The body of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh’s baby was found on May 12, 1932, more than two months after being kidnapped from his family’s mansion in Hopewell, New Jersey.
Lindbergh, who became the world’s first celebrity five years earlier during his flight The spirit of Saint-Louis across the Atlantic and his wife Anne discovered a ransom note in their child’s 20-month-old child’s empty room on March 1. The kidnapper had used a ladder to climb up to the open second story window and had left traces of mud in the room. In barely readable English, the ransom note demanded $ 50,000.
The crime has caught the attention of the whole nation. The Lindbergh family was inundated with offers of assistance and false clues. same Al Capone offered help from the prison, although the prison was of course contingent upon his release. For three days, the investigators had found nothing and the kidnappers had heard no more. Then a new letter appeared, this time demanding $ 70,000.
It was not until April 2 that the kidnappers issued instructions to deposit the money. When the money was finally released, the kidnappers said that little baby Charles was on a boat called Nelly off the coast of Massachusetts. However, after an exhaustive search of each port, there was no sign of the boat or the child.
READ MORE: Inside Capture of Lindbergh’s Baby Kidnapper
On May 12, a new search of the area near Lindbergh’s mansion found the baby’s body. He had been killed the night of the abduction and was found less than a mile from the house. The broken-hearted Lindberghs ended up donating the house to charity and moved.
The kidnapping seemed not to be resolved until September 1934, when a bill marked with the ransom appeared. Distrustful of the driver who delivered it, the service station attendant who accepted the invoice wrote down his registration number. He was traced to a German immigrant, Bruno Hauptmann. When his house was searched, detectives found $ 13,000 in Lindbergh ransom.
Hauptmann claimed that a friend had given him the money to hold and that he had no connection to the crime. The resulting trial was again a national sensation. Famous writers Damon Runyan and Walter Winchell covered the trial. The parquet file was not particularly solid. The main evidence, apart from the money, was the testimony of handwriting experts that the ransom note was written by Hauptmann and its connection to the type of wood used to make the ladder.
Yet the evidence and intense public pressure were enough to convict Hauptmann. In April 1936 he was performed in the electric chair.
Kidnapping has become a federal crime as a result of this highly publicized crime.
