Do Go On - 166 - Charles Lindbergh & The Crime Of The Century

Episode Date: December 26, 2018

Dave reports on the life of Charles Lindbergh, who rocketed to unparalleled world wide fame when he in 1927 he became the first person to fly from New York to Paris. Just when he was on top of the world, his son was kidnapped for ransom, in what has been dubbed "the crime of the century". The rest of his life was extremely controversial, involving Nazis and secret families... This is a truly wild ride.Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPod Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/Submit-a-Topic Twitter: @DoGoOnPod Instagram: @DoGoOnPod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/ Email us: [e-mail] Book tickets to Matt's stand up shows via mattstewartcomedy.com/gigs  Check out our other podcasts: Book Cheat: https://omny.fm/shows/bookcheatPrime Mates: https://omny.fm/shows/prime-matesTheme song by Evan Munro-Smith, Logo by Peader Thomas!REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSYvcm0tvOEhttps://www.flightsafetyaustralia.com/2017/05/lucky-lindy/https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-lindy-did-the-hop-1495829913http://www.charleslindbergh.com/plane/firstplane.asphttps://www.herox.com/crowdsourcing-news/428-history-of-challenges-the-orteig-prize-1919-1927https://www.amazon.com/We-Charles-Lindbergh/dp/4871876330 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amarna, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there.

Canada, we are visiting you in September this year. If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates.

And welcome to another episode of DoGo on. My name is Dave Waterkey. And I'm here with, who am I here with, Jess? I don't know. Oh, no, you can't come this far. I'm here with Matt Stewart and the greatest woman in the universe as voted by the entire population of the world. Well, Jess's mom.

Yeah, I did a little switcheroo there. Just kidding, it's me, Jess Perkins. Oh, I'm a bit disappointed. I thought it was going to meet their or co-hosts to show with the greatest woman alive. Instead of Stanley Freeman. Instead, I'm looking at her daughter. You have.

Oh, wait, I miss that bit. Oh, my God. I thought. This is a mess. The greatest woman of all time. Kathy Freeman came to mind, but maybe that was because I saw it on a barbecue shape ad before. Ooh.

They build her as the greatest woman of all time. Well, like God, she was living on Legend Street. Anyway, it doesn't matter. We're not here to talk about shapes. Or are we? To debate the greatest woman of all time. We are here to host a podcast. Hello.

And we're here to host the last podcast for 2018. Or our podcast. Not ever. Last one ever. And then some smart ass tries to release a podcast at like 1159. It's a what, it's a 50 second podcast. Fuck you. What a dog.

smart ass. We are the last pod. All pods are on holidays now. It is a pod holiday. But yeah, it's been a, it's been a bloody fun year, probably my favourite for the podcast so far. Each has been better than the last. In some ways, in other ways, much, much worse. I don't know what ways there would be, but it's been so much fun. We're fine. We're absolutely okay. It's good to be, I love these, because we've, a lot of live episodes lately, so it's always nice to be back in the studio with guys. It is. Just us.

Yes, just us. Just us. None of those prying eyes always going, give us another fact. Tell us more information about the topic you're talking about. Oh, God's sake. They just won't stop. I like it when it's just us three, and we can sit here with no pants on, pick our noses, whatever we like, and nobody sees it except you two,

but who's going to say anything. Who cares? I noticed that. Can you just keep your fingers in your pants, mate? If you had them on, that is, which you don't. So I don't know what you're going to have to do. Put them in your pits. Fingers in your pits, come on.

Oh, okay. You wouldn't cross over? Oh, you do the cross. Yeah, I do the chicken dance. Yeah, I love that. No, I do a little self-hug. Oh, yeah. Everything's going to be all right, buddy.

I'll do, like, some sort of weird one. He does a pretzel. You're struck in some sort of a pose. Yeah, you do a vote. Vogue. Very good. But what I was trying to say was 2018, fantastic year. 2019, possibly an even better year for the pod.

And what better way to start it than three months in perform at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. God, his segways are so smooth. Yeah. Smooth. It's so smooth. I don't know where they're going until they're already happening. Yeah. That's right. We are performing

at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival once again. I like the word performing. Yeah. Appearing. We'll be there. Sitting, sitting and talking. Sitting. That's a performance art.

Tickets went on sale last week and they're available at do go on pod.com. And if you use the code Christmas before the end of the year, before January 1st, you can get a discount on all tickets, including already discounted season passes. Are we talking classic spelling or Dave's spelling of Krishmi? No, I went through this last week when I was doing the intro. I just went with Christmas. Just normal Christmas because Kreechmish would have been too confusing. Yeah, sure. How do you spell Khrishmish?

You know, how long's a piece of string? Yeah, it's really, whatever's in your heart. How long's a Kishmish? How long's a Kishmish? May I'd say four or five if I'm going hard, but it just depends. Now, the way the show works, right? Is that plug over? Yeah, if I just wanted to get that out the way, you know?

The way should the show works, Jess, if I, if I'm right, tell me if I'm wrong. I don't want to know about it. The way the show works is between the three of us, we rotate. And each week we do a report on a topic that we research to varying degrees, but normally at least quite a lot. And then we bring a report in and we tell it to the other two who don't know what the topic's going to be. To get on a topic, we ask a question this week. Dave is doing the topic and the report.

And the question. And the question. Wow. He's done it all. To get us on topic, Dave, what is your question this week? My question to get us on topic is Who became world famous after piloting the spirit of St. Louis? Okay, famous pilots.

Famous pilots. Those brothers? We've done them. The Marks brothers? Have we done them already? The Wright brothers. Yeah, the Wright brothers as well. Get it right, mate.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Don't applaud yourself. Yeah, it's weird. It's like you were already like clapping as you were half like through. What are you bowing to? Yeah, stop. It's hard to.

get it across on the podcast. But when I said right there, I was actually spelling it W-R-I-G-H-T, like the brothers. That's why that is so funny. That's why I'm a genius. No, it's not the right brother. Is it John Travolta?

No, who is also a famous pilot. Is it? This name would probably come between the right brothers and John Travolta on the list, number two on the list. Of pilots. Yeah. Is it Amelia Earhart?

Okay, that may also be number two. They share it second spot, Amelia Earhart and one other person. Male? It is a man. Is it Jacques Picard or whatever Patrick Stewart's name is in that show? No.

Does he pilot a plane? Space plane? Yeah, space plane. Is it Scotty beam me up? That is full name. That's why they say that when they say that. Yeah. Scotty been me up.

You know how you've got friends who you refer to with their full name? I always assumed it was just he wanted a bean. Bean me up, Scotty. Chuck us a bean. Scotty's sitting there with a bag of beans Just eating him He brought his own lunch Bede me up

Bid me up Bid me up And Scottie's like I wish you would bring your own lunch You keep eating half of mine And honestly The reason I'm bringing it is I'm trying to eat healthy

But also just trying to save you with a cash But you're eating half my lunch And then I end up going through the drive Through my way home Because I'm hungry Because half my lunch was eaten By you I've never been reimbursed

The drafts went from the way home From Star Trek Yeah they're people too the way back to their houses. Anyway, I don't think either of us know what it is. I'm talking about Charles... Xavier. Lindbergh.

Oh, the Lindbergh baby. That is also part of this massive... Right. I don't even know what that means. I've just heard people say it before. Maybe in Seinfeld. Oh, right. So, wow, I can't believe that comedy show referenced that this absolutely tragic event.

Oh, no. But there are two things that Charles Lindberg is very famous for. No, it was the Simpsons. I think Grandpa at one point says, I was the Lindberg baby. Oh, God, yeah, yeah. Is that true? That's right.

Yeah. Early Simpsons reference. Very famous for Flying the Spirit of St. Louis. And then also very famous for what has been dubbed as the crime of the century. Oh. Which century? I guess the 20th. 20th century.

That's right. So bigger crime than... 9-11. No, that did not fit in, I'm afraid. That's the biggest crime of the 21st. The 21st century. I know. I don't know what to do.

You bring it up every episode. Oh, not on this point. That's a primates thing. Do I bring it up on this? So actually, well, this story does. This isn't a pre-9-11 world, I guess, a lot of this story. So that's interesting. And, yeah, it was more naive time back then.

Is that what you want? Now, this topic has been suggested by a whole bunch of people. But the reason I'm doing it is because, Our main man, Mr. Justin McCain, way back when we used to have the golden hat, I missed his suggestion at the time. So this is the final ever golden hat suggestion. Fell into a crack in the golden hat. Sorry, Justin.

I think he's talking to you. So this one is definitely for you, Justin McCain. Thank you so much for your continued support and also your support way back when we had the golden hat going. And also a bunch of other people. I quickly shout out to Abby Sostray, Jacob Gray, Nolan Ewitt. Billy from Calgary, didn't say any last name, Jeff Rossman, Emma from Austin, Yusuf from Glasgow, and Ari Katz from Israel.

Very popular topic. Awesome. A lot of great names. It did sound like I was making up a whole lot of names just reading them out. Beautiful names, Dave. Thanks for everyone. Well made up.

I don't believe you have it in you to make up names that good. I don't think I do either. Dave would be like, Dave from Glasgow. David. David from David. Dave. Yeah. Land and others. Yeah.

Now it's on to the topic, which is, of course, Charles Lindbergh. And we're going to start with his early life. A great place to start, Dave. And work our way through this, how do I say, extraordinary life. Some people would start sort of in the middle. And then they'd get to something and be like, oh, yeah, I have to let you know that this thing happened to him when he was really young. And that's why his mom calls him Steve. Anyway, so now, but see, when you start at the beginning,

you work out that Charles and Steve are the same person. It flows. And it could be fun if you start somewhere in the middle and then you put a sort of like a title card on the lower third of the screen saying 17 years earlier. Yeah, that's fun too, actually, if you can do that, if you can put a title card on the lower third of the screen on this podcast. I could put in a sting that says, 17 years earlier.

Oh, I don't like that. Do a different voice. 17 years earlier. Oh, I like that one better. That was just his voice. What's that? That was slightly higher. It was just Dave sounding pleasant. That was about 8% higher than usual.

Dave, did you say this is your longest ever report before? I didn't say it on Mark, but off mic and on mic now, it is. So let's get into it. That's Matt subtly telling me to shut the fuck up, I think. I went overboard with the research. A little bit overboard. I don't think it was that subtle. So that's it.

After 20 years, so long and good luck. I don't recall saying good luck. Kirk Van Houten fires. I'm the curt of this show. It is so brutal. All right. I'll let Dave speak then. Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr.

What a name. Was born February 4th, 1902 in Detroit, Michigan. The son of Evangeline Lodgeland. That sounds mad. Evangeline Lodgeland. Lodge and land are two separate names. That does sound like a theme park. Lodgeland.

It sounds like a Freemason themed theme park. The son of Evangeline Lodge Land, a chemistry teacher and her husband, Charles Augustus Lindbergr, Sr., who was a lawyer and later congressman for Minnesota from 1907 to 1917. That's 10 years. That's right.

And being a congressman. Well, well, well, well, well, done. See? How does she do it? I started on my New Year's resolution early, and it's to get better at maths. Put your hands on the table. Is there a calculator? No.

Abacus. Oh, she's holding her phone. With the calculator app open. And it says equals 10. Charles attended many schools throughout his life and eventually graduated in 1918 from Little Falls High School. Same school where his mum taught kids. Chemistry. Did you all because of the little?

Yeah. That's cute. Little falls. Aw. Throughout his childhood and teen age years, he showed a keen interest in all things mechanical. He worked on his family's car and motorbike and learned a lot from that. Motorbike? And learn a lot from that.

Matt, this is Dave's longest report. If you could just pipe down. Thank you. Yeah, okay. And at the age of 18 years, well, at the age of 18, he entered the University of Wisconsin to study engineering. to talk more about motorbikes. However, by this time, Lindberg had become fascinated by aviation and after two years, he left school to become a barnstormer,

which is a pilot that performs Daredevil Stunts at Fares. That's fun. Well, that was his plan. But he'd had a few flying lessons but didn't have enough money to own his own plane and wasn't allowed to fly solo in someone else's plane. So he joined the circus in Jacksonville, Florida, and saved up money performing as a wing walker. Oh.

Back in the day when they'd have the wings and people would walk along them, very, very dangerous. It's like obviously a stunt. So he, to save up to buy his own plane, he risked his life by being a wing walker. That's someone about that's real cool. If someone was doing that today, like the Red Bull pilots or something, I'd be like, whatever, you know, I bet you could do that.

But back then, in the old days with weird old planes. We didn't know that they could do that. I was thinking more on like a domestic jet staff flight. Wow. I'd be like, oh, I'm not sure you're supposed to be there. There's something. Finally, that joke's funny. It's a reference to an old episode of Twilight Zone.

Yes, and a reference to us talking about that reference and not getting it on Matt's other podcast, Primates, when we're talking about Ace Ventura 2, This time it's personal. Oh, whatever it was called. Back of the habit. Please. Yeah, please.

So he was a wing walker. He saved enough money to buy a Curtis JN4. Okay, a Jenny, plane, that's what people call them, left over from the First World War. Genie. Yeah, that's what people call them. Love it. Geno.

So, yeah, now he's got his own plane. He had less than 20 hours instruction when he completed his first solo flight. He practiced takeoffs and left. landings for a week, then filled up with 40 gallons of gas, and he set course for Montgomery, Alabama, 140 miles away to start his barnstorming career where he was billed as Daredevil Lindberg. So he's had 20 hours.

And then he's like, great, I'm good to go. I'm just going to have a practice of my takeoff and landing, arguably the most important bit, and now I'm going to fly off and start charging money to do tricks that I don't know how to do, but I'll figure it out. You can barely fly a plane in a straight line, and he's like, yeah, I'm you're dead. I can do a flip, to be honest. Dead Devils don't have to fly planes in a straight line. Exactly.

And also, he's risking his life every time he gets behind the plane, so it's really dangerous. People appreciate that. Him flying badly, he's like, yeah, I'm doing it. Tricks. Now, look at him, flipping over. Yeah, I'm doing this on purpose. It's great. Look at it.

Whatever I'm doing, that's on purpose. Yep. It's called a whoop-ty-whoop. It's got a whoop-ty-whoop. He's quick on his feet, Dave. Maybe take a little page out of, Charlie's book. Someone's yelling,

do a whoop-de-waw! You want me to start doing a whoop-dy-wub? Yeah. Being a daredevil. Yes. Because I'll do it. Oh, can imagine Dave with a Mohawk? It's so close.

And an eyebrow ring. As all daredevils have, the combo and an eyebrow ring. He's a daredevil from 1998. I think I would look quite good with an eyebrow ring. All right, let's try it. Oh, no. Back in your band days, I could picture you with it.

Yeah, with your dark, you dyed black. hair and your emo fringe. Definitely have that. I'm sad you outgrew that. Really? Yeah, it's time for a resurgence, I feel. Matt, dreadlocks are back, thank you. And yes, what horrible haircut did you have?

Nothing. I've always had excellent hair. I should say, I'd never had dreadlocks. I had one dreadlock. You had dreadlock. It was gross, and I wish you would stop talking about. Never. I've moved on. It's about time you did too.

I will never move on. Dave, please move on. Have I told you when I remember taking it out? I picked it out by hand. It took so long. I was home by myself. It was about 18 or 19 and I was watching an OC marathon. They changed from like real grubby, gross guy to member of society could not have been more complete by watching a marathon of the OC.

Or from boy to man. Yeah. That day. It's beautiful. So not many people can pinpoint it. So it's quite special that you can. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that.

And did you say to yourself, welcome to the OC bitch? Yes, I did. So glad you did. So now he was a barnstormer. Then in 1924, Lindberg had listed in the United States Army so he could be trained as an Army Air Service's reserve pilot.

Not at war at that stage. He graduated the following year and as the best pilot in his class. Then he got a job as a male pilot flying between St. Louis and Chicago. I'll go. For a second. I did get confused between mail for a second there. Basically, he's a mailman in the air. Postman.

Posting. He's a postie. Now, you think this would be a relatively easy job compared to his military training? He's going to deliver posts. But on two separate occasions, he had to bail out of his plane due to bad weather and plane failure whilst it was flying in the air. What about the mail? Fortunately, he was unharmed in both incidents. And on both occasions, once he landed, he tracked down the mail he was delivering and ensured that would be sent on with minimal.

minimal delay. He gets the job done. Love that. This guy gets it. He gets it. He's a doer. I love that. As a doer myself. Yeah. I love recognizing another doer. Now aviation had been really growing since the Wright brothers, who I did a whole report on he can listen to, took their first flight in 1903. And then the First World War made sure the technology improved at a rapid rate. With war now over, in 1919, Raymond Orteg, a French American hotelier and aviation enthusiast and also philanthropist, announced a prize of $25,000, a huge amount of money equal to a close to 350,000 US today, for anyone that could fly nonstop

between New York City and Paris or vice versa, a nonstop transatlantic flight. So those kind of, like when somebody like that goes, I'll offer this reward for this, are they basically just trying to push like the technology to advance? fast like motivate people to Yeah or do they get the technology Is it like we'll buy the technology if you do it Or is it just going we want to bring science on No he was just so rich that he just was a fan

So I've got here Having made an enormous fortune with a chain of hotels in New York City Orteague was fascinated by stories he'd heard from French pilots in World War I And developed a real passion for aviation And dreamt of how commercial air travel could benefit the world Yeah so he was just a fan of the technology I don't think he's going to get rich from it but he's like 25 grand to me is nothing and maybe it'll kickstart.

Yeah, that's what I mean. So it's not that it's not just shits and gigs. It's probably kind of thinking if people are working towards this kind of goal, it will push the technology forward. Yeah, because now the technology is starting to stall it. In World War I, everyone's trying to get the best plane. So as always what happens with big wars is technology advances in great leaps. Now that's over.

Sort of this is the Great Depression Times. There's a lot less money flying. laying around for these kind of things. So he's like, oh, just keep the money going. That's cool. Love that. Or Terg. And if you are in America, please do stay at one of the fabulous Orterg hotels.

Oh. Hotel Oterg. Yeah. Is the sponsor of this episode. We will be invoicing them. They don't know they're a sponsor, but, you know. Do you know the hotel chain? Or did he, did he, a generation down,

his name to Hilton. Yeah, yeah. To a much more glamorous sounding name than Orteg. Orteg's beautiful. I love it. No matter what you say. His most famous hotel was the Hotel Lafayette in New York City. I've heard of that, I reckon.

Sadly, it was demolished in the 1950s. I definitely wouldn't have heard of that. I've heard the word Lafayette. It's a person or something. That's right. When we saw Hamilton a few weeks ago in London. Ah, one of the characters in that. Yes.

French revolutionists. The French one you like. I can remember back to just a couple of, did I say I like them? No, you were confused because the same actor plays Thomas Jefferson. And you thought that that were the same person. Yeah, well, why is that a strange accent? I guess by now he's been in America for a while, but you'd think he'd still have his French accent. Now, I should say, it should be noted that others had technically completed nonstop transatlantic flights

with the first being completed in 1919 by British aviators John O'Cock and Arthur Brown. In 72 hours nonstop, they travelled from Newfoundland in Canada to Galway in Ireland and received $10,000 from the Daily Mail for their exports. Their electrically heated flying suits failed, but coffee spiked with whiskey kept them warm and somewhat alert. You know, when you're drinking whiskey and you're flying a plane? Somewhat alert, that's where you want to be. There's photos of them having, quote, landed,

and the cockpit is down and the tail is up. They've definitely crashed landed. I don't know why laughed at that. Well, they survive. It's funny. It's funny. So how many, did you say 72 hours? Yep.

Fuck that. That's a long time in a plane. I don't want to be awake for that long. Long time in a plane like that would be a niceish plane to sit in. Oh, yeah. And one that you're not flying. Yeah. You're in control and the cold time.

It's just, eh. Yeah, it would be so loud. Yeah. Oh, that would be awful. I mean, that's too long in first class. But at least they're getting drunk and a bit stimulated by the bean. Bean me up, Scotty, is what they said to each other. But no one had yet traveled over the whole Atlantic.

So Raymond Orteg, inspired by O'Cock and Brown, traveling from Canada to Ireland, set up this huge prize to encourage people to try it. And try they did. And fail, they also did. It was a serious challenge, a total of nearly 6,000 kilometers or 3,600 miles, and was actually double the distance from Canada to Ireland.

Whoa. So a real step up and very dangerous. twice the amount. Wow. Is it? If my calculations are correct, I believe they are. Well, check Jess's calculator. Yeah, it says times two.

So it's very dangerous for pilots to attempt. The price was on offer for five years, and in that time had zero competitors as the technology just wasn't ready for it. So Ortei extended it another five years, and then people began to attempt the challenge. The first attempt was French flying ace René Fonk, Fonk

Fonk Fon C K Fonk Fonk Rene Fonk I love that so much I'm going to name him the freak

freak the funk Don't freak the funk Does that not mean anything to you guys This is Dave's longest report Okay We got the funk He was actually the Allies

Best Fighter pilot From the First World War And second overall only To the Red Baron You've probably heard of Yes Yeah couldn't have kids Real sad story

Oh dear Really wanted them Yeah Would have made a great dad Yeah It'd be fine if you Or the Red Baron Bet you was never part of your plan

Red Baron And you know Just Great Just you know Making rain with that What do you call it when you got no kids Child free

Something like snick or something What? Some term like Something Ack Oh Something something Anyway

It doesn't matter Sad sack Sad sack Sad sack Sad, sad. You know who did have lots of kids? René Fonk. René Fong.

He got the Fonk on. The Freak. However, the Freak was less successful with the All-Teg Prize, despite aircraft designer Igor Sikoski reportedly spending $100,000 on the plane. Love the name Egoor. Remember, they're trying to win $25,000, and he spent $100,000 on the plane,

just because he wants to win so bad. And I for all that, the plane crashed on takeoff, and two of René Fonk's crew members were killed. Oh, no. But René, René, survived. But that was the end of his dream. In 1927, three groups in the United States and one in Europe were known to be preparing attempts on the prize. But none were successful and many ended in disaster. In total, six men in three separate crashes and another three were injured in a fourth

crash. Wow. So people haven't bad luck. Dink is what they call them. Double income, no kids. Dink. Dink. Fantastic Red Baron. But he was a sink. He was a single income. God bless him. What's going on? I'm going to... I'm going to know what's going on. Meanwhile, our young plucky 25-year-old Lindbergh wanted to have his own crack at the All-Teg Prize.

It had only been four years since his first solo flight, but he thought his mechanical expertise could really get him across the line. Despite being very unknown in comparison to many of the pilots attempting the crossing, Lindberg was able to get financial backing from a group of St. Louis businessman, who helped him score a $15,000 loan, and he also put in his own $2,000 life savings. It's amazing how much money people are putting in to win that amount of money. Yeah, yeah, it's financially sometimes. It doesn't work out.

But it's the fame. 17 grand to win 25 is not good odds, unless it's a sure thing. Though if you do get it. That's, you know, it's like grand. That's happy days. And worldwide fame. Yes. Lynnberg chose Ryan Aeronautical Company of San Diego

to manufacture a special plane which he helped design. They had to build the plane much faster than usual because people were trying to complete the challenge all the time and they were worried that they'd be pipped at the post. So the plane was built in just 60 days. Wow. Officially known as the Ryan NYP, standing for New York to Paris. A single-engine monoplane was designed by Donald A. Hall of Ryan Airlines.

but it was nicknamed with the Spirit of St. Louis in honour of Lindbergh's financial supporters from St. Louis, and this is what the plane is known to history as. That's not the Ryanair, is it? No. What a downhill. What a step down? Yeah. The Spirit had extra fuel tanks added to it in order to be able to carry enough fuel for the super long haul flight.

At Lindberg's request, the large main and Ford fuel tanks were placed in the Ford section of the fuselage in front of the Pyreux. in front of the pilot. How could he see? This meant that the plane had no windscreen and when flying Lindberg couldn't see. I'm not kidding. Which obviously sounds crazy. But he was used to mail blocking his vision anyway

and when flying the male plane and this plane, he would use side windows and turn the plane if you wanted to see what was up ahead. So he just turned to the left, look out the window. Oh, that's cool. All right, back on course. You also had a periscope built into the plane. I hope he alternates between checking the left and right.

Otherwise, he's just always inching slightly left. He also had a periscope built into the plane so he could see what was in front of him, but it's not clear if he actually used this at all. It was mostly for when his plane was underwater. Just in case. And he needed to spy on his cartoon enemies. You get to see a big eye. Yeah.

Yeah. Why can you always see an eye at the periscope? Check out that big eye. Paris goes to dumb Submarines are weird Anyway You said it I don't care

I'll take them down I'll take down big submarine Yeah They're a weird thing Why? They're weird Big subma They're so weird

Oh I'll just go under the water Let's build a Big metal fish So silly Isn't that silly It's just I mean

When you think about it Which is the first time I've really thought about what a submarine is, and it's an underwater boat. Matt, is that right? It's more like an underwater bus. Yeah, something like that. They're so silly. I mean, if you want to travel underwater, they make perfect sense.

Why would you need to travel underwater? When is that quicker? Was it, I'm guessing, was it war? Yeah, of course, but now why do we have it? I mean, oh, now all the wars are over. I think it's to find necklaces for Titanic movies. Yeah, James Cameron is a big fan. Sorry, yep, I feel like an idiot.

You're right. They have a huge purpose. Yeah. Thank you. Anybody out there has connections with someone with a submarine. Oh, a live pot on a submarine. Come on. Come on.

Let me in. Especially if it's all glass. And you imagine that, an all glass submarine, you can just see everything everywhere. That would be so cool. What's that, Seagram a movie. They were on a submarine.

X-Men 2? Yes. Is that right? Oh, is it up periscope? Yes. Or is it down periscope? Down periscope. That's right.

I actually have seen that. Yeah. And the chef farts when they're trying to be quiet so they don't get caught. Yeah, it's good stuff. That's some good humour. Sorry to derail, but submarines are stupid.

In summary. Please do go on. Linberg, well, this isn't about submarines, thankfully. Lindbergh also decided to go against the Great and avoid using multiple crew members None of this is the best Subrubrins.

You brought up sub-reach, Jess. Where did they come off again? Parascapes. Parascopes are dumb! Well, Yes, they are. Lindberg also decided to go against the grain and avoid using multiple crew members

like the other failed attempts. This made them heavier, but it also meant that they could share the flying. Lindberg chose to fly solo, so he had to do it all on his own. He later said that the random movements of the unstable craft kept him awake. He also reportedly chose a deliberately uncomfortable wicker chair to keep him awake and flew with the windows open. Oh my God.

He had a very little, he had very little room in the cockpit that was so small he couldn't even stretch out his legs. Oh no. That all sounds like a nightmare. It's torture. He was obsessed with keeping the weight down as well. He chose not to have a radio, which sounds crazy, but back then it was extremely heavy and very hard to use. He was also rumoured to have cut the top and bottom off his flight map to save a few grams of weight. Oh my God. Wow. I just wasted error on a map.

The border? Who needs it? I'm with him. Nah, good on him. I agree. Save them grams. And then open the windows up. You know, stop all that little bit extra weight, get you there quicker.

And then create drag by opening up your windows and turning yourself into a big parachute. I know, I am a scientist. I'm glad you're here. I'm always glad you're here, even without science. Thanks, Jess. his biggest rivals were Charles Nungasa and Francois Collie who left just

under two weeks before him and they were likely to be the first to complete the challenge but they disappeared aboard the Leszois Blanc the white bird somewhere on route and that has become one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time they never found them there were two very famous pilots at the time one of them wore an eye patch and looks like a cool

Badass. Get out. I reckon they landed in the ocean. Submarine picked them up. They love the sublife. Yeah. Living their best sub life, yo. Yeah.

Love a sub. Love a sub. If you're listening on YouTube, please subscribe. Just say that every half an hour or so. But this didn't put off Lindberg. So his enemies... So his rivals crashed probably. But this didn't put off Lindberg.

And finally, on the morning of May 27, 1927, it was go time. He took off from a muddy Roosevelt field on Long Island, New York. He hadn't slept since 9 a.m. the previous day, but he just had to get going. What the fuck? Now you're going to be awake for like 70 hours. Because he was carrying so much fuel, he was so close to the maximum takeoff weight. He only cleared telephone lines at the edge of the field by 20 feet.

So he only just managed to take off in time. Despite his tricks, not surprisingly, he started to feel tired, three hours into the flight. Yeah, no shit. And he was struggling to stay awake. It was up and down in terms of altitude and skimmed storm clouds at 10,000 feet at night and then flew as low as 10 feet when he was off the Irish coast.

10 feet above the water. Three metres. No. Why? Just up and down, he's just avoiding bad weather. So he's just skimming across the water, like a boat. Or... Or a...

He was... He was 10 feet under the water. Do you think he was under the sea? I think so. He flew blindly into fog for several hours. So we couldn't see anything. Imagine that. Seven hours.

I was just going, Uh, please be no mountain. He had to calculate his course by dead reckoning where basically you work out how far you've gone by calculating how fast you've been traveling and in one direction. It's not that accurate.

It can be kind of dangerous. It works but isn't super reliable, especially when you're flying over an ocean and you can't match what you think you are with objects on the ground. So you can't be like, all right, if I'm in that spot, I should be able to see, oh, I should be able to see the ocean. I want to look at the other window. Yep, I should be able to see the ocean. Okay, good. Okay. If anything, he'd be concerned if you could see land.

Yes. So if anything, it's good. Yeah, as long as all he can see is ocean, then he's good. And he also didn't have a radio, remember, so we can't contact anyone to confirm where. years. Brilliant. I got a bit harder from here. From fatigue, he started hallucinating and falling asleep for brief periods

whilst flying in and above the fog. Imagine that. You pass that wake up. I'm in a plane. I'm still on a plane. Yeah, you can't exactly pop it in autopilot and have a nap, can you? No. Even just a 15 minute, you know?

Little power nap. But after 27 hours, he spotted land, and amazingly, he was only three miles off course, and he was two and a half hours ahead of schedule. What? He landed at Le Bougette Aerodrome at 1022pm on Saturday, May 21st, having flown for a total of 33 and a half hours. But being awake for like another 24 before that. Nightmare, but amazing.

He'd done it. He made it. It sounds like a lot of luck. Would that be fair to say? It does sound like that. He later said, like with the fog and stuff, I was taking a calculated risk. I'm not crazy. I wasn't risking my life.

It's like, well, you were, I mean, like seven other people, eight other people have died trying to do what you did. A hundred percent. Better pilots than you. Yeah, yeah, much more experienced and world famous. Bill Bryson writes, I wonder Matt's. Love Bill. I love Bill.

We are, we're touring the Roman Baths in Bath, and you could have an audio guide, which was like a, you know, just a normal one, spoken by an unknown voice, or the Bill Bryson backstage spectacular. I say I love Bill. I've read two of his books, which were pretty good.

Yeah, that's high praise. I think it's funny. I do. I had to study one for a lit at uni. Did you? Yes. Cool. The first one.

The one where he starts for saying, I come from Des Moines. Someone had to, something like that. Very good stuff. It's a great start. Yeah. Strong.

Strong start. Strong start. Well, Bill Bryson, he says initially that Charles Lindbergh mistook the aerodrome for some large industrial complex because of the bright light spreading out in all directions. In fact, they were the headlights of tens of thousands of spectators' cars who had been caught in the largest traffic jam in the history of Paris

and they were all there to attempt to be present for his landing. So they'd heard he was coming and they were ready for his arrival. But you don't know exactly when he's coming though? No, they're just waiting out. What? No, I need an exact time or I'm not going. Well, I think there was less on back then. No, I'd be checking the website, looking at the set.

Set times going 9pm. The set times. I'll get there at 8.30. So there's a band playing in your own? Yeah. There's a support act. Yeah, I assumed another plane would land before him. You don't want to get there early?

Check out the merch? Depends. You want to get a good spot, right? Depends. Up the front? Yeah. Depends on what? Depends on the act?

Yep. What if it's the first ever to do music? Like he is, sort of. Wow. Okay. Now that you put it like that. I'm going to drive out there every day hoping he arrives. Tens of thousands of people greeted.

Do you hear how fucking dumb you sound now? Do you hear that? Yeah, now that you've said that. Yeah, do you hear how dumb you sound? Now you've said dumb twice, yeah. I'm starting to hear it. Dave, sorry about Dumbo over there. Well, Dumbo.

Is that my ears? Tens of thousands of people turned up to Greg Chazlenberg and perhaps as many as 150,000 I saw in some places. Either way, the reception was huge, and overnight Charles Lindbergh became one of the most famous names on planet Earth. Orteg, the man who inspired all this, was vacationing in France at the time and travelled to Paris immediately where he met Lindbergh and arranged for the prize to be awarded.

And his life after this was never the same. It's hard to fathom the level of sudden interest that surrounded him, but I'll try and put it into some perspective from what I was reading. his mother's house in Detroit was surrounded by a crowd estimated to be about 1,000. That's just his mum's house. He's not there. He's in Paris, guys. What are they hoping to see?

His mum. Again, Matt was right. There was a lot less going on back there. The French Foreign Office flew the American flag, which is the first time it had saluted someone who wasn't a head of state visiting. Speaking of heads of state, President Kelvin Coolidge awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross and a special act of Congress awarded him the Medal of Honor, despite the fact that it was most always awarded for heroism in combat.

This man, who a few weeks before was a humble mailman, had a 10-cent airmail stamp depicting him and the spirit and a map of the flight produced in his honour. So he's gone from delivery mail to now he's on the mail. He was honoured with multiple awards, including being promoted to the rank of Colonel and the Air Corps. There were banquets and parades where it's estimated that millions of people saw him. millions turned out to welcome him.

On his return to America, there were 500,000 letters and 75,000 telegrams waiting for him. Oh, that's just too overwhelming. Yeah, imagine if you opened your emails and you had that many. I'd just shut the laptop and walk away to be honest. I'd probably throw it out of window. I'd just make it. This is very nice, but too much. Dear Charles Lindbergh, stop.

Congratulations, on the flight. Stop. Keep going. Stop. I believe in you. Stop. Don't stop. Linberg was honoured as the first ever Time magazine Man of the Year. First ever. First ever.

Really? Good trivia fact. Where he appeared on the magazine's cover at age 25, January 2nd, 1928, and he remains the youngest ever person of the year. Really? Wow. First and youngest. Even younger than the computer or whatever.

The computer was personal of the year one year. Traveling around the country, he flew his famous plane to different cities where he gave speeches and participated in parades, and the public just couldn't get enough. He wrote a best-selling book called Wee. Ah, yes? In French? Oh, I assumed spelled.

No, W.E is in. It wasn't just me that did this. It was a team effort. Oh, I was going AA. I thought it was because he pissed his pants. Yeah, where did he piss? Did he have a bottle at least? Oh, just pissing a bottle and throw it out the window.

That plane would stick. We just said it dribble through the wicker chair. That's another beauty of the wicker. Dribble through. Beautiful. When you put away. No, beautiful, Matthew. Well done.

That is. That's beautiful. That is. Good stuff. Thing of beauty. Learn it from Bill Bryson. He's just got away with words. Traveling around the country, he flew his now famous plane to different cities where he gave speeches and participated in parades.

Oh, he had to fly himself there. And the public just couldn't. get enough. Like I said, he wrote the book called Wee, which sold more than $650,000 copies, and earned Lindbergh more than $250,000 in royalty. So there's 10 times the prize, which is the equivalent now of $3.5 million. So the investment was sound.

Yeah. He went on a three-month speaking to it to promote the book flying from city to city to city. City to Syria. City to city in the spirit of St. Louis. And this is what the book's Amazon blurb says. He can still buy a copy of Wee. Quote, the nation became obsessed with Lindbergh during the tour in which he was seen in person by more than 30 million Americans, a quarter of the nation's then population. More than Australia's now population.

No other book before or since ever had such an extensive, highly publicized tour that helped promote a book than did Lindberg's way of himself and the spirit during their 22,350 mile tour of the US. He visited 82 cities in all 48 continental states, during which the nation's aviation hero delivered 147 speeches and rode 1,090 miles in parades. Jeez. I can't actually fathom the reception. Yeah, nothing's happened in our life that would... That's that big. Yeah, give anyone... One in four in that whole country went and saw him.

How many books did he sell? But he only sold 650,000. I'd be pissed off. You'd be like, 30 million people came out. and like, oh, Dave's doing math. Look at the cogs turning. Just beat him on your calculation. Like 1 in 50 bought a book.

One in 50! It's not a great conversion rate for a bookseller. You've got to move them units. Jess, you've written a few books. I have, yes. My mom has bought all of them, thank you. Really? Yes.

100%. Yeah, 100%. That's what you got to do. I get an A4 piece of paper. Yeah. I fold it in half. And I make one side of the front cover, and I write by Jesse P. On it, and I draw the cover myself.

Oh, that's your Nondoploom. Oh, shit, I shouldn't have said that. Oh, no. I've given it away. Now Mum will know it's me. I'm their favourite author. A real page turner, I've heard of them say. Thanks a lot, Jess.

I just can't get enough of these Jesse P. novels you keep giving me for Christmas. I've tried to find them online to get a few more throughout the year, but they just sold out everywhere. I know a guy, Mum, I'll sort it for you next birthday. And then I write one for a birthday. How many words? You know what we get in? Six! Well, can we like hear,

obviously don't want to give away the whole, maybe the first two of six? Dear Mum! Oh, wow. I mean talking about birthday cards? I cannot wait. Hey, you call them birthday cards? I call them award-winning novels.

What awards have they won? Mummy's favourite book award. What? Six years running. And when, how long is this when you were like, how old? So you've won multiple mummies. Yes. That's amazing.

I'm a multi-mummy winner. MMW. I've been alone all day. Can you tell? It's just nice to be around people. Dave, please go on with the longest report you've ever written. I'm sorry we're in ridiculous. I mean, at this point you could say that was the report on the Charles Lindbergh.

spirit of St Louis flight. That's right. But there's more. Oh, there is more. There is more. So he's done the tour, which side note was organized and funded by Harry Guggenheim from the famous Guggenheim family, many famous art galleries now. During this time, Lindberg was commonly nicknamed the Lone Eagle and Lucky Lindy, a nickname

he apparently hated. Didn't like being seen as lucky. Yeah, makes sense. I mean, definitely willing. Nothing lucky about that. Yeah. That was a fair bit of luck. Yeah, I'm confident the luck it was involved.

Lindbergh's historic flight really helped promote aviation as a whole and led to a 300% increase in the application for pilots licenses and a 400% increase in the number of licensed aircraft in the United States in the space of one year. I reckon we've had a similar kind of percentage influence on podcasts. Everyone's got one now. They didn't three years ago. Australian, the TV show 60 Minutes has a podcast now.

You've got a TV show. What's the end goal 60 minutes? I know. You've already, you've got. got a TV show that's been on the air for four decades. You're good. You're fine. Yeah.

You don't need to branch out. Get off our toes. Get off our fucking toe. We're not doing it. We will break your face. Let's do a do-go on TV show called 61 minutes. Yeah. Oh, 69 minutes.

Yeah, that's a nice title. Why? Without breaks. Really, you just get yourself. Oh, it's a TV 69 minutes, yeah. A TV 69 minutes. It's a two-hour show. We get 23 minutes each.

You can do whatever you want with your 23 minutes. I'm going to write a book. Live on air. Yep. We can do whatever we want. Yeah. So in summary, at this stage in his life, he's huge. He's bigger than the Beatles.

The Beatles aren't around yet, though, right? That's why he's bigger than him. Okay. Makes it a lot easier. It does. But he was huge. That's incredible. So everything's going great, and he's on top.

top of the world. Now all he needs is a partner in crime to share it all with. He's getting into crime. Love that. Love that. What do you get a man who's got everything? Crime. Crime. Hey, I got you this. Crime. I got you some crime. I know you already got your own watch, but have you got a stolen watch? Here, you're going to do time for this time piece. All right. 60 minutes. At the request of the US government, Lindberg flew to 16 different Latin American countries in December 1927 as a symbol of American goodwill. What a beautiful symbol.

I'm going to visit you. Hey, here's our guy. During his trip to Mexico, he met Anne Spencer Morrow, the daughter of Dwight W Morrow. From the Morrow Bar. Lava Morrow. You're a Morrow fan? Spelled differently.

Oh. Sorry. But Morrow's are good, aren't they? Moros are good. Some people call them the Poor Man's Mars Bar. I like it. I think they're. They're good.

They're the rich man's something else. Milky bar. Milky bar. Because it's got the caramel in it. The beta. Milky Way is what I meant. The rich man's timeout, aka not a waste of your time.

Basically, so anyway, back to Charles. In Mexico, he married Anne Spencer Morrow, is the daughter of Dw. Morrow, the American ambassador in Mexico. They married in a private ceremony on May 27th, 1929.

Charles taught his new wife to fly and they went on many flying expeditions together throughout the world, charting new routes for various airlines. I always admire couples who find a way to live and work together. I think that is, it brings its own set of challenges, but with that, its own set of rewards. Sonny and Cher, Hillary and Bill Clinton, yeah. Possible Bags.

I always got a posthum backs. Possible backs. And I always get shut down, so I'm glad he went with me there, thank you. No, but what? They don't live together, they don't work together? They don't love together? I mean, love is work, but they get it done, you know. If you want your relationship to work, it's going to take work.

Yeah. They don't call it work for nothing. Preach. Thank you. If you want to come to my love seminar, you can go to the same website, Dave quoted before, for tickets. Do you go on pot.com. Yeah, it'll also be at the live Melbourne national comedy festival shows. I'm going to do inside of that, I'm going to do a quick love seminar.

Really hoping we can hold you. to that. We will not remember. No, but somebody will. Someone will just yell out half a through a report. Love seminar. Thanks for coming out. I'll take this one.

What if you just gave one tip each week? Great. For how to be a good partner. Just how to be a good partner? One tip. I'll do some research. You give out a couple of tips. Oh, hang on.

You get it? I reckon it'd be a great segment on our TV show is 69 minutes. Love tip. Love tip. Love tip, baby love Dave, you're distracting yourself now Sorry, they got that. They got married, they're flying together

And Anne also became the first American woman To earn a first class glider pilot's license So she's a bit of a bad off their own ride She's sick, I love her Because her name's Anne, like all the best people. Lindbergh closed the chapter on his headline grabbing flight. When a year and two days after the journey,

Lindberg flew the spirit of St. Louis from St. Louis to Washington, D.C., where he donated the... playing to the Smithsonian Institution and it's been on display there ever since. Oh, we should go get there. They still have, isn't that so cool? So in 90s, you know, often it's like,

it takes a long time before it becomes famous. Yeah. He flew it there and said, there you go. And it's been like one of their, they've also got one of the right flyers for the Wright brothers. One of their most famous exhibitions ever since. We should go touch it. Can I lick it?

Do you reckon? Yeah. Thank you. Of course you can. It wouldn't let me lick the skin book. Oh. Don't bring that up When is there we

You were talking about me and Jess And everyone in the world Yeah And the fact that it was behind glass No but it did not stop me Licking the glass We know buddy We had to escort you out

You had to escort you out Yeah So he's donated to the spirit of St Louis But Charles continued to overachieve Britannica writes When he was not flying Lindberg worked with Nobel Prize winning surgeon Alexis Carroll

Alexis Carroll On the development of the perfusion pump, a device that allows organs to be kept alive outside the body. While the perfusion pump did not see widespread use, it demonstrated the feasibility of preserving organs through artificial means and acted as a precursor for the heart-lung machine. So now he's inventing shit. Shit.

In 1930, Anne gave birth to their first child a son named Charles Augustus Lindberg Jr. Now the third one, I'm a lot. Cute. Yeah, right. So it's not junior, junior. It's just junior. Do you reckon they called him Cal?

Because that's his initials. I think you have to think about that when you're naming a kid. Think about the initials. I say to my parents. You reckon? I'm Jap. Oh, okay. Yeah, from the great character from Poirot.

Yeah, you're right. Inspector Jap. God, they're good. All right, Poirot. Get out of here, Poirot. This is a police work. Poirot. If you haven't seen it, that's very accurate.

And if you have seen it, that's not very accurate. Well done. So now on to, basically, this is part two, Charles Lindbergh, the life, the story. In 1932, the family moved to a home in rural New Jersey, to escape the press coverage that followed them everywhere. They're hip, they're happening. They're like the it couple.

But the press won't go to New Jersey. Oh, no, thank you. We really want to, you know, paparazzi them. What was that quote about Des Moines that that guy? Somebody had to come from there. I was born in Des Moines, someone had to be or something like that. That guy. Who was it again?

Bill Bryson. Oh, Bill Bryson. Yeah, nice. So they went to New Jersey. They were building a large estate, basically, big walls, big land, so people can't get close to them and their family. The home was not yet finished, though, and they went and stayed at the estate on the weekends only.

On Tuesday, on March 1st, 1932, the family decided to stay the night for the first time on a weeknight because Little Charlesburg-Lindberg Jr. was sick and they didn't want him to have to travel. Sure. Apart from that anomaly, everything seemed normal. Then the absolutely unthinkable happened. At about 10pm...

Submarine. Close. That was thinkable. You thought it. Dave's going to say something that's unthinkable. So how's he going to say it? You're not going to be able to guess it. Well, he can read.

It's not unreadable. It's readable. But Dave can think it now because he knows it. Well, he can't think it. That's the thing. He's got a blank thing in his head. He's just reading it and we can say, what did you just say? But he's read it before, which means now he knows it so he can think it.

I don't think he can think. I think he's got no memory of it. Let's find out. Okay, it's written down here for me. At about 10pm that night, it was discovered that the 20-month-old Charles Lindbergh Jr. had been kidnapped. Okay, Dave, what did you just say? What?

You just said a sentence. What was it? Dave? You okay? Sorry, I just pick up from where I left off. At about 10pm that night, I was discovered that the 20-month-old Charles Lindbergh Jr. Had been kidnapped.

Huh. Interesting. I never read that before. Oh, no. I know. Honestly, this is a pretty sad part of the story. I'm sorry. At 7.30 p.m., the family nurse, Betty, Go.

Go. I knew that would get her off going. I knew that would make you go. Betty go. Betty-Go? G-O? That's not a fucking name? It's a beautiful name.

Betty-Go. Betty-Go. Oh, my goodness. Well, Betty Go had gone and put little Charles to sleep at about at 7.30, as I said. Then at 9.30 p.m., Charles Lindberg, Sr. was in the library just below the baby's room and heard a noise that he imagined to be slats breaking off a crate in the kitchen. Don't know why that's normal to him, but he was like, that's nothing. Not at 9.30 p.m.

Back then, a lot of things were delivering crates to. kitchens. True. A fact there. But now the boy was gone. He had been taken from the second floor bedroom.

A search of the premises was immediately made in a ransom note demanding $50,000 was found on the nursery was found on the nursery window sill. It was terribly written.

This is what it read. Dear sir, have $50,000 with the dollar sign at the end of the number, not the start. And all the numbers are written like that.

Ready, spelled R-E-D-Y. In $20 bills, $15,010 bills. and 10,05-dollar bills. After two to four days, we will inform you where to deliver the money, M-O-N-Y. We warn you for making any ding public or for the police,

spelled with an S. The child is in gut care. I think good care. Indication for all letters are signature and three holds. I don't understand that last bit. I think this means at the bottom of the night, there were two interconnected blue circles surrounding a red circle with a hole punched through the red circle

and two more holes to the last. left and right. That was the original Mastercard symbol. So they were just saying, we do accept card. We do accept credit card. It was almost like some sort of signature or calling card. Right. Okay. I would, in my head, this might be naive, but I imagine back then, um, literary standards weren't as high, maybe in schools and stuff. So maybe that's just, just an uneducated crim maybe, yeah. Well, it's not that wild, but it's like, like, they're, they're not crazy spelling mistake. are just a few, like, phonetically spelled words like police with an ass, stuff like that.

Classic Matt, always defending the kidnappers. Well, I don't want to do that. I'm just wondering, you know, what got them to that point. But why are you wondering that, Matt? Because you feel sorry for them? I don't know. Look, I just... You're just siding with the people who just kidnapped a baby.

I'm not siding with them. I hope that this turns out really well in the next sentence or so. $50,000 is the equivalent of $100,000. hundreds of thousands of dollars an hour. It was a huge amount of money, especially during the Great Depression. People are really struggling. During the search at the kidnapping scene, traces of mud were found on the floor of the nursery. Footprints, impossible to measure, were found under the nursery window.

Impossible to measure, because they didn't have a measuring tape on hand. I just think that it was so muddy that they couldn't get a proper print. Yeah, okay. Also found was two sections of a homemade but ingeniously designed wooden ladder. that had three parts that slotted together to make it easier to travel with. So that's how they got to the second floor of the house from the outside. It was clear that they'd obviously put a lot of planning in. One of the two sections was split or broken where it joined the other,

indicating that the latter had been broken during the ascent or descent. The police dusted for fingerprints, but none were found, neither was any blood. Word of the horrifying crime quickly spread and became huge news. The Lindberg family, who, based on the first of, basically kind of like the American royal family this days, they're so famous, were inundated by offers of assistance and false reports and clues. Even El Capone, famous mobster, offered his help from prison.

There was huge speculation that the crime was the work of other mobsters. Capone offered assistance in return for being released from prison under the pretense that his assistance would be more effective, but his offer was denied. Can I go for an early guess theory? Please. So they were just building this. a house, right? So people who might know the layout of the house could include people who are hired to build it, whether it's like one of the, you know, trades people, somebody working on the house.

Maybe the architect. Architect knows the layout of the house. Otherwise, how would you know? It's a big place. Maybe someone in council who approve the plans? Maybe. Maybe someone with a big pair of binoculars. Oh, or a periscope, a land periscope. A giant periscope. There was no immediate word from the kidnappers, so Lindbergh made widespread appeals for the kidnappers to start negotiations. Various underworld characters were dealt with in attempts to contact the kidnappers.

So he went to the mobsters and said, if you know anything, let me know. Then a second ransom note arrived by mail on March 6, 1932. It had been postmarked in Brooklyn and New York on March 4 and contained the same red circle signature. So they were like, this was genuine. In the second letter, the ransom demand was increased to 70,000. Charles Lindbergh, the Colonel and American hero, didn't trust the police and used his influence to control the investigation himself.

He hired his own private investigators as well. He even kept the ransom notes and his correspondence with the kidnappers' secret from the police. So people have since questioned whether he himself had something to hide. But not involving the police at all, like not inviting the police into his world. Yeah. What's he? What's in it for him? Well, we can talk about some theories.

But then a third ransom note was received by Colonel Lindbergh's attorney two days later, and the letter informed the family that the person that they'd offered as an intermediary would not be accepted. So they said, okay, how about our friend, Frank, or whatever his name is, he'll be the one that delivers the money and negotiates with you. And they said, we don't want to deal with that guy. Right. We don't know who Franks. Is it Frank Sinatra?

We don't know. He's the chairman of the board. I would have got him involved Oh, Blue Ice Why would we not get him involved? You don't want to meet Frank Sinatra Okay Your loss

God, they're criminals and stupid Yeah, criminally stupid That's better So The guy that they've offered Has been denied And on that same day A man called

Dr John F Condon Condon It is condom It is condom With an N Instead of an M At the end Oh okay

Dr John F Condon Who I hadn't realized How funny That is until now A 72-year-old retired school principal, oh God. Mr. Condon. They were kids who'd have called him Dinger for sure. In New York.

Hey, Dinger. Do a New York. Is this in New York? Do a New York accent and say Dinger. Hey, Dinger. I'm dinging here. I thought it was Jersey. They're all the same today.

It's very close. I don't ever know what Jersey means. It's the next day to cross. Anyway, Dr. John F. Condon, who was a 72-year-old retired. school principal that did not personally know the Lindbergs. His first name means toilet and his last name means dinger. The F stands for fuck. John Follett fuck condom.

John, what are you putting out here? So he published a letter in the Bronx Home News, a newspaper at the time, that offered his services to act as a go between the Lindbergs and the kidnappers and even offered to pay an additional $1,000 ransom himself if they chose him. Wait, why? Just a random guy, he thought, maybe I could help him out. I'll be the intermediary. And the way he volunteered was by publishing a note in the newspaper.

And he said, if you want to get in contact, this is my address. And I'll pay you for the... Or he's saying, pay me a thousand or I'll pay. He was like, I'll pay you $1,000 if you pick me. What? I don't... Yeah, it's weird. Well, the following day, the fourth ransom note, arrived and it arrived at the house of Dr. John Condon.

So the kidnappers saw the letter and went, okay, they indicated that he would be acceptable as a go-between. The letter was deemed authentic as it also contained the Red Circle signatures. The Lindbergs, hearing this subsequently also authorised Dr. John Condon to act as their intermediary. Just this random guy. Who put a letter in the newspaper. And the kidnappers went, yeah, we'll go with him.

And then Lindberg went, yeah, okay, we'll go with him. him. That does seem a bit strange. Yeah, but he did have a history. Like a school principal is a pretty trustworthy kind of... Apparently, he was highly respected in the community. It did appear like he just wanted to help. But still, such a weird thing to do. From that point on, a series of communications between Dr. Condon and the kidnappers followed.

All through the newspaper, all through the keep publishing letters to each other. Condon used the name Jafsey as a moniker, which was derived from his initial. JFC. So that was his code name so that the kidnappers would know they're talking to the real because I imagine anyone can put a letter in the newspaper,

but his was Jafsi. Following the kidnapper's latest instructions, Condon placed a classified ad in the New York American reading, quote, Money is Ready, Jafsey. It's crazy. This is from the FBI website in the case,

which has a great article on it. At 8.30pm, on March 12, after receiving an anonymous telephone call, Dr. Condon received the fifth ransom note, delivered by Joseph Perron, a taxi cab driver, who received it from an unidentified stranger. The message stated that another note would be found beneath a stone at a vacant stand, 100 feet from an outlying subway station. This note, the sixth letter, was found by condon as indicated.

So it's now a real spy shit. Right. A random taxi driver delivers a note to you that says, go to this place, you'll find another note, and that will tell you where we meet. Sounds like almost like a fun game. A wild goose chase. No funner game than a goose chase. I could not agree more.

Those things are crazy. They're violent. The sixth letter instructed Jafsey to meet one of the kidnappers late at night at the Woodland Cemetery. Why always a cemetery? Made on a submarine. Oh, you're back on board submarines. I don't know how I feel about it. I think you're inboard submarines.

Yeah, if you're on and it goes under. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Hold on. Hold your breath. Hold your hat. I don't lose that hat. Oh, bloody.

I hope you can swim. He travelled to the cemetery with a bodyguard until he met the kidnapper and he had to meet him alone. There was a man calling himself John who had a European accent. The two men discussed the ransom and how it would be paid. Jafsy wanted proof that the baby was alive before they paid the money. So they parted ways. Jafsie soon received a seven letter that contained baby Charlie's sleeping suit

proof that they were dealing with the real kidnappers. Right. Doesn't prove he's alive and now proves that he's naked. Yeah, that's right. I doubt when they kidnapped him, they also packed nappies and some changes of clothes. So now the kid's naked and possibly alive. A really tragic thing is Charles Lindberg's wife,

and she published in the newspaper an instruction of his diet and what she fed him every day in case the kidnappers saw it and could keep up what he usually eats. Tragic. Several more letters were delivered over the next few days until it was finally time to make the payment to the kidnappers. $50,000 was raised and the ransom was packaged in a wooden box that was custom made in the hope that it could later be easily identified.

The money was cleverly paid in gold certificates, which is a form of payment that was about to be withdrawn from circulation and no longer accepted at a lot of places. This would hopefully mean that the kidnapper would have to get rid of them quickly and also draw attention to themselves for using an unusual form of currency. People remember you're paying in gold certificates rather than just cash. It's like if somebody pays with a check now, you're like, why? What are you hiding?

The bills were not marked, but their serial numbers were recorded in the hope to be recognised later. The 11th ransom note was delivered to Jafsey on April 2nd, 1932, by another unidentified taxi driver who had received it from an unknown man. Dr. Condon found the 12th ransom note under, a stone in the front of a greenhouse in the Bronx as instructed in the 11th note. How long has this been going on for by now? Sorry. The baby's graduated high school.

It's been going on for over a month. The baby is a man. Over a month. Yeah. Yes. Oh, my God. Yes, it was the start of March and an hour into April. This is insane.

Imagine the stress of the family the whole time. Oh, God. Shortly thereafter, after receiving the 12th letter on the same evening by following the instructions in that note, Condon again met kidnapper John. He explained that he only had $50,000, even though the second letter had asked for $70,000. Kidnapper accepted it. The money was handed to the stranger in exchange for a 13th note,

containing instructions that said the kidnapped child could be found on a boat named Nelly near Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. What? A stranger then walked north into the park woods. Lindbergh himself led the search of Nellie. Sadly, nothing was found. The team of investigators were forced to concede that they had gained nothing in return for the ransom and the kidnapper had vanished.

The trail went cold for a number of weeks after this, but then on May 12, 1932, William Allen, an assistant truck driver, pulled over for a nature break. And whilst in the bushes not far from the road, he discovered the partly buried body of a toddler. No. Sadly, it was Charlie and he was ultimately found less than five miles from his home. The body was badly decomposed but positively identified. The coroner's examination showed that the child had been dead for about two months and the cause of death was a blow to the head. It appeared as though he had died on the night of the kidnapping

and this whole thing had been a ruse. Oh no. Charles Lindbergh insisted on an immediate cremation, which some people questioned, but I can understand. Tell me they find them. Tell me they find them. The US Bureau of Investigation, which is now the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI,

had until the discovery of the body, been acting in a purely advisory capacity. That is because it actually hadn't been a federal crime at this point. So they couldn't involve themselves too much. But then on May 13th, President Herbert Hoover authorized the Bureau to serve as the primary federal agency on the case. And the full resources of the U.S. Department of Justice were committed to the investigation of the crime. They were like, all right, now it's a murder. We've got to solve this.

Murder and extortion and all sorts of stuff. Oh, man. this is fuck Dave what are you doing people are wanting to learn about like about my little ponies or something you know a man who goes on a nice plane trip and then writes a book

stop there stop when he's like 25 enough he's done enough we could have stopped in part one no Dave I understand what you're doing and I is an amazing interesting story please continue despite Matt

having his head in his hand Can I go on? Yeah. Otherwise it will forever remain unsolved. So they get them. No, we're going to solve it. House, well, I'll give you the facts here. Household and estate employees were repeatedly questioned and investigated,

and police started to suspect an inside job. The Lindbergs had been in their New Jersey home on a Tuesday for the first ever time. So how did the kidnappers know that they would even be there and which bedroom that Charlie would be sleeping in on the second floor of the mansion? That's like what I said. Yeah, how do they know? How do they know? Because it's out of the, it's, yeah, out of not their regular routine.

Like, how would you know? Like, it's not a routine at all. They're never there on a Tuesday. It's just that you happen to be sick. Violet Sharp, a waitress in the home of Mrs. Lindberg's mother, Mrs. Dwight Morrow, was under investigation by the authorities. She apparently seemed nervous when questioned and had given contradictory testimony regarding her whereabouts

on the night of the kidnapping. She committed suicide by swallowing a silver polish that contained potassium cyanide when she was about to be interviewed again. Again, this looks very suspicious on her behalf. However, her movements on the night of March 1st, 1932, had been carefully checked, and it was soon definitely ascertained that she had no connection with the abduction.

Even, like, information? Well, police were later criticised for their tactics, and it appeared that she took her own life out of fearing, losing her job, and the threat posed by the police. It's just the... Wow, just the stress of the whole situation. made us so anxious. Yeah, and it's also been speculated over the years

that she may have felt guilty for possibly accidentally tipping off the kidnappers about their movements, maybe telling a stranger at the shops about what they were doing that night, that week, and that she felt so guilty that she felt like it was her fault. And then when the police were like, did you do it? Did you do it?

You know, obviously, may have a breakdown. God. So, but they're thinking inside job at this stage. A pamphlet of the security numbers of all the gold certificates that the kidnappers had was given to each employee handling current. seen places like banks, grocery stores, insurance companies, that kind of places. And everyone that got given the pamphlet were asked to keep a look out for the certificates.

For a long time, none turned up. But then finally, a lead. On September 18, 1934, a Manhattan bank teller noticed a gold certificate from the ransom, matched the numbers up, and in the margin of the bill was a New York license plate and the name of a gas station manager. It had been written there by the manager of a gas station. who had then cashed the certificate. The gas manager had written down the license number

because his customer was acting, quote, suspiciously and was possibly a counterfeiter. So he just happened to write down the number plate in case that guy turned out to be dodgy. The license plate was tracked down to Richard Hauptmann, a German immigrant who had been living in the US and working as a carpenter for 11 years. He was then arrested.

He was found to be carrying a single $20 gold certificate, but then when his house was searched, over $14,000 of the ransom money was found in his garage. Houtman claimed that friend had given him the money to hold on to and that he had no connection to the crime. Aw. But they put him on trial and it was absolutely sensational and was dubbed the trial of the century.

I bet. This took place in Flemington, a small town in central New Jersey, a town of only about 2,700 people. Then the trial started, 700 reporters, cameramen and videographers descended on the place. there were also 5,000 spectators nearly double the population of the town. God, imagine owning an Airbnb or something. Oh, you can cash in.

You got a little motel, hotel, holiday in. You are booked out. You're booked solid. And you turn to your wife, Margaret, and you're like, we're going on a holiday this year, honey. She's like, what's a holiday? We've never had one of those. And you're like, well, now we are.

But she knew. She was just based. She's already funny looking through pamphlets. She was. She's just being caught. Oh, what do you mean? She's already, like, buying new swimsuits. Oh, multiple suits.

Yeah? Man, they are catching in. Yeah, well, with one's wet. Go put on a dry one. Yeah. Come on, guys, don't make me explain how to travel to you. There's nothing. Quick dry, the boardies weren't invented yet.

No. Nothing worse than wet clothing when you're going swimming. Oh, am I right? Hate it. Awful. Yuck. So the trial started and it turned out Houtman had a criminal record in Germany. He was arrested for stealing strips of leather.

As he was awaiting trial, he escaped from prison, leaving his prison clothes neatly folded in his cell with a note that read, best wishes to the police. Oh, you cheeky little shit. What a cheeky bastard. He was also rumoured to have used a ladder to climb into the mayor's house to steal money and watches. Ah, so he knows what a ladder is.

And it also once held up two ladies pushing a pram and a baby at gunpoint to rob them. So he's got no compassion for babies. That's right. So he had form for latter crime and crime against babies. He sounds like a definite guy. Is he the one? After he'd escaped from jail, he'd stowed away on a steamship that then lied his way through U.S. immigration. Wait.

Wait. Oh, this is on his way. Yeah, so this is how he got to America. So he escaped from prison and then got on a ship, stowed away, then got to America and lied about it. And back then it's obviously a lot harder to look people's criminal records up. Yeah. And they were like, all right, come on in. All right.

You say you're not lying? And you won't? Yeah. Never lied to my life. All right. Well, checks out. That seems to be. You sure you're not lying?

Oh, no. If you're lying, you have to tell me. That's the rule. That's a lawyer in America. Hold on. Are you a cop? Because you have to tell me? Yeah, I am.

I'm a federal agent. I'm wearing a uniform. So I'm asking these questions. Apart from the money found his possession which is obviously fairly damning other circumstantial evidence was used against him Examination of the ransom notes by handwriting experts resulted in virtually unanimous opinion

that all the notes were written by the same person And that the writer was of German nationality What? They could narrow that down Just with the phrasing and put it where the symbols had been That kind of being, that kind of being... Sure. Put a European immigrant or a German immigrant. I was thinking before like, because technology's moves so far

I would try and change my writing. So I was like, I'll just write my right hand. And then I was like, they'd know that now, wouldn't they? They'd be like, this isn't written with their natural hand. Their preferred hand, this is a left hand writing right-handed. Why have you spent 10 years training up your right hand? And no one ever knew that you could also write with your right? Well, they know now, fuck head.

Shit! What about, use your mouth. Yeah. Like, how do they identify that? Yeah, I don't know if they can. Someone in The Simpsons did that. I think it might have been the danger. Danger Man writing a letter to Bart

When he had a fully plastered up in hospital After jumping into the pool with swimming lines Which I reckon we mention on here once a month Lance Murdoch Lance Murdoch When he's not in action He's in traction, traction, traction He's okay folks

So they've identified that a German wrote the notes That's wild to me Our tool marks on the ladder used in the kidnapping Appeared to match tools owned by Houtman found in his house, and a wood expert was engaged to examine the ladder used in the kidnapping. The wood used in the ladder matched a missing beam from the floor in Houtman's attic. Okay. So it's missing a piece of wood.

Why is this case, have I, I'd be saying my gavel down. Yeah, I'd be like, I've heard enough. Oh, we've got more evidence. Don't need it. No, I'll just read it out just in case. It was also ascertained that he was in possession of a Dodge sedan automobile, which answered the description that had been seen in the vicinity of Lindbergh home the day prior to the kidnap. Yeah. Did he have muddy boots?

Additionally, condon, aka Jaffsey, the intermediary between the kidnapper and Lindbergh's, his telephone number was found written on a closet doorframe in Houteman's home. Oh, for fuck sake. Why are you? When they asked him, and it also said his name, and they said, how did it get there? He said, oh, I must have read to the newspaper and just written it down. I've been following the case. I've been, you know, I've been into the case.

You know, I've been trying to maybe solve it myself. Super Suss. his face also looks a lot like the sketch that was done based on Jaffsy's description of the man he'd met in the cemetery and then Jaffsy unequivocally identified Houtman as the John that he'd met and given the ransom money to. Oh my God. Charles Lindbergh himself took the stand testifying that he recognised Houtman's voice from the night of the ransom payment. It was all adding up against the German suspect. Oh no, but I feel like there's a butt coming.

Britannica writes, when defence attorneys called Houtman to the witness stand, he professed total innocence, claimed that he'd been subjected to beatings by the police, and stated that he'd been forced to produce handwriting samples that matched the ransom notes. That's what he said. But after more than five weeks of testimony and 11 hours of deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict on February 13, 1935, and Houtman was sentenced to death. Houtman, denying until the end any involvement in the crime,

was executed by electric chair a little over a year later on April 3, 1936. This guy's life took a real turn. You know, it was so interesting in that part one. It was a fascinating. What if I told you that there is a part three? Fuck me. It's a crazy life. So Houtman, his wife lived decades on beyond him,

never took her wedding ring off and always said, no, my husband's innocent. It wasn't him, wasn't him, until she died only a couple of decades ago. But so it sounds like it's not at all disputed. But over the years, as you can imagine, with a case dubbed the crime of the century, many theories have been put forth. Dozens of books, documentaries on the kidnapping.

In 2005, the true TV show Forensic Files. True TV is the name of the network. I'm not trying to say that it's true. But the forensic files re-examined evidence from the Lindberg case. Both of their forensic document examiners concluded that Houtman had written the ransom notes, and their wood grain expert found that the rail from the kidnappers ladder had come from his attic. So books have been written saying it wasn't him, that he was set up, that he's a patsy all this kind of stuff.

Books have also been written about how Charles Senior himself was involved, that maybe he'd accidentally killed his son and then faked this letter, fake these stuff to sort of cover it up. I personally don't buy into that. But I've just got to say in case there are any people listening on that are like, oh, I reckon he was set up. Yeah, I mean, yeah. Just when they're, because I'm going, obviously all this evidence points directly to him,

but if he was set up, then, you know, writing. the phone number on his wall. But him not saying, I did do it because I'm following the case, makes it more stuff than him going, I swear I didn't write that. But even then, do you fully believe someone? Yeah, that's right.

And also, because I kind of, like, Jafsey, the guy that met him, obviously he's pretty keen to say it's definitely him. So even him positively identifying him. To me, I'd be like, well, maybe that's him just wanting to find the murderer. But stuff like the wood, he had the wood that matched in his house. He had the gold in his garage. Yeah, that's the big one.

Yeah, you had the money. And he said, and there's other stuff I've read, like, he stopped working soon after the kidnapping, and that he went back to Germany on an expensive holiday with his wife. And it's like, oh, he's never been wealthy before, just little things like that. Yeah. And he's saying, like, oh, a friend is getting me to hold the money. Okay, well, who's your friend? Oh, well, it turned out that the friend had conveniently died.

And he said, oh, the friend owed me lots of money, so that's why he left it with me. And did he say who the friend was? And then he said who the friend was and he had died But people were like, that guy could barely pay his rent. He does not have $14,000 secretly hidden away. So to me, it just all stacked up. Yeah, totally. This feels open and shut.

Yeah. And the two documentaries that I watched in researching of this, modern people from the FBI and criminal investigators are like, he did it. Yeah. Obviously with a famous case, people say he didn't do it. but he did it just what a piece of shit yeah I wonder why

just for the money there are speculation that maybe that whilst the baby out the window that it had fallen into itself it immediately died they panicked and let's just hide it and they were like well now we've killed a baby we're going to go to jail forever

regardless we may as well try and make the money but obviously you've got to be a psychopath to plot this stuff in the first place 100% to plot and then to go, I'm taking money from you to get your baby back, which I know I've killed. Oh, no. You're a bad guy.

You're a bad guy. Oh. Also, he probably had accomplices that got away with it. Right. People are like, you wouldn't just do that on your own. Get the ladder up there, go up there, grab the baby. How about planning to like look after a young child for that long as well? It's such a long time.

And also, I like the people who say, well, it was the dad. He accidentally killed the kid. And then in his panic and grief plotted a very elaborate cover-up in which he frat. Like, no. Surely he just goes, yeah, maybe, yeah, there's no way he's, I hate this story. Yep. Well, there is a part three. the rest of Lindbergh's life.

I went out finally, closing part two. Public outrage led the US Congress to pass the Federal Kidnapping Act, which is known colloquially as the Lindbergh law, not long after in 1932, the day that would have been Charles's second birthday. The Lindberg law made kidnapping across state lines of federal crime and stipulated that such an offence could be punished by death. This also means that the FBI could have been involved much faster,

who may have done a better job investigating it than local police. also Lindbergh probably didn't do himself any favours by trying to be in charge of the investigation of Yeah not going to police But I mean it sounds like none of that would have changed that his kid died Of course, yes The money went and the money actually led to them finding the guy So in the end I don't think it could have Oh no, he couldn't have saved his son

It wouldn't have been a different outcome He got most of the money back I suppose as well because it was all sitting in the garage I don't think Yeah That actually didn't I mean a lot of man now maybe wasted. But if they got in earlier, how do they find him without that direct the money evidence? But it wasn't even all of the money, was it?

No, a lot of the money remained unaccountiful. And also maybe that is, maybe the worker who killed herself, maybe that was why her guilt was it. I did mention it to this German guy. maybe that. Yeah, it could have been something like that. Oh, no, that's right. I told someone something.

I shouldn't have said that. Or I answered the phone and said, they asked to speak to the daughter because she works for the mother. Oh, no, they're up at New Jersey this week. Yeah. So try them on this number and then realizing later, that's how they would have known.

Yeah, geez. Be paranoid all the time is the lesson. Don't be paranoid all the time. Trust no one. I trust people. Nah, don't. Fox Mulder. Trust no one.

Obviously, heartbroken by the death of his son. Charles got on with the rest of his life, but the rest of his life is quite controversial, to say the least. It's already been a long report, and I wanted to mainly focus on his early life and the crime of the century, but I'll give a brief overview of the rest of his days. Hounded by the Preston, worried for the safety of their surviving son, the Lindbergs fled to Europe.

They were given diplomatic passports and given passage on a private ship to the UK. So the government really helped them out. We're not a submarine. A not diplomatic immunity. They got given from the South African government. Wow. To Europe. Diplomatic submarine.

After a six months day in Britain, the Lindbergs traveled to Germany, where things get controversial because they were treated as honored guests of the Nazis and the Third Reich. Oh, okay. Yeah, no, you just took a turn there. Charles visited centers of military aviation, praised the Luftwaffe's, which is their Air Force, fighter and bomber designs, and asserted that, quote, Europe and the entire world is fortunate that a Nazi Germany lies at present between communist Russia and a demoralized France, end quote.

He was very anti-Soviet Union, or very anti-Russia, and at this stage, very pro-Third Reich. Right. What year is this? This is the early to mid-1930s. He traveled the globe throughout the 1930s and then returned to Germany in October 1930s. Very late. And Herman Goring himself, very high-ranking Nazi, decorated him with the surface cross of the German eagle. According to Britannica, this led to considerable criticism because people are already, there's a lot of outcry against the Nazis, even though World War II hasn't started yet. But Lindberg, again, according to Britannica, got criticism, but remained enormously popular with the American public.

Apparently, he was considering moving to Germany just months after the outbreak of World War II. but instead moved to Paris and then back to the USA. Germany alone, Lindberg argued, could damn the Asiatic hordes and prevent the overrunning of Europe. In an essay for Reader's Digest in November 1935, Lindbergh cautioned against, quote, a war within our own family of nations, a war which will reduce the strength and destroy the treasures of the white race, end quote. Right, that's something Lindberg said.

Yes, in Reader's Digest. He was like, why are we fighting with Germany? We shouldn't be fighting against them. And he further pleaded, quote, let us not commit racial suicide by internal conflict, end quote. He was a bit obsessed in his later life with race and eugenics on a basic level, selective breeding to keep bloodlines pure and have superior children. See how part three suddenly gets real weird?

Oh, three very different films. I know. Yeah. Okay. Over time, support for Lindbergh disappeared both in the general public and in the military, as he was criticizing military leaders, left right and said it publicly. He was still in the military, but he was saying, why are we fighting with them?

Why are you invading there? What are you doing? And eventually, he had a public spat with President Franklin Roosevelt and had to quit his Air Corps Reserve Commission. He went on to fly planes in Asia during the war, supposedly as a civilian, but they did let him bomb the enemy because he's a great pilot. Crazy!

So he had a big public fight with the president. The enemy of who was he bombing? Oh, so he was in Asia, probably bombing Japan. Right. Because it sounds like he was sort of on the axis's side. Oh, right, no, no, he was anti-Japan. Yeah, complicated. But, yeah, he never acted against America, like, violently,

but he did make some very controversial statements that made him less and less popular and less and less relevant over time. Charles and Ann had four more children. And following World War II, the family lived quietly in Connecticut, it and then in Hawaii. For his services to the government, he was appointed Brigadier General. Brigadier!

In the Air Force... Matt, you do it. Brickadier. It's so much better in his deep voice. It sounds like Break it down, but... Brickety. Brickety. Break it dee.

That command was given to him by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954. Seeing a few presidents. I guess that's what happens in a life. And because of his fame, he's like he's known them all. Yeah. He continued as consultant to Pan American World Air. and to the US Department of Defense. You died in Hawaii in August 26th, Great Day,

1974, age 72, Anne lived another 27 years and died in 2001, age 95. Whoa, go Ann. What date did she die on the pre-year or post-911 world? I'm afraid I don't have the date. Okay, so that's the end of part three. How about a little part four? Oh my God, Dave.

Post-script. You're killing me. I love this. Then two years after Anne's death, Charles Lindbergh was headline news all over again when it was discovered that he had secretly fathered seven children in Germany to three separate women. Beginning in 1957 when he was 55 years old, Lindberg had engaged in lengthy sexual relationships with three women while remaining married to Anne. He fathered three children with Hatmaker Bridget Hessheimer

and had two children with her sister, Mariette. Okay. What did she make? Marriottn't. Yeah, come on. Put two and two together. Is this him trying to keep the bloodline pure still?

What's he doing now? Yeah, it's a big possibility that people have speculated. He also had a son and daughter with his European secretary, also in Germany. All seven children were born between 1958 and 1967. When the children were born, he carried on visiting his new family, but never told them his real name. They were told that their father was an American writer called Karoo. Kent, which is the best fake name.

I would have gone Kent Carew. You can't get away with big lies like that anymore. No, you can't. Yeah. Oh, Kent Carew. Okay, great. I won't look into that any further. Won't go to the library or anything.

Try and see one of your books. Yeah, can you bring some books? Oh, they got lost on the plane. I guess you'd be like, they're only published in English. Not available in Germany. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry, sorry.

Sorry, son. Oh, sorry. That's wild. And then just before he died, Lindbergh wrote to each of his mistresses. This is about 10 days before he died. Sent them a letter each, asking them to keep his secret even after he died. They did this and they never told any of their children the truth. However, after reading a magazine article about Lindberg in the mid-1980s,

Bridget's daughter Astrid deduced the truth. She later discovered snapshots and more than 150 love letters from Lindberg to her mother. and DNA test confirmed the truth. And then in the 2000s, after Anne had died, I guess out of respect for her, they came out and they wrote a book about it and it became worldwide public news. So what she would have reached out

and found her other siblings as well, like the other seven kids? Some people are like your step siblings, but also your cousins. Yeah, that's fucked. Yeah, so you're growing up thinking those kids are your cousins. Yeah, but actually your dad is their dad.

Turns out of your half siblings. Yeah. Isn't that absolutely, and that's the end of the report. That is it. It's like four crazy chapters of his life. And there it is. That's my longest report ever. Thank you. I'm sorry. It's so many ups and downs. It's a roller monster. He's the most famous man on earth.

And then he loses a child and you feel so sorry for him. And then he's a Nazi. And then he comes out at the end and he's like, I had seven secret kids. That's first of all, too many kids. Too many secret kids. We know what was causing it, though. White pride. that was the cause this time.

We finally have an answer. Dave, that is wild. What a wild, wild story. And there was a detective bit in the middle there where they're sending secret nights to each other. Oh my goodness. Yeah. This is, that's insane.

I think I'd vaguely looked into the topic once before, like a quick Google. Because obviously it's frequently requested. We've got over 10 people asking for it here. I think I may have seen that before. So all I knew, though, was that it wasn't good for the baby. Right. I knew that. I was like,

this isn't going to be good. I didn't know. We've talked about the Mandela Effect before. Online there are a lot of people posting saying, I don't remember that they ever found the baby. I don't remember that a man was arrested for his kidnap. Right. Yeah,

that was on a Patreon episode. We did the Mandela Effect as a topic. But yeah, some people are saying that, hang on, I don't, many people online were agreeing, yeah, that's right, the Lindberg baby. Also, he was never found. A German was found guilty of killing his kid. and then he had such a close relationship with Germany straight after.

And had seven German children. I would have thought that would have, Germany to me would have, like that would have made me feel like, I just don't want to go to Germany. Which is illogical, but emotionally, of course you would. Of course you, but I'm not going that place. Obsessed with eugenics and race.

Yeah. Because he's obsessed with that kind of thing. And it's like, well, it turns out that people you think is the superior race, killed your son. God, that's all. All right. Well, after your report, Dave, which was fantastic. It is now time for everyone's favorite segment of the show. Fact, quote, or question.

Fact quote or question. Which at the World Watcher. This week's fact quote or question comes from Andreas. What does an omelet do to a U? Makes it sparkle. Okay. Put that at, try again. Yeah, say it's sparkly.

Andreas Mullaio. Nice. The sparkle was on the first you. And Andreas writes, a question this week. And this week's question is, I've got a question for you. Lisa, will you marry me? That might confuse you at first,

as neither one of you is named Lisa. This also is in a Simpsons reference, although Millhouse may have uttered those words in some episode. This question isn't even directed at you, but the lovely person sitting next to me, who I've been together with for eight and a half years and who rarely listens to podcasts but knows that the planet broadcasting crew

has a special place in my heart. I love this woman as much as Jess hates Bindy Irwin. That's a lot. Truth is, I just needed someone to read out this question and the following ramblings out loud to buy me some time while I fumble around with a ring box behind my back. Cheers, guys.

Was that a proposal? I think so. Who was that from? Andreas Umlau? I mean, this is a moment here. Could you, with the German heritage, you should be able to say a word like that. Andreas Muleauer.

That did sound more accurate, probably. Andreas. I mean, they've stopped listening by this point. I mean, let us know how it goes. Lisa, what did you say? This is crazy. This is wild. This.

It's podcasting. It's a power podcasting. I think... Wow, I'm feeling tingles, Andreas. I'm tingling. You guys are confused. That was funny. Because I read it before.

I read the first two lines before I'm like... Whoa. Wow. Do we have to reach out to think in advance so Andreas knows to listen to this with Lisa? I'll let him know. Yeah. Thanks, Andreas, for supporting the show.

And good luck, hopefully, with an engagement. And let us know if we should delete this section of the episode due to something going not quite to plan. Like you accidentally throw the ring in the toilet. Yeah, in the toilet great. I got a great toilet. Wow. Well, that was definitely the most exciting edition of Fat Quetta question yet.

Yep. Lisa, will you marry me? That is a Simpsons thing, right? That's what I thought when he... Well, there's Ralph. Definitely saying... I choo-choo-choo-chew. Yeah, I love Lisa Simpson.

When I grow up, I'm going to marry her. No. You can pinpoint the second his heart breaks in heart. And then, well, that brings us, yeah, do let us know how you go, Andreas. And then that brings us to everyone's favorite segment of the show. It's the Patreon shout-out segment of the show. Yes. That is right.

If you support the show at patreon.com slash do-go-on pod, you get rewards every single week. every single month, including two bonus episodes that no one else hears and a bunch of other stuff, including pre-sales for all our shows everywhere in the world. We'll put those on sale there first.

And in exchange for being the lovely people you are on Patreon, we're going to shout out to a few of you now. I thought of a game. Okay, great. To keep it lighthearted again, because part two onwards was fucked. So what section of his life? Part one, two, three or four.

Part one. Okay. And you know how his plane was called? The spirit of St. Louis. Let's name their plane. Name the plane game. All right, can I kick it off? Great.

Thanking from Cork in Ireland. Laura O'Day. Laura O'Day. Laura O'Day. The Lord of the Dance. Oh, because Law is short for Laura. Yep. The Lord of the Dance.

That's the name of the plane. No, the law. Laura of the Dance. Law of the Dance. I like it. Yeah. That is a good plane. It's great.

No, no, no. Laura O'Dane. Laura, O'Dane. Oh, dance, girl. Yeah. So you can take your pick really there, Laura, to be honest. Or maybe you've got a fleet of planes. Yeah.

Or you could put like a very long name down the side of that plane. Yeah. All of them. Yeah, bracket or. Bracket or. Yeah. Thanks so much for your support, Laura. Thank you, Laura.

And I'd love to thank from Kulak in New South Wales, Australia, Adam James, a man with two first names, much like myself. And two first planes. And what that first plane is called, the Aurora Coolata. Ooh. Oh, I like that. You look impressed with yourself. Are you like that?

I just don't know where that came from. I'm going to call the second one, the flying cow. All right. That's good too. That's good. The Aurora Coolata and the flying cow. Which one I'm going to take to work today, guys? They both sound like good pubs.

They do. I'd drink at either of those. if I was drinking. A couple of tinnies down at the Aurora Cool, I had. Too right. Too right, do right. I thank so much Adam James. Well, if you don't mind, I would like to thank someone by name now.

And I'll do it. I would like to thank from Denver, Colorado, home to the Denver airport. Really? Yeah. I didn't know that. I would like to thank Michael Gilbert. Oh, okay. So what the name of his plane obviously parked at the Denver airport is of course.

Oh, well, has he got one or two planes? Because one would be called probably... Why do they all have two now? Now I feel bad for Laura. Virgin Blusifer. Laura had a fleet. Oh, yeah. Virgin Blucesa is great.

Is that Virgin Blue is just an Australian thing, right? The Virgin domestic in Australia. It's not even... It used to be Virgin Blue. And also Gilbert is the brand of rugby balls. So maybe the... What about the... called Scrum Half Nelson.

Nelson. The Scrum Half Nelson. That's a good name. Yeah, I like that. The Virgin Blusufor and the Scrum Half Nelson. God, good teamwork there, guys. Well done. I like that a lot.

Thank you so much to Michael Gilbert in Denver, Colorado. Mickey G., I think his friend's calling. And I like to think of myself as a friend of Mickey G. I would like to thank another friend now from Australia, from Greenwood in an unknown state because it says here, There's obviously a drop-down menu that you've forgotten to fill in, so it just says from Greenwood in Select 1. It is Connor Schmidt.

Connor Schmidt. There's something about Schmidt that I love. It's just such a good name. It's a good name. Yeah. The Falcon Country Manet. The Falcon Country Manair. That sounds quite good.

Manet is a cool concept. Manair. The Falcon Country Manair. Yeah. The Falcon Country Manair. I like it. Connor, do you like that? Select one.

I mean, yes or no, select one. Thank you, Connor. Thanks, Gail. Great to have the Schmidt on board. Do you reckon I can thank people too? Yeah. Oh, please. I'd like to thank.

Do you have a name as good as Schmidt? No. Well, actually. Pretty good. I would like to thank from West Moona in Tasmania. I love Tasmania. Kate Buzercott. Oh, that is a great name.

That is a fantastic name. Got to do something with buzzer, I think. Buzzer. So like a bee, the flying bee. Oh, I like that. The flying bee. Like the flying V? Or what about like the beehive or something like that?

Oh, yeah. The hives, Swedish band, black and white clothes. The Swedish hive? Swedish hive. I like that. Swedish hive mind in the.

Yeah. Okay, yes. I reckon. Kate, you should just call it the Swedish Hive. Yeah, I reckon. That's confusing. I mean, you've got options. That's your call to make, ultimately. Let us know what you think, buzzer.

Thank you, Kate. And I'd also like to thank from New York, New York. Oh, Frank Sinatra. It's a hell of a town. Cameron Wade. Wade. Once you wait into a pond. So maybe the flying ducks.

Yes. Again, I've said a thing that already flies. What about just old blue eyes? Oh, blue eyes. Frankie. It's a good name for a plane, I reckon? Yeah, I don't know about old though. Who's getting in a plane that's called old something?

Old blue eyes, just take it down to San Francisco. The 2020 blue eyes. Yeah, that's good. Big blue. That gives you confidence. Yeah, 2020. Big blue, I think, of the ocean. Are you landing in the ocean?

Is that happening? It could be. It's an aquaplane. Aquplane. I'm aqua-plane. Isn't that when you're like... When you're driving along? Yeah.

I'm aqua-plaining. I'm aqua-planning here. In New York City. Oh, Cameron Wade, what an absolute pleasure to have you on board listening in The Big Apple. Also a good name for a plane. Yeah, the Big Apple. The Flying Apple. Damn it, yeah, flying apple.

Did Kate Buzzercott have two? The B and the hive. Put them together. Now we've got to give Laura O.D. Another one now. Wait, didn't we? give her like seven? No, we gave her one and then said, she's got a fleet, should be right? Yeah, Laura, or the dance and Lord of the Dance. And also, she's from cork. So like a bobbing,

like a cork in the ocean was a famous quote by a football commentator, Dennis Committee. So maybe the golden tonsils air. I like it. I love it. Thank you, Jess. Dave, a bit lukewarm. I think I said a lukewarm. Just to clarify. And thanks to everyone that supports the show at patreon.com slash do-go-onpod. Makes a big difference to our lives and hopefully you guys get a lot out of it as well with those bonus episodes and all that kind of stuff.

One should have just dropped by the time you're hearing this. That's right. We're about to record one. And also when you're supporting the Do Go on Patreon, you're also supporting primates podcast. It's a podcast all about primates and popular culture. It's very silly, but very fun. It's just a comedy show, basically.

The Apes and the Mets. monkeys are very important, but also not at all important. And also, Dave Warnocky show, book cheat, which goes through a classic novel every fortnight. And he reads the book, so you don't have to. And it's a whole lot of fun. Jess and I were on a recent episode, probably the most recent episode, where we talked about, a Christmas Carol.

That is right. And I've got a new episode coming out January 1st. Start the New Year the right way. And listening to a show about a book. Tomorrow's episode of Primates features Jessica Perkins. That's it? And we talk about Mowgli. Oh, that one.

Yeah, that's a good one. Good fun time. Well, check those out on your podcast app or stream them online for free. Good time. And you want to get in contact with us. We are on all the social medias all the time. We never stop at Do Go On Pod for everything. And Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.

We're also Do Go OnPod at Gmail.com. And if you ever want to buy a ticket to any of our live shows or support the Patreon or buy some merchandise, you definitely do that. That also is a great way to support. the show whilst getting yourself some new threads. Go to do go onpod.com. And one last thing, if you can give us a five-star review on iTunes or wherever, that would be really appreciated.

Last time we asked for you to put the soy boy into the review. And a good half dozen of you did that. And that really brought joy to my heart. A five-star review that also calls us soy boys. It brought soy to your heart. Yeah. Come on. So much soy.

Calcium-rich soy. Calcium enriched. I don't think it naturally is enriched. Oh, that is the end of the show for another week and another year. Thank you so much for sticking with us through the 2018. And now it's time to go into the 2019 next week. Fresh. We will not stop.

And I guess, yeah, we'll see you next year. Jess, see you next year, mate. See you next year. Dave, see you next year. Thanks, Dad. Until next week, and until next year, I will say goodbye. Later. Bye.

To me, that's Broden more than dad. Yeah, it's Bron. Sorry, to me, it's my dad. I think I've said before. He says it every year. Does he really? Bye. Every year.

Bye. Bye, son. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. I mean, if you want, it's up to you. Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are and we can come and tell you when we're coming there. Wherever we go, we always hear six months later.

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