The Lindbergh Kidnapping

On the afternoon of May 12th, the body of a baby was discovered along a section of the Princeton-Hopewell road known as Mount Rose Hill.

Dr. Phillip Van Ingen attended the Lindbergh baby just prior to his kidnapping and at the time made a number of measurements of the baby in connection to what he described as a mild case of rickets. The amount of viosterol the baby was being given daily was equivalent to one quart of castor oil, and could hardly be considered treatment for anything but a serious case of the disease.

In 1989, State Police Principal Forensic Scientist Stan Lane found nodes or bumps along the hair shaft when he examined the baby's hair under a microscope and wondered if a disease might have caused the anomaly.

Lindbergh arrived at the mortuary the following afternoon and walked to the autopsy table, which is covered with a sheet "Take that thing off," he said. He asked for a meat skewer to open the lips so he could count the teeth.

On May 23rd, Violet Sharp, a maid in the home of Elizabeth Morrow, Anne Lindbergh's mother committed suicide when she learned she was to undergo her third police interrogation.

On May 1st, 1933 an exchange transaction was made at the New York City branch of the Federal Reserve banks consisting of 297 ransom bills. One of the bills was a twenty, the rest were all tens. The Lindbergh case returned to the headlines, as copies of the J.J. Faulkner signature appear on many a front page.

New Jersey State police officers found a John J. Faulkner living at 1336 Balcon Avenue, less than a block from St. Raymond's Cemetery. John J. Faulkner had been a pupil of Condon's at PS #12.

On the afternoon of September 18th, 1934 the chief teller at the Corn Exchange Bank at 125th Street and Park Avenue reported the finding of two ten dollar gold notes from the ransom money. Lieutenant James Finn of the NYPD called a friend at the Motor Vehicle Department and was told that the license belonged to Richard Hauptmann 1279 East 222nd Street, the Bronx.

Hauptmann was arrested and after searching his apartment he was taken to the second precinct in Manhattan where he was fingerprinted but not charged. Investigators accused him of extorting money from Lindbergh. Hauptmann insisted that all he knew about the Lindbergh case was what he'd read in the newspapers.

After work on March 1st, Hauptmann said he took the subway home and went to pick up his wife, Anna, at Fredericksen's bakery where she worked late every Tuesday and Friday night.

He copied down a composite statement that had been put together by a handwriting expert Albert D. Osborn.

Joseph Perrone identified Hauptmann as the man who gave him a note to take to Dr. Condon's house. On November 27th, 1937, Perrone appears on a WOR radio program and said that Hauptmann was not the man he'd seen that night and referred to himself as the "sucker of the case."

Osborn refused to confirm that Hauptmann had written the ransom notes and asked to see specific examples of his handwriting. The next morning police found $13, 760 of the ransom money hidden in Hauptmann's garage and an hour Osborn learned said that the writer of the specimens was the writer of all the ransom notes.

Hauptmann claimed Isidor Fisch had left him a shoebox containing the ransom money before going to Germany and that he only discovered the money about three weeks earlier.

A week after Hauptmann's arrest, Lindbergh's attorney Henry Breckinridge remembered an incident that had taken place around the same time he received the ransom letter addressed to him. A man burst into his office and told him that the Lindberghs must deal with "us." If Breckinridge had asked a police artist to draw a portrait of this man his resemblance to Isidor Fisch would have been striking,

Affidavit of Alfred B. Scott 1/8/36

"...After the arrest of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, I saw pictures published in the paper of Isidor Fisch, and I immediately recognized the picture of Fisch and being the man who I had seen made several visits to the house of Dr. Condon during the months of April and May 1932."

Word spread quickly that almost fourteen thousand dollars of ransom money had been found in the Bronx and a suspect taken into custody. John Condon was brought to the second precinct to identify Hauptmann, but refused to.

Joseph Marrone, who has known Condon for twenty-five-years says that during 1932, particularly before May he had seen Condon and Hauptmann at Bickfords restaurant on at least ten different occasions. On four of those occasions they'd been in a position to see one another, but Condon showed no sign of recognizing Hauptmann and he should have if he'd been the man he paid the $50,000 ransom to in St. Raymond's Cemetery.

On September 24th 1934 thirty-two witnesses appeared at a grand jury hearing before Hauptmann was indicted for extorting fifty thousand dollars from Charles Lindbergh.

On Monday October 15th the extradition hearing began. At the end of Hauptmann's testimony, his attorney James Fawcett asked him if he'd been in the state of New Jersey on March 1st 1932. Hauptmann answered no, and then strongly denied murdering Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr.

Fawcett's most important witness - a witness who could save his client from being tried for murder, the Reliant Property Management Company timekeeper, Edward F. Morton didn't appear when the attendant called his name.

Howard Knapp, assistant treasurer for Reliant appeared at the extradition hearing with an altered payroll that showed that Hauptmann didn't start work until March 21st. When Fawcett asked Knapp about the payroll regarding the first half of March 1932, Knapp claimed there never existed. The originals are in the possession of a researcher.

Not long after Hauptmann was arrested police discovered Condon's address and telephone number written in the nursery closet. Henry Paynter, a reporter for the New York Evening Post, admitted he was responsible for the writing to the police and to Hauptmann's lawyer.

In the early morning hours of March 2nd 1932, police interviewed Millard Whited, who lived in a shanty just down the road from the Lindbergh estate. He was asked if he saw anyone suspicious in the area in the days prior to the kidnapping and insisted that he hadn't.

After Hauptmann's arrest Whited was offered thirty-five dollars a day expense money On the day Whited said he saw him-February 27th Hauptmann was at an employment agency in New York.

Bronx District Attorney Samuel J. Foley and Attorney General David Wilentz know that Joseph Furcht, the construction supervisor at the Majestic Apartments had signed an affidavit before a notary public stating that Hauptmann had worked on March 1st. 1932. They also were aware that this information was detrimental to their case. On October 23rd, Furcht signed another affidavit.

"I wish to state that I do not know whether or not Bruno Richard Hauptmann worked on March 1st, 1932 at the Majestic Apartments."

Furcht was seen at the Appellate Division of Supreme Court in Manhattan on October 19th surrounded by several men. He was the color of chalk and barely able to stand.

Anna Hauptmann had become dissatisfied with James Fawcett and Edward J. Reilly a Brooklyn criminal attorney replaced him. From the day he was hired until the beginning of the trial Reilly visited his client four times for a total of thirty-eight minutes.

Charles Schleser, who had been involved in several dubious business enterprises with Isidor Fisch met with Wilentz on December 6th, 1934, at which time they concocted a plan for Schleser to spy on Hauptmann's friends.

Wilentz and Reilly hold a meeting where no co-counsel was present. One of the things they may have decided at this meeting was that Alfred Scott, who saw Isidor Fisch enter Jafsie Condon's house, would not testify.

Ten special investigators were paid one hundred dollars each in order to check the people selected as potential jurors for the Hauptmann trial.

"Advised that she wants to see Hauptmann get all this is coming to him. Should be good juror."

"Stated state has weak case against Hauptmann. Poor type of juror. OUT."

Charles Lindbergh testified about the night of the kidnapping, the receiving of the ransom notes, and the acceptance of Condon as the go-between. Then Wilentz took him to the night he went to St. Raymond's Cemetery with Condon.

"I heard a ...voice coming from the Cemetery, ...calling Dr. Condon."

"Whose voice was it, Colonel, that you heard in the vicinity of St. Raymond's Cemetery that night saying "Hey Doctor?"

"That was Hauptmann's voice."

Amandus Hochmuth testified to having seen Hauptmann driving a dirty green car near the Lindbergh house on March 1st, 1932. Later it would be proven that Hochmuth was partially blind due to cataracts.

Joseph Perrone testified that Hauptmann had given him the note to take to Condon's house and Hauptmann called him a liar loud enough for several people to hear.

John Condon provided one of the most memorable moments in modern trial history. Wilentz asked him to whom he'd given the ransom money on the night of April 2nd, 1932, and Condon answered "John."

"Who is John?"

Condon raised a bent finger at the defendant and said in accentuated syllables, "John is Bru-no Rich-ard Haupt-mann!"

Condon told Inspector Harry Walsh that disease had started its inroads into Cemetery John's body, giving him a hacking cough.

Hauptmann was unaware that Fisch had gotten sick in Germany. He was always coughing and Hauptmann never paid any attention when his friend coughed because he coughed all the time.

Eight handwriting experts testified that Hauptmann had written all the ransom notes. John Tyrell insisted that one of the samples they had to Hauptmann's writing not be used at the trial because he was afraid of the effect it might have on the jury.

John M. Trendley, the only defense handwriting expert thought that Isidor Fisch, had written the ransom notes, wrote to Hauptmann and told him that Reilly had miffed his case.

Edward F. Morton, who had failed to appear at the Bronx extradition hearing in October, testified after the handwriting experts. He claimed erroneously that he had been the timekeeper for the Majestic Apartments in March 1932.

On November 5th, 1934, Detective Cronin, NYPD and Sergeant Haussling questioned Morton and he told them that he didn't become the timekeeper until May 1932.

In the week following Hauptmann's arrest no fewer than thirty-seven detectives and policemen made nine searches of his apartment and attic. After searching the attic on September 26th, Detective Lewis Bornmann reported to Captain Lamb that," nothing of value was found with the exception of several small pieces of wood and several cut nails".

On the witness stand Bornmann said that during the September 26th search he noticed that the last board of flooring on the south side was not the same length as the other board and upon further inspection saw that a piece of board approximately eight feet long had been removed. Being familiar with various kinds of wood used in the construction of the ladder he recognized it as being the same type of wood as one of the ladder rails.

Bornmann wrote two reports of what happened in the attic and one of them doesn't mention finding a piece of the floorboard missing and that one that does was backdated.

Reilly began by asking Hauptmann about his early life in Kammenz, schooling, war service, imprisonment, arrival in America, marriage and jobs. Hauptmann testified about his business dealings with Isidor Fisch, the money Fisch owed him and his discovery of the shoebox and gold certificates. Reilly also asked him about his activities on March 1st, 1932.

"Did you build that ladder?"

"I am a carpenter." Hauptmann's reply raised laughter in the courtroom.

Reilly asked him to take a look at the ladder and he said that it looked like a musical instrument. Wilentz asked for a repeat and Hauptmann said it didn't look like much of a ladder at all.

Statement of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, June 5th, 1935

"I made a very pretty inlaid box that took me one hundred hours...and they took it away...and if you would look at the box and the ladder you would know I didn't make the ladder...

Wilentz began his cross-examination casually, listening to Hauptmann clarify his testimony about his financial dealings. He showed Hauptmann one of the ransom notes and asked him to read it aloud, then waited, thinking that Hauptmann was hesitating because his guilt was making it difficult for him to read the words he'd used to extort money from the dead child's father.

"It's hard for you to read, isn't it?"

"You bet it is." Hauptmann looked more closely at the misspellings. "I can't make out the next word... Can't make out the next two words."

Hauptmann answered a few questions about Isidor Fisch easily and Wilentz became courteous and gentle. Then, suddenly, he returned to the assault.

"Did Fisch help you kidnap the Lindbergh child and murder it?"

Hauptmann's explanation about how he came to be in possession of he ransom money-was dubbed the "Fisch story". But there's evidence that it may have been true.

Oscar Bruckman had worked for Isidor Fisch at the Knickerbocker Pie Company. In the fall of 1933, he saw Fisch standing by his cab near Columbus Circle. Fisch told Bruckman that he didn't have to drive a cab and that he had a proposition for him. "You know my racket, you know I sell stocks. I sold some stocks and I got some hot money...I'll buy a small car and you can drive me out of town, and I think I can get rid of the money, and you can make more money than you can driving a hack."

August Van Henke and Louis Kiss had seen Hauptmann at Fredericksen's bakery on the night of March 1st. Van Henke had lost his German shepherd in the middle of February and on the evening of March 1st, 1932 he stopped at a gas station and saw a man walking a dog who looked very much like his. The man said his name was Hauptmann and that the dog belonged to the owner of the bakery down the road.

Louis Kiss was having cake and coffee in the bakery when Hauptmann returned with the dog. Kiss remembered the day because exactly one week prior to the kidnapping his son had been rushed to the hospital. He filed an affidavit stating that on the day after he testified he was threatened with imprisonment.

Frieda von Valta had seen Hauptmann on the subway between 6 and 6:30 in the evening and said he gave her directions to Mount Vernon.

After Reilly and Wilentz's summations to the jury, the eight men and four women retire to deliberate. Eleven hours later the bell tolled announcing that they had reached a verdict Charles Walton, the jury foreman unfolded a piece of paper with trembling hands.

"Guilty. We find the defendant Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of murder in the first degree. Hauptmann was sentenced to die in the electric chair during the week of March 18th 1935.

On February 16th, Hauptmann was transferred to Trenton State Prison's death row. His attorney Lloyd Fisher petitioned Judge Trenchard for the record to be printed and when that was done, he lodged the writ with the Court of Errors and Appeals.

On May 2nd, 1935 the Court of Errors and Appeals met at their room in the State House Annex in Trenton, where they heard a petition from Hauptmann's attorneys. Six weeks later the hearing of the main appeal took place. In the three hours allotted him, Egbert Rosencrans began by arguing that the verdict had breached the Fourteenth Amendment (deprivation of life and liberty without due process) and the Sixth Amendment (trial not held in the district where crime was committed). He also stated that the charge against Hauptmann of commission of a felony in the crime of burglary had no legal precedent.

At 4:00 p.m. the judges took away with them the briefs of both sides, which they'd study at their leisure during the summer and hand down their decision in the fall.

The Court of Errors and Appeals handed down its judgment without warning, saying that "no verdict other than the one found by the Flemington jury would have been justified.

On the night of October 15th, 1935, Governor Harold Hoffman came to Trenton State Prison to see Hauptmann. He expected to see a cringing criminal begging for mercy and instead found a man making a vehement claim of innocence, bitter in his denunciation of the police and the prosecution and their methods.

Governor Hoffman formed a secret task force to reinvestigate the case. One of the principal figures in the reinvestigation was Ellis Parker, who was firm in his belief that Paul Wendel had kidnapped the Lindbergh child. Wendel had drawn the ransom note symbol for Parker before it became public knowledge.

The Court of Pardons met on January 11th, 1936 at 11:00 a.m. Only Governor Hoffman declared in favor of commutation to life imprisonment, the others were against it. He felt that too many unanswered questions remained and the only fair decision he could make was to grant Hauptmann a thirty-day reprieve. Wilentz agreed not to ask Judge Trenchard to set a new date for the execution until the thirty days had expired.

Samuel Leibowitz, who had defended the Scottsboro boys visited Hauptmann convinced that he could get him to confess and name his accomplices. Every single argument he advanced was met freely and frankly by Hauptmann and Leibowitz left bedraggled.

On March 21st, Mark Kimberling set a new date for the execution - March 31st.

Two days later a former New Jersey State trooper now working as one of Governor Hoffman's investigators told another former trooper, now the chief of detectives of Cape May County that Bornmann had faked the rail and ladder evidence.

A wood expert from the Department of the Interior inspected the attic and concluded that Rail 16 had never been part of the attic flooring.

Leon Hoage one of the Governor's investigators discovered that with 27 boards the distance from each side of the attic was not equal. It varied by four or five inches. Hoffman ordered Bornmann to tell the truth about the attic floorboard and Bornmann swore that he had.

At 8:44 p.m. on Friday, April 3rd, 1936 Richard Hauptmann was strapped into the electric chair. Three and a half minutes later after the creaking of straps and several wisps of smoke and one witness exclaiming, "It's terrible!" three doctors put their stethoscopes to his chest. "This man is dead."

Mark Falzini, the Lindbergh archivist at the New Jersey State Police museum recently rediscovered a piece of evidence that could shed light on the seventy-five-year-old mystery, an anonymous confession to the kidnapping, written in German.

A series of holes in the board lined up perfectly with the holes in the original ransom notes, suggesting that the board was the template used to puncture the three-hole pattern the police in the Lindbergh investigation came to recognize as the kidnappers' signature. An interesting detail is that the note is signed, "N.S.D.A.P" the initials for the Nazi party.

A woman whose father worked with Lindbergh quite often on Long Island told her about the day Anne drove with the baby out to the field. Her father became so angry with Lindbergh for being so rude to his wife that he almost punched him in the face. Lindbergh kept shouting "I told you not to bring him here, get him away, get him out of here. It was the common opinion that Lindbergh had set up the kidnap to get rid of the child.

From a report found at the NJSP archives

"Naturally again, we have to eliminate Mr. and Mrs. Col Lindbergh... Every indication points to them. But they are excluded."