SURPRISE WITNESS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 29, 4 February 1935, Page 7

SURPRISE WITNESS

LINDBERGH BABY CASE. CONTENTIONS OF THE DEFENCE. Received Feb. 3, 6.30 p.m. FLEM LNGTON, Feb. 1. The defence called a surprise witness to-day, Peter Sommers, who swore that ai, about midnight on March 1, 1932, he saw a. man and a woman whom he identified as Fisch and Violet Sharpe, the maid at Mie Morrow home at that time, who subsequently committed suicide, taking a baby from New .Jersey into New York city on the Weekhawken ferry across the Hudson River. Sommers described tho baby as a blonde, about two years of age, and wearing a one piece sleeping garment, which is almost an exact description of the Lindbergh child. The defence’s only handwriting expert, John Trendloy, testified most of the day largely to the effect the ransom notes could not b© positively identified as Hauptmann’s, as the writing could easily be duplicated. He expressed the opinion that Hauptmann was not the anther. The prosecution apparently did not take his testimony seriously, as they limited the cross-examination to a suggestion that Trcndley was not qualified as an expert, and pointing out con tr adic*t i o 11 s in his .|irt'u> « xan iinal i o n.