Crime of the Century: The Lindbergh Kidnapping Hoax (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Stephen Monier (Author) "It is still the most spectacular kidnapping and murder case ever investigated. The disappearance of the 20 month old son of..." (more)
Key Phrases: ladder lumber, nursery note, original ransom note, New York, New Jersey, Colonel Lindbergh (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

CRIME OF THE CENTURY The Lindbergh Kidnapping Hoax
by Gregory Ahlgren
and Stephen Monier

After it was announced that the twenty month old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was abducted on March 1, 1932, the entire world grieved for their loss. Seventy-two days later, the body was found in the woods next to a roadway, a short distance from Lindbergh's house, near Hopewell, New Jersey.
In 1927, Lindbergh was the first to fly solo across the Atlantic in his Spirit of St. Louis. By 1932, he was perhaps the most famous man alive. A great American hero, he was allowed to be the chief architect of the investigation into his son's kidnapping. He demanded that the body be cremated without an autopsy.
This book traces the 2½ year investigation by the New Jersey State Police, headed by Colonel H. Norman Schwarz¬kopf, and which led to the arrest, trial, conviction and execu¬tion of Bruno Richard Hauptmann. It challenges the effective¬ness of the investigation, and the evidence advanced by the prosecution, which convicted Hauptmann.
More importantly, it dissects evidence previously over¬looked of Lindbergh's own role in his son's disappearance, which, in combination with the authors' expert analysis, leads to a new and bold assertion as to who actually committed the Crime of the Century."
--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 286 pages
• Publisher: Branden Books; 1st ed edition (May 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0828319715
• ISBN-13: 978-0828319713
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #879,878 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Condescending, sloppy, and utterly unprofessional, August 18, 2004

By	Dorian Harcourt (Manhattan) - See all my reviews

First off, I am neither a huge fan nor a huge detractor of Charles A. Lindbergh; I acknowledge and appreciate his contributions (which are many) to the field of aviation, and beyond that I have no opinion of him as a person. Therefore, I read this book with a completely open mind regarding the disappearance of his son, Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., in March of 1932.

First, the positive -- "Crime of the Century" presents a fascinating 'alternative' solution as to solving the mystery regarding the child's disappearance, and it outlines a scenario which can go far in convincing the casual reader that Lindbergh had motive and opportunity to commit a crime for which an "innocent man" was eventually given the death penalty.

Second, the far more prevalent negative -- "Crime of the Century" is written in a sloppy, meandering, and poorly-edited manner, one which will turn off a lot of readers as being annoying and inexcusably unprofessional considering the fact that the authors are literally damning the respected name of a long-dead celebrity. Furthermore, the authors of this book have apparently picked and chosen their "evidence" from an a la carte table of other, more powerful artifacts that utterly contradict the entire premise of their book. In other words, the authors have either ignored established evidence that doesn't support their own thesis, or nipped and tucked at the pieces of evidence they did choose so that they would conveniently fit the slots they created in their story. Still further, the authors do a slapdash job of citing sources -- they make wild, bold claims about what people "thought" or people's "characteristics" without the slightest inclination to say where on earth they have the evidence to support such claims. Their "notes" at the back of the book are inadequate and perfunctory, making their entire book seem like something of a gossipy editorial rather than a cold, hard analysis that can withstand assault by doubters.

Perhaps most annoying of all about this book is that the authors do not concede that their thesis is a POSSIBILITY among many, but rather THE answer to what happened. This strikes me as both disrespectful to the vast body of work already published about this case -- work which is generally, I dare say, infinitely superior to this one both in dedication to research and in presentation -- and to the weighty subject matter at hand. A baby was murdered. A family grieved.

Rather than do the sensible (and responsible) thing of taking in all the evidence compiled by other researchers over the years and exploring all avenues to where such evidence leads, describing to the reader why other theories are flawed where as their own has so convinced them that they are willing to call a national hero not only a murderer, but also a DOUBLE murderer (because if Lindbergh was guilty he led directly to Haupmann's execution), the authors of this book have chosen instead to write a sloppy, poorly-executed book that focuses on sensationalism rather than responsible investigation.

They look at all the evidence from a biased viewpoint, contort potentially useful evidence so that it supports their biased viewpoint, and conveniently do not mention any evidence which refutes their biased viewpoint.

The authors of this book have a wonderful and absolutely plausible scenario. They fall flat on their faces, however, because they don't take the time to destroy other theories in a methodical manner. They waste many pages on interesting but useless "background" information on Lindbergh's life -- ostensibly to establish Lindbergh's 'shady' personality, although I suspect part of the reason might be to flesh out their book, since the amount of "research" they did could have been condensed to a paper of about 15 pages rather than the meandering 250 page mess it eventually became. They could have much more usefully filled those extra pages with responsible documentation of sources and methodical dismantling of established theories regarding this case.

This book should be one star, but it gets two for its interesting theory.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Case Closed: Lindy did it., August 26, 1998

By A Customer

As a 25+ year law enforcement veteran, and current homicide detective (and NO, I was not involved in the O.J. investigation) my first impression upon hearing of this book and its premise, was to dismiss it out of hand. After all, I had read most everything else about the Lindbergh case and there had never been a hint that the kidnap was anything but real. Then I read the book. It's true, the book is not exceedingly well written but these two guys are not professional journalists. What I sensed as I read was the presence of a fellow dogged police investigator (Monier) and, what I have begrugingly come to admire over the years: the skeptical mind of the criminal defense lawyer (Ahlgren). In tandem, their approach to sleuthing an old case is deadly. As I proceeded through the book all the crazy facts of the case which had never seemed to make sense to anyone, and which had provided much of the lure to the Lindbergh case, suddenly seemed to fall into place. The authors show in Lindbergh himself those personality traits which, in my own experience, are consistent with a parent who commits a terrible crime, and then concocts a cover-up. Did Lindy in fact do it? The authors are honest enough to conceed that Lindy as culprit is only one of many scenarios, although one that has previosly been overlooked by the journalists and other amateurs who have studied this case. For me, in my own experience, I'd say it's the most likely explanation.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Seriously flawed, January 31, 2007

By	Donald D. Coney, Jr. (Fairfax, va United States) - See all my reviews

I originally read this book when it first came out. Having read most of the commercially available books on the Lindbergh kidnapping case I have to admit I was curious to read this new theory. The book's premise is that Charles Lindbergh killed his son during a practical joke gone horribly, horribly wrong. On it's face this is quite fantastic but as most books seem to fall into the "Hauptman was guilty as hell" or "Hauptman was railroaded" camps I found the premise worth at least looking at.

That said, while I have to admit this was an entertaining book, as history or forensic analysis of the case it is lacking. To say that Charles Lindbergh had "issues" is an understatement. But to extrapolate that he not only killed his only son, covered it up, played along with John Condon and his negotiations with 'Cemetary John', paid thousands of dollars to cover it up, sat in silence as Hauptman was framed and executed for a crime he didn't commit and on top of it all testified against Hauptman (who may or may not have been 'Cemetary John') seems incredulous. My main objection to the theory is --- would a man like Charles Lindbergh purposely leave his only son (and its pretty conclusive that the body found was the Lindbergh baby) to moulder in a shallow pit only a couple of miles from his house?

I'm sorry I don't buy it. This is an outrageous conclusion and the authors quite frankly don't offer the evidence to support their conclusions. I gave the book two stars because while I find the theory quite absurd, I've always enjoyed historical fiction.