Acquitted After Fourth Trial

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 744, 17 August 1929, Page 20

Acquitted After Fourth Trial

Wife Offers to Divorce Present Husband —& Re-Marry Former One!

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| HER live years of investigation and legal 1 wrangling. including I four trials, a celebrated I murder trial ended when j Harry Hoffman, a

cinema operator, charged with brutally murdering Mrs. Maud Bauer, a pretty young widow, was acquitted. In this case many odious comparisons have been made between British and American procedure in criminal trials, at the expense of the latter. As long ago as March 24, 1924, Mrs. Bauer, her mother and three young children were driving in Staten Island. New York, when the motor-car broke down. Leaving the family in the car, the young matron got out to find assistance, and was last seen by her mother talking to a man in another car not far from the spot. Apparently at his suggestion she entered the stranger's car for the purpose of finding a mechanic to help her, and drove off. Later her body was found by the roadside, with the face and arms bruised as if by a man’s fist. She had been shot dead. Staten Island was greatly incensed by the fiendish crime, and three weeks later Hoffman, who was described by one witness as a “local bully,” was arr.ested and charged with murder. Accusations by another married j woman that Hoffman had attacked her, led the police to suspect him. but the , evidence in the various trials. in '■ which hundreds of witnesses were! ealled, was purely circumstantial and very contradictory, and the murder 1 itself still remains a mystery. In May. five years ago, thousands of people, besieging the courthouse at Staten Island, rejoiced to hear that Hoffman had been convicted and sentenced t 0.20 years’ imprisonment.

According to his own story, Hoffman was in New- York when the murder was committed, but it was asserted that he conspired with a friend to make out his alibi. Three years later the man’s appeal for a second trial was granted. On this occasion his counsel dropped dead in the court-

room, and a mis-trial was deela-.a The third trial resulted in the i,, disagreeing, and on Hoffmw, 52 for a change of venue on the that a fair trial was not possflvu l ®' s Staten Island, the fourth trill-J? place in Brooklyn. Counsel for the defence made a n= sionate plea for his client. With arm around Hoffman counsel , that bis client in previous trialsh« been the victim of local prejudice M explained Hoffman’s ruses to conviction by attributing them to “m tion-picture hysteria.” Hoffman kno ing he was suspected, aud that man's hand was against him ••v client, ” declared counsel, “during (J-' last five years has suffered the tor tuves of the damned. It is only bv , miracle of faith in justice that he ha* lived through five years of hell Wh** this man was arrested he was stronaud vigorous—the happy husband of a beautiful young wife with tw lovely children. Look at him now pale, little, neurotic, on the edge of consumption, and weighing 100 pound—7o pounds less than when he arrested.” There was sobbing in court while Hoffman's virtues were extolled and cheers when, after five hours’ delib eration. the jury- returned a verdict o' “not guilty.” His former wife, who divorced him four years ago, an nounced her intention of leaving hei second husband and remarrying Ho!T man as soon as she secured a second divorce, but the released prisoner told the reporters subsequently that he blames his wife for his first conviction, when she appeared as a witness against him. and rejects her offer of remarriage. Public opinion has now- veered toward Hoffman. He has issued • statement declaring that he will cos. tinue to live on Staten Island, and will not change his name. 7v cinema firm which formerly employed him is sending him to the mountains for a year to recuperate, and if si] goes well the vindicated man will soon appear in a picture entitled “Justice Triumphant.”