SERIOUS DEFECTION

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1935, Page 7

SERIOUS DEFECTION

HAUPTMANN DEFENCE WITNESSES. AUTHORSHIP OF RANSOM NOTES. By Telegraph —Press Assn. —Copyright. Rec. 5.5 p.m. New York, Jan. 14. The trial of Bernard Richard Hauptmann on a charge of the murder of the jnf ? nt child of Colonel Lindbergh continued to-dai with further technical testimony by the handwriting expert, Albert Osborne, and other prosecution witnesses, reiterating their pinion that Hauptmann wrote all the ransom notes and refusing to be shaken in the least by Mr. Reilly's vigorous cross-examination. According to reports there was a serious defection to-day among the writing experts secured by the defence. According to one report two asked to withdraw from the case, saying they could not swear Hauptmann was not the author of the notes. This Mr. Reilly denied, insisting that shortage of funds by the defence made the retention of all the experts impossible. While Osborn’s testimony was temporarily postponed to accumulate additional technical data Jhe prosecution called a surprise witness, whose testimony seriously contradicted Hauptmann’s main line of defence. The witness was Hildegarde Alexander Young, an attractive clothing model, who swore that during the ransom negotiations in March, 1932, she saw Hauptmann shadowing Dr. Condon at a Bronx railroad station. She insisted her identification was positive, as she had known Dr. Condon for many years. She was so. attracted by his watcher’s “queer” look that she could not forget him.