The Kidnapping of the Lindbergh Baby

In 1932, the 20-month old son of Charles Augustus Lindbergh was kidnapped and subsequently murdered. Although kidnapping was not an uncommon offense at the time, the case was referred to as the “crime of the century” because it held the country’s fascination for decades.

The investigation and trial resulted in the execution of an immigrant named Bruno Richard Hauptmann. However, in the period since his death, some have come to doubt the man’s guilt. As a result, the case has become fodder for conspiracy theorists and mystery buffs.

Known as “Lucky Lindy,” Charles Lindbergh was a world-renowned aviator and explorer. His father, Charles August Lindbergh, was a Congressman from Minnesota. In 1927, three years after his father’s death, young Charles became well-known for his famous flight. For his historic crossing, he received a Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration. Several months after this achievement, he met his future wife Anne Spencer Morrow. They married in 1929, settled in New Jersey near the town of Hopewell and began to have children. However, a shadow soon fell over their family that would haunt them for the rest of their lives.

Charles Augustus Jr., nicknamed “Charlie,” was the eldest Lindbergh child. On the night of March 1, 1932, an intruder crept into the second-story nursery of the family’s mansion and stole the toddler from his crib. The child’s mother and nanny suspected that Lindbergh, who played practical jokes, had taken the boy as a prank. However, when they questioned him about it, the aviator grew alarmed and insisted he was not making a joke. The worried parents quickly contacted the local authorities. While waiting for the police to arrive, Lindbergh grabbed a rifle and began to search the grounds. He discovered a homemade, clumsily-assembled ladder just below the nursery window. A letter was also found on the windowsill of the boy’s room that Lindbergh later showed to the police. Riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, it read:

“Dear Sir,
Have 50,000$ redy 25000$ in 20$ bills 15000$ in 10$ bills and 10000$ in 5$ bills. After 2-4 days will inform you were to deliver the Mony. We warn you for making anyding public or for notify the Polise the child is in gut care. Indication for all letters are singnature and 3 holds.”

Below the message, there were two interlocking circles with three holes punched around them.

The following morning, the story of the kidnapping appeared on the front page of nearly every newspaper in the country. Offers of assistance came pouring in and imprisoned gangster Al Capone even offered his help. Soon, sightings of the Lindbergh baby came from across the United States. However, the reports were all false. A month later, a Lindbergh intermediary named John Condon paid $50,000 in ransom to a shadowy figure in a cemetery in the Bronx, one of the five boroughs of New York City. Even though money was paid, young Charlie was never returned to the family. On May 12, 1932, the boy’s partially decomposed remains were found in a shallow grave just two miles from the Lindbergh mansion. The child had been dead, probably due to a fractured skull, since the night he was kidnapped.

Still, the abductor remained at large, partly due to the mishandling of the investigation. Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf, a superintendent of the New Jersey State Police and the father of Gulf War general Norman Schwarzkopf, had been placed in charge of the case. However, Lindbergh had held the police at bay until the ransom was paid because he feared for his son’s life. This decision resulted in a number of errors. Footprints near the house were trampled. There were also thousands of false leads and wild goose chases. Most damaging of all, the kidnapper should have been arrested in the cemetery when he arrived for the ransom.

After the child’s body was found, Schwarzkopf took control of the case, but the trail had already grown cold. During the next two and a half years, the New Jersey State Police, the New York City Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigations searched for the kidnapper. The focus shifted to New York City because the assailant apparently was spending bills from the ransom in the Bronx and Manhattan. The money was easy to spot because it included gold certificates that had been withdrawn from circulation. Serial numbers also had been carefully recorded, despite Lindbergh’s initial reluctance.

In September of 1934, a gas station attendant wrote down the license plate of a customer who paid with a $10 gold note. The car belonged to Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a carpenter from the Bronx. He was an illegal immigrant who had an extensive criminal record in Germany, his country of origin. After authorities arrived to arrest Hauptmann, a search of his home yielded fourteen thousand dollars of the ransom money.

In 1935, Hauptmann was tried for murder at the Hunterdon County Court House in Flemington, New Jersey. The trial was a six-week spectacle that resulted in worldwide headlines. Taking the stand, Hauptmann denied all involvement with the crime. In addition, he declared that he had been beaten by the police and forced to alter his handwriting so it matched the ransom note. However, the members of the jury did not believe his claims. They found Bruno Hauptmann guilty of first degree murder and sentenced him to death in the electric chair. He was later executed at the state prison in Trenton, New Jersey on April 3, 1936.

Beginning in the 1970s, conspiracy theorists began to question the belief that Hauptmann was the lone killer. Books, articles, plays, TV shows, and even a movie all portrayed him as the victim of a frame-up by the police and the prosecution. In the 1980s, Hauptmann’s widow Anna filed a series of lawsuits against the state of New Jersey, which fueled further interest in the case. However, she lost each and every one of her suits. Other theorists posited an even more absurd idea: that the toddler had not been murdered and was in fact still alive. Several men claimed to be young Charlie, now all grown-up. One went so far as to sue the Lindbergh estate for his so-called share after Charles Lindbergh’s death in 1974. Another half-baked group claimed the abduction was a hoax to cover up the murder of the boy by his parents.

Former FBI agent Jim Fisher wrote a popular book debunking all the ridiculous conspiracy theories. In The Ghosts of Hopewell, he discussed the facts of the case, such as the ransom note and the ladder found outside the nursery window. Fisher demonstrated that much of the evidence put forth by Hauptmann’s defenders and others was either misinformation or irrelevant.

Still, it is no wonder the Lindbergh case has inspired so many theories and so much attention because it touched on money, fame and the innocence of childhood. But in the end, it had an impact in other, much more important ways. The year after Hauptmann’s execution, the American Bar Association called for a prohibition on courtroom photography. All but two states adopted the ban and it remained in place for nearly four decades. The case also led Congress to pass the Lindbergh Kidnapping Law of 1932, which made it a federal crime to transport a kidnap victim across state lines. These changes stemming from the case still affect the investigation and prosecution of abductions today. It is for this reason that we will likely continue to ponder this “crime of the century” for years to come.

Photo Source: www.charleslindbergh.com