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KF5JRV > TODAY 12.05.19 18:02l 56 Lines 2760 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 36177_KF5JRV
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - May 12
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<N9PMO<KM8V<GB7YEW<AB0AF<KF5JRV
Sent: 190512/1555Z 36177@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.18
The body of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh’s baby is found on this day
in 1932, more than two months after he was kidnapped from his family’s
Hopewell, New Jersey, mansion.
Lindbergh, who became the first worldwide celebrity five years earlier
when he flew The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic, and his wife
Anne discovered a ransom note in their 20-month-old child’s empty room
on March 1. The kidnapper had used a ladder to climb up to the open
second-floor window and had left muddy footprints in the room. The
ransom note demanded $50,000 in barely literate English.
The crime captured the attention of the entire nation. The Lindbergh
family was inundated by offers of assistance and false clues. Even Al
Capone offered his help from prison, though it of course was conditioned
on his release. For three days, investigators had found nothing and
there was no further word from the kidnappers. Then, a new letter showed
up, this time demanding $70,000.
It wasn’t until April 2 that the kidnappers gave instructions for
dropping off the money. When the money was finally delivered, the
kidnappers indicated that little baby Charles was on a boat called Nelly
off the coast of Massachusetts. However, after an exhaustive search of
every port, there was no sign of either the boat or the child.
On May 12, a renewed search of the area near the Lindbergh mansion
turned up the baby’s body. He had been killed the night of the
kidnapping and was found less than a mile from the home. The heartbroken
Lindberghs ended up donating the home to charity and moved away.
The kidnapping looked like it would go unsolved until September 1934,
when a marked bill from the ransom turned up. Suspicious of the driver
who had given it to him, the gas station attendant who had accepted the
bill wrote down his license plate number. It was tracked back to a
German immigrant, Bruno Hauptmann. When his home was searched,
detectives found $13,000 of Lindbergh ransom money.
Hauptmann claimed that a friend had given him the money to hold and that
he had no connection to the crime. The resulting trial again was a
national sensation. Famous writers Damon Runyan and Walter Winchell
covered the trial. The prosecution’s case was not particularly strong.
The main evidence, apart from the money, was testimony from handwriting
experts that the ransom note had been written by Hauptmann and his
connection with the type of wood that was used to make the ladder.
Still, the evidence and intense public pressure was enough to convict
Hauptmann. In April 1935 he was executed in the electric chair.
Kidnapping was made a federal crime in the aftermath of this
high-profile crime.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@GMAIL.COM
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