LINDBERGH TRIAL

Bruno Hauptmann-The Lindbergh baby trial

Bruno Hauptmann-The Lindbergh baby trial

Introduction

Bruno Hauptmann was a German convicted and sentenced to death in charge of the murder of the son of the Charles Lederberg. Tuesday, March 1, 1932, is remembered as having been blustery and chilly. On this day, the son of the aviator Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh kidnapped and later taken to death. By the following morning, the entire nation was alerted to the outrage that quickly became known, as some had before and so many others would after, as the "Crime of the Century."

Discussion

The kidnapping occurred between 8 and 10 P.M , while the aviator and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, were conversing over dinner downstairs. The nursemaid discovered that Charles Jr. was missing when she went to check on the sleeping child, who had been ill. Well before midnight, the alarm was sounded throughout the East, and all of the Hudson and Delaware River crossings-the 5-year-old Holland Tunnel, the many ferry crossings and the 5-month-old George Washington Memorial Bridge chief among them-came under intense police scrutiny. It became a manhunt with no recorded equal in scope and fervor.

The child's body was found in a shallow grave 72 days after the kidnapping and just a few miles from the Hopewell estate, the New York connection to the case was firmly established. In addition to a series of ransom letters, an extortionist had been in contact with a man by the name of John F. Condon through the Bronx Home News. A well-meaning, retired educator, Condon had offered his services as a go-between through that newspaper and negotiated in its pages and in person with the extortionist in the Bronx. When Lindbergh agreed to pay the ransom, it was Condon, who had delivered the money just over the fence at St. Raymond's Cemetery in that same borough, and some of those ransom bills turned up in New York City.

The primary law enforcement agency in the area, the New Jersey State Police, was headed by Colonel H. Norman Schwarzkopf (father of the future Gulf War commander), who, while he had little patrol and investigative experience, was a gifted administrator with the ability to choose highly qualified officers. Since the crime had been committed in New Jersey, Schwarzkopf officially led the investigation. Given the sensational nature of the case and the publicity that was sure to accrue to it, New Jersey Governor A. Harry Moore directed that the best detectives from Jersey City and Newark be assigned to assist in any way they could. In addition, offers of help flowed in from other sources.

President Herbert Hoover assured full federal cooperation despite the fact that kidnapping was not yet a federal crime. In addition, another Hoover, John Edgar, seized upon this opportunity to thrust his Federal Bureau of Investigation into the high-profile investigation. The situation was ripe for interjurisdictional rivalries and further complicated because Lindbergh, while appreciating all the help offered in the search for his son and the efforts being made ...