The Theft of the Eaglet

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The Theft of the Eaglet

• The Crime of the Century

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Charles Lindbergh Jnr. Missing
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The greatest crime of all

• Go to a prison and prisoners will give you a
  rundown of the worst of the worst criminals
  those who kidnap, abuse and murder children.
• Attacks on these types of prisoners are common
  even today. In 1932 that was just as true.

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Charles A Lindbergh

• No football star, sports star, or film idol held
  the appeal of Lucky Lindy.
• He was the first person to fly solo over the
  Atlantic Ocean in 1927. In doing so he became an
  all-American hero.
• However heroes have to face being in the
  spotlight.

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The Hero Worship

• Mobbed by the adoring public, media home and
  abroad, Lindbergh looked for isolation, to be
  with his family.
• He spotted an isolated place from a flight in the
  air. He spent 50,000 on a mansion in the state
  of New Jersey

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Setting the Scene

• Charles Lindbergh Junior was 20 months old, his
  parents were expecting another child soon.
• They were supposed to be going to Mrs Lindberghs
  parents 50 miles away, but Charles had a cold and
  decided to stay with the child along with the
  nurse Betty Gow, and the housekeeper couple.

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Ransom Note

• Between 8-10pm on Tuesday 1st March Junior was
  taken from his room. His room was on the first
  floor of the house.
• No fingerprints were found but a ransom note was
  for 50,000. Lindbergh contacted the State
  police as the nearest town had no police!

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Confusion Reigns

• The Police swarmed over the area.
• Kidnappings for money were a new crime and crime
  scene investigation was not a commonly used
  tactic.
• As the police walked around the house and gardens
  gone were the footprints that may have been there
  in the fresh snow that had lightly fallen!
• The police did find a couple of clues.

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The Scene of the Crime

• Outside the House was a ladder that could be
  split into 3 sections making it easy to handle.
• On the ground underneath the ladder was a chisel.
  This showed the kidnapper was ready to force
  entry into the house.

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The Ladder
The ladder was a poor quality ladder. It appeared
to have broke along the side.
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Ransom Note
Dear sir! Have 50,000 redy 2500 in 20 bills
15000 in 10 bills and 10000 in 5 bills. After
2-4 days we will inform you were to deliver the
mony. We warn you for making anyding public or
for notify the polise the child is in gute care.
Indication for all letters are singature and 3
holes.
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Public Reaction

• The kidnapping of the Eaglet was a shock.
• Letters of sympathy poured from across America,
  along with death threats and ransom notes trying
  to get money from the family.

Announcing the kidnapping on NBC Radio caused a
massive outcry of support.
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The Gangster Connection

• Some Newspapers commented on the possibility of
  it being the work of Mafia Gangsters.
• Al Capone (in prison at the time) was horrified
  at the remark and offered 10,000 as a reward and
  said if he were released he and his henchmen
  would find the kidnapper! A national debate
  began.
• Do you free to a criminal to find one?
• The man that caught Capone said he was using it
  as an excuse to get out, once out hed flee the
  country.
• Capone stayed in prison.

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The Ransom

• Dr. John Condon, a retired Teacher said
  he was in contact with the kidnapper.
• He and Lindbergh went to a cemetery
  in the Bronx area of New York to hand
  over the ransom in Gold
  certificates.
• To ensure capture the numbers of the certificates
  had been recorded.
• Condon handed over the money and the kidnapper
  told him the child was in a boat in Massachusetts
  state coastline.
• Lindbergh personally flew all over the coastline
  nothing!

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Childs Body Found!

• In May 1932, a truck driver stopped on a road
  just a few miles from the Lindbergh house. He
  entered the woods to relieve himself.
• As he entered the woods he found a childs badly
  decomposed body!

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The Eaglet - Dead

• The pathologists said that death occurred from a
  fracture to the skull not long after the kidnap.
• The Media interest continued. Some reporters and
  photographers even took images of the body!

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Kidnapper Caught!

• It took more than two years to find the
  kidnapper.
• German immigrant Bruno Hauptmann was arrested and
  had over 14,000 of the ransom cash in his garage
• Within hours of the arrest the media, police and
  the public began to clamour for the death
  penalty! After the cash was found, another
  damning piece of evidence was located.
• The wood used in the creation of the makeshift
  ladder was cut from the attic of the Hauptmann
  residence!
• Eventually Condon identified Hauptmann as the man
  he paid the ransom to.

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Innocent until proven guilty?

• To the media and public he was already guilty
  why?
• He was German! The propaganda of World War One
  baby killers etc made Germans look naturally evil
  enough to do the crime.
• He was an illegal immigrant who had a criminal
  past. To many he was guilty!

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But was he innocent?

• Hauptmann said the money had been left there by
  another German who had gone back to Germany and
  had since died.
• Hauptmanns wife said that on the night of the
  kidnapping he was at home with her.
• Did Hauptmann kill the baby there was certainly
  enough evidence to say so at the time.
• He was found guilty and the death penalty was
  invoked.
• There are however many issues that cause a great
  deal of debate over the case.

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Could it have been Lindbergh?

• Lindbergh had a lot of control over the case. He
  even managed to get the body cremated without an
  official autopsy!
• He had close relationships with the Governor and
  Prosecutor for the State.
• There is a lot of damning evidence to suggest
  that it was he and not Hauptmann that killed the
  child.

Could he have killed his own son in cold blood?
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Like what?

• The ladder was shoddily made Hauptmann was a
  carpenter and would know how to make a ladder

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Lindbergh Killer?
The Bodys location is the wrong way to the Bronx!

• Lindbergh had hidden the child before as a joke
  on the mother!
• According to Lindberghs mother in law, his wife
  presumed this too was a joke.
• If we presume Lindbergh did it, hed have 30
  minutes to hide the body within walking
  distance of the bodys location.

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What is the answer

• We dont know!
• History is about questioning what people believe.
  We wont really know as the evidence doesnt
  really exist to give us a good enough answer.