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The Ghosts of Hopewell: Setting the Record Straight in the Lindberg Case

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Fisher is as guilty of the same sins he's accusing other authors of: lack of objectivity. This book builds on the author's previous book but continues with the same paradigm right from the beginning - that Hauptman acted by himself and was guilty of the crime.

This particular book would be understood by those who have read the basics of the Lindbergh case. It analyses the various theories developed through time in terms of who committed the crime. He rejects every single theory but, at times, the arguments to do so are full of logical fallacies, such as "such and such could have never happened because if it had then too many people would have sworn to a lie". This type of rebuttal is hardly convincing.

Overall, the book is of interest to those who have become serious followers of the case and would like to have a complete bookcase on what has been written about it. Otherwise, it is of relatively low merit.

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?

Fisher's first book was clearly a better work. This second book appears to be nothing more than Fisher's response to his many critics. It is very brief with only a thumbnail sketch of the case. I think this would have been better as a magazine article than a full book.

Additionally, Fisher makes some Herculean leaps in logic. The finding of a bottle of Ether produced after the date of the kidnapping, i.e. March 1, 1932, forms the basis of a claim by Fisher that Hauptmann was planning to kidnap again. The leap is just too great.

To his credit, Fisher does debunk many of the great fallacies of this case, especially concerning the ladder and wood evidence. Nevertheless, I think this book was unnecessary and Fisher should have just let his first book do the talking for him.

For goodness' sake, how much evidence do the conspiracy wackos need before they come back to planet Earth? Fisher shows how Hauptmann a) had the money, b) owned the wood that was used to make the ladder, c) owned the nails that were used to make the ladder, d) had a criminal record involving threats on babies and the use of ladders, e) gave up work as soon as the ransom was paid, f) never worked again once the kidnapper was paid his money - and much more. His book (and his original and more comprehensive earlier work) should be a breath of fresh air for the conspiracy theorists. Unfortunately, absolutely nothing will convince them that Bruno Richard Hauptman was a thoroughly evil child murderer.

He did just what I wanted him to do in the case. Just the facts. This case has been too bogged down with a bunch of unnecessary side stories.

I have spent the last 10 years researching and writing my biography of Anne Lindbergh, and Jim Fisher's work has been indispensable to me. In a field of crackpot theories and self-serving, half-baked conclusions, Jim Fisher remains a disciplined, educated, objective eye to the people and the events, the crime and the investigation that has stumped scholars for nearly seventy years. A former FBI agent who has devoted 25 years of his life to solid scholarship, Jim Fisher and his book deserve to be honored. Anyone serious about exploring the facts and theories of this fascinating subject should not miss Fisher's new book.

This is an interesting book but suffers a bit from Gerald Pozneritis, whereby one is so angered by "conspiracists" that the author neglects the ambiguity of events for a "case closed" finality. For instance the author here never really addresses the incredibly prejudicial atmosphere in which the Hauptman trail took place in. Or the reality that some of the evidence was faked by the New Jersey police (he ignores that Jafsie's phone number was written in Hauptman's place, self confessed by a journalist). This doesn't make Hauptman innoncent but it is dishonest to gloss over the serious misdeeds in the case. If a guilty man is not given a fair trial that is surely still cause for major concern! An issue the author simply can not face.

"The Ghosts of Hopewell: Setting the Record Straight in the Lindbergh Case", Jim Fisher, Southern Illinois Univ. Press 1999, ISBN: 0-8093-2285-4, HC 161 pgs., plus 18 pgs. Notes; 10 pgs. Biblio.; 6 pgs. Index; and 20 B & W Illus.-Photos. 9 1/4" x 6 1/4".

Author Fisher, both law graduate and former FBI agent (albeit but 6 years), writes again after some 18 years of studying the Lindbergh case. He previously authored "The Lindbergh Case" in 1987. This book is divided into 3 sections: I - The Case, II - The Theories, and III - The Evidence.

Above all, Fisher takes on the disbelieve(r)s who profess innocence of Bruno Richard Hauptmann (BRH) in the kidnapping, murder and ransom of baby Lindbergh (Eaglet), Mar. 1, 1932. Fisher underscores in great detail the Hauptmann handwriting found both at the crime scene of kidnapping and later in ransom notes - and cites detailed peculiarities believed conclusively incriminating by virtue of a writing 'tic' or unique agraphia that provided a discrete signature to BRH's written vocabulary. Further details are also proffered on Hauptmann's failed stock market transactions, purchase of ether, etc., financial difficulties by lack of employement, and a past criminal record.

Fisher is distressed by the impetuous publication of defectively researched books beseeching acquittal of BRH and culpability by 'the usual suspects' that embraced hired help, relatives, and he censures that most disturbing 1993 book "Crime of the Century: The Kidnapping Hoax" by Ahlgren and Monier.

Aside from a few unneeded repetitions, i.e. ranson letters, etc. the book's intent is to checkmate (or dispose of) opposing viewpoints and to present new supportive information - and admittedly, it is well written with legal and forensic evidence presentations which must now be balanced by the reader against Ahlgren and Monier's indictment of the father, Colonel Charles Lindbergh, whose alleged prank and subsequent kidnap hoax went awry. With all parties dead, one's beliefs may well reside within the domain of the prevailing or most current best writer of truth and/or fiction, so choose wisely or not at all. I am currently transfixed in a decision-making process akin to game theory.

Uninspiring, mean-spirited rehash of the official New Jersey State Police line. Useful for those who would like to know how the police wish the case (and their conduct) to be viewed, but slightly hysterical. No new evidence to speak of, either.

This book is a terrific antidote to the bogus Hauptmann-is-innocent theories which seem to be making the rounds. I give it 4 stars instead of 5 for these reasons: First, the lengthy section about the Catholic priest was intriguing but not too compelling. Second, Fisher was way too dismissive about the theory that Hauptmann got help in the kidnapping. This crime would have been extremely difficult to commit unless Hauptmann had information from an insider regarding the location of the family on the night in question (normally they would have been with Anne's family), the location of the nursery, the nursery shutter which couldn't close because of warping. The latter detail is particularly interesting, since undetected entry to the nursery would have been impossible without it. Maybe Hauptmann was just lucky, but I doubt it. We'll probably never know for sure, so maybe it's not fair to fault Fischer for the less-than-satisfactory theory that Hauptmann acted alone.

Nonetheless, this is an excellent book.