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5.0 out of 5 stars
Questions answered and more questions, May 9, 2003
Author Jim Fisher is a professor in the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, and a former FBI agent. His direct, "Just the facts, ma'am," style is crisp and refreshing. In this, his second volume on the Lindbergh kidnaping, he takes on the revisionist theories that have accumulated over the years. He debunks them all and concludes the Bruno Richard Hauptmann did indeed carry out the heinous crime, and that he acted alone.
This book is loaded with details. A few burning questions are answered--
Q. Why was Hauptmann tried in Hunterdon Co., NJ, when Hopewell (where Baby Lindbergh's body was found) lies in Mercer Co?
A. The prosecution theorized that Baby Lindbergh was killed in or near his crib in the Lindbergh residence, which is near Hopewell, but just over the county line in E. Amwell, Hunterdon Co.
Q. Just under $15K of the $50K ransom was recovered. What happened to the rest of the money?
A. After the ransom was paid Hauptmann gradually became a big spender buying nice things for his wife and himself with what he claimed were profits earned on Wall Street. Records indicate over $26K deposited to his accounts after the ransom was paid. He probably was able to launder the money and spend it undetected.
Ransom notes, the first left in the baby's room, used a symbol and three hole punch pattern that firmly linked the ransom payment to the kidnaping-ruling out numerous imposters.
The baby's autopsy was performed at Walter Swayze's Funeral Home in Trenton, with mortician Swayze, county coroner, functioning under the direction of Dr. Charles H. Mitchell, the Mercer County physician.
Three days after the ransom was paid, April 5, President Roosevelt called in all gold bullion, coins, and gold notes. This made the ransom money, all but $14K in gold notes, easier to spot once everyone else traded in their gold notes. The serial numbers of the ransom money was published in a fifty-seven page ransom book. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York was asked to check the serial numbers of all incoming gold certificates against the list (suggesting that money spent as near as Princeton or Hopewell-which use the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank-was never checked).
John Condon's (the man who paid the ransom for Col. Lindbergh) phone number and address were found pencilled on a board in Hauptman's house. He did not deny he wrote it.
The Museum of the New Jersey State Police in W. Trenton has the kidnap ladder and the serial number list of the ransom money on display. The Hauptmann case was the subject of repeated lawsuits by Mrs. Hauptmann. As a result, the State Police site continues to house the Lindbergh Collection consisting of 200K documents, 518 pieces of physical evidence, 300 court exhibits, and hundreds of photographs, all completely indexed on 35K name and subject cards, now computerized.
In 1985, 23K Lindbergh case documents that had been collected by Gov. Harold G. Hoffman were discovered in a garage in S. Amboy, NJ.
The kidnaper's vehicle was apparently parked near the Lindbergh residence on Featherbed Lane facing West (considering the location of the body). Two sets of muddy footprints, both wearing burlap bags, leading off in a southeasterly direction were found near the base of the ladder. These muddy footprints were not conclusively shown to be connected to the crime, but if Hauptmann acted alone, he must have made two trips-perhaps one with the baby and one with the ladder. Leaving the ladder, which had been specially constructed to collapse and fit into an automobile, was one of his biggest mistakes, as it provided key evidence connecting him with the crime.
It's a miracle that any of the external evidence survived. Charles Lindbergh was the most famous man in America at the time. Once word of the crime leaked out, reporters and sightseers mobbed the site trampling much of the evidence-such as tire tracks--long before it could be examined in the light of day. Police were unable to secure the site. They could protect only a few fragments.
Over the objections of Col. H. Norman Schwartzkopf of the NJ State Police, Col. Lindbergh hired three from the New York City underworld to look for his child. They were Mickey Rosner, Irving Bitz, and Salvatore Spitale. This effort was unsuccessful, but they may have seen the kidnap note with its secret symbol. This information could have allowed others in the world of crime to mimic the symbol and collect the ransom.
The Hopewell, NJ, area now is largely country estates. At the time of the kidnaping, it was farmland. The roads were not well marked and do not follow logical patterns. To have succeeded, Hauptmann must have spent time in the area. You would think his car would have been noticed on the night of the kidnaping.
Of course, Hauptmann was a carpenter and the Lindbergh Mansion was recently constructed and still being landscaped. He could easily have asked for directions without raising suspicion in the weeks prior to the kidnaping. He is known to have visited the Rockefeller Center job site looking for work during the Depression. He could have learned of the Lindbergh mansion construction project or even visited it while looking for work.
One story connecting Hauptmann with the area was told by Father Michael J. Kallok, a Slovak-Catholic Priest, who had been pastor of St. Michael's Church in Trenton from Nov, 1926 to Oct, 1931. He claimed to have seen Hauptmann at a riding stable northeast of Trenton called "The Willows." He also knew Elvert Carlstrom, who testified at Hauptmann's trial, whom he believed was involved in the illegal transportation of whiskey. At The Willow's he once saw a man named Schumann and Hauptmann looking over plans of the Lindbergh mansion. Fisher was unable to verify this story.
On June 10, 1932, Violet Sharpe, a servant in the Lindbergh/Morrow household committed suicide (by drinking "cyanide chloride" silver polish) when the police threatened to take her in for more questioning. She has not been shown to have any connection with the kidnaping. She probably buckled under intense questioning-fearing that she might be fired if her employer learned she had visited a speakeasy.
It was well known that the kidnaper spoke with a German accent. Some have read strong anti-German sentiments into the trial. Stories of ugly, blood-thirsty, anti-German mobs calling for Hauptmann's death are exaggerated. Similarly, one theory holds that the farmers of Hopewell conspired to commit the kidnaping to discourage gentrification of the area by patricians such as the Lindberghs. Mrs. Hauptmann participated in Nazi rallies to raise funds for Hauptmann's defense in German communities across the country. One she visited is Milwaukee.
When psychologists evaluated Hauptmann, they concluded he was sane, but he was characterized as naive, foolhardy, simple minded, cruel, argumentative, secretive, egomaniac, and a sociopath. He was found to suffer from a type of agraphia which caused him to affix an extra "e" to some words-unless he consciously avoided the tic. This tic is additional evidence he wrote the ransom notes.
Ransom money was found hidden in Hauptmann's house and garage behind wooden fixtures. A false floor under the garage revealed a jar containing water and traces of mothballs. Most of the money is thought to have been stored there at one time, where it had been protected from insects and vermin by mothballs. Apparently it had gotten wet with groundwater. Hence, Hauptmann's story that Isidor Fisch had given him a box for safekeeping that he opened and found to be filled with money after it got wet from a leaking roof.
A small bottle of ether was found in Hauptmann's garage. Investigation revealed it had been purchased after the kidnaping, but there is speculation that ether or chloroform may have been used to quiet the baby during the kidnaping. Some suggest Hauptmann was planning a second kidnaping at the time of his arrest, because his money trove was beginning to run low.
In the end, Hauptmann was determined to be a habitual criminal. He worked as a carpenter in good times, but in bad times he had come to rely on crime as a source of income. He had a criminal record in Germany. He was an illegal alien. Kidnaping was a common crime at the time. It is not surprising that Hauptmann selected it as a means to supplement his income.
Unanswered questions: Did Hauptmann return to the scene of the crime to recover the baby's clothing to mail it to Condon? Or did he keep part of the clothing for that purpose when he buried the baby? Who laundered the clothing?
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