Post by Michael on May 8, 2022 13:40:47 GMT -5
I found some things in an old Hunterdon County Democrat that are pretty interesting:
He [Hauck] will continue thru the arrangement placing Mercer's prosecutor in charge. He will continue throughout the case in an advisory capacity even if the murder scene is definitely fixed in Mercer County. "The locus quo (place which) must be established, and that cannot be done until the kidnappers are arrested," said Hauck. "Since the body was found in Mercer, there is a presumption the baby killed there. But it is only a presumption."
Attitude toward the Press
Hauck declined to be quoted on the reasons for his silence to the press other than that, being new in office, he was not going to wreck the case for the sake of notoriety. A deep-seated distrust for the tricks of reporters is believed to be back of Hauck's reticence. Once having worked for a newspaper himself, when he was studying law, he learned much the ways of tabloid sheets.
One trick, termed "plain rotten" by investigators, was the alleged planting of a spade and a newspaper, dated March 1, the kidnapping day, near the rude grave. The police claim that a reporter placed it there, where it was found after the scene had been thoroughly searched by an agent of Mercer County Prosecutor Marshall's office. Reporters point out that they could not get within fifty feet of the scene, and claim police did it. The time of the discovery, just when the two prosecutors were on the spot, was too opportune for the waiting cameramen not to be suspected. Pictures were snapped and rushed to city papers, where under blazing headlines the newest clue for the solution of the case appeared. The conservative papers made little note of it.
The same type of journalistic ruses was responsible for many clever attempts to ridicule police when they refuse to meet all reporters demands, it is charged. Milk bottles and pieces of baby's clothing were placed in empty shacks in the mountains after police had searched, and police were sent on "wild goose chases" just to provide news copy. It is doubted that the governing policies of newspapers permitted such cupidity, and it is current knowledge that a number of reporters were "pulled" by their editors when the stunts were reported to them.