Criminology - The Lindbergh Kidnapping

Episode Date: May 30, 2020

In 1927, Charles Lindbergh gained extreme fame when he became the first pilot fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean. But as often happens, fame can bring about unwanted problems. In 1932, Lindbergh's son, Charles Jr, was kidnapped from the family home and later found dead in New Jersey. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the Lindbergh kidnapping that the press called the crime of the century. After much cloak and dagger, which included 13 ransom notes, the clues that police had gathered led them to a German immigrant named Bruno Richard Hauptmann. But, there has been much speculation over the years as to whether Bruno was the kidnapper or merely a patsy who took the fall. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hello everyone and welcome to episode 114 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford, what is going on with you? Not much. I'm home alone. My wife and kids abandoned me and went down to Florida for a couple weeks. So I'm living here like a bachelor trying to get through the day.

How about you? What's new with you? Oh, hey, you know, it's kind of strange, but I'm in the exact same position. My wife and kids took off for a little, little vacay. And they didn't go too far, but, you know, so left me home for a few days. It's kind of strange because we've been together essentially 24 hours a day for, you know, however many months. So they've done this in the past and didn't seem like that big a deal, you know,

for them to be gone a few days. But this time, it really seems strange to be in the house with no noise just because I haven't had that in quite a while. Yeah, I'm in the same boat. It's, you know, sometimes that quite helps with work and stuff and you can do that. But then all of a sudden, you realize how much you miss some of that noise. And my wife and kids, I miss them a lot. So I'm excited when they come back. We continue to have an amazing amount of new Patreon support.

So let's give us some shoutouts. We had Andrew Lewis, Jeff Burbine, Daniela, Anastasia McCarroll, Tabitha Ammodio, Jessica Linder, Karen Bruse, Lily Crowell, Naomi Childress, and Aaron Barzac. So some great support more if we really appreciate it. Yeah, we say a little time, but we can't say it enough. Thank you for that. It goes a long way. And if anyone out there is thinking about supporting criminology, on Patreon. They can do so by visiting patreon.com slash criminology.

Don't forget about Stitcher Premium. We still get a lot of emails from people, messages, asking how they can access some of the earlier seasons, Zodiac, Golden State Killer, all that stuff. So it's out there. Stitcher Premium. They have a free 30-day trial. You got nothing to lose. All right, Morf, it's time to get into today's case.

And it's a big one in U.S. history. This case doesn't just involve an infamous crime, but the backstory is captivating and had a huge bearing on the airline industry. In 1932, the son of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped and later found dead in New Jersey. The crime became known as the crime of the century. Authorities launched a massive investigation and police eventually arrested Bruno Richard Houtman. a German immigrant who was later convicted and executed in 1936. But some question to this day, whether Bruno Hauptmann acted alone or if he was involved in the crime at all. Charles Augustus Lindbergr Sr. was born in 1859 in Sweden, and his family immigrated to the United States.

Charles graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1883 and settled in Little Falls, Minnesota. He married Mary LaFond in 1887, and they had two daughters together, Lillian and Edith. Sadly, Mary died just 12 years later. Charles remarried to a woman named Evangeline Land, who was 17 years as junior in 2001. Charles was working hard to support his family making a name for himself as a lawyer, and later as a Minnesota congressman from 1907 to 1917. Evangeline was incredibly intelligent and came from a fan. family of science. Born in 1876 to Charles and Evangeline Lodge Land, she attended the prestigious

Ligate Academy, a private school in Gross Pointe Woods, Michigan. Her father, Charles, was a dentist known for inventing the porcelain crown. He later expanded beyond dentistry to develop gas and oil burners for furnaces. Evangeline graduated from the University of Michigan in 1899. and later earned a Master of Science degree from Columbia University. On February 4, 1902, Evangeline gave birth to Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. in Detroit, Michigan. Charles Sr. was excited at having a son to carry on the family name. He hoped Charles Jr. would grow up to do great things, and he wouldn't be disappointed. Charles Jr. grew up on a Minnesota farm.

In 1912, at the young age of 10, he attended his first air meet where pilots would show off their skin. skills. Charles was infatuated with the idea of flying a plane himself one day. He graduated from Little Falls High School in 1918. In 1920, Charles Jr. enrolled in the University of Wisconsin to study mechanical engineering, but he decided to leave college to pursue his love of aviation. In February 1922, he became a flying student at Nebraska Standard Aircraft Corporation. And a couple of months later, he made his first flight as a passenger. In March 1923, his father co-signed for a $900 bank loan for Charles so he could purchase a surplus Army airplane. Now, that may not sound like a huge sum of money, but today with inflation, that would be the equivalent of about $15,000.

Charles spent $500 for a war surplus Curtis Jenny with a 90 horsepower engine. The creaky plane could fly only 70 miles an hour at top speed and could only slowly climb to about 1,700 feet. Shortly after he purchased the plane, Charles made his first solo flight in Lincoln, Nebraska. Back then, a person didn't need a license to fly a plane. So he took off with not much more. more than the clothes on his back and a full tank of gas. That flight was just the beginning, and Charles Jr. continued to hone his skills.

After that, he became a barnstormer, a pilot who appeared at county fairs and carnivals in exhibitions of stunt flying and parachute jumping. In 1924, Charles enlisted as a U.S. Army flying cadet and trained as an Army Air Service Reserve Pilot. On May 24th of that year, his father, Charles Sr. passed away from brain cancer. Almost one year later, Charles Lindberg made his first emergency jump on March 5, 1925, while he was a student pilot at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas. He graduated first in his class from the U.S. Air Service Flying School at Kelly Field.

He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in Air Service Reserve Corps and became chief pilot with Robertson Aircraft Company in St. Louis. On June 2nd, 1925, Charles made his second emergency jump while performing spins. The plane failed to respond to his forceful attempts to recover the plane. The plane plummeted to the ground, twisting and turning. Charles dislocated his shoulder in the landing, but after receiving medical treatment, he was flying again within two hours. A few months later, Charles enlisted in the 110th Observation Squadron,

35th Division of the Missouri National Guard, and he was promoted to First Lieutenant. He spent the following winter, teaching students how to fly, as well as test flying in the Robertson Company's commercial service. Charles later worked as an airmail pilot, flying back and forth between St. Louis and Chicago. Raymond Ortiz was a Frenchman who owned the Bervort and Lafayette hotels in New York City. In 1919, he made an extraordinary for its pilots, $25,000 to the first aviator who successfully flies nonstop from Paris to New York or vice versa. Orteague said the proposal was good for five years, but no one was able to accomplish this incredible feat. Not one person even tried. So in 1926, Orteig extended his offer for another

five years. By then, there were advances in aviation technology, and some believe flying across the Atlantic Ocean was possible. Charles Lindberg was one of them, and his interest in flying shifted from stunts to long-distance flights. One of Charles's heroes was Renee Fonk, a French pilot who had shot down 75 German planes in World War I. In September 1926, Fonk attempted to go for Ortig's $25,000 offer, flying from New York to Paris. However, his silver biplane burst into flames before it even left the ground. Renee survived, but two crew members were killed.

But instead of being scared off by his hero's failed attempt, Charles challenged himself and decided that he was going to do it. He was going to fly from New York to Paris. But first, he needed an airplane that was capable. Charles had a distinguished reputation in St. Louis as an ace pilot, because of his work as an airmail pilot. St. Louis Flying Club President Harry Knight, highly respected Charles, and chose him to teach him how to fly. Charles went to Harry while he was seeking financial backers for his proposed flight.

Harry put Charles in contact with the head of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce, a guy by the name of Harold Bixby. Charles convinced Harold to sponsor his plan, and the two agreed on a 15,000 $6,000 budget. In February 1927, Ryan Airlines Corporation of San Diego offered to build Charles a plane for $6,000 minus the engine. On February 25th, Charles signed the order for the purchase of a monoplane, dubbed The Spirit of St. Louis. The Spirit of St. Louis was designed by Donald Hall and overseen by Charles Lindberg.

Hall created the plane with only one thought in mind to get to Paris, France. the airplane would have a maximum range of 4,000 miles and the main fuel tank would be in front of rather than behind the pilot seat. On April 28, 1927, the completed spirit of St. Louis weighed 2,150 pounds when empty. It stood 9 feet 8 inches high and was 27 feet 8 inches long with a wingspan of 46 feet. The plane had a 220 horsepower air-cooled nine-cylinder right whirlwind engine, estimated to perform without any problems for more than 9,000 hours. It had a special mechanism designed to keep it grease during the entire transatlantic flight. The spirit of St. Louis's first test flight took place on April 28, 1927. On May 10th and 11th, Charles tested it by flying.

from San Diego to New York City with one overnight stop in St. Louis. The trip took 20 hours and 21 minutes and set a new transcontinental record. At 752 a.m. on May 20th, 1927, Charles departed Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York, headed for Paris, France. 500 people came out to witness the takeoff. He equipped himself with four sandwiches, four canteens of water, and 451 gallons of gas. 33 and a half hours and 3610 miles later, Charles successfully landed at La Borgie Airfield in Paris, France, and became the first pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. He was greeted by a massive proud of people who were cheering and shouting, having just witnessed a piece of history. As he opened the plane's door, police lifted him down and hoisted him onto their shoulders. They carried him through the excited, hysterical crowd.

That flight would establish Lindbergh as a legend in Ames. aviation. It would help pave the way for transcontinental alternatives to the very slow rides on ships. When Charles returned to the U.S., aboard the USS Memphis on June 11, 1927, a convoy of aircraft and warships escorted him up the Chesapeake and Potomac Rivers to Washington, D.C. Lindberg was an American hero, and President Calvin Coolidge bestowed the distinguished flying cross upon him. Afterward, he headed to New York City for a parade in his honor. A whopping four million people lined the parade route. And Mayor Jimmy Walker penned New York's Medal of Valor on Charles. On June 26th, Raymond Ortig awarded Charles Lindbergh the $25,000 prize. Lindberg was essentially

a celebrity after gaining national attention for his bravery. But as we know, Sometimes that fame can attract attention from dangerous people. And unfortunately, that would one day be the case for Charles Lindbergh. On April 30th, 1928, Charles made the last flight in the spirit of St. Louis from Lambert Field in St. Louis to bowling field in Washington, D.C. Charles met his future wife, Anne Morrow, in Mexico. Her father was Dwight Moore, the American ambassador of Mexico. She had graduated from Smith College in May 1928 and received two literary awards. On March 21st, 1929, President Coolidge presented Charles Lindbergg with the nation's highest honor,

the Congressional Medal of Honor. Two months later, Charles Lindberg married Anne Morrow in a private ceremony at her family home. Shortly after their wedding, Charles taught Anne how to fly. In 1930, Anne became the first woman to get a glider pylum's license, and the following year was issued her private pilot's license. The couple began flying together all across the world in their Lockheed serious plane, but the couple decided to put their adventures on hold and start a family. On June 22nd, 1930, Anne gave birth to the couple's first baby,

Charles August Lindberg Jr. in Englewood, New Jersey. Technically, the baby was the third Charles Lindberg in the bloodline, but he shared his middle name with his grandfather, so instead of the third, junior, was used. The couple was extremely happy with the arrival of their son, and they dreamed of one day teaching him to fly. But sadly, that day would never come. On March 1st, 1932, Charles and Anne's 20-month-old baby was kidnapped at 9 p.m. from his second floor nursery at the Lindberg home in Hopewell, New Jersey. The baby's nurse, Betty Gow, reported him missing to his parents at 10 p.m. Shortly after the Lindbergh's called the Hopewell Police. However, the New Jersey State Police

took charge of the investigation and police performed an immediate search of the premises. Authorities quickly found a ransom note on the windowsill demanding $50,000. During the search, police found traces of mud on the floor. of the nursery room. Footprints impossible to measure were discovered on the nursery windowsill. Two sections of a ladder had been used by the kidnapper to gain access to the nursery. One of the sections was split or broken, where it joined the other. An indication the ladder had broken during the climb up, or when the kidnapper was descending with the baby in his arms. Police found no bloodstains or fingerprints in the nursery. Investigators interviewed a state

and household employees. Charles Lindberg asked friends to communicate with his son's kidnappers, making widespread appeals for the kidnappers to begin negotiations. Authorities approach several known criminals and shady characters, asking them to dig around in efforts to contact the kidnappers. Charles Lindberg received a second ransom note on March 6, 1932. It was postmarked from Brooklyn, New York, two days before on March 4th. The kidnappers increased the ransom demand to $70,000. New Jersey Governor Morgan Foster Larson called for a police conference in Trenton, New Jersey, which was attended by law enforcement and prosecuting officials as well as government

representatives. Charles's lawyer, Colonel Henry Breckenridge, hired private investigators to help locate Charles Jr. Colonel Breckenridge received a third ransom note on March 8th. It said that the mediator appointed by the Lindbergs would not be accepted and requested a note be published in the local newspaper by authorities as a way of communication. On that same day, Dr. John F. Condon, a retired school principal from the Bronx, New York, published an offer to the kidnapper in the Bronx Home News. Condon offered to act as an intermediary and pay an additional $1,000 ransom. Charles Lindberg approved the offer, and two days later, on March 10th, Dr. Conn received $70,000 for the ransom.

Immediately, he began negotiations for payment through newspaper columns, using the code name Jafsey. On March 12, 1932, Dr. Conn received an anonymous telephone call. Later that evening at 8.30 p.m., a taxi cab driver named Joseph Perron, delivered a new ransom note. Peron said he got it from a stranger. The note stated that another message would be found beneath a stone at a vacant stand, about 100 feet from a remote subway station. Dr. Condon followed the instructions in the note and met an unidentified man calling himself John at Woodlawn Cemetery near 233rd Street and Jerome Avenue.

The men discussed payment of the ransom money and John agreed to furnish an item that belonged to the Lindbergh baby. To prove the child's identity, Dr. Condon was smart and took a bodyguard with him to the meeting, but when talking to John, he was alone. Over the next several days, Dr. Condon repeated his advertisements and urged further contact and stated his willingness to pay the ransom. More notes came, but they didn't really help move the negotiations along. On March 16th, Dr. Condon received a baby sleeping suit,

as proof of identity, as well as a seventh ransom note. He delivered it to Charles Lindberg, and Charles identified the outfit as belonging to his son. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder which emergency. We just walked in the door, and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved, until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020. Blood and Water.

Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Five days later on March 21st, Dr. Kahnan received an eighth ransom note. The kidnapper insisted on complete compliance and advised he planned the kidnapping for a year. Dr. Condon continued with his newspaper advertisements. On March 28th, Lindberg's nurse, Betty Gow, found the baby's thumb guard that he was wearing when he was abducted. It was laying near the estate entrance. A thumb guard is a device used for young children as a way to prevent them from sucking their thumbs. The next day, a ninth ransom note was received by Dr. Condon, threatening to increase the ransom money to $100,000,

and refusing a code for use in newspaper columns. On April 1st, Dr. Condon received yet another ransom note, the 10th. It instructed him to have the ransom money ready for the following night, to which Condon replied by an advertisement in the press. Three more ransom notes followed. The 11th note was delivered to Dr. Condon on April 2nd by a taxi driver who said he got it from an unknown man. Dr. Condon found the 12th note under a stone in front of a greenhouse located at 3-225 East Tremont Avenue, the Bronx, as instructed in the 11th note.

a while later on the same day, following instructions in the 12th note, Dr. Condon once again met with the man that he knew as John. During this meeting, Dr. Condon was able to get John to agree to the original ransom demand amount of $50,000. And I do think more if it's important to talk about what made up this $50,000. It wasn't all cash. Part of it was in gold certificates that were getting ready to be withdrawn from circulation. That was a ploy because they thought that that would attract attention to whoever received them. They also recorded the serial numbers of the cash that made up the $50,000.

Obviously, that's something that they would do in any kidnapping case today. So eventually conden handed John the random. in exchange for a receipt and the 13th note, which contained instructions that the baby was on a boat named Nellie near Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. After the exchange, John walked north into the woods. The following day, a search was made near Martha's Vineyard and later repeated, but searchers didn't find the baby. This was a devastating development for the Lindbergs, and it seemed as if the cloak and dagger games played by the kidnapper had all been part of a wild goose chase. The only thing solid that investigators had to go on was that Dr. Conan believed he would recognize the mysterious John if you were to see him again.

But John was never heard from or seen again. And more if the one thing that sticks out at me so much as we're going through this is the number of ransom notes. I mean, you know, eventually getting to the 13th note, which contained the information, supposedly on where the child was to be, I've just never heard of, you know, any type of kidnapping. You and I haven't done a ton of kidnappings, but where there were so many different notes. And maybe it's because of the time frame that we're talking about here and the methods of communication as compared to the day. Maybe you wouldn't blink an eye if you said, okay, there were 13 phone calls that talked about, you know, going back and forth on the ransom. I don't know.

To me, this whole case sounds like one of those dime store old detective magazines where there's codes and messages with secret names being exchanged in the papers. And we can't put the cart before the horse, but it seems as if this same crime happened today with technology and, and that kind of stuff, it seems like that many interactions between the abductor and the police might lead to him being caught easy. Well, and I think that's, that's part of the strangeness of it all. Okay. You initially hand out the amount and then you try to up it. You would think that the abductor wants to get that money as quickly as possible, right?

Because as you said, the more interaction, the more chances that maybe something goes wrong, someone gets identified, a clue is left for police, to have it drag out like that, it just really caught my attention. What caught my attention also was that Dr. Condon met with John in person, yet they didn't have any kind of undercover people following him or escorting him or staking out that area. and maybe they would have had a chance to capture John on the spot there. Yeah, there's a lot of strange aspects of this case. There's no doubt about it. A month later, on May 12, 1932, two men, William Allen and Orville Wilson found the kidnapped Lindbergh child's decomposed body in a shallow grate. The location was about four and a half miles southeast of the Lindberg home and 45

feet from the highway near Mount Rose, New Jersey. The baby's head was crushed and there was a hole in the skull. Some of the body parts were missing. The body was ultimately positively identified as Charles Lindberg Jr. and then later cremated in Trenton, New Jersey on May 13th, 1932. The proud Lindberg family was silent in their grief and a nation that had once cheered, Charles Lindberg, they were now in shock over the death of his son as the news spread across the country. Some believe that the child accidentally fell off the ladder during the kidnapping and died that night or shortly after. Before recovery of the body, the Bureau of Investigation, which is now the FBI, was acting in a purely advisory capacity. On May 13th, however, President Herbert Hoover authorized the Bureau to serve as the primary federal agency on the case.

He committed the U.S. Department of Justice's full resources to the investigation. Public outrage led Congress to pass the Federal Kidnapping Act, known as the Lindbergh law, on June 22nd, 1932. The day Charles Jr. would have turned two years old. The Lindberg law made kidnapping across state lines of federal crime and made the crime punishable by death. Investigators looked into many different possibilities and went down more than a few rabbit holes in order to find the person that abducted Charles Jr. They discovered that on March 4th, 1932. Just a few days after baby Charles was kidnapped, Evelyn Walsh McLean of Washington, D.C., contacted a conman named Gaston Means, who had done investigative work for her husband in the past.

Evelyn felt she could help Charles Lindberg find his child. Means told Evelyn, Evelyn, he could secure contact with the baby's kidnappers because he had been invited to participate in what he called a big kidnapping a few weeks before. But he said he turned down the invitation. He made the claim that his friend was responsible for the kidnapping. The next day, Means told Evelyn he had secured contact with the kidnappers and successfully got Evelyn to hand over to him $100,000, supposedly to be used to pay the ransom, which he told her had doubled. Up until April 17th, he kept there waiting. Each day she expected him to return with the child. During this time, he claimed he was negotiating with the kidnappers alleged leader,

whom he called the Fox. Evelyn demanded her money back when he never returned with a child. When Means failed to hand over her money, the FBI took charge of the case. The FBI took charge of the case. The Fox turned out to be Norman T. Whitaker, a disbarred DC attorney. Police arrested Whitaker in means. Later, both men were convicted of conspiracy to defraud and each was sentenced to two years in federal prison. So there's a couple of things going on here or more. I mean, number one, let's talk about how much $100,000 was in 1932. That is a ton of money. Today, $100,000. thousand dollars is a lot of money in 1932 i have no idea what the inflation would be but wow it's a it's a boatload of money yeah i think that's about 1.5 million dollars holy smokes so to have this woman

who had no connection with charles lindberg or the lindberg family hand over a hundred thousand dollars to try to get his son back that's just fascinating and then the fact that's the fact that while she's trying to do this good deed, she gets swindled. I think that just shows that she must have had a huge amount of generosity to offer something like that. And I think it's con artists like these two guys are always looking for someone like that to take advantage of. But I think the reason maybe she did that was because the baby's father was such a hero to the nation that perhaps she felt that it was worth doing just to help him out. Yeah, I think it goes to show how big Charles Lindbergh really was during that time. The other thing, morph is that probably throughout history, right, there's always a con man

ready to step up in the wake of tragedy. We see it all the time, whether it's a hurricane or even in the pandemic that we're experiencing now, there's always somebody trying to make money off the misery of other people. Happens all the time. On June 10th, 1932, a woman named Violet Sharp took her own life by swallowing poison when police were set to question her again. Violet was a waitress in the home of Anne Lindberg's mother and she had been under investigation by authorities. Her suicide raised suspicion, but police carefully checked her movements on the night of the kidnapping, and they came to the conclusion that she had no involvement in the case.

As part of the investigation into this case, handwriting experts examined all of the ransom notes. They agreed that the same person wrote all of them and that the writer was of German nationality but had spent time in America. Dr. Connan had described John as Scandinavian, and he believed he could identify the man. He viewed numerous photos of criminals and possible suspects. The FBI had a sketch artist's draw, a composite of John, based on Joseph Perome, the cab driver, and Dr. Condon's descriptions of him. The FBI's New York City agents conferred with Condon to prepare a transcript of all his conversations with John

that occurred on March 12th and April 2nd, 1932. These were the dates when Condon personally contacted the kidnapper to negotiate the Lindberg baby's return and to set up payment of the ransom. The conversations were then transcribed in detail on phonograph records by Dr. Condon, who even imitated the dialect and pronunciations of words spoken by John. In an attempt to identify the kidnapper, authorities took a look at the latter used in the abduction. They theorized that the person that built the ladder was familiar with wood and was mechanically inclined. Authorities had shown the ladder to builders, carpenters, and neighbors of the Lindbergs,

but no one recognized it or knew who had made it. In early 1933, authorities brought in a wood expert named Arthur Kohler of the U.S. Forest Service. He took the ladder apart. and with great care and thoroughness, identified the types of wood used and examined tool marks. He looked at the pattern made by nail holes because it appeared that some of the wood had been used previously in some type of indoor construction.

Kohler visited the Lindberg Estate and local factories to try to trace some of the wood. He summarized his findings in a report. Kohler's testimony later played a pivotal role in the trial of the kidnapper. Over two years after Charles Lindberg Jr.'s kidnapping, police arrested 34-year-old Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German carpenter. He was arrested near his home in the Bronx, New York, on September 19, 1934. Houtman had been in the U.S. for 11 years. Four days before his arrest, a gas station attendant became suspicious when Bruno paid for five gallons of gasoline with gold certificates.

The clerk recorded on the bill the licensed number of the car driven by the purchaser. The vehicle belonged to Bruno Hauptmann. Federal and local authorities did surveillance on Halton's home throughout the night of September 18th, until 9 a.m. on the 19th, when they arrested Hauptmann as he entered his Dodge sedan parked nearby. His car matched the description of a vehicle seen in the vicinity of the Lindbergh home, the day before the kidnapping. Halpman denied involvement in the kidnapping, and his wife Anna said he was home with her the entire night when the kidnapping occurred. During his arrest, police found a $20 gold certificate

on Hauptman. That night, Joseph Perron positively identified him as being the customer in his cap. And then the next day, police found over $13,000 in gold certificates hidden in Bruno Hauptman's garage. Shortly after the... that Dr. Condon identified Bruno as John, to whom the ransom was paid. Now, Dr. Condon originally told police that John was Scandinavian, which suggested the man had light-colored hair and eyes. The Scandinavian accent sounds very different from a German dialect, but Condon said Hauptmann was John, nonetheless. If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, moms and mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for.

Hey guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for moms and mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to whodont. We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a Motherly Touch. Subscribe now to moms and mysteries wherever you get your podcast. Police sent samples of Bruno Hauptmann's handwriting to Washington, D.C., where experts examined them in the FBI lab. The experts compared them against the handwriting on the ransom notes and concluded that the ransom notes were written by Hauptmann.

Authorities began diving into Bruno Hauptmann's background. He was born in Germany in 1890 and served as a machine gunner in the German infantry on the Western Front. Houtman had a criminal history that included robbery, and he had served a bit of time in prison. He had attempted entry into the U.S. three times. He failed in the first two attempts, but succeeded on the third try, which occurred in November 1923, using a disguise and stolen landing card. Bruno met 23-year-old Anna Schaeffler in the spring of 1924. Anna was also a German immigrant, and she lived in Queens, New York.

The couple married on October 10, 1925, and had one that. son, Manfred, who was born in 1933, they resided in the Bronx, where at least one of the Lindberg ransom notes was mailed. Bruno was a carpenter and Anne worked in a bakery. Bruno Richard Hauptman was indicted in the Supreme Court in Bronx County, New York on extortion charges on September 26, 1934, and a murder charge on October 8th in Hunterden County, New Jersey. 11 days later, Houtman was moved to the Hunterden County Jail to await trial after the governor of New York honored the extradition request by the New Jersey governor. Houtman's trial began on January 3rd, 1935, and lasted only five weeks. The case against him was based mostly on circumstantial evidence, but it was powerful evidence nonetheless.

For example, tool marks on the latter match tools owned by. Houtman. Wood in the latter matched wood used as flooring in the Houtman attic. And police found Dr. Conn's dress and phone number written on a doorframe inside a closet in Houtman's house. And of course, his handwriting matched the handwriting on the ransom notes. But Dr. Condon's identification of Houtman was most important. On February 13, 1935, Bruno Richard Houtman was found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death. The defense appealed, but the Supreme Court of New Jersey upheld the verdict on October 9th. Houtman then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but they denied to hear the case.

On January 17, 1936, New Jersey Governor Harold Hoffman granted Houtman a 30-day reprieve. But his execution was later scheduled for March 30th, 1933. On that day, the pardon court of the state of New Jersey denied Houtman's petition for clemency. And at 847 p.m., Bruno Richard Houtman was executed in the electric chair. According to the website Famestrials.com, his last statement read, I am glad that my life in a world, which has not understood me, has ended. Soon I will be at home with my lord, so I am dying an innocent man. should, however, my death served for the purpose of abolishing capital punishment, such a punishment being

arrived at only by circumstantial evidence, I feel that my death has not been in vain. I am at peace with God. I repeat. I protest my innocence of the crime for which I was convicted. However, I die with no malice or hatred in my heart. The love of Christ has filled my soul, and I am happy in him. Houtman insisted that another man, Isidore Fish, was responsible for the Lindbergh kidnapping. On May 12, 1932, Fish had applied for a passport. That was the same day authorities discovered the baby's body. He sailed to Germany on December 6, 1933. According to Hauptmann, during Fish's farewell party on December 5th, Fish gave him a shoebox of what he called, quote, important papers, before we sailed across the Atlantic to Leipzig to visit relatives there.

The box was wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. Houtman claimed he had put it on a high shelf in a closet and forgotten it. Houtman told investigators that he had expected fish to return to the United States because he had $7,000 of Bruno's money. Unfortunately for Houtman, fish died of tuberculosis on March 29, 1934, in January. Germany. Houtman told the police he believed his money was gone forever. Until he discovered the shoebox while cleaning out his closet, he recovered $14,600. More than twice what fish owed him, the bills had gotten wet from a leaky roof, which made the shoebox fall apart. He dried the money

and he hid it behind some wooden boards in his garage. He figured 7,000 of it was his, so he kept the money for his family. Police and reporters dubbed this sequence of events as, quote, the fishy story. And more of I think a lot of people find this story incredibly hard to believe. I mean, the press even dubbed it as the fishy story. When you look at Bruno Helptman, he was not a rich man. So to talk about the fact that this guy had $7,000 of his money, that's like over. $100,000 in today's money. Yeah, for someone who's just an average Joe that lived a fairly ordinary life, the amount of money that's being exchanged or shared or loan, whatever the right word is, between these two men seems interesting, as does the timing of him applying for a passport

the day the baby's body was found. So to me, I wonder if this guy might not have been a co-conspirator, or some way involved in the crime with Bruno Hauptman. Yeah, and I think there are quite a few people that, you know, maybe subscribe to that theory as well. I mean, I go back to this money, the $7,000. So you're telling me that this guy fish is going to go to Germany. They're having a going away party for him, which means to me he's not expecting to come back very quickly.

You don't have a going away party for people that, are only going to be gone a few days or a week. And you're not worried that he has not given you back the $7,000. That does seem fishy to me. And then the rest of his story is just very, very convenient, right? He finds this box. It's falling apart. And voila,

there's over $14,000 in there. Again, it doesn't make sense. If the guy only owed you seven, he's not going to pay you 14. six. Nobody's given somebody in what would be today's money an extra $100,000. And of course, the guy died from tuberculosis, so he's not there to explain his end of the story. Right. And I think that's a big part of it as well. Believing in her husband's innocence, Anna Hauptman never remarried

after Bruno's death. And she spent the rest of her life fighting to clear his name. For 60 years, she insisted that he was with her the night of the Lindbergk kidnapping. Anna said that every Tuesday her husband showed up at the bakery where she worked. March 1st, 1932 was a Tuesday. He and Anna ate dinner at the bakery and went home at 9 p.m. Then they went to bed. She said he was with her all night. 50 years after his execution, Anna gave one of her final interviews and said, quote, God knows that my husband is innocent. I'm going to fight for him until the very last. He had, had to die because people lied. My husband's blood is on their hands in New Jersey. Anna passed away on October 10th, 1994 in Pennsylvania. She was 95 years old. According to her

attorney, documents released a few years before her death, revealed that police and prosecutors bribed and threatened witnesses to testify against her husband. Anna had filed lawsuits against the state of New Jersey, alleging fraud and wrongful death. But they were rejected because of the immunity bestowed on prosecutors and because the statute of limitations had expired. In 1986, Anna appealed to the New Jersey legislature, which said it was a matter for the courts. Anna Hauptman was not alone in believing her husband was innocent.

Many people think that Bruno Hauptman was a patsy and that Isidore Fish kidnapped and killed the Lindberg baby. The whereabouts of Bruno and Anna's son, Manfred, is unknown, but he was living in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, at the time of his mother's death. After the death of their firstborn child, Charles and Anne Lindbergh secretly fled the United States and went to England in December 1935. They lived there and in France before returning to the U.S. in 1939. While in France, Charles helped invent an early type of artificial heart with a French surgeon,

He continued working in the aviation field and served on Pan American World Airways Board of Directors, acting as a special advisor from time to time. In 1941, Charles Lindbergh became involved with the America First Organization. It advocated that the U.S. stay neutral in the war in Europe, but his position on the war destroyed his public support. And some people believed that he sympathized with the Nazis. After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, Charles became active in the war effort and worked with his friend Henry Ford on bombers. He also acted as an advisor and test pilot for United Aircraft. After World War II, Charles Lindberg wrote several books,

including All Flight and Life in 1948 and the Spirit of St. Louis in 1953, which won the 1954 Pulitzer Prize. His wife Anne was also an author, writing 11 books altogether. One novel title, The Steep Ascent, tells the story of a dangerous flight made by a husband and wife. The Lindbergs had five more children, John born in August 1932, Land in 37, Anne in 1940, Scott in 1943, and Reeve in 1945. In addition to his children with Anne, Charles also fathered several more with his mistress. At the age of 55, Charles fell in love with a woman named Bridget Hessheimer, a 31-year-old hatmaker in Munich, Germany. Charles and Bridget kept their relationship a secret, even from

their three children, Dirk, Astrid, and David. Charles visited Bridget two or three times a year, introducing himself to the kids as Mr. Kent. At the same time, Charles became involved with Bridget's sister, Marietta, and a third woman named Valesca, who was his German translator and private secretary. He fathered two children with Marietta and two with Valesca. Charles Lindbergh died from cancer in Maui on August 26, 1974. He was 72 years old. His wife Anne died in 2001 at the age of 94. In the last year of her life, she resided on her daughter Rees property in Vermont. In August 2003, Dirk, Astrid, and David publicly announced that they were the children of Charles Lindberg at a press conference in Munich.

A DNA test was taken a few months later, confirming they were indeed the children of Charles Lindberg. Astrid had discovered a cache of letters written by Charles Lindberg to her mother. Charles and Anne's children are still alive, except for Anne who passed away from cancer in 1993. Three of the remaining children have lived very reclusive lives except for Reef. She is the family spokesperson and has written a few memoirs about her life as the daughter of one of the most famous people in American history. Charles and Anne's oldest living son, John, was a professional diver in his younger days and he and his wife had six children.

His son Eric became an aviator like his famous grandfather. and on May 7, 2002, retraced Charles's route from New York to Paris in 17 hours and 7 minutes. Charles Lindbergh's famous airplane, the spirit of St. Louis, sits in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. Since Charles presented the aircraft to the museum in April of 1928, typically the plane is suspended from the ceiling in the Milestones Exhibition Area. So, Morph, as we wrap up this case. Charles Lindbergh's name will always be known as one of the greatest aviators in history. But I think his achievements are often overshadowed by this dark story, the awful abduction and murder of his young son.

And this is one of those cases that really divides people. You know, you have a lot of people that think, without a doubt, Bruno Hauptman abducted and murdered the Lindberg baby. You have a lot of people that think he was a patsy. Maybe he was involved in some way, but he didn't carry it out, or he had no involvement and he got thrown under the bus. To me, it seems very powerful, the stuff that links him to the crime. You have the doctor's idea of him, first off, but you've got the Dr. Conn's name written. inside Houtman's home. You've got the money and the gold certificates there inside the walls of the home. To me, those are just two things that seem very powerful. In a time where there wasn't DNA, there wasn't

some of the science there is today, some of the technology, it came down to just good police work, finding the stuff that connected the dots. So I think personally that he was responsible or maybe had help, but when we're another, I think there's enough evidence there that says he was involved. I mean, I think if you look at the evidence as it was laid out and you assume it's true, then there's no doubt. This guy was involved in the kidnapping and murder in some way. But I think, you know, on the other side of the coin, people will make the argument that the police wanted to be Houtman and they pushed all the evidence in that direction. I'm not saying that's what happened. I'm saying that there are some people that will make that argument. But there's no doubt more,

if this is a fascinating case. This case goes back to the 1930s and people are still talking about it and debating it today. Thanks goes out to Debbie Buck at TruecrimeDiva.com for writing and research assistants in this episode. If you love the show and you haven't done so yet, go out, give us a five-star rating, keep telling your friends about the podcast. That word of mouth goes a long way. If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Criminology Podcast or by joining our Facebook discussion group, which is Criminology Podcast, Discussion and Fans. So that is it for another episode of Criminology. But as always, Morph and I will be back with

all of you next Saturday night with a brand new. episode. So until then, for Mike and Morph. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.