Richmond, Aug. 18 (AP)—The nonchalance of Rudolph Disse gave way today to tears. The 20-year-old triple slayer broke down completely and cried like a child as his aged mother took the witness stand in his defense, and was unable to testify, and had to be taken from the court room in a hysterical condition. It was the first sign of emotion shown by the boy who shot and killed his sweetheart, his rival and a police detective, and wounded an automobile salesman here on July 28th last. He wept loud and long, as did his father, who preceded the mother on the stand as the first witness in his son’s defense.
Disse was brought into the court room just before the opening of the day’s session of the trial, apparently as cheerful and calm as prosecuting witnesses testify he was when he shot to death Mrs. Vivian Tomlin Peers, 18-year-old clothing model, and Detective J. Harvey Burke and wounded Willis Britt, and then drove across tow and killed Henry Grady Carter, restaurant owner. His cheeks were pink and his appearance natty.
Louis J. Disse, the 67-year-old father, took the stand in a pronounced German accent told of his eccentricities, displayed by his son in the days of his childhood.
“This boy was out of his head when he was three years old, and when he was five he was kicked by a mule,” the aged man told the jury.
From the front page of The Concord Daily Tribune, Tuesday, August 18, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1925-08-18/ed-1/seq-1/
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