The Lindbergh Kidnapping: One From The Biggest Crime Ever, That Captured the World's Attention

June 26, 2023 The Culture Bay 0 Comments

The Lindbergh Kidnapping was a high-profile crime that captured the attention of the world. The investigation and trial were marked by a wealth of evidence and media attention, and the case had a lasting impact on American society. Today, the Lindbergh Kidnapping remains a fascinating and tragic chapter in American history.

ABOUT:

The Lindbergh Kidnapping, also known as the "Crime of the Century," was a high-profile kidnapping that took place in March 1932. The victim was Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., the infant son of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The kidnapping was one of the most sensational crimes of the 20th century, and it captured the attention of the world. In this blog post, we will explore the details of the Lindbergh Kidnapping, including the events leading up to the crime, the investigation, and the aftermath.

KIDNAPPING:

A baby picture of Charles Lindbergh, Jr., before the kidnapping.

At approximately 9 p.m. on March 1, 1932, the Lindberghs' nurse, Betty Gow, found that 20-month-old Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. was not with his mother, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, who had just come out of the bath. Gow then alerted Charles Lindbergh, who immediately went to the child's room, where he found a ransom note, containing bad handwriting and grammar, in an envelope on the windowsill. Taking a gun, Lindbergh went around the house and grounds with family butler, Olly Whateley; they found impressions in the ground under the window of the baby's room, pieces of a wooden ladder, and a baby's blanket. Whateley telephoned the Hopewell police department while Lindbergh contacted his attorney and friend, Henry Breckinridge, and the New Jersey state police.

Investigation:

New Jersey State Police Superintendent Norman Schwarzkopf Sr.

Hopewell Borough police and New Jersey State Police officers conducted an extensive search of the home and its surrounding area.

After midnight, a fingerprint expert examined the ransom note and ladder; no usable fingerprints or footprints were found, leading experts to conclude that the kidnapper(s) wore gloves and had some type of cloth on the soles of their shoes. No adult fingerprints were found in the baby's room, including in areas witnesses admitted to touching, such as the window, but the baby's fingerprints were found.

The brief, handwritten ransom note had many spelling and grammar irregularities:

"Dear Sir! Have 50.000$ ready 25 000$ in 20$ bills 15000$ in 10$ bills and 10000$ in 5$ bills After 2–4 days we will inform you where to deliver the money. We warn you for making anything public or to notify the Police the child is in gut care. Indications for all letters are Signature and 3 hotels."

On further examination of the ransom note by professionals, they found that it was all written by the same person. They determined that due to the odd English, the writer must have been foreign and had spent some, but little, time in America. The FBI then found a sketch artist to make a portrait of the man that they believed to be the kidnapper.

Another attempt on identifying the kidnapper was looking at the ladder that was used in the crime to abduct the child. Police realized that the ladder was not built correctly but was built by someone who knew how to construct it with wood and had prior experience in building. The ladder was examined for fingerprints, but none were found. Even slivers of the ladder had been examined, with the police believing that the examination of this evidence would lead to the kidnapper. They had a professional see how many different types of wood were used, the pattern made by the nail holes, and if it was made indoors or outdoors. This was later a key element in the trial of the man who was accused of kidnapping the Lindbergh baby.

On March 2, 1932, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover got in contact with the Trenton New Jersey Police Department. He told the New Jersey police that they could contact the FBI for any resources and would provide any assistance if needed. The FBI did not have federal jurisdiction, until on May 13, 1932, the President declared that the FBI was at the disposal of the New Jersey Police Department and that the FBI should coordinate and conduct the investigation.

Attorney General Homer Cummings and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover discuss the Lindbergh kidnapping investigation.

The New Jersey State Police offered a $25,000 reward for anyone who could provide information about the case.

On March 4, 1932, a man by the name of Gaston B. Means discussed with Evalyn Walsh McLean and told her that he would be of great importance in retrieving the Lindbergh baby. Means told McLean that he could find these kidnappers because he was approached weeks before the abduction about participating in a "big kidnapping" and he claimed that his friend was the kidnapper of the Lindbergh child. The following day, Means told McLean that he had made contact with the person who had the Lindbergh child. He then convinced Mrs. McLean to hand him $100,000 to obtain the child because the ransom money had doubled. McLean obliged because she believed that Means knew where the child was. She waited for the child's return every day until she finally asked Means for her money back. He refused, Mrs. McLean reported him to the police, and he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison on embezzlement charges.

Violet Sharpe, who was suspected as a conspirator, died by suicide on June 10, before she was scheduled to be questioned for the fourth time. Her involvement was later ruled out due to her having an alibi for the night of March 1, 1932.

In 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt announced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation would take full jurisdiction over the case in October 1933.

Indictment, Trial, and Execution 

Hauptmann was indicted in the Supreme Court, Bronx County, New York, on charges of extortion on September 26, 1934, and on October 8, 1934, in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, he was indicted for murder. Two days later, the Governor of the State of New York honored the requisition of the Governor of the State of New Jersey for the surrender of Bruno Richard Hauptmann and on October 19, 1934, he was removed to the Hunterdon County Jail, Flemington, New Jersey, to await trial.

Lindbergh takes the witness stand during the 1935 trial of Hauptmann in Flemington, New Jersey. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The trial of Hauptmann began on January 3, 1935, at Flemington, New Jersey, and lasted five weeks. The case against him was based on circumstantial evidence. Tool marks on the ladder matched tools owned by Hauptmann. Wood in the ladder was found to match wood used as flooring in his attic. Dr. Condon’s telephone number and address were found scrawled on a door frame inside a closet. Handwriting on the ransom notes matched samples of Hauptmann’s handwriting. 

On February 13, 1935, the jury returned a verdict. Hauptmann was guilty of murder in the first degree. The sentence: death. The defense appealed.

The Supreme Court of the State of New Jersey on October 9, 1935, upheld the verdict of the Lower Court. Hauptmann’s appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States was denied on December 9, 1935, and he was to be electrocuted on January 17, 1936. However, on this same day the Governor of the State of New Jersey granted a 30-day reprieve and on February 17, 1936, Hauptmann was resentenced, to be electrocuted during the week of March 30, 1936. On March 30, 1936, the Pardon Court of the State of New Jersey denied Hauptmann’s petition for clemency, and on April 3, 1936, at 8:47 p.m., Bruno Richard Hauptmann was electrocuted. 

ARREST OF HAUPTMANN :

A series of ransom notes following the kidnapping led to a meeting between Dr. John Condon, a representative of the Lindbergh family, and a mysterious man named “John.” An artist sketch of “John” was developed from the verbal description of Dr. Condon and proved to be very similar to Bruno Richard Hauptmann (right), who was arrested on September 19, 1934.

Hauptmann was arrested on September 19, 1934, and he was charged with the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr. The trial was a media sensation, and it lasted for over a month. The prosecution presented a wealth of evidence, including handwriting samples and a large portion of the ransom money that had been found in Hauptmann's possession. Hauptmann maintained his innocence throughout the trial, but he was found guilty and sentenced to death.

During thirty months, a number of the ransom bills were spent throughout New York City. Detectives realized that many of the bills were being spent along the route of the Lexington Avenue subway, which connected the Bronx with the east side of Manhattan, including the German-Austrian neighborhood of Yorkville.

On September 18, 1934, a Manhattan bank teller noticed a gold certificate from the ransom; a New York license plate number (4U-13-41-N.Y) penciled in the bill's margin allowed it to be traced to a nearby gas station. The station manager had written down the license number because his customer was acting "suspicious" and was "possibly a counterfeiter". The license plate belonged to a sedan owned by Richard Hauptmann of 1279 East 222nd Street in the Bronx, an immigrant with a criminal record in Germany. When Hauptmann was arrested, he was carrying a single 20-dollar gold certificate, and over $14,000 of the ransom money was found in his garage.

This gas can was found in the garage of Bruno Richard Hauptmann. Gold certificates hidden inside the gas can tied Hauptmann to the Lindbergh kidnapping.

Hauptmann was arrested, interrogated, and beaten at least once throughout the following day and night. Hauptmann stated that the money and other items had been left with him by his friend and former business partner Isidor Fisch. Fisch died on March 29, 1934, shortly after returning to Germany. Hauptmann stated he learned only after Fisch's death that the shoebox that was left with him contained a considerable sum of money. He kept the money because he claimed that it was owed to him from a business deal that he and Fisch had made. Hauptmann consistently denied any connection to the crime or knowledge that the money in his house was from the ransom.

Hauptmann In Jail

When the police searched Hauptmann's home, they found a considerable amount of additional evidence that linked him to the crime. One item was a notebook that contained a sketch of the construction of a ladder similar to that which was found at the Lindbergh home in March 1932. John Condon's telephone number, along with his address, was discovered written on a closet wall in the house. A key piece of evidence, a section of wood, was discovered in the attic of the home. After being examined by an expert, it was determined to be an exact match to the wood used in the construction of the ladder found at the scene of the crime.

Hauptmann was indicted in the Bronx on September 24, 1934, for extorting the $50,000 ransom from Charles Lindbergh. Two weeks later, on October 8, Hauptmann was indicted in New Jersey for the murder of Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. Two days later, he was surrendered to New Jersey authorities by New York Governor Herbert H. Lehman to face charges directly related to the kidnapping and murder of the child. Hauptmann was moved to the Hunterdon County Jail in Flemington, New Jersey, on October 19.

THE END OF JUSTICE

The Lindbergh Kidnapping had a profound impact on American society, and it led to several changes in the way that law enforcement agencies handle kidnappings. The Lindbergh Law, also known as the Federal Kidnapping Act, was passed in 1932, making kidnapping a federal crime. The law also made it a capital offense if the victim was transported across state lines.

Bruno Richard Hauptmann in Electric Chair

In spite of the universal ban on cameras in American death chambers, news editors have long recognized the public’s hunger for eyewitness images of high-profile executions. When Bruno Richard Hauptmann was due to be executed for the kidnapping and murder of the young son of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the International News Photos agency commissioned an artist to craft a photographic composite of the condemned man being strapped into the electric chair by two prison guards. The grisly image was created by staging the scene with actors then pasting headshots of Hauptmann and his executioners onto their bodies.

SUMMARY

In September 1934, a German immigrant carpenter named Bruno Richard Hauptmann was arrested for the crime. After a trial that lasted from January 2 to February 13, 1935, he was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Despite his conviction, he continued to profess his innocence, but all appeals failed and he was executed in the electric chair at the New Jersey State Prison on April 3, 1936. Hauptmann's guilt or lack thereof continues to be debated in the modern day. Newspaper writer H. L. Mencken called the kidnapping and trial "the biggest story since the Resurrection". Legal scholars have referred to the trial as one of the "trials of the century". The crime spurred the U.S. Congress to pass the Federal Kidnapping Act, commonly called the "Little Lindbergh Law", which made transporting a kidnapping victim across state lines a federal crime.