Lindbergh Case [Paperback]

Jim Fisher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1994

"If I had only one book to read on the Lindbergh case I should . . . choose Fisher's. It is balanced, impartial, and contains much material not to be found elsewhere."--Francis Russell, The New York Review of Books "Fisher . . . goes against the revisionist tide and argues strongly--and persuasively--for Hauptmann's guilt . . . a compelling book."--Patrick Reardon, Chicago Tribune "A good real-life crime yarn."--Kirkus Reviews "A riveting book."--Harry Sayen, The Times, Trenton "A real detective story."--Sylvia Sachs, The Pittsburgh Press "One cannot help getting caught up in the search for the child, then in the search for justice. These events resonate more than 50 years after they occurred."--John Katzenback, The New York Times Book Review "Fisher thoroughly covers the case, from the night the baby was taken from his home in Hopewell, NJ, on March 1, 1932, to Hauptmann's execution on April 3, 1936 . . . a convincing case."--Publishers Weekly "A grimly fascinating account of the kidnapping and murder of Charles A. Lindbergh, Jr., son of the world-famous aviator."--The Columbus Dispatch "A richly detailed, engrossing, and well-written history of the kidnapping saga. . . . may well become the definitive work on the subject."--Journal of American History Jim Fisher is an ex-FBI agent who teaches criminal justice at Edinboro University, Edinboro, Pennsylvania.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fisher, a former FBI agent, teaches criminal justice at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania. Refuting those who claim that Bruno Richard Hauptmann was framed, the author presents a convincing case that he was guilty of the kidnap-murder of 20-month-old Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. In this well-documented study Fisher thoroughly covers the case, from the night the baby was taken from his home in Hopewell, N.J., on March 1, 1932, to Hauptmann's execution on April 3, 1936. The author vivifies the people involved: the child's parents; eccentric Dr. Condon who paid the ransom to "Cemetery John"; the competing investigators; the charlatans who offered to ransom the baby for huge sums; etc. Although Fisher notes that the police made mistakes and that Hauptmann's defense was incompetent, he argues that evidence of the accused's guilt is overwhelming. Photos.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 504 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (September 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813521475
• ISBN-13: 978-0813521473
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #838,732 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Lindberg Case: The Officials' View, September 13, 2003

By 

jim crawford (Tenafly, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lindbergh Case (Paperback)

No matter what else one may think about this work, Fisher's book deserves to be read, if for no other reason than that it presents a thorough survey of the ''official evidence'' in the police files. Right at the beginning, he says that he believes Hauptmann to have been guilty, but then throughout the course of the book presents facts, among reams of other evidence, which indicate the distinct possibility that Hauptmann was innocent ---reasonable doubt at the very least. And, rather mysteriously in my view, he leaves out and/ or ignores crucial evidence from previously published authors like Anthony Scaduto and Ludovic Kennedy.

Boards in the Hauptmann attic, for example, which the government claimed were material from which the kidnappers' ladder was made, were disputed as legitimate evidence by defense experts, experts who never testified because Hauptmann's chief lawyer didn't bother to have them do so, quite possibly because of a continuous and severe lack of money with which to conduct investigations and cover witnesses' expenses.

Then again, defense fees were being largely covered by William Randolph Hearst, a fact which, given Hearst's record of suspiciously motivated involvement in other noteworthy national situations, should make any observer immediately cautious because it raises the distinct possibility of Hearst having been interested only in the publicity value of the case rather than in matters of guilt or innocence.

Further, Fisher ignores the dirty tricks alleged to have been undertaken by the prosecution and denigrates NJ Governor Harold Hoffman's attempts to save Hauptmann from death by having him admit his guilt. Hauptmann, however, rather than confess to something which he always maintained that he did not do, chose to be electrocuted --- making an almost undeniably impressive deathbed statement in declaration of his innocence.

As to Hauptmann's alibi, that he was at home the night of the kidnapping, a fact testified to by several witnesses, Fisher also downplays that, as he does with evidence that it was not Hauptmann's car seen near the Lindbergh house on the night of the crime. In short, he fails to refute the compelling evidence offered by Scaduto and Kennedy. Nonetheless, this is a must read book b/c Fisher has had access to police files that even Scaduto & Kennedy couldn't obtain. All in all, though, in all the books taken together there's an extraordinarily strong case to be made that Richard Hauptmann was framed.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "A Circumscribed & To-The-Point Criminal Case Study", October 23, 2007

By 

Russell A. Rohde MD "Owl" (West Covina, California USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lindbergh Case (Paperback)

"The Lindbergh Case", Jim Fisher, Rutgers Univ. Press, NJ, 1987 ISBN: 0-8135-1233-6, HC 430 pages plus 30 pages of Notes, Sources & Index plus 22 B & W photographs. 10 1/4" x 7 1/4".

Jim Fisher, lawyer, previous FBI agent and teacher of Criminal Justice, has chronicaled, rather tersely, the A to Z of the Lindbergh case using records not previously released until 1981, the NJSP records and the Hoffman papers, etc.

The author's writing style blends factual or verbatim quotations with a thoughtfully reconstructured conversational dialogue that admittedly departs from the purest journalism, but garners acceptance by utilizing adequate notes, etc. to effect a pleasant conversational style prose that makes reading almost effortless and ought not alter veridicality.

A lot of "loose ends" are tied or concluded, and many factoids are included so that much detail prevails that appeared lacking in previous books I've read on this case, some of them via Notes but others spelled out in great details, i.e. the details and results of the jury's many votings, the verdicts and setting & re-setting of execution dates, last minute appeals, etc. However, in the end, the reader like the author will find the evidence given to the jurors is compelling beyond a reasonable doubt. It is a long book and the print is small, but the intent, the evidence, and its presentation provides a cerebrally ambitious journey for the reader.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars book and author lack analytical ability, August 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Lindbergh Case (Paperback)

Having just finished the three current main books on the Lindbergh baby disappearance (no one can ever again assume there was a kidnapping) Jim Fisher's was the most disappointing. Fisher merely trots out the prosecution's 1935 presentation, uses literary license to add in some manufactured dialogue, and then boldly states that Hauptmann was guilty. Although he is openly and embarrasingly hostile to the two other major works in this case ("Lindbergh, the Crime" by Noel Behn and "Crime of the Century: The Lindbergh Kidnapping Hoax" by Ahlgren & Monier) the ironic fact remains that all three books pretty much agree on the correct sequence of undisputed facts surrounding the child's disappearance. But whereas the other two books offer contemporary investigative analysis in concluding that there was no kidnapping, only an accidental (or worse) death of the child followed by a hasty and clumsy kidnap cover-up, Fisher never attempts to answer the lingering questions which have haunted this case for over six decades: How would a real kidnapper have known or even suspected that the Lindberghs were home that week day eveing when they had only been staying at the Flemington house on weekends, and the decision to stay over on that Tuesday had only been made by Lindbergh himself that morning? How did Lindbergh "find" a ranson note in plain view in the nursery when he entered it alone, hours after the child had disappeared, and after others had searched the room without seeing it? Why did Lindbergh telephone his lawyer before calling the State police? Why did both Lindbergh's wife Anne and the nursemaid both originally suspect that Lindbergh himself had taken the child? And why had Lindbergh hidden the baby in a closet two weeks earlier and tried to claim then that the baby had been kidnapped? There are too many questions in this case, and Fisher's book doesn't provide plausible explanations.