Evening star., 1936-01-12

not be told.
What About Fisch?
What about Isador Fisch, the con-
Sumptive German whose ghost swayed
constantly in the background, almost
from the moment of Hauptmann's ar
rest? What about that part of the
ransom currency-about $50, 900 of it
which was never found?
What is the explanation of how
Hauptmann happened to be in Hope
well on a night and at time when
only the immediate members Of the
household were aware that the Lind
berghs were to remain there instead
of returning to Englewood, as had
been their unbroken custom?
What, If anything, happened to the
kidnap ladder between the time it was
found and the day it was produced in
court?
Without in any sense challenging
the jury's verdict of guilty, there have
been many persons who have asked
Gov. Hoffman of New Jersey If it is
not possible to find q full answer to
these questions.
These correspondents of New Jer-
sey's chief executive have been given
pause by the fact that Hauptmann's
story, bizarre and difficult to believe
as 1t is, has never been changed.
He got the ransom money, he said,
from his former partner. Isador
Fisch. FiSch went to Germany and
died. The rain. soaking through the
roof, wet the cardboard box In which
the money was packaged. disclosing
it to Hauptmann's view. He took it.
Sticks to His Story.
That was his story on the day of
his arrest in September, 1884, and
1t Is his story today. The State says
the steadfastness of Hauptmann's
story is of no Significance so far as
the facts of his guilt are concerned.
Some psychologists have explained 1t
by saying that he is man Of steel'
"a man adamant to emotion and
one lacking normal reactions.
Hauptmann's own explanation is
that he has told the same story with
out change because 1t Is the only
story he knows; that 1t is the truth.
If it were the truth, he has found
himself in a most unfortunate di-
lemma, lacking the substantiation
that Fisch might have been able to
give.
In whichever direction his lawyers
attempted to leap in the attempt to
free him they were always confronted
with the undentable circumstance
that ransom bills were found not only
upon his person, but concealed
carefully concealed-about the Bronx
premises where he lived.
The fact of concealment appeared
prima facie evidence Of some guilty
conscience. The State argued that
it was the conscience Of baby killer.
Expert Testimony Damaging.
The testimony of the handwriting
experts that the entire series Of ram
som notes, including the one found
on the window sill of the baby's
nursery, was written by Hauptmann,
went far to seal his doom. The an1az-
ing scientific testimony that part Of
the wood in the kidnap ladder came
from Hauptmann's Bronx home was
another damaging blow.
He offered an alibi for the night Of
March /, 1882, but it was not too
strong; and to Offset 1t there was testi-
mony that he had been seen In the
vicinity of the Hopewell property on
the murder day.
The volunteer intermediation by the
spry, elderly schoolmaster, John F.
Condor, and the surprising conse-
uuences Of this isolated and unofhcial
intermediation would have seemed ex-
travagant melodrama If they were in
a book instead Of in real life. A To-
year-old schoolmaster with an ex-
pugilist as companion and bodyguard-
an exchange Of directions conducted
through the columns Of community
newspaper-the story Of a strange
woman who appeared in the night, then
vanished-all these added bizarre ele-
ments to case which In its elementals
was bizarre enough.
The enjoyment Of underworld char
acters by Col. Lindbergh to act as in
termediaries, and the offer Of the in
famous AL Capone to deal with the
kidnapers brought the case to even
moro fantastic proportions.
Women In Background.
Deeply etched in the background
was the inevitable woman factor-the
tragic figure of the bereaved mother.
quietly dignified; the wife Of the de-
fendant, as staunch In her faith In
her husbands innocence as was the
jury in his guilt; and, in Germany. the
old mother, trudging into the nearby
woods to gather fuel, and avowing her
faith that her son could not be q muir
derer.
There was the pretty nurse, Betty
Cow; and the tragic maid, Violet
Sharpe; and the women Of the jury,
sitting In the stuffy court room, stared
at by the finely f,irred women from
New York's Park avenue and New
York's Broadway.
Somehow, despite his apparently
limited means. Hslptmann has made