HttpSolrClient.Builder Returns Unusable Connection

SolrClient solr = new HttpSolrClient.Builder(urlString).build();
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.VerifyError: Bad return type
Exception Details:
Location:
org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/HttpClientUtil.createClient(Lorg/apache/solr/common/params/SolrParams;Lorg/apache/http/conn/ClientConnectionManager;)Lorg/apache/http/impl/client/CloseableHttpClient; @58: areturn
Reason:
Type 'org/apache/http/impl/client/DefaultHttpClient' (current frame, stack[0]) is not assignable to 'org/apache/http/impl/client/CloseableHttpClient' (from method signature)
Current Frame:
bci: @58
flags: { }
locals:

{ 'org/apache/solr/common/params/SolrParams', 'org/apache/http/conn/ClientConnectionManager', 'org/apache/solr/common/params/ModifiableSolrParams', 'org/apache/http/impl/client/DefaultHttpClient' }

stack:

{ 'org/apache/http/impl/client/DefaultHttpClient' }

Bytecode:
0x0000000: bb00 0359 2ab7 0004 4db2 0005 b900 0601
0x0000010: 0099 001e b200 05bb 0007 59b7 0008 1209
0x0000020: b600 0a2c b600 0bb6 000c b900 0d02 002b
0x0000030: b800 104e 2d2c b800 0f2d b0
Stackmap Table:
append_frame(@47,Object143)
at org.apache.solr.client.solrj.impl.HttpSolrClient.<init>(HttpSolrClient.java:209)
at org.apache.solr.client.solrj.impl.HttpSolrClient$Builder.build(HttpSolrClient.java:874)

I have tried upgrading to httpclient-4.5.2. This appears to create the same problem. For now, I use this deprecated, connection code.
return new HttpSolrClient(urlString, new SystemDefaultHttpClient());
Eventually, this hangs the Solr server, because you run out of file handles.
I suspect calling solrClient.close() is doing nothing.
I tried not closing and using a static connection to Solr.
This results in basically, the same problem of, eventually hanging the Solr server.