Volume 14 , Issue 47

1912 - Gibson's First Blows For Defense

This story concerning the mysterious case involving Mrs. Rose Menschik Szabo mysterious death at Greenwood Lake and her attorney, Burton W. Gibson, appeared in The Times Dispatch, Tuesday, 17 September 1912, page 3, headlines read: "Begins Preparation Of His Own Defense." Lawyer Gibson furnished a list of witnesses he wants summoned for his hearing on September 24, 1912.

Middleton, N.Y., September 16, 1912 -- Burton W. Gibson, the New York lawyer charged with the murder of Mrs. Rosa Menschik Szabo, began formal preparation of his own defense by furnishing District Attorney Thomas C. Rogers, of Orange County, with a list of the witnesses he wanted to have subpoenaed for his hearing on September 24, 1912.

Gibson's action was along the line of his declared intention to act as his own lawyer. He asked permission to telephone the county prosecutor. This was granted, and Gibson asked Mr. Rogers to visit him in his cell in the jail at Goshen.

The prosecutor went to Gibson's cell and found that Gibson had prepared a list of witnesses and detailed descriptions of persons whose names he could not recall, but who, he told Mr. Rogers, were material to his defense.

The prosecutor took both lists, and promised Gibson that every effort would be made to have the unknown witnesses found and subpoenaed to appear at the examination.

Gibson said that he was preparing an accounting of $7,100 belonging to Mrs. Szabo, money he was alleged to have withdrawn from a bank account which he had opened as administrator of the woman's estate.

More Deaths Follow Gibson

New York, Sept. 16, 1912 -- In two hitherto obscure cases, circumstances of potential gravity surrounding the career of Burton W. Gibson, the lawyer charged with killing Rosa Menschik Szabo, had been brought to light,a nd the authorities who were investigating the case manifested keen interest in their disclosure. According to the affidavit of Anthony Gaytz, who brought himself into the affair as a witness a week before, Dr. Veila Szabo, the husband of Mrs. Szabo, died suddenly in 1904 after a pitiable attempt to get a living in New York. Szabo, according to what he told Gaytz, was an Austrian of noble birth, disinherited because he married the pretty Viennese model, Rosa Menschik.

The night that Szabo died Gaytz went to see Mrs. Szabo, who was living in West Forty-third Street, between Seventh and Egihth Avenues. He declared in his affidavit that he found her in the company of two men. One of these, he now declares, was Gibson. The other was William Schumann.

Deputy Sheriff De Graw, who arrested Gibson had made affidavit to the fact that Gibson told him that he was infatuated with Mrs. Szabo. The authorities were interested now in learning all they could about Gibson's acquaintance with Mrs. Szabo prior to the sudden death of her husband.

The other incident of moment in the strange case was the death of William Schumann at his apartment in West 146th Street December 1911. Since the death of Szabo his widow had been housekeeper for Schumann, who was a partial paralytic and had an interest in the jewelry firm of Schumann & Son, 716 Fifth Avenue. His half-brother, George W. Schumann, a member of the firm declared that none of the family was informed of the illness of Schumann. Without and warning they were told of his death, which was said to have been caused by pneumonia.

In his affidavit Mr Gaytz swore that at the time of Szabo's death Mrs. Szabo was apparently penniless, for he gave her $5 the night her husband died. In 1912 Mrs. Szabo had savings bank books in her own name with deposits amounting to a little more than $10,000. These were kept in the Fifth Avenue vaults of Schumann & Son for her by her employer.

Shortly after the death of William Schumann, Mrs. Szabo, in company with Gibson, appeared at the bank, and Gibson asked, as counsel for Mrs. Szabo, for the possession of the bank books. They were later turned over to him, and Mrs. Szabo received $125 front he firm after she had signed a waiver to any claim upon the estate of Schumann for her services during his lifetime.

Ernest Kirchknopf, acting consul general of Austria, said that about the only defense that Gibson could have in the will case was that Mrs. Szabo, not having seen her family in eighteen years, might have been deceived by the woman whom she introduced as "mamma" at the signing of the waiver of citation, and who was also introduced by Gibson to Donald Lyons and others, of Brooklyn, as Mrs. Szabo's mother.

Mr. Kirchknopf said, "When e go into sort we will have absolute proof that Mrs. Petronilla Menschik died in Vienna and that she left eight children, and that the woman whose body was found in Greenwood Lake July, 1912 was the daughter of the Viennese Menschik. We also will have proof that Mrs. Szabo did not know of the death of her mother when the will was signed." Mr. Kirchknopf continued, "Gibson will have to giht hard in the will case to bring about the helpful effect in his defense in the Orange county prosecution of the murder charge."

It was expected that Franz Menschik, a brother of the drowned woman, would arrive in New York on the Kaiser Wilhelm II, the next morning.

A man who would probably be an important witness in the case was authority for the statement that Gibson, prior to August 1912, was hard pressed for cash. To an automobile agent who had a claim for $124. Gbison said, "I expect to pay all these bills in a short while. I am about to put through a real estate deal, and I expect to have plenty of money soon."

Rockingham Daily Tribune - November 1912

(International News Service) Goshen, N.Y., Nov. 21 (1912) -- Burton W. Gibson and Rose Szabo were five feet apart when they toppled into Greenwood Lake on July 19 (1912). The first blow for the defense in the international murder mystery was delivered 21 November 1912 by Harry Laux, an electrical engineer, who was sprung on the state as a brand new witness.

If the story Laux told was true, it was impossible for Gibson to have strangled the pretty Austrian countess.

The defense forced home the story of Tom Garrison, of Greenwood, who swore that Gibson and the countess went over the boat ion opposite sides of the boat. This story was likely to leave a marked impression on the jury.

Even Justice Tompkins addressed Garrison as "Tom." He was a hearty, rugged countryman and he spoke as one having authority. Garrison, too, gave a dramatic illustration of the manner in which, Countess Szabo's body was taken from the water. A process-server was laid on the floor and played "dead," while Garrison showed how the body of Mrs. Szabo was handled. By this measure the defense bound to show that the windpipe was closed in this manner, rather than at the hands of a strangler, as the state contended she met her death.

This was the most dramatic incident of the trial. The jurors lawyers, and the presiding judge crowded into the small enclosure in which the process-server went through the gruesome spectacle of playing dead.

Garrison's testimony was of doubtful value, however, as it was not clearly brought out whether the throat of the woman was touched.

Goshen, N.Y., Nov. 21 (1912) -- The state rested its case against Burton W. Gibson, the New York lawyer charged wight he murder of Mrs. Rose Menschik Szabo, his client. For Otho H. Schultze of New York a coroner's physician, testified that Mrs. Szabo died on Greenwood Lake July 16, 1912 of strangulation and not of drowning.

Dr. Schultze's testimony corroborated that of two physicians who preceded him. By means of a photograph of the organs of Mrs. Szabo's throat, taken after their removal from her body he illustrated in the jury his contention that she had been strangled by force applied to her throat.

Dr. George W. King, county physician of Hudson county, who was present at the autopsy, testified the day before that he had made 2,000 post-mortem examinations, and agreed with the finding of Dr. Schultze of New York, who performed the Szabo autopsy, that the Viennese woman came to her death through strangulation, pressure being applied from the outside of the neck and exerted upward and backward from the front.

The cross-examination was long and involved. Much time was lost in reducing the technical language to words the jury could understand. The most interesting witness and the one whose testimony Wasservogel, assistant district attorney, considered the most damaging in the defense was a storekeeper of Sterling. Though he suffered under cross-examination, his testimony was a surprise to the defense and a shock to Gibson and his wife. Dr. King described the condition of MRs. Szabo's body. His cross-examination was conducted by Dr. John J. A. O'Reilly of Brooklyn, the medical expert of the defense.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---