New Jersey v. Hauptmann (Cont'd)

New Jersey v. Hauptmann (Cont'd)

Testimony adduced last week at Flemington by the State of New Jersey to persuade the jury to send Bruno Richard Hauptmann to the electric chair for murder:

P: Dr. John Francis ("Jafsie") Condon, 74, thrice pointed to Defendant Hauptmann, thrice declared, "John [with whom he had negotiated and to whom he had given $50,000 for the Lindbergh baby's return] is Bruno Richard Hauptmann!"

P: Albert S. Osborn, 74, handwriting expert, told the jury that the only man in the world who could have written the note left in the baby's room and the succeeding ransom notes was Defendant Hauptmann.

P: Amandus Hochmuth, 86, swore he saw Defendant Hauptmann in a "dirty green" sedan at the entrance to the Lindberghs' lane near Hopewell the afternoon before the kidnapping.

P: Three State troopers identified a ladder as the one which left imprints below the nursery window, was subsequently found some 70 ft. from the Lindbergh house.

P: An Internal Revenue agent was able to trace $18,580 of the ransom money, $14,600 of it directly to Defendant Hauptmann.

P: Col. Henry Breckinridge, Lindbergh friend and lawyer, helped dissipate the defense's insinuations that "Jafsie" Condon was criminally embroiled in the case when he testified that that old Bronx schoolteacher had been opposed from the start to giving ransom without first seeing the child.

Tactics used by Defense Counsel Edward J. Reilly to persuade the jury not to send his client to the electric chair: P: He was able to shoot holes through shaky old Witness Hochmuth's story, causing him to give conflicting accounts as to whether or not he had discussed his testimony with New Jersey officials.

P: He tried to cast doubt over Hauptmann's complicity in the crime on the ground that $31,420 of the ransom money has never been officially accounted for.

P: He succeeded in preventing the ladder from being admitted in evidence, pending better identification.

Sensational out-of-town developments of the week included the prosecution's announcement that it was investigating a Bronx garageman's story of repainting Hauptmann's "dirty green" sedan shortly after the crime, and that a Manhattan cinema theatre cashier would say that Hauptmann passed her a $5 ransom bill at a date before Isidor Fisch left the U. S. to die in Germany. Hauptmann's story is that Fisch left the money with him, that he did not "dip into" it until Fisch sailed away in 1933.

Fizzle of the week was Counsel Reilly's failure to keep his promise to name the "four men & women" who plotted the kidnapping in a roadhouse.

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