in Chicago, Nebraska, Baltimore and
Trenton in the last 80 years.
He grew up among criminals, beg
CARS, Migrants, misflts. His father.
was superintendent of state refuge
for the unfortunate. He admits to
special insight into the character
of the defeated.
mo one who knew and talked
with Hauptmann could believe him
guilty." said DR.. Matthiesen. ct
have probed into his soul. I have
gone to the death house in de-
pressed state of mind and I have
left quickened and spiritually re-
freShed.
Greets Him With Smile
'Hauptmann always meets me
with a wide smile. He smiles often,
sometimes he weeps. Tears stream
change expression. But not for long.
He is religious man; a churchly
man.
HE thinks of God in the death
house as he used to en- the hillsides
of Germany when he wandered
there alone in the summer and
stretched fiat on the ground"
The pastor accepts without ques-
ton the conclusions of Samuel
Small, New York City engrosser,
that it would have been physically
impossible for Hauptmann to write
the ransom notes. Small reasons
that Hauptmann was taught the
Palmer penmanship system, that the
ransom notes we're written in the
vertical style and that no man is
artful enough to disguise his hand
writing in another system.
DR.. Matthiesen hopes that Small's
conclusions, which preoccupy the
Governors thoughts on the case,
may be sufficiently potent to pro-
cure a new trial
my experiments prove that
Hauptmann and the ransom note
writer are two distinctly different
individuals. I am not going to
make decision as to who wrote
these notes, because that is not my
sphere, but can say that the per-
son who wrote the first note found
in the nurSery) did not write the
other notes. The person who wrote
the first note wrote it with the left
hand, to disguise his handwriting,
and it is more of a drawing, if you
will study it, than regular writing.
1.-THE first note is unquestionably
the note of the kidnaper. The other
notes have been made by some one,
also more than so years old, who
tried to copy the first note"