EFFORT TO SAVE HAUPTMANN

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21746, 31 March 1936, Page 11

EFFORT TO SAVE HAUPTMANN

*— 'I ALLEGED CONFESSION TOJ MURDER | J j PROVED BY EXAMINATION Tot BE FALSE I i I (Received March 30. 9.32 p.m.) i NEW YORK. March 29. New and fantastic elements entered the Lindbergh baby case today, just 48 hours before Bruno ' Hauptmann was to die in the electric ; chair for the murder of the child. | Apparently in a last frantic effort | to gain a reprieve for the condemned ; man, detectives employed by Mr iH. G. Hoffman (Governor of New I Jersey) submitted, to the Pardon j Board an alleged confession of j Paul Wend el, a former attorney [who has been convicted several [times for perjury- and other felonies. thah-he had murdered the child. The Attorney-General, Mr | Wilentz, and other state officials said that they gave little credence |to the confession, as Wendel had several times been committed to | insane asylums for observation; but Ithey subjected him to a long questioning in which he repudiated the entire confession, saying that it had been forced from him by prolonged torture. Meanwhile it has developed that Wendel was previously taken before a magistrate and formally charged with the murder. Thus, unless the Pardon Board grants a reprieve, or rhe Governor again intervenes, Hauplman will die while a formal murder charge is pending against another man,