Title: The Lindbergh
Case: A Look Back to the Future
What:
·
Charles Augustus Lindbergh,
Jr., 20-month-old son of the famous aviator and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was kidnapped about 9:00
p.m., on March 1, 1932, from the nursery on the second floor of the Lindbergh home near Hopewell, New
Jersey.
Who:
·
Suspect: Bruno Richard Hauptmann
·
Victim: Charles Augustus
Lindbergh
When/Where:
·
About 9:00 p.m., on March 1, 1932
·
From the nursery on the second floor of the Lindbergh home near Hopewell, New Jersey.
Evidence:
·
The
written ransom note might be a rich source of evidence.
·
Lettered
signature on an auto registration card copied at the motor vehicle bureau.
·
Hauptmann's fingerprints were not on the wood, even in places
that the man who made the ladder would have had to touch.
·
Remains
of Lindbergh baby as discovered near Hopewell
·
Remains
of Lindbergh baby as discovered near Hopewell, with insets: undershirt found on
remains, comparison of dimpled chin, enlarged photo of turned-in toes
·
Garment
found on corpse of Lindbergh baby in comparison with clean underpants
·
Undershirt
found on corpse of Lindbergh baby in comparison with clean undershirt
·
Lindbergh
residence, Hopewell - abduct ladder alongside nursery window
·
Lindbergh
residence, Hopewell - nursery window on second floor with one shutter closed
·
Montage
of abduct-cognate posters and photos:
·
Handwritten
police message re abducting
·
Telegram
re-abducting
·
Reward
poster listing Lindbergh ransom mazuma serial numbers
·
Abduct
poster
·
Hauptmann
at tribulation
·
Enlargement
of serial number of ransom bill traced to Hauptmann
·
State
Police list of malefactions for which Hauptmann's dactylograms were taken
·
Hauptmann's
Dodge; three photos of $10 gold certificate (Lindbergh ransom mazuma) on which
Hauptmann's license plate number was indited by gas station attendant
·
Handwriting
samples of Hauptmann compared to ransom notes
·
First
and second ransom notes
·
Hauptmann
attic, Bronx - space from which ladder rail #16 was shown to have been
abstracted
·
Hauptmann
attic, Bronx - ladder rail #16 in place on attic floor
·
Comparison
of wood grain in ladder rail #16 with attic floorboard, face and culminate
grain
·
Ladder
rail #16 in Hauptmann attic exhibiting matching nail apertures
·
Hauptmann
attic, Bronx - close up of ladder rail #16 in place on attic floor
·
Comparison
of wood grain in ladder rail #16 and attic floorboard, with overlay exhibiting
artisti's rendering of missing piece
·
Comparison
of wood grain in ladder rail #16 with attic floorboard
·
Diagram
of milling machine for ladder lumber
·
Diagram
of milling machine cutter head for ladder lumber
·
Comparison
of milling marks in ladder rail #13 with lumber from National Lumber &
Millwork Co., New York
·
Chisel
found outside Lindbergh residence and chisel from set belonging to Hauptmann
·
Wood
plane belonging to Hauptmann; comparison of plane markings in ladder rails and
rungs
·
Closet
in Hauptmann residence in which address and telephone number of J. F. Condon
were found indited on wall
Outcome:
·
In the
1930's, August Vollmer, John Wigmore, and others wrought strenuously to get the
expert into court. Seventy years later, judges should be throwing a moiety of
them out. In the field of scientific document examination, the graphologists
are no longer at the gate, they're in the courthouse. In America, everyone has
a right to opine, but not in court. If everyone is an expert, no one is.
·
Albert
S. Osborn verbalized it first; judges have to find a way to identify the
phonies. But because these charlatans have become such clever impersonators,
it's not facile. They have engendered fictitiously unauthentic diplomas,
spurious journals, fraudulent professional organizations and counterfeit
resumes. They're dug in, and it's going to take extreme quantifications to
blast them out. If judges don't take responsibility for this task, little will
transmute. Jurors are no longer capable of spotting the frauds. In fact, one
way to eschew jury obligation is to exhibit a rational mind and erudition of
science.
·
Merely
sounding the charlatan alarm is not enough. Without a profound vicissitude in
the way experts are eligible for court, and the way people cerebrate, juries
will be unable to consistently agonize the truth. The only thing forensic scientists
can do is to perpetuate consummating their day-to-day assignments with veracity
and integrity. Albert S. Osborn, who mistakenly thought that the Lindbergh
tribulation had ushered in an era of forensic enlightenment, would expect
nothing less.
Reflections:
It
seems that Hauptman's guilt or innocence can now be definitively proven, if the
police picked up the handkerchief that Cemetery John discarded on the night of
the payoff. Lindburg says, “As he passed the car, he covered his face with the
handkerchief and blew his nose so loudly that it could be distinctly heard
across the street... he removed the handkerchief and with a quick motion threw
it down with his left hand into an open lot opposite the florist's shop.” The DNA should still be there. What the media of the depression era
hailed as "the crime of the century" began on the night of 1 March
1932, when someone abducted Charles Lindbergh Jr., twenty-month old son of
aviator hero Charles A. Lindbergh, from his New Jersey country home. A month
later, the Lindbergh family paid $50,000 in ransom through an intermediary, but
the baby, whose body was finally found in May, was not returned.
In response, Congress
passed the Lindbergh Kidnapping Law of 1932, which made it a federal crime to
take a kidnap victim across state lines. Two years later, police arrested a
German-born carpenter, Bruno Hauptmann. A New York City tabloid hired the
flamboyant attorney Edward J. Reilly to represent Hauptmann, whose 1935 trial
produced a six-week media spectacle. Though he
called more than 150 witnesses, including Hauptmann himself, Reilly could not
shake crucial evidence against his client, including about $14,000 in traceable
ransom bills in his possession and a ladder (used in the kidnapping) that had
been repaired with a board from his house. Rebuffing all entreaties to confess,
Hauptmann insisted that a now-deceased friend had given him the money.
Convicted in February 1935, Hauptmann was executed on 3 April 1936. Until her
own death in 1994, his widow Anna Hauptmann championed his cause. Ironically,
as Lindbergh's reputation suffered, in part because of his pro-Hitler and
anti-Semitic stances during the late 1930s, thinly documented arguments for
Hauptmann's innocence gained currency.
Work Cited
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