Customer Reviews

Mysteries & Myths of the Twentieth Century - The Disappearance of Amelia Earhart/Who Kidnapped Lindbergh's Son? [VHS]

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This video addresses two of the most sensational stories of the twentieth century: the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and the kidnapping of Lindbergh's baby. While both stories provide a good background of the subject material, I was a little disappointed that they did not go into more details in terms of the speculation and circumstantial evidence that clearly exists in both cases. After describing Earhart's incredible life and aviation successes, the video only devotes a few minutes to the events surrounding her disappearance. While basically supporting the theory that navigation and/or pilot error led Earhart off course and eventually into a watery grave, it does make mention of rumors that Japanese islanders spoke of an American female pilot who was captured by the Japanese and that some US servicemen supposedly found the missing plane inside a hangar on one of the islands. It does not mention any of the artifacts discovered in recent years on the islands that some have at least claimed came from Earhart's missing plane or offer any details as to stories told by elderly Japanese islanders about seeing Earhart and her navigator captured and executed. The video does offer some sensible arguments against the hypothesis some have made that Earhart was in fact spying on Japanese military formations and activity in the area and that this led her to downing and capture by Japanese forces.

I found the Lindbergh video quite good. It centers on the trial and execution of Bruno Hauptmann for the crime and does a superb job of showing the trial as a shameful farce. While some of the missing ransom money was indeed found in Hauptmann's possession, the rest of the evidence against him was flimsy and circumstantial, and the video relentlessly points out, without hesitation, the fact that the police boldly altered evidence to suit their needs, changed witness testimony that did not fit in with the Hauptmann prosecution, and bribed several witnesses, including a couple of completely unreliable ones. It actually does not go far enough in its characterization of Hauptmann's attorney as hopelessly inept; it shows that he clearly considered his client guilty and did nothing to make the jury think otherwise, it does not point out the fact that he only spent a total of only half an hour with his client during the entire time he supposedly worked for him. I wish the presentation would have dug a little deeper, though. I for one do not find "Jafsie," the ransom negotiating doctor, credible and do not accept the whole Cemetery John/gang of kidnappers story at face value. Lindberg himself is treated very kindly here; in my mind, he is more than suspect and, at the very least, let a man go to the electric chair knowing he was innocent. Of course, everyone will not subscribe to a theory that points much closer to the Lindbergh home and I can understand why the makers of the video did not want to go that far.

Thus, both of these videos are well worth watching and should serve to whet the imagination of viewers and encourage them to read more about these compelling stories. You won't really find any answers on here, just some of the questions.