Why "Bruno"?

Anna and Richard Hauptmann

"RICHARD BRUNO,
BRUNO RICHARD"

His wife says his name is Richard.
The police and all the newspapers call him
Bruno.

He's the same man:  an alien, a stowaway
on a boat from Germany
after World War I, where he lived
in Saxony with his mother.

Records show he served
some jail time for a crime
he committed (a burglary in which
he used a ladder).

Richard says that after the war,
times were hard, food was scarce, and almost everyone
stole things
from time to time.

His wife says he works like a dog
for their little family
and even though she did not approve
of the risks he took in the stock market,
and even though she did not like
Isidor Fisch,
she does not believe Richard
is a kidnapper.

Word has gotten out that Mr. Reilly
told Mrs. Hauptmann
that she should say she knew about the money
from Isidor Fisch
that her husband hid in the garage.
"But Mr. Reilly, I did not know, so that
would be a lie."

On the stand, Anna Hauptmann told
the truth.
She believes that honesty will keep her husband
alive.

The Trial
by Jen Bryant