The Sixteenth Rail
Page 34
These data are not infrequently derived from studies of the past two centuries because insufficient numbers of new scientists are being [trained] in these descriptive fields. There is inadequate support in the universities for “classic” training and few positions available even after extensive postgraduate studies. I can think, for example, of very few practicing plant anatomists in this country today.
The legacy of Koehler’s work is that there are still important roles for studies that generate the original data. To name a few, in fields of forensic science, or as data that demonstrates at an organismal level changes in climate through time, or for describing the still unknown plant species of the planet, or for working out the phylogeny of living organisms—the history of the various lineages of life forms.
Koehler’s legacy was to show how basic descriptive science still has modern value and important applications.
Koehler himself believed he understood his impact and the impact of other scientists like him. He helped craft a paper called Wood as Circumstantial Evidence after the trial that addressed what he believed to be the nexus of science and detective work. In it, he wrote,
Surely the services of the chemist, the metallurgist, the wood technologist, the textile expert and other scientific specialties that our modern age has developed are needed in the fight on modern crime, in order to establish or complete the evidence and to extract the last shred of information from clues that every case affords.
It is true that evidence of a scientific and technical nature is apt to be of the kind called circumstantial. But circumstantial evidence—enough of it and of the proper kind—tends to become overwhelming. It tips the burden of disproof more and more heavily against the accused, until any possible story in reply short of a complete confession becomes fantastic. And a fair jury having ordinary reasoning faculties can be brought to see the point.
Not surprisingly, in retirement Koehler consulted with the producers of Perry Mason on a couple of their storylines. His popularization of forensic science continues to be emulated today in television programs like CSI, Law and Order, and NCIS.
It’s a compelling legacy for the father of forensic botany, even if Hollywood does not know how to pronounce his name correctly.
Endnotes
Numerous authors have come before me in writing about the Lindbergh kidnapping and subsequent Hauptmann trial, but until now no one has had access to the hundreds of letters written by Arthur Koehler during the time he was involved in the case. They are currently maintained by his family and are not publicly available to researchers.
Many of the letters I have quoted in the book will eventually be kept in a file at the New Jersey State Police Museum, but the originals remain with the Koehler family. I have cited quotes from those letters and from publications within the text.
George Koehler has written about his family’s history, and those publications were invaluable to me. Two Cents Unaccounted For (George E. Koehler, 1989) is a detailed look at Arthur Koehler’s financial ledgers from 1900 to 1963; the original ledgers remain in George Koehler’s possession. The “Flying Dutchman” and other Family Letters of Arthur Koehler: Excerpts 1915-1963 (George E. Koehler, 2nd Edition, 1994) chronicles the letters Koehler wrote to his brothers and parents. The originals also remain in the family’s possession.
The Koehler family history is chronicled in Our Koehler Ancestry (George E. Koehler, 2006), the only one of George E. Koehler’s three books that is available to the public. It is in the holdings of the Wisconsin Historical Society Library and Archives.
Arthur Koehler was a prolific writer himself, exhaustively detailing his efforts on the investigation. A full copy of his official reports resides at both the Forest Products Laboratory Library in Madison and at the New Jersey State Police Museum. He also wrote twenty-nine pages detailing how he thought his testimony should go in court. That report and the actual court record of his testimony are found at the State Police Museum.
In addition, Koehler wrote many papers about his efforts that can be found at both locations. These include Wood as Circumstantial Evidence with T. J. Mosley, History of Tracing North Carolina Pine in Rails 12 and 13, Some Unexpected Applications of Science in the Lindbergh Kidnap Case, Technique Used in Tracing the Lindbergh Kidnapping Ladder, and The Lumber, The Ladder and The Laboratory. He also told his story to The Saturday Evening Post for a seven-page article in the April 20, 1935, issue.
Thousands of articles were written about Koehler’s efforts in relation to the Lindbergh kidnapping and other facets of his work. I found the following ones most helpful: Wood Technology and the Lindbergh Kidnap Case (Forest Products Lab, 1971) by Donna Christensen; Wood’s Case Against Hauptmann (American Forests, May 1935); Arthur Koehler: Scientist-Investigator (Police, September-October 1935) by Arthur S. Aubry Jr.; As Wood Gave Witness (Wooden Barrel, May 7, 1935) by Frederick A. Strenge; Round the World with a Lens (Pen, February 1947) by Alice Spencer Cook; What Kind of Wood Is It? (Illustrated World, February 1923) by Bartel B. Borchers; CSI: Madison, Wooden Witness (Forest History Today, Spring/Fall 2010) by Amanda Ross and Wood Detective Solves 3000 Mysteries a Year (Popular Mechanics, March 1937).
The transcript of Koehler’s NBC Radio interview, The Science of Wood Identification, on February 16, 1935, also proved helpful. More information about the Forest Products Laboratory can be found in Forest Products Laboratory, 1910-2010: Celebrating a Century of Accomplishments (University of Wisconsin Press, 2010) compiled by John Koning.
Three books helped me understand much about the New Jersey State Police at the time of the case, and all three were written by the New Jersey State Police Museum archivist, Mark Falzini. His publication Their Fifteen Minutes (iUniverse, 2008) is a terrific guide to the characters involved in the case, from the troopers to many of the witnesses, and more. He subsequently published two pamphlets, Trooper Togs: A History of the New Jersey State Police Uniform (2010) and Headquarters: A Brief History of the Land and Buildings of the New Jersey State Police in West Trenton (2011), both of which helped me set the scene where Arthur Koehler worked while in New Jersey.
The seminal work on Charles A. Lindbergh is the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography Lindbergh (Berkley, 1998), by A. Scott Berg. Delos A. Dudley’s personal recollections, My Lindbergh Papers: Personal Memories of a National Hero (Delos A. Dudley, 1991), provided terrific information about Lindbergh’s time at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Anne Vandenburgh’s Lindbergh’s Badger Days (Goblin Fern Press, 2003) was also helpful.
The most comprehensive look at the kidnapping was written by Rutgers University Professor Dr. Lloyd C. Gardner, The Case That Never Dies (Rutgers University Press, 2004).
Other books about the case that provided additional background material included: The Ghosts of Hopewell (Southern Illinois University Press, 1999) by Jim Fisher; Top Secret: FBI Files on the Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping (New Century Books, 2001), edited by Thomas Fensch; Kidnap (Dial Press, 1961) by George Waller; Scapegoat: The Lonesome Death of Bruno Richard Hauptmann (Putnam, 1976) by Anthony Scaduto; Lindbergh: The Crime (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1994) by Noel Behn; Hysteria (Dorrance, 1975) by Andrew K. Dutch; True Story of the Lindbergh Kidnapping (Kroy Wen, 1932) by John Brant and Edith Renaud; The Lindbergh Crime (Blue Ribbon Books, 1935) by Sidney Whipple; Science Versus Crime (Bobbs-Merrill, 1935) by Henry Morton Robinson; The Airman and the Carpenter: The Lindbergh Kidnapping and the Framing of Richard Hauptmann (Viking, 1985) by Ludovic Kennedy; and 12 Against Crime (Putnam, 1950) by Edward D. Radin.
I consulted Jimmy Breslin’s Damon Runyon: A Life (Random House, 1991) for information about the famous journalist. Marv Balousek’s 50 Wisconsin Crimes of the Century (Badger Books, 1989) helped in researching the Wood County bombing case that provided Arthur Koehler with his first opportunity to testify in a criminal trial.
The Missouri History Museum Library and Research Center in St. Louis houses papers from J. J. Dorn. I
accumulated more information about the former South Carolina businessman from the application to place his home on the National Register of Historic Places.
I better understood the science related to the case after reading two pieces of work: Kelvin Keraga’s 2005 study of Koehler’s work, Testimony in Wood, which was profiled on the television show Forensic Files; and Dr. Shirley A. Graham’s Anatomy of the Lindbergh Kidnapping, a botanical look at Koehler’s efforts first published in the Journal of Forensic Science in May 1997.
I gleaned overall wood knowledge from many of Koehler’s trade papers, but his book The Properties and Uses of Wood (McGraw-Hill, 1924) was most helpful.
Research about what happened in the courtroom was aided by dozens of daily newspaper reports from 1935 and then by memories gathered by The Princeton Recollector in the spring of 1977. Some Object Lessons on Publicity in Criminal Trials is the famous report about what happened in the courtroom. It was written by Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Oscar Hallam in March 1940 for the American Bar Association and led to the banning of cameras from many courtrooms still today. Information about Ed Reilly was aided by Owls Shouldn’t Claw at Eagles (New York State Bar Association Journal, June 2005) by William H. Manz.
Index
A
Adkins, E.S., & Company, Lindbergh ladder investigation and, 92
Aiello, Charlels, & Sons (NYC), ransom money and, 129
Albert, King, in Brussels, 36
Amalfitano, Frank, questioning of, in investigation, 51
American Association for the Advancement of Science, 26
American Car and Foundry (NYC), Lindbergh ladder investigation and, 93
American Expeditionary Force in World War I, 84–85
American Woodworking Machine Company, 95
Apgar, Milton and Eva, house guests of, 175, 176, 177
App, Frank, 53
Appel, Charles
handwriting analysis by, 140, 142
manual written by, on crime detection, 142–143
opening of forensics facility by, 142
training of, 140
Appelquist, W. O., 266
Army Air Corps Reserve, 36
The Art of Leisure, 296
B
Babcock, Maltbie Davenport, 56
Ballistics research, 142
Bank of Sicily and Trust Company, ransom money and, 128
Bank of the Manhattan Co., 124
Baringer, M. M., ladder investigation and, 82
Barnes, E. H., Company (Norfolk, VA), Lindbergh ladder investigation and, 96
Barrowcliff, A. K. “Barry,” 260
Berg, Scott, 32, 305
Berst-Forster-Dixfield Company (NYC), Lindbergh investigation and, 76
Betts, H. S., kidnapping investigation and, 54, 82, 264–265
Bickford’s Restaurant, ransom money and, 124–125
Biggs, Howard V., as member of jury, 198, 217, 262
Bilsey, Cora, 83
Blanchard Lumber Company (Seattle), Lindbergh kidnapping investigation and, 134
Blankenburg, Julie, viii
Bloedel Donovan Lumber Mills (Bellingham, WA), Lindbergh kidnapping investigation and, 134
Blood grouping, 142
Bornmann, Lewis
Hoffman’s reopening of case and, 274, 275–276, 280, 282–285, 288
Lindberg kidnapping investigation and, 74, 76, 79, 80, 92, 111–116, 132, 133, 134, 147, 169, 170, 181
on nails found in Hauptmann garage, 159
search of Hauptmann house and, 151, 152, 153, 155, 157, 159
testimony at Hauptmann trial, 191, 200
visit with Padon, H. C., of the Yates-American Machine Company, 77
Bow, Thomas, 46
Box wood, 49
Breckinridge, Henry, as Lindberg attorney, 42, 44, 264
Brelsford, May F., as member of jury, 196
Brisbane, Arthur, 176
Brooklyn Edison, 126
Brown, H. P., 265
Brown, Reginald, 51
Bruno, Harry, as Lindbergh’s press secretary, 122
Bryan, William Jennings, 176
Buck chisels, 228
Burns, Vincent Godfrey, 259–260
Butler Brothers, Lindbergh kidnapping investigation and, 134
C
California white pine, 72
Capone, Al, 140
Cardenal, Jose, vii
Carroll, Alice, 265
Carter, Boake, 188
Case, Liscom C., as member of jury, 194–195, 196, 197–199, 203, 207, 229, 231–232, 238, 262–263
The Case That Never Dies (Gardner), 304–305
Cemetery John, 145
description of, 128
ransom investigation and, 125
Chapman, Clementine, 1
death of, from pipe bombing, 2, 3
Chapman, James
burning of barn of, 3
as farmer, 1
government service of, 2–3
injury to, from pipe bomb, 2
Charleston and Western Carolina Railroad, 100, 109
Chase National Bank, 124
Chemical National Bank and Trust Company, ransom money and, 127
Chicago Cubs, vii
Chisels
Buck, 228
at crime scene, xiv, 43, 53, 73, 201, 227
distinctive markings of, on wood, 46, 66
in Hauptmann residence, 161, 182, 228
Koehler investigation and testimony on as evidence, 66, 73–74, 161, 182, 270, 304, 306
as possible cause of death, 74
Stanley, 242, 248, 251, 258
types of, in carpenter’s tool chest, 228
use of, in construction of ladder, 228, 229, 241–242
Circumstantial evidence, 146, 257, 309
Clark & Wilson Lumber Company (Linnton, OR), Lindbergh kidnapping investigation and, 134
Cleveland, Ohio, Lumber Institute, 266
Collier, Rex, on crime-fighting techniques, 141
Colonial Pine Company (Petersburg, VA), Lindbergh ladder investigation and, 92
Conan, Sir Arthur, 143
Condon, John F. “Jafsie,” 44, 52, 259, 271
dropping off of ransom, xiv, 190
Hoffman’s efforts to reopen case and, 274
identification of Hauptmann by, 145–146
Lindbergh kidnapping investigation and, 132
phone number of, in Hauptmann residence, 152, 258
testimony of, 200, 289
Conklin, William, 278
Coolidge, Calvin, 36
Coon, Charles E., 15
Cooper, James Fennimore, 8
Cornell-Haverland Company (Pleasantville, NY), Lindbergh ladder investigation and, 112
Corn Exchange Bank Trust Company, tracing of ransom money and, 130
Court stenographer, 224, 240
Cramer, Anselm, Sr., in Lindbergh kidnapping investigation, 151, 169, 1702
Cravatt, Robert. as member of jury, 196, 198
Crawford, Leland L., Lumber Company (Germantown, NY), Lindbergh ladder investigation and, 112
Crime fighting. See Ballistics research; Fingerprint technology; Forensic botany; Forensic science; Handwriting analysis; Tree-ring research; Wood science
Criminological Laboratory, examinations performed by, 142
Cross, Austin and Ireland, Lindbergh kidnapping investigation and, 134
CSI, 309
Cuno, John
knowledge of sawmills and logging activity, 96
in Lindbergh investigation, viii, 259–260
as lumberjack in World War I, 85, 86
work for Forest Products Lab and, 86–87
Cun
o, Yvonne, viii
Curtiss, John H.
grand jury hearing and, 167
role of, in jury selection, 195
Curtiss Field, 34–35
Cuzzane, A. R., lumber used by, 113
D
Dactylography, 51
Darrow, Clarence, 176
Davis, Edward Manning
briefing of Wilentz by, 183–184
Hauptmann’s trial and, 191
ladder investigation and, 87, 89, 93
as lumberjack in World War I, 85–86
preparation of, for testimony, 181–184
spending of Christmas in Madison, 185
work for Forest Products Lab, 86–87
Death penalty, kidnapping and, 163–164
DeBisschop, Charles, as defense witness, 253–256, 258–259, 269
De Blois, Leo, lumber used by, 113
DeGaetano, Nuncio “Nick,” in Lindbergh kidnapping investigation, 74, 76, 132, 155
Del Vilchio, Joseph, questioning of, in investigation, 51
Dench, Judi, 303
Dendrochronology, 67
Devil’s Cave, 42
DiCaprio, Leonardo, 303
Dickson-Henderson Lumber Company (Ocilla, GA), Lindbergh ladder investigation and, 91
Dingeldien, F. C., tracing of ransom money and, 130
Disston, Henry, & Sons, 181
Dluka Garage, Inc., tracing of ransom money and, 130
Dorn, Honora, 100
Dorn, J. M., 98
Dorn, James, 98
Dorn, Joseph Jennings (J.J.), 98–99
attention to detail, 110
civic and social life of, 100
family of, 100
as farmer, 99
home of, 99
Lindberg kidnapping investigation and, 104
ownership of sawmills by, 99
political career of, 99–100, 102, 103, 106, 185, 230, 232
testimony of, 200