Lindbergh 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 poor handwriting and grammar, in an envelope on the windowsill. Taking a gun, Lindbergh went around the house and grounds with the family butler, Olly Whateley;{{cite book | title=Hauptmann's Ladder| author=Cahill, Richard T. Jr. | publisher=Kent State University| year=2014| pages=7–8}} they found impressions in the ground under the window of the baby's room, pieces of a wooden ladder, and a baby's blanket.{{cite book | title=Hauptmann's Ladder | author=Cahill, Richard T. Jr. |pages=7–8 |publisher=Kent State University |year=2014}} Whateley telephoned the Hopewell police department while Lindbergh contacted his attorney and friend, Henry Breckinridge, and the New Jersey state police.

An extensive search of the home and its surrounding area was conducted by police from nearby Hopewell Borough in coordination with the New Jersey State Police.

File:Lindbergh Kidnapping Note.jpg

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.Lindbergh by A. Scott Berg 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:

{{blockquote

|text=

Dear Sir! Have 50.000$ {{sic|hide=y|re|dy}} 25 000$ in 20$ bills 15000$ in 10$ bills and 10000$ in 5$ bills After 2–4 days we will inform you {{sic|hide=y|we|re}} to deliver the {{sic|hide=y|mon|y}}. We warn you for making {{sic|hide=y|any|ding}} public or for notify the Police the child is in {{sic|hide=y|gut}} care. Indication for all letters are {{sic|hide=y|Sing|nature}} and 3 {{sic|hide=y|hoh|ls}}.{{cite book |title=Cemetery John: The Undiscovered Mastermind of the Lindbergh Kidnapping |author=Zorn, Robert |page=68 |publisher=The Overlook Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1590208564 |df=dmy-all}}

}}

At the bottom of the note were two interconnected blue circles surrounding a red circle, with a hole punched through the red circle and two more holes to the left and right.

File:Lindbergh Kidnapping Note Signature.png

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 time in the United States but little. The FBI then found a sketch artist to make a portrait of the man that they believed to be the kidnapper.{{Cite journal|last=Horan|first=James J.|date=1983-10-01|title=The Investigation of the Lindbergh Kidnapping Case|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1520/jfs11620j|journal=Journal of Forensic Sciences|volume=28|issue=4|pages=1040–1043|doi=10.1520/jfs11620j|issn=0022-1198|url-access=subscription}}

Another attempt at identifying the kidnapper was made by examining the ladder that was used in the crime to abduct the child. Police realized that while the ladder was built incorrectly, it was built by someone who knew how to construct with wood and had prior building experience. No fingerprints were found on the ladder. Slivers of the wood were examined, as the police believed that this evidence would lead to the kidnapper. They had a professional see how many different types of wood were used, what pattern was made by the nail holes and if it had been made indoors or outdoors. This was later a key element in the trial of the man who was charged with the kidnapping.

On March 2, 1932, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover contacted 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 May 13, 1932 when 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.

The New Jersey State police offered a $25,000 reward, {{Inflation|US|25000|1932|fmt=eq|r=-3}}, for anyone who could provide information pertaining to the case.

On March 4, 1932 a man by the name of Gaston B. Means had a discussion 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 give him $100,000 to obtain the child because the ransom money had doubled. McLean obliged, believing that Means really knew where the child was. She waited for the child's return every day until she finally asked Means for her money back. When he refused, Mrs. McLean reported him to the police and he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison on embezzlement charges.{{Cite book|last=Gardner|first=Lloyd|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/793996630|title=The case that never dies : the Lindbergh kidnapping|date=2004|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=978-0-8135-6063-2|location=Piscataway|oclc=793996630}}

Violet Sharpe,In some sources, spelled as Violet Sharp who was suspected as a conspirator, died by suicide on June 10,{{cite news|work=Buffalo Evening News|date=June 11, 1932|title=Fellow Servants Say Violet Hysterical Prior to Suicide|page=1|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/107201866/violet-sharpe/|via=newspapers.com}}{{cite news|work=The Morning Call|location=Paterson, New Jersey|date=June 11, 1932|title=Waitress Under Constant Suspicion|page=2|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/107202951/waitress-under-constant-suspicion/|via=newspapers.com}} before she was scheduled to be questioned for the fourth time.{{cite book |author=Lindbergh, Anne |title=Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead |url=https://archive.org/details/hourofgoldhourof0000lind |url-access=registration |location=San Diego, CA |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |year=1973 |isbn=978-0151421763 |df=dmy-all}} Her involvement was later ruled out due to her having an alibi for the night of March 1, 1932.

In October 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt announced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation would take jurisdiction over the case.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

{{more citations needed|section|date=May 2020}}

File:Het huis van Charles Lindbergh temidden van landerijen en bos, SFA022002524.jpg

Word of the kidnapping spread quickly. Hundreds of people converged on the estate, destroying any footprint evidence.{{cite book |title=Hauptmann's Ladder | author=Cahill, Richard T. Jr. |page=16 |publisher=Kent State University |year=2014 |df=dmy-all}} Along with police, well-connected and well-intentioned people arrived at the Lindbergh estate. Military colonels offered their aid, although only one had law enforcement expertise{{snd}}Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf, superintendent of the New Jersey State Police. The other colonels were Henry Skillman Breckinridge, a Wall Street lawyer; and William J. Donovan, a hero of the First World War who later headed the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA. Lindbergh and these men speculated that the kidnapping was perpetrated by organized crime figures. They thought that the letter was written by someone who spoke German as his native language. At this time, Charles Lindbergh used his influence to control the direction of the investigation.{{cite book |last=Fass |first=Paula S. |chapter =Chapter 3: "The nation's child ... is dead": The Lindbergh case |page=100 |title=Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0195311419 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sgINgwBY7YMC&q=John+F+Condon+-++jafsie+-+actions&pg=PA124 |access-date=June 28, 2009 |df=dmy-all}}

They contacted Mickey Rosner, a Broadway hanger-on rumored to know mobsters. Rosner turned to two speakeasy owners, Salvatore "Salvy" Spitale and Irving Bitz, for aid. Lindbergh quickly endorsed the duo and appointed them his intermediaries to deal with the mob. Several organized crime figures – notably Al Capone, Willie Moretti, Joe Adonis, and Abner Zwillman – spoke from prison, offering to help return the baby in exchange for money or for legal favors. Specifically, Capone offered assistance in return for being released from prison under the pretense that his assistance would be more effective. This was quickly denied by the authorities.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}

File:Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf NYWTS.jpg]]

The morning after the kidnapping, authorities notified President Herbert Hoover of the crime. At that time, kidnapping was classified as a state crime and the case did not seem to have any grounds for federal involvement. Attorney General William D. Mitchell met with Hoover and announced that the whole machinery of the Department of Justice would be set in motion to cooperate with the New Jersey authorities.{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 3, 1932 |access-date=December 18, 2016 |title=Federal Aid In Hunt Ordered By Hoover |url=http://www.charleslindbergh.com/ny/15.asp |df=dmy-all}}

The Bureau of Investigation (BOI), forerunner of the FBI, was authorized to investigate the case, while the United States Coast Guard, the U.S. Customs Service, the U.S. Immigration Service and the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia were told their services might be required. New Jersey officials announced a $25,000 reward for the safe return of "Little Lindy". The Lindbergh family offered an additional $50,000 reward of their own. At this time, the total reward of $75,000 (approximately $1,801,000 in 2024) was a tremendous sum of money, because the nation was in the midst of the Great Depression.

On March 6, a new ransom letter arrived by mail at the Lindbergh home. The letter was postmarked March 4 in Brooklyn, and it carried the perforated red and blue marks. The ransom had been raised to $70,000. A third ransom note postmarked from Brooklyn, and also including the secret marks, arrived in Breckinridge's mail. The note told the Lindberghs that John Condon should be the intermediary between the Lindberghs and the kidnapper(s), and requested notification in a newspaper that the third note had been received. Instructions specified the size of the box the money should come in, and warned the family not to contact the police.

During this time, John F. Condon{{snd}}a well-known Bronx personality and retired school teacher{{snd}}offered $1,000 if the kidnapper would turn the child over to a Catholic priest. Condon received a letter reportedly written by the kidnappers; it authorized Condon to be their intermediary with Lindbergh.{{Cite web |last=Aiuto |first=Russell |title=Parallel Threads, Continued |work=The Lindbergh Kidnapping |publisher=TruTv |url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/lindbergh/3b.html |access-date =June 27, 2009 |df=dmy-all}} Lindbergh accepted the letter as genuine.

Following the kidnapper's latest instructions, Condon placed a classified ad in the New York American reading: "Money is Ready. Jafsie.""Jafsie" was a pseudonym based on a phonetic pronunciation of Condon's initials, "J.F.C." Condon then waited for further instructions from the culprits.{{cite news|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/1999/09/23/1999-09-23_half_dream_jafsie.html|title=Half Dream Jafsie|last=Maeder|first=Jay|date=September 23, 1999|newspaper=Daily News|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090710195657/http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/1999/09/23/1999-09-23_half_dream_jafsie.html|archive-date=July 10, 2009|url-status=dead|access-date=June 27, 2009|df=dmy-all}}

A meeting between "Jafsie" and a representative of the group that claimed to be the kidnappers was eventually scheduled for late one evening at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. According to Condon, the man sounded foreign but stayed in the shadows during the conversation, and Condon was thus unable to get a close look at his face. The man said his name was John, and he related his story: He was a "Scandinavian" sailor, part of a gang of three men and two women. The baby was being held on a boat, unharmed, but would be returned only for ransom. When Condon expressed doubt that "John" actually had the baby, he promised some proof: the kidnapper would soon return the baby's sleeping suit. The stranger asked Condon, "... would I burn if the package were dead?" When questioned further, he assured Condon that the baby was alive.

On March 16, Condon received a toddler's sleeping suit by mail, and a seventh ransom note. After Lindbergh identified the sleeping suit, Condon placed a new ad in the Home News: "Money is ready. No cops. No secret service. I come alone, like last time." On April 1 Condon received a letter saying it was time for the ransom to be delivered.

The ransom was packaged in a wooden box that was custom-made in the hope that it could later be identified. Along with the usual Federal Reserve Notes, a number of the bills in the ransom were US Gold Certificates; since gold certificates were about to be withdrawn from circulation, it was hoped greater attention would be drawn to anyone who spent the bills or redeemed them for gold coins. None of the bills in the ransom were marked but their serial numbers had been recorded. Some sources credit this idea to Frank J. Wilson,{{cite book |last=Eig |first=Jonathan |title=Get Capone: The secret plot that captured America's most wanted gangster |url=https://archive.org/details/getcaponerealsto00eigj |url-access=limited |date=2010 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1439199893 |page=[https://archive.org/details/getcaponerealsto00eigj/page/372 372] |df=dmy-all}} others to Elmer Lincoln Irey.{{cite book |last1=Waller |first1=George |title=Kidnap: The story of the Lindbergh case |url=https://archive.org/details/kidnapstoryoflin00wall |url-access=registration |date=1961 |publisher=Dial Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/kidnapstoryoflin00wall/page/71 71] |df=dmy-all}}{{cite book |title=The Money Trail: How Elmer Irey and his T-men brought down America's criminal elite |author=Folsom, Robert G. |pages=217–219 |publisher=Potomac Books |year=2010 |df=dmy-all}}

On April 2, Condon was given a note by an intermediary, an unknown cab driver. Condon met "John" and told him that they had been able to raise only $50,000. The man accepted the money and gave Condon a note saying that the child was in the care of two innocent women.

File:Charles Lindbergh Jr Time cover 1932.jpg on May 2, 1932]]

On May 12, a delivery truck driver named Orville Wilson and his assistant William Allen pulled to the side of a road about {{convert|4.5|mi}} south of the Lindbergh home near the hamlet of Mount Rose in neighboring Hopewell Township. When Allen went into a grove of trees to urinate, he discovered the decomposed body of a toddler.{{cite magazine |title=Crime: Never-to-be-Forgotten |magazine=Time |date=May 23, 1932 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,743741,00.html?internalid=ACA |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071116082351/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,743741,00.html?internalid=ACA |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 16, 2007 |access-date=June 28, 2009 |df=dmy-all}} The skull was badly fractured and the body had been scavenged by animals; there were indications of an attempt at a hasty burial. Gow identified the baby as the missing infant from the overlapping toes of the right foot and a shirt that she had made. It appeared the child had been killed by a blow to the head. Lindbergh insisted on cremation.{{cite news |title=Murdered child's body now reduced to pile of ashes |newspaper=The Evening Independent |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=N-NPAAAAIBAJ&pg=6172,6641444 |date=May 14, 1932 |df=dmy-all}}

In June 1932, officials began to suspect that the crime had been perpetrated by someone the Lindberghs knew. Suspicion fell upon Violet Sharpe, a British household servant at the Morrow home who had given contradictory information regarding her whereabouts on the night of the kidnapping. It was reported that she appeared nervous and suspicious when questioned. She died by suicide on June 10, 1932, by ingesting a silver polish that contained cyanide just before being questioned for the fourth time. Her alibi was later confirmed, and police were criticized for heavy-handedness.{{cite web |title=The Lindbergh Kidnapping |publisher=The Biography Channel |location=UK |url=http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_story/236:152/4/The_Lindbergh_Kidnapping.htm |access-date=June 28, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090710200300/http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_story/236%3A152/4/The_Lindbergh_Kidnapping.htm |archive-date=July 10, 2009 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all}}

Condon was also questioned by police and his home searched, but nothing incriminating was found. Charles Lindbergh stood by Condon during this time.{{Cite web |title=The Lindbergh Kidnapping |publisher=The Biography Channel UK |url=http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_story/236:152/5/The_Lindbergh_Kidnapping.htm |access-date=June 28, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090710200300/http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_story/236%3A152/5/The_Lindbergh_Kidnapping.htm |archive-date=July 10, 2009 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all}}

After the discovery of the body, Condon remained unofficially involved in the case. To the public, he had become a suspect and in some circles was vilified.{{cite web |title=Lindbergh Baby Booty |publisher=New York Press |date = March 11, 2003 |url=http://nypress.com/lindbergh-baby-booty-the-missing-ransom-money-may-still-be-up-there/ |access-date=June 28, 2009 |df=dmy-all}} For the next two years, he visited police departments and pledged to find "Cemetery John".

Condon's actions regarding the case were increasingly flamboyant. On one occasion, while riding a city bus, Condon claimed that he saw a suspect on the street and, announcing his secret identity, ordered the bus to stop. The startled driver complied and Condon darted from the bus, although his target eluded him. Condon's actions were also criticized as exploitive when he agreed to appear in a vaudeville act regarding the kidnapping.{{Cite web |title=Ministers protest billing of Condon; 25 see Jafsie Vaudeville Act scheduled for Plainfield as tragic exploitation |work=The New York Times |date=January 5, 1936 |url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0B1FFB395D13728DDDAC0894D9405B868FF1D3 |access-date=June 28, 2009 |df=dmy-all}} Liberty magazine published a serialized account of Condon's involvement in the Lindbergh kidnapping under the title "Jafsie Tells All".{{cite web |title=Milestones Jan. 15, 1945 |work=Time Magazine |date=January 15, 1945 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,775414,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090712053358/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,775414,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 12, 2009 |access-date=June 28, 2009 |df=dmy-all}}

File:US-$10-GC-1928-Fr-2400.jpg

The investigators who were working on the case were soon at a standstill. There were no developments and little evidence of any sort, so police turned their attention to tracking the ransom payments. A pamphlet was prepared with the serial numbers on the ransom bills, and 250,000 copies were distributed to businesses, mainly in New York City.{{Cite web | title=The Lindbergh Kidnapping |work=FBI History – Famous Cases |publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation |url=https://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/famcases/lindber/lindbernew.htm |access-date=June 25, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100918231213/http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/famcases/lindber/lindbernew.htm |archive-date=September 18, 2010 |df=dmy-all}}{{Cite web |last=Manning |first=Lona |title=The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping |publisher=Crime Magazine |date=March 4, 2007 |url=http://www.crimemagazine.com/lindbergh-baby-kidnapping |access-date=June 24, 2009 |df=dmy-all}} A few of the ransom bills turned up in scattered locations, some as far away as Chicago and Minneapolis, but whoever spent the bills was never identified.

By a presidential order, all gold certificates were to be exchanged for other bills by May 1, 1933.{{Cite web |last1=Woolley |first1=John |first2=Gerhard |last2=Peters |title=Executive Order 6102 – Requiring Gold Coin, Gold Bullion and Gold Certificates to be Delivered to the Government April 5, 1933 |publisher=The American Presidency Project |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=14611&st=&st1= |access-date=June 24, 2009 |df=dmy-all}} A few days before the deadline, a man brought $2,980 to a Manhattan bank for exchange; it was later discovered that the bills were from the ransom. He had given his name as J.{{nbsp}}J. Faulkner of 537 West 149th Street. No one named Faulkner lived at that address, and a Jane Faulkner who had lived there 20 years earlier, denied any involvement.

{{Main|Richard Hauptmann}}

During a thirty-month period, a number of bills from the ransom were turning up 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 to the east side of Manhattan, including the German-Austrian neighborhood of Yorkville.

On September 18, 1934, a bank teller in Manhattan 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 who received the bill had written down the license number on it because his customer was acting "suspicious" and believed he was "possibly a counterfeiter".{{cite web |title=National Affairs: 4U-13-41 |work=Time Magazine |date=October 1, 1934 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,930523,00.html?internalid=ACA |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071116082437/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,930523,00.html?internalid=ACA |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 16, 2007 |access-date=June 28, 2009 |df=dmy-all}} The license plate belonged to a car owned by Bruno 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 from the ransom and over $14,000 of the ransom money was found in a suitcase in his garage.{{cite web |title=National Affairs Oct. 8, 1934 |work=Time Magazine |date=October 8, 1934 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,770014-2,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090712060018/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,770014-2,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 12, 2009 |access-date=June 28, 2009 |df=dmy-all}}

Hauptmann was arrested, interrogated, and beaten by police 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 had died on March 29, 1934, shortly after returning to Germany. Hauptmann stated he learned only after Fisch's death that the suitcase 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 found in his house was from the ransom.

When the police searched Hauptmann's home, a considerable amount of additional evidence was found, linking him to the crime. One item was a notebook containing a sketch of the construction of a ladder similar to the one found at the Lindbergh home in March, 1932; John Condon's address and telephone number were discovered written on a closet wall in the house. Another 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 crime scene.{{Cite web|title=Ladder – Crime of the Century |url=https://crimeofthecentury.weebly.com/ladder.html|access-date=2022-01-28|website=crimeofthecentury.weebly.com}}

On September 24, 1934, Hauptmann was indicted in the Bronx 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, New York Governor Herbert H. Lehman surrendered Hauptmann to New Jersey authorities to face charges directly related to the kidnapping and murder of the child. On October 19, Hauptmann was moved to the Hunterdon County Jail in Flemington, New Jersey.

File:Charles Lindbergh testifying.jpg

Hauptmann was charged with capital murder. The trial was held at the Hunterdon County Courthouse in Flemington, New Jersey, and was soon dubbed the "Trial of the Century".{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lindbergh/sfeature/crime.html |title=The Kidnapping |publisher=PBS |access-date=September 29, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926075405/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lindbergh/sfeature/crime.html |archive-date=September 26, 2011 |df=dmy-all}} Reporters swarmed the town, and every hotel room was booked. Judge Thomas Whitaker Trenchard presided over the trial.

In exchange for rights to publish Hauptmann's story in their newspaper, Edward J. Reilly was hired by the New York Daily Mirror to serve as Hauptmann's attorney.{{cite book |title=Crime of the Century: The Lindbergh kidnapping hoax |first1=Gregory |last1=Ahlgren |first2=Stephen |last2=Monier |first3=Adolph |last3=Caso |editor-first=Adolph |editor-last=Caso |publisher=Branden Books |year=2009}} David T. Wilentz, Attorney General of New Jersey, led the prosecution.

Evidence against Hauptmann included $20,000 of the ransom money found in his garage and testimony alleging that his handwriting and spelling were similar to those of the ransom notes. Eight handwriting experts, including Albert S. Osborn,{{cite book |last=Fisher |first=Jim |title=The Lindbergh Case |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=99gyrLNk8kwC |year= 1994 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-0-8135-2147-3 |df=dmy-all}} pointed out similarities between the ransom notes and Hauptmann's writing specimens. The defense called an expert to rebut this evidence, while two others declined to testify; the latter two demanded $500 before looking at the notes and were dismissed when Lloyd Fisher, a member of Hauptmann's legal team,{{cite web |url=http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/hunterdon-county/express-times/index.ssf/2011/12/trial_of_the_century_over_lind.html |title='Trial of the Century' over Lindbergh baby murder commemorated in new portraits |date=December 4, 2011 |access-date=February 26, 2018 |df=dmy-all}} declined.{{cite book |last=Gardner |first=Lloyd C. |author-link=Lloyd Gardner |title=The Case That Never Dies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NVLjmssWMJoC |year= 2004 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-0-8135-3385-8 |page=336 |df=dmy-all}} Other experts retained by the defense were never called to testify.{{cite book |author=Farr, Julia |title=Letter from Julia Farr to Lloyd Fisher |publisher=New Jersey State Police Museum and Learning Center Archives |year= 1935 |df=dmy-all}}

On the basis of the work of Arthur Koehler at the Forest Products Laboratory, the State introduced photographs demonstrating that part of the wood from the ladder matched a plank from the floor of Hauptmann's attic: the type of wood, the direction of tree growth, the milling pattern, the inside and outside surface of the wood, and the grain on both sides were identical, and four oddly placed nail holes lined up with nail holes in joists in Hauptmann's attic.{{cite book |title=The Sixteenth Rail: The Evidence, the Scientist, and the Lindbergh Kidnapping |year=2013 |first=Adam |last=Schrager |publisher=Fulcrum Publishing |isbn=978-1-55591-716-6 |df=dmy-all}}{{cite web | url=http://foresthistory.org/csi-madison-wisconsin-wooden-witness/ |title=CSI Madison, Wisconsin: Wooden Witness |date=March 31, 2009 |first=Amanda T. |last=Ross |publisher=Forest History Society |df=dmy-all}} Condon's address and telephone number were written in pencil on a closet door in Hauptmann's home, and Hauptmann told police that he had written Condon's address:

{{blockquote|I must have read it in the paper about the story. I was a little bit interested and keep a little bit record of it, and maybe I was just on the closet, and was reading the paper and put it down the address ... I can't give you any explanation about the telephone number.}}

A sketch that Wilentz suggested represented a ladder was found in one of Hauptmann's notebooks. Hauptmann said this picture and other sketches therein were the work of a child.{{cite book |title=The State of New Jersey vs. Bruno Richard Hauptmann |series=Hunterdon County Court of Oyer and Termner |volume=5 |page=2606 |year=1935 |publisher=New Jersey State Law Library}}

Despite not having an obvious source of earned income, Hauptmann had bought a $400 radio (approximately {{Inflation|US|400|1934|r=-1|fmt=eq|cursign=$}}) and sent his wife on a trip to Germany.

Hauptmann was identified as the man to whom the ransom money was delivered. Other witnesses testified that it was Hauptmann who had spent some of the Lindbergh gold certificates; that he had been seen in the area of the estate, in East Amwell, New Jersey, near Hopewell, on the day of the kidnapping; and that he had been absent from work on the day of the ransom payment and had quit his job two days later. Hauptmann never sought another job afterward, yet continued to live comfortably.{{cite magazine |author=James, Bill |year=2011 |magazine=Popular Crime |title=[no title cited] |pages=147–161}}

When the prosecution rested its case, the defense opened with a lengthy examination of Hauptmann. In his testimony, Hauptmann denied being guilty, insisting that the box of gold certificates had been left in his garage by a friend, Isidor Fisch, who had returned to Germany in December 1933 and died there in March 1934. Hauptmann said that he had one day found a shoe box left behind by Fisch, which Hauptmann had stored on the top shelf of his kitchen broom closet, later discovering the money, which he later found to be almost $40,000 (approximately {{Inflation|US-GDP|40000|1934|r=-3|fmt=eq|cursign=$}}). Hauptmann said that, because Fisch had owed him about $7,500 in business funds, Hauptmann had kept the money for himself and had lived on it since January 1934.

The defense called Hauptmann's wife, Anna, to corroborate the Fisch story. On cross-examination, she admitted that while she hung her apron every day on a hook higher than the top shelf, she could not remember seeing any shoe box there. Later, rebuttal witnesses testified that Fisch could not have been at the scene of the crime, and that he had no money for medical treatments when he died of tuberculosis. Fisch's landlady testified that he could barely afford the $3.50 weekly rent of his room.

In his closing summation, Reilly argued that the evidence against Hauptmann was entirely circumstantial, because no reliable witness had placed Hauptmann at the scene of the crime, nor were his fingerprints found on the ladder, on the ransom notes, or anywhere in the nursery.{{cite book |title=The State of New Jersey vs. Bruno Richard Hauptmann |series=Hunterdon County Court of Oyer and Termner |volume=11 |pages=4687–4788 |year=1935 |publisher=New Jersey State Law Library}}

Hauptmann was convicted on February 13, 1935, and immediately sentenced to death. His attorneys appealed to the New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals, which at the time was the state's highest court; the appeal was argued on June 29, 1935.{{cite book |author=Lutz, William |title=Plain Facts about the Hauptmann Case |year=c. 1937 |publisher=New Jersey State Police Museum and Learning Center Archives}}

New Jersey Governor Harold G. Hoffman secretly visited Hauptmann in his cell on the evening of October 16, accompanied by a stenographer who spoke German fluently. Hoffman urged members of the Court of Errors and Appeals to visit Hauptmann.

In late January 1936, while declaring that he held no position on the guilt or innocence of Hauptmann, Hoffman cited evidence that the crime was not a "one person" job and directed Schwarzkopf to continue a thorough and impartial investigation in an effort to bring all parties involved to justice.{{cite book |author=Hoffman, Harold Giles |title=Letter from Governor Hoffman to Colonel H. Norman Schwarzkopf |publisher=New Jersey State Police Museum and Learning Center Archives |date=January 26, 1936 |df=dmy-all}}

It became known among the press that on March 27, Hoffman was considering a second reprieve of Hauptmann's death sentence and was seeking opinions about whether the governor had the right to issue a second reprieve.{{cite news |title=Hoffman seeks reprieve advice |newspaper=The Daily Princetonian |date=March 28, 1936 |publisher=Princeton University Library}}

On March 30, 1936, Hauptmann's second and final appeal asking for clemency from the New Jersey Board of Pardons was denied.{{cite news |author=Herman, Albert B., Clerk of the Board of Pardons |title=Board of Pardons Press Release |date=March 30, 1936 |publisher=New Jersey State Police Museum and Learning Center Archives}} Hoffman later announced that this decision would be the final legal action in the case, and that he would not grant another reprieve.{{cite news |author=Blackman, Samuel G. |title=Pardons court again denies Hauptmann plea and governor declares "No reprieve" |newspaper=The Titusville Herald |date=March 31, 1936 |df=dmy-all}} Nonetheless, there was a postponement, when the Mercer County grand jury, investigating the confession and arrest of Trenton attorney, Paul Wendel, requested a delay from Warden Mark Kimberling.{{cite news |author=Porter, Russell B. |title=Hauptmann gets a stay for at least 48 hours at grand jury request |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 1, 1936 |df=dmy-all}} This, the final stay, ended when the Mercer County prosecutor informed Kimberling that the grand jury had adjourned after voting to end its investigation without charging Wendel.{{cite book |author=Marshall, Erwin E., Prosecutor of the Pleas |title=Letter from Erwin Marshall to Colonel Mark O. Kimberling |publisher=New Jersey State Police Museum and Learning Center Archives |date=April 3, 1936 |df=dmy-all}}

Hauptmann turned down a large offer from a Hearst newspaper for a confession and refused a last-minute offer to commute his sentence from the death penalty to life without parole in exchange for a confession. He was executed by the electric chair on April 3, 1936.

After his death, some reporters and independent investigators came up with numerous questions about the way in which the investigation had been run and the fairness of the trial, including witness tampering and planted evidence. Twice in the 1980s, Anna Hauptmann sued the state of New Jersey for the unjust execution of her husband. The suits were dismissed due to prosecutorial immunity and because the statute of limitations had run out.{{Cite web |last=Los Angeles Times |date=1994-10-20 |title=Anna Hauptmann; Wife of Man Convicted in Lindbergh Murder |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-10-20-mn-52380-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426140100/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-10-20-mn-52380-story.html |archive-date=2021-04-26 |access-date=2021-04-26 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}} She continued fighting to clear his name until her death, at age 95, in 1994.{{Cite news |date=1994-10-19 |title=Hauptmann's Widow Dies |language=en-us |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/19/obituaries/hauptmann-s-widow-dies.html |access-date=2021-04-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526104709/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/19/obituaries/hauptmann-s-widow-dies.html |archive-date=2015-05-26 |issn=0362-4331}}

A number of books have asserted Hauptmann's innocence, generally highlighting inadequate police work at the crime scene, Lindbergh's interference in the investigation, the ineffectiveness of Hauptmann's counsel, and weaknesses in the witnesses and physical evidence. Ludovic Kennedy, in particular, questioned much of the evidence, such as the origin of the ladder and the testimony of many of the witnesses.

According to author Lloyd Gardner, a fingerprint expert, Erastus Mead Hudson, applied the then-rare silver nitrate fingerprint process to the ladder and did not find Hauptmann's fingerprints, even in places that the maker of the ladder must have touched. According to Gardner, officials refused to consider this expert's findings, and the ladder was then washed of all fingerprints.{{cite book |author=Gardner, Lloyd G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t0ZPAgAAQBAJ&q=%22+testimony+of+dr.+erastus%22&pg=PA344 |title=The case that never dies |page=344 |year=2004| publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn = 978-0813554471}}

Jim Fisher, a former FBI agent and professor at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania,{{Cite web |last=Fisher |first=Jim |title=Biography |url=http://jimfisher.edinboro.edu/bio.html |access-date=April 29, 2011 |archive-date=July 19, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719193423/http://jimfisher.edinboro.edu/bio.html |url-status=dead }} has written two books, The Lindbergh Case (1987){{cite book |last=Fisher |first=Jim |title=The Lindbergh Case |publisher=Rutgers University Press |orig-year=1987 |year=1994 |pages=480 |isbn=0-8135-2147-5}} and The Ghosts of Hopewell (1999),{{cite book |last=Fisher |first=Jim |title=The Ghosts of Hopewell: Setting the Record Straight in the Lindbergh Case |publisher=Southern Illinois Univ Press |year=1999 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ghostsofhopewell00jimf/page/224 224] |isbn=0-8093-2285-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ghostsofhopewell00jimf/page/224 }} addressing what he calls a "revision movement" regarding the case.{{cite web |last=Fisher |first=Jim |title=The Lindbergh Case: A Look Back to the Future |page=3 |url=http://jimfisher.edinboro.edu/lindbergh/s8243_3.html |access-date=April 29, 2011 |quote=For the Lindbergh case, the revisionist movement began in 1976 with the publication of a book by a tabloid reporter named Anthony Scaduto. In Scapegoat, Scaduto asserts that the Lindbergh baby was not murdered and that Hauptmann was the victim of a mass conspiracy of prosecution, perjury and fabricated physical evidence. |df=dmy-all |archive-date=October 3, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003103347/http://jimfisher.edinboro.edu/lindbergh/s8243_3.html |url-status=dead }} He summarizes:

{{blockquote|Today, the Lindbergh phenomena{{sic}} is a giant hoax perpetrated by people who are taking advantage of an uninformed and cynical public. Notwithstanding all of the books, TV programs, and legal suits, Hauptmann is as guilty today as he was in 1932 when he kidnapped and killed the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lindbergh.{{cite web |last=Fisher |first=Jim |title=The Lindbergh Case: How can such a guilty kidnapper be so innocent? |page=3 |url=http://jimfisher.edinboro.edu/lindbergh/a1988_3.html |access-date=April 29, 2011}}}}

Another book, Hauptmann's Ladder: A Step-by-Step Analysis of the Lindbergh Kidnapping by Richard T. Cahill Jr., concludes that Hauptmann was guilty but questions whether he should have been executed{{failed verification|date=May 2025}}.{{cite news |last=Williams |first=David |date=2014-04-03 |title='Hauptmann's Ladder' revisits crime |url=https://www.courier-journal.com/story/entertainment/books/2014/04/03/hauptmanns-ladder-revisits-crime/7266717/ |newspaper=Courier Journal |accessdate=2025-01-10 |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20250110131950/https://www.courier-journal.com/story/entertainment/books/2014/04/03/hauptmanns-ladder-revisits-crime/7266717/ |archivedate=2025-01-10 }}

According to John Reisinger in Master Detective,{{Citation needed|date=February 2017}} New Jersey detective Ellis Parker conducted an independent investigation in 1936 and obtained a signed confession from former Trenton attorney Paul Wendel, creating a sensation and resulting in a temporary stay of execution for Hauptmann. The case against Wendel collapsed, however, when he insisted his confession had been coerced.{{cite book |title=Master Detective – Americas Real-life Sherlock|isbn=978-0983881827|last1=Reisinger|first1=John|date=February 2012|publisher=Glyphworks }}

Robert Zorn's 2012 book Cemetery John proposes that Hauptmann was part of a conspiracy with two other German-born men, John and Walter Knoll. Zorn's father, economist Eugene Zorn, believed that as a teenager he had witnessed the conspiracy being discussed.{{cite news |url=http://articles.philly.com/2012-07-08/news/32578390_1_lindbergh-kidnapping-true-magazine-charles-lindbergh |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140307231540/http://articles.philly.com/2012-07-08/news/32578390_1_lindbergh-kidnapping-true-magazine-charles-lindbergh |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 7, 2014 |title=Tale of a Lindbergh conspiracy draws attention |author=Colimore, Edward |publisher=The Inquirer |date=July 8, 2012 |access-date=August 19, 2012 |df=dmy-all}}

File:Columbia-15759-D.jpg

• 1934: Agatha Christie was inspired by circumstances of the case when she described the kidnapping of Daisy Armstrong in her Hercule Poirot novel Murder on the Orient Express.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=99gyrLNk8kwC&q=%22orient+express%22+lindbergh&pg=PA249 |title=The Lindbergh Case: A Story of Two Lives |author=Jim Fisher |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year= 1994 |page=249 |isbn=978-0813521473 |df=dmy-all}}
• 1981: The kidnapping and its aftermath served as the inspiration for Maurice Sendak's book Outside Over There.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-k6Nfqud-kIC&q=%22outside+over+there%22+lindbergh&pg=PA209 |title=The Reception of Grimms' Fairy Tales: Responses, reactions, revisions |editor=Haase, Donald |publisher=Wayne State University Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0814322086 |page=209 |quote=In it, I am the Lindbergh baby.}}
• 1991: Max Allan Collins's novel Stolen Away, fifth in his Nathan Heller series, in which the fictional private eye gets involved in real historical mysteries and meets historical figures, Heller gets involved in investigating the Lindbergh kidnapping, interviews psychic Edgar Cayce, and decades later meets a man whom they both believe to be the kidnapped and never returned Charles Lindbergh, Jr., having been raised and lived his whole life under another name. It won the 1992 Shamus Award for best hardcover private eye novel.{{cite web | url=http://www.privateeyewriters.com/shamus_winners.html | title=The Private Eye Writers of America }}
• 1993: In the novel Along Came a Spider by James Patterson and the film based on the novel, a character takes inspiration from the Lindbergh kidnapping for his crime.{{Cite web|title=Extract: Along Came A Spider by James Patterson|url=https://www.deadgoodbooks.co.uk/extract-along-came-a-spider-james-patterson/|date=2017-04-26|website=Dead Good|access-date=2020-05-29}}{{Cite news|last=Mitchell|first=Elvis|date=2001-04-06|title=Film Review; Weaving an Intricate Web To Trap a Wily Kidnapper|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/06/movies/film-review-weaving-an-intricate-web-to-trap-a-wily-kidnapper.html|access-date=2020-05-29|issn=0362-4331}}
• 2013: The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin is a work of historical fiction told from the perspective of Anne Morrow Lindbergh.{{cite web|title=The Aviators Wife|url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/212004/the-aviators-wife-by-melanie-benjamin/|work=Penguin Random House}}
• 2022: The Lindbergh Nanny by Mariah Fredericks is a work of historical fiction told from the perspective of Betty Gow.{{cite web|title=The Lindbergh Nanny|url=https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250827401/thelindberghnanny/ |work=Macmillan Publishers}}

• May 1932: Just one day after the Lindbergh baby was discovered murdered, the prolific country recording artist Bob Miller (under the pseudonym Bob Ferguson) recorded two songs for Columbia on May 13, 1932, commemorating the event. The songs were released on Columbia 15759-D with the titles "Charles A. Lindbergh, Jr." and "There's a New Star Up in Heaven (Baby Lindy Is Up There)".{{cite book |author=Russell, Tony |title=Country music records: a discography, 1921–1942 |url=https://archive.org/details/countrymusicreco00tony |url-access=registration |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=US |year=2004 |page=[https://archive.org/details/countrymusicreco00tony/page/621 621]|isbn=978-0-19-513989-1 }}

• 2011: The kidnapping, investigation, and trial are featured in J. Edgar, the biopic of J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI (directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Leonardo DiCaprio).

• 1976: The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case

• List of kidnappings
• List of solved missing person cases

{{notelist}}

• {{cite book |author1=Ahlgren, Gregory |author2=Monier, Stephen |title=Crime of the Century: The Lindbergh kidnapping hoax |publisher=Branden Books |year=1993 |isbn=0-8283-1971-5}}
• {{cite book |author-link=Noel Behn |author=Behn, Noel |title=Lindbergh: The Crime |url=https://archive.org/details/lindberghcrime00behn |url-access=registration |publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press |year=1994 |isbn=0-8711-3544-2}}
• {{cite book |author-link=A. Scott Berg |author=Berg, A. Scott |title=Lindbergh |publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons |year=1998 |isbn=0-3991-4449-8}}
• {{cite book |author=Cahill, Richard T. Jr. |title=Hauptmann's Ladder: A Step-by-Step Analysis of the Lindbergh Kidnapping |publisher=Kent State University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-60635-193-2}}
• {{cite book |author=Cook, William A. |title=The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping |publisher=Sunbury Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-6200-6339-2}}
• {{cite book |author=Doherty, Thomas |title=Little Lindy Is Kidnapped: How the Media Covered the Crime of the Century |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2020 |isbn= 978-0-2311-9848-6}}
• {{cite book |author=Fisher, Jim |title=The Lindbergh Case |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=1994 |orig-year=1987 |isbn=0-8135-2147-5}}
• {{cite book |author=Fisher, Jim |title=The Ghosts of Hopewell: Setting the Record Straight in the Lindbergh Case |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-8093-2717-1}}
• {{cite book |author=Gardner, Lloyd C. |title=The Case That Never Dies: The Lindbergh Kidnapping |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=2004 |isbn=0-813-53385-6}}
• {{cite book |author-link=Ludovic Kennedy |author=Kennedy, Sir Ludovic |title=The Airman and the Carpenter: The Lindbergh Kidnapping and the Framing of Richard Hauptmann |url=https://archive.org/details/airmancarpenterl00kenn |url-access=registration |publisher=Viking Press |year=1985 |isbn=0-670-80606-4}}
• {{cite book |author=Kurland, Michael |title=A Gallery of Rogues: Portraits in True Crime |publisher=Prentice Hall General Reference |year=1994 |isbn=0-671-85011-3}}
• {{cite book |author=Melsky, Michael |series=The Dark Corners |title=Of the Lindbergh Kidnapping |volume=1 |publisher=Infinity Publishing |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-4958-1042-8}}
• {{cite book |author=Milton, Joyce |title=Loss of Eden: A biography of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh |url=https://archive.org/details/lossofedenbiogra00milt |url-access=registration |publisher=HarperCollins |year=1993 |isbn=0-0601-6503-0}}
• {{cite book |author=Newton, Michael |title=The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes |publisher=Checkmark Books |year=2004 |isbn=0-8160-4981-5}}
• {{cite book |author=Norris, William |title=A Talent to Deceive |publisher=SynergEbooks |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7443-1594-3}}
• {{cite book |author=Reisinger, John |title=Master Detective: Ellis Parker's independent investigation |publisher=Citadel Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-8065-2750-5 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/masterdetectivel0000reis }}
• {{cite book |author=Scaduto, Anthony |author-link=Anthony Scaduto |title=Scapegoat: The Lonesome Death of Richard Hauptmann |url=https://archive.org/details/scapegoatlonesom0000scad |url-access=registration |publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons |year=1976 |isbn=0-3991-1660-5}}
• {{cite book |author=Schrager, Adam J. |title=The Sixteenth Rail: The evidence, the scientist, and the Lindbergh kidnapping |publisher=Fulcrum Publishing |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-5559-1716-6}}
• {{cite book |author=Waller, George |title=Kidnap: The Story of the Lindbergh case |url=https://archive.org/details/kidnapstoryoflin00wall |url-access=registration |publisher=Dial Press |year=1961}}
• {{cite book |author=Wilson, Colin |title=Murder in the 1930s |publisher=Carroll & Graf |year=1992 |isbn = 978-0-881-84855-7}}
• {{cite book |author=Zorn, Robert |title=Cemetery John: The undiscovered mastermind of the Lindbergh kidnapping |publisher=Overlook Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-5902-0856-4}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/LindberghBabyKidnappingFBIFiles |title=FBI files on the Lindbergh Kidnapping}}
• {{cite web|url=http://jimfisher.edinboro.edu/lindbergh/chrono.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112001655/http://jimfisher.edinboro.edu/lindbergh/chrono.html|archive-date=2020-11-12|url-status=live|title=Lindbergh Case Chronology}}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.nj.gov/state/archives/slcsp001.html |title=Photographic Evidence from the trial |publisher=New Jersey State Archives}}

{{FBI}}

{{Lindbergh kidnapping}}

{{Anne Morrow Lindbergh}}

{{Charles Lindbergh}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindbergh}}

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