A REPORT REGARDING THE LINDBERGH BABY CASE

INTRODUCTION

The Lindbergh Baby Case has been decided. In this case, the perpetrator, Bruno Richard
Hauptmann, was found guilty of kidnapping and murdering the 20-month-old son of aviator
Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

CONTENT

i. Bruno Richard Hauptmann was born in Kamenz, a town near Dresden in the
Kingdom of Saxony, a territory of the German Empire. He was the fifth and
youngest of five children. During World War I, he served in the German army
(1917-1918). Following the war, Hauptmann and a buddy stole two ladies who
were transporting food in baby carriages on the route between Wiesa and
Nebelschütz. During the performance of this crime, the companion used
Hauptmann's service handgun. Hauptmann's additional allegations include using a
ladder to break into the mayor's mansion. After being released from jail after three
years, he was arrested three months later on suspicion of other burglaries.
Hauptmann reached the United States illegally by stowing away aboard an ocean
ship. When the 24-year-old Hauptmann arrived in New York City in November
1923, he was taken in by a member of the established German community and
worked as a carpenter. In 1925, he married a German waitress, Anna Schoeffler
(1898-1994), and eight years later, he became a parent.
ii. Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., the 20-month-old son of the famed aviator and
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was taken from the nursery on the second floor of the
Lindbergh residence near Hopewell, New Jersey, at 9:00 p.m. on March 1, 1932.
Betty Gow, the child's nurse, found and reported the child's absence to his parents,
who were at home at the time. The facilities were quickly searched, and a ransom
letter demanding $50,000 was discovered on the nursery window ledge. The
report was reported to the New Jersey State Police, who took up the investigation
once the Hopewell police were contacted. Colonel Lindbergh received a second
ransom note on March 6, 1932, with a $70,000 ransom demand. Colonel
Lindbergh's attorney received the third ransom letter on March 8, notifying him
that an intermediary selected by the Lindberghs would not be accepted and
requested that the note be published in a newspaper. Dr. Condon received the
fourth ransom note the next day, indicating that he would be acceptable as a go-
between. Dr. Condon received the sixth ransom letter at 8:30 p.m. on March 12,
after receiving an anonymous phone call. It was delivered by Joseph Perrone, a
taxicab driver, who got it from an unidentified stranger. Another note would be
found behind a stone at an empty stand 100 feet from an outlying subway stop,
according to the message. Condon discovered this sixth note, as mentioned. On
March 16, Dr. Condon got a baby's sleeping suit as identification and a seventh
ransom note. Condon got the seventh ransom note on March 21, demanding
perfect obedience and informing him that the kidnap had been plotted for a year.
Condon got the ninth ransom note the next day, threatening to raise the demand to
$100,000 and refusing to provide a code for use in newspaper articles. On April 1,
1932, Dr. Condon received the eleventh ransom letter, which told him to have the
money ready the next night, to which Condon responded with an ad in the Press.
On April 2, 1932, the eleventh ransom letter was handed to Condon by an
anonymous cab driver who claimed to have gotten it from an unknown guy. As
instructed in the eleventh note, Dr. Condon discovered the twelfth ransom note
behind a stone in front of a greenhouse at 3225 East Tremont Avenue, Bronx,
New York. Shortly after, during the same evening, Condon met with someone he
assumed to be "John" to drop the demand to $50,000, as instructed in the twelfth
note. This sum was given to the stranger in return for a receipt and the thirteenth
note, which said that the stolen child may be discovered aboard the yacht "Nellie"
near Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. The next day, a fruitless search for the
infant was conducted near Martha's Vineyard. The body of the stolen infant was
discovered on May 12, 1932, about four and a half miles southeast of the
Lindbergh residence, 45 feet off the roadway, near Mount Rose, New Jersey, in
Mercer County. The head had been fractured, there was hole in the skull, and
several body parts were missing. On May 13, 1932, the corpse was formally
identified and cremated in Trenton, New Jersey. The Coroner's investigation
revealed that the youngster had been deceased for around two months and died as
a result of a strike to the head.
iii. After a meeting with the Attorney General, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover phoned
the New Jersey State Police headquarters in Trenton, New Jersey, on March 2,
1932. He publicly told the group that the US Department of Justice will provide
Colonel H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police,
with the FBI's aid and cooperation in apprehending the perpetrators of the
kidnapping. He informed the New Jersey State Police that they might request any
facilities or resources that the Bureau might be able to provide. The special agent
in charge of the Bureau's New York City Office, which at the time covered the
New Jersey district, was instructed accordingly, and the special agent in control
discussed with the New Jersey State Police and the New York City Police,
offering any aid that the Bureau could lend in this matter. The FBI in New York
City advised banks in the greater New York area on May 23, 1932, that the
Bureau was the leading agency for all government operations in the case. A
watchful lookout for ransom money has been urged. In a meeting with Director
Hoover in September 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt suggested that all
work on the case should be centred in the Department of Justice. He asked the
Director to transmit his concerns to Attorney General Cummings, with the idea
that the Attorney General obtain a complete report of all work conducted by the
IRS Intelligence Unit from the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS), either through the President or personally. On October 19, 1933, it was
formally declared that the FBI would have sole authority over any investigation
aspects of the case as far as the Federal Government was concerned. The New
York City Bureau Office issued a circular letter to all banks and their branches in
New York City on January 17, 1934, requesting an extremely close watch for the
ransom certificates, and all Bureau Offices were supplied with copies of the
Bureau's revised pamphlet containing the serial numbers of ransom bills in
February 1934. This leaflet was delivered by the New York City Bureau Office to
every employee who handled cash in banks, clearinghouses, grocery stores in
certain towns, insurance companies, gasoline filling stations, airports, department
stores, post offices, and telegraph companies. Following the distribution of these
booklets revealing the serial number of the ransom currency, the Bureau
manufactured and distributed currency key cards carrying the inclusive serial
numbers of all the ransom notes that had been paid. This was followed by
repeated personal meetings with bank executives and individual workers to
 maintain their engagement. Previously, the passage of ransom bills had been
reported to the FBI, the New Jersey State Police, or the New York City Police
Department, none of which had comprehensive information on the subject. As a
result, procedures were made so that any future ransom bills discovered might be
investigated jointly by representatives of the three concerned authorities.
Handwriting specialists examined the ransom notes and came to the nearly
uniform conclusion that they were all written by the same person and that the
writer was of German nationality but had spent some time in America. Dr.
Condon identified "John" as Scandinavian, and assuming he could identify the
individual, he spent a significant amount of time reviewing images of potential
candidates and known offenders. In this regard, the FBI hired an artist to create an
image of "John" based on information provided by Dr. Condon and Joseph
Perrone, the taxi cab driver who delivered one of the ransom notes to Dr. Condon.
Another intriguing attempt to track down the kidnapper focused on the ladder used
in the incident. Police immediately discovered that it was poorly constructed, but
by someone who was knowledgeable with wood and technically minded. The
ladder had been properly fingerprinted and shown to builders, carpenters, and
neighbours of the Lindberghs in vain. Slivers of the ladder were even studied, and
the wood kinds utilised in the ladder were recognised. Perhaps a comprehensive
inspection of the ladder by a wood specialist might provide more clues, and in
early 1933, such an expert was brought in Arthur Koehler of the United States
Department of Agriculture's Forest Service.
iv. The facilities were quickly searched, and a ransom letter demanding $50,000 was
discovered on the nursery window ledge. Traces of dirt were discovered on the
nursery floor during the search at the abduction location. Footprints were
discovered under the nursery window, which were hard to estimate. The ladder
had been utilised in two portions to reach the window, one of which was split or
broken where it connected the other, indicating that the ladder had broken during
the ascent or descent. There were no blood traces or fingerprints in or around the
nursery.
 v. The facts of the history of abduction legislation in America are few, at best, until
the notorious kidnapping and murder of Charles A. Lindbergh's one-year-old son.
In 1932, the apprehension and trial of the kidnapper, Bruno Richard Hauptmann,
drew widespread national attention. Hauptmann was never charged with
kidnapping, which was just a severe misdemeanour under New Jersey law at the
time. With insufficient evidence to show planned murder, Hauptmann was finally
convicted under the felony murder concept for a death that occurred during a
burglary. Because stealing a kid was not covered by the burglary statutes,
Hauptmann was convicted (and later executed) for a death that occurred while
stealing the baby's garments (State v. Hauptmann, 115 N.J.L. 412 (1935)). Even
before the trial was over, this incident drew national attention and inspired
legislative action. As a result, Congress passed the so-called Lindbergh Law (18
U.S.C. 1201-1202). When an abducted person is taken beyond state borders, the
Lindbergh Law makes kidnapping a federal offence. Though it was not initially a
capital felony, the statute was later altered to allow juries to recommend the death
sentence in extremely egregious situations. The death penalty was eventually
deemed illegal as applied to the Lindbergh Law by the Supreme Court (U.S. v.
Jackson, 390 U.S. 570 (1968)).

CONCLUSION

In my opinion, the offender's motivation may be to obtain a significant quantity of money

because the victim's parents are affluent. The criminal may have murdered the victim out of
fear of being apprehended.