Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
School of humans.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Men will literally do anything to cheat on their wives,
including innovate air travel and doing the first solo NonStop
flight across the Atlantic Ocean, whomest.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Am I alluding to, well none other.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Than Charles Lindbergh Lucky Lindy, as he was called. Other
pilots had crossed this ocean, the first being two Brits
in nineteen nineteen, but they went a shorter distance between
Newfoundland and Ireland. The flight took sixteen hours, and they
had the emotional and physical support.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Of each other.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Lindburgh, on the other hand, he was all alone on
that flight in nineteen twenty seven and traveled a longer
distance from New York to Paris.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
It took him thirty three and a half hours.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
And I know the most pressing question on everybody's mind.
I'm sure you are all wondering this. That flight was
long as hell. How did Lucky Lindy use the toilet
while flying that plane? And maybe you're like Gabby, that
was actually not my first question, but this question was
on the mind of many esteemed people like myself, For example,
(01:24):
the British monarch King George the Fifth. After Lindbergh completed
his flight. King George invited Lindbergh to England to fly
his personal plane.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
He was like, yeah, buddy, get your.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Cock in that cockpit. And during that visit, King George
was like, so there's one thing I want to know,
how did you pee? Lucky Lindy's plane was called the
Spirit of Saint Louis, which, honestly.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
That has a terrible vibe or a.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Plane, the Spirit of Saint Louis, what is it? Drunk
and didn't graduate from high school. But the Spirit of
Saint Louis could fit one person. There are no flight attendants,
no snacks, no more. And of course the plane didn't
have a bathroom. So our Charlie boy Lindbergh told the
King how he relieved himself. His pilot chair was made
(02:15):
out of wicker and he'd cut a hole in it
below which there is a funnel leading to an aluminum
can where waste of any sort could be stored. So, Fellas,
I hope you never feel ashamed of peeing sitting down.
It's what revered cultural figure Charles Lindbergh did. I mean,
sure he was doing it because he had certain space constraints.
(02:40):
But if anyone ever questions your masculinity because you sit
down to pe admonish them by saying, don't bother me,
I'm making a transatlantic flight that will show them. Before
he landed on that historic flight, though lucky Lindy got
(03:03):
rid of his waist by dumping it somewhere over the
French countryside. But anyway, this episode is not about pissing. No,
it's about cheating. When Lindbergh completed that flight in nineteen
twenty seven, he became a celebrity, a global sensation. Basically,
(03:25):
he was the Taylor Swift of the nineteen twenties, not
just because he became a huge star, but because he
traveled by plane with significant greenhouse gas emissions. But the
problem with planes, as I alluded to earlier, is that
they take you places. Specifically, they can take you places
far away, far away enough from your wife, but you
(03:47):
can land in the arms of another woman, or, in
Lindberg's case, the arms of three ladies in Germany, to
the theme song this is American filth and I'm Gabby wattsy week,
I tell you a filthy story from American history. This
(04:09):
week's episode Cheating Charles Glenn Burgh d Do Do Dig
Do Do Do did do.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Excuse me. First, in order to cheat on your wife,
you must acquire a wife to cheat on. So let's
talk about that first.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Glennburgh was a twenty five year old bachelor when he
completed that transatlantic flight.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Though, are you called a bachelor that young of an age?
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
He was a playboy, he flew a plane and now
he's gonna wet that Willie, I guess. But you know,
he was a famous guy. I'm sure the ladies were
going wild for him and Lindenbergh as a person, he
was reserved and withdrawn a law at the time, but
he was also kind of a condescending little bitch, just
(05:15):
a little bit in a really sadistic sense of humor.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Like one time back in his airmail piloting.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Days, as a joke, he filled up the glass of
one of his fellow pilots with kerosene. The pilot drank
it and nearly died, and it's like, yeah, boys will
be boys and boys will do pranks, but that one
went a bit far. Another time, he put a shit
ton of laxatives in a fellow pilot's food and then
(05:42):
the pilot produced a ton of shit.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
But blah blah blah character flaws.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
After his big Boy flight, Lindbergh was famous, so he
was doing what famous people do, making public appearances. He
was touring around the country giving talks on aviation, working
in aircraft design, and flying goodwill missions to various nations
in Latin America. At the end of nineteen twenty seven,
(06:12):
he went down to Mexico and there he met up
with the US's ambassador to Mexico, Dwight Morrow, And while
he was down there, he met Ambassador Marrow's daughter Anne.
Anne was twenty one at the time and down in
Mexico visiting her dad while on break from college. Anne
(06:35):
was introverted in shy and she was at Smith College
studying writing. And being introverted in shy can make some
people think you're very mysterious. And Charles Limberg.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Was like a wuga.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
I like this lady, and Morrow also had a little
a wuga in her as well when she looked at
Charles Limberg. But she was also kind of nervous, afraid
he was this huge star taking an interest in her,
she wrote in her diary meeting Charles, who by the way,
(07:07):
was six to two, not bad, She wrote, he is
taller than anyone else. You see his head in a
moving crowd, and you notice his glance where it turns
as though it were keener, clearer, and brighter than anybody else's,
lit with a more intense fire. What could I say
to this boy? Anything I might say would be trivial
(07:29):
and superficial, like pink frosting flowers. I felt the whole
world before this to be frivolous, superficial, ephemeral. After that,
they went on two dates and got engaged, and they
finally got married in May nineteen twenty nine. Anne was
(07:50):
first a writer, but soon she became Charles's co pilot.
She also learned how to fly solo, and in nineteen
thirty she was the first woman to get a glider
plane license. Since their first date, Charles and Anne Lindbergh's
coupling made the public go goo goo for gossip.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Everybody wanted to know everything about them.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
They were the it couple of the time, kind of
like Taylor Swift and Travis Kelcey or p Diddy and
Baby Oil.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
And Anne.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Obviously, I feel like for most people this would be
the case. She found this really uncomfortable. She wrote about
what it felt like to be surrounded by so much
press all the time. She was like a deer hunted
by smiling, smirky, sure of themselves, relentless hunters. And then
at home, Charles himself was a little overpowering. He could
(08:49):
be mean and controlling. His life became her life. At
the dinner table, he would bring Anna to do list,
but she also ended up doing to his kids. Over
the course of their marriage, they had six children, but
the press started going extra crazy Charles and Ann in
nineteen thirty two because of a terrible tragedy. The Limburgs
(09:15):
were living on a lavish est day in New Jersey,
because we all know that's where you go when you
become famous New Jersey. And in nineteen thirty and bird
their first child, little Charles Lindbergh Junior. But on March first,
nineteen thirty two, someone crawled through the window of the
nursery where the little twenty month year old babe was
(09:36):
sleeping and kidnapped him. The kidnapper left behind a ransom
note demanding fifty thousand dollars. The note had a lot
of spelling errors and featured this odd cryptic symbol at
the bottom of the page. Obviously, any child being kidnapped
is a big deal and should be taken seriously, but
(09:57):
because it was a Limburg baby, everybody went berserk, especially
after the baby was found dead with his skull cruestion
on May twelfth. There was a huge hunt for the
kidnapper that went all the way to the top. Even
President Roosevelt got involved later on in the investigation when
(10:19):
he took office in nineteen thirty three. Eventually, a man
was arrested for kidnapping and child murder, put on trial,
found guilty, and executed by electric chair. This whole episode
was dubbed the crime of the Century, even though I
mean it was the nineteen thirties, so there was a
(10:40):
lot more century left, so perhaps they were a bit
premature in their assessment. Now, any marriage has difficulties surviving
when you're raising children, but then your child dies, it
would make sense that afterwards Charles and Ann had some
marital issues That would totally make sense. But the two
(11:04):
stayed together and even while the trial was happening, they
had another son, and just to lower everyone's heart rate,
they did have five children total who survived, and none
of them were kidnapped.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Okay, just so you guys know that they had this
second son.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
And in the aftermath of the kidnapping of Charles Junior,
the crime of the century, the Lindberghs were understandably overwhelmed
by the press, so much press.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
So many people bothering them.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
So in nineteen thirty five they decided to move to Europe.
They lived in England, they lived in France, but one
of the places where they really wanted to live was Germany.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
And you want to be thinking, why the fuck.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Would you move to Germany in the nineteen thirties, because
you I remember, that was when this guy named Adolf
Hitler was in power, freaking Hitler. And here's the thing
about the Limburg's that's real messy, is that both Ann
and Charles frickin' loved Germany. They loved the culture, the
(12:13):
technological advancements, they loved the company. They even thought Hitler
was doing a great job and described him as a
very great man, like an inspired religious leader. And in turn,
the Nazis loved the Limburgs. Ann and Charles attended the
Olympics in Berlin as special guests in nineteen thirty six,
(12:37):
and then the Nazis gave Charles a medal for his
contributions to aviation. The Nazis and the Lindbergh sitting in
a tree kill I and g we love it. The
Limburgs loved Germany so much that in nineteen thirty nine
they were about to move into a house in the
(12:57):
suburbs of Berlin. But alas the Nazis Hitler were committing
genocide and war broke out, you know, that little World
War two, and the Limburgs were like, drat, I guess
we have to go back to the United States. Now,
the stupid United States. That's not nearly as awesome as freakin' Germany.
(13:23):
When the Limbergs got back to the US, they brought
that hazad Germany energy with them. But the problem with
that energy in the United States and in general, was
that Germany was a fascist country, committing heinous atrocities and
attacking the United States's allies. And Charles Limberg in the
(13:45):
US he became a big spokesman against the US.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Entering the war.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
He was like, we need to practice some isolationist stuff
because Germany is super technologically advanced. Hitler is an amazing leader.
The US should just not bother getting involved and Limberg
was like, yeah, I'm saying all this stuff to like
pert he the United States, right, America, first, the way
to protect ourselves is to not get involved with the war,
(14:12):
because again, Germany is freaking amazing. But at the same time,
a lot of the stuff he was saying was a
little sympathetic to fascism and a hint anti Semitic, And
Lindberg was also out there defending Germany. She wrote a
booklet called The Wave of the Future, and the United
States government was like, this is fascist propaganda.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Even Charlotte's Web author E. B.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
White got involved and called her a fascist tramp and
everything that she was saying was absurd. And then when
Pearl Harbor was attacked in nineteen forty one, the Limburg's
finally conceded and we're like, yeah, I guess the US
shouldet involved, you know whatever. After all of that, the
Limburgs were no longer in the good graces of the public,
(15:00):
and their reputations were forever stained throughout their lifetimes. But
the fact that they there were fascist sympathizers, anti Semitic
and thought Hitler was awesome. That can do a thing
or two to your reputation. After the war, they kind
of kept to themselves, but their reputations did recover a
(15:21):
bit and kept writing, and in the nineteen fifties she
wrote a proto feminist book called Gift from the Sea
that became an instant bestseller and also became foundational to
a lot of American women's lives. It was received so
well that people started forgetting about the whole and drooling
over Hitler thing. In the decades after the war, Charles
(15:42):
Limberg kept flying around the world, innovating tech and promoting
air travel.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
And today when you hear his name, you're probably like, ha.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Yeah, that's the plane guy, not that guy who thought
that Hitler was awesome. And Charles Limberg he died in
nineteen seventy four, leaving behind a huge legacy of aviation
and he's still a major figure in American history today.
But he actually left behind even more than that, because
(16:11):
after he died, it was discovered.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
That he was a bit of a serial cheater.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
And he didn't just have one secret family, he had three.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
As we like to say in American filth, what a
guy be.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Right back after these soothing advertisements, So we're finally at
the part where we talk about how Charles Lindberg is
a cheater. But to add some more hot goss to
this episode, it was actually Anne Lindenberg who cheated first.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
How exciting. So after World War Two, Charles and Ann
were having some relationship issues and I'm not trying.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
To sympathize with these Nazi apologists or whatever, but they
had been through a lot. There was the constant public scrutiny,
the kidnapping and death of their first son, hanging out
with Nazis and then being vilified because they were literal villains,
then the war, and after the war, Anne had a
traumatic miscarriage. She was feeling bad, so she started seeing
(17:18):
a psychiatrist. Charles got really pissed off about this. He
was like, how dare you see a psychiatrist? Why would
you need psychiatric treatment? That's for weak people. But also,
I don't want you to be doing that because then
you're gonna start sharing intimate knowledge about our marriage with
some rando. I don't like that one bit, because remember
Charles Limberg, he was a bit of a control freak.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
But Anne went.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Anyway, and Charles kind of stopped talking to her and
they began sleeping separately. A few years later and published
her best selling book. And then a year after that,
she started sleeping with her doctor, whoa major hip.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Of violation right there.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
I think that's like rule number two, don't sleep with
your patience. And that affair lasted for about three years.
And the year after that affair started, Charles Lindberg started
his own Now, some people might be quick to be
like hey and had an affair, ergo, Charles was totally
(18:26):
justified in getting some of his own hanky panky on
the side. But I will contend that it is never
good to cheat. Wow, so brave of me to say.
And also, what we're about to hear about are the
known affairs of Charles Lindberg. But that man was flying
around the world a lot, so who knows what shenanigans
he got into over the course of his lifetime. Yes,
(18:50):
I am throwing major shade and conjecture at this man
because he was mean, controlling, manipulative, and he would just
do whatever the heck he wanted and be away from
home for months and months, and then he would come
back to his family and be a little bitch to
discipline his kids. He'd be like, this isn't a democracy,
this is a dictatorship.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Not a nice guy.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
I would cheat on his ass too, because he's so annoying.
But here's how we know about what happened in Germany.
So in two thousand and three, this was many decades
after Charles Lindberg had died, three German siblings came forward
and like, hey, we're the grown children of Charles Lindberg. Now,
(19:34):
obviously this was a big deal. Everyone was like, what
the hell the esteemed pilot and sympathetic fascist, American hero
and American enemy Charles Lindberg had some extramarital children.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
No freaking way, that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
The three German siblings, two sons, one daughter, said that
they made this discovery in the nineteen eighties. The daughter
had seen a picture of Charles Lindberg in a magazine
article and was like, I recognize that guy. That's the
same guy who would visit mom two or three times year,
but he never said he was Charles frickin Lindburg. Then
(20:11):
the three siblings found one hundred and fifty letters from
Charles Lindberg to their mother that she had put in
a pile of trash, Which makes me think I got
to go through my mom's trash more often. What had
happened was Charles Lindbergh was flying around all over the world.
He was working as the director of Pan American Airlines,
(20:32):
and he was also doing some undercover work for President
Dwight D.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Eisenhower.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Both of these jobs let him scoot around the world
with ease, you know, he was undercover, but he could
also easily get under the covers with other women. One
of those women was Brigitte Hessheimer. In nineteen fifty seven,
she was thirty one and a hat maker, and that
(20:59):
year she met Charles Lindberg and.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
They started their affair together.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
They had three children, and these were the people who
came forward, But Brigitte and Charles never revealed to the
kids that he was their dad.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
He provided for them financially for his entire life, but.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
On their birth certificates their father was listed as unknown. Instead,
he would show up to their house two or three
times a year under the pseudonym CAREW. Kent and be like, yeah,
I'm just your mom's good friend, no more than that.
And their mom was like, yeah, he's a famous writer,
so don't tell any when he comes to visit.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Just keep it on the DL. Also, his alias Carole
Kent similar to Clark Kent. Is it not?
Speaker 2 (21:46):
And isn't that just like egotistical dumbass Lendberg to give
himself the alias of Superman, and Lenberg seemed happy about
having these kids outside of his marriage. He wrote to
Brigitte when he got the news of her first pregnancy.
He said, the news you send is wonderful and I
am tremendously happy about it. I just wish I could
(22:06):
be there with you now. Still there are bound to
be hurt feelings, as there have been with the other lovers.
The other lovers, what other lovers? Well, Brigitte's three kids
weren't his only children across the Atlantic. He had two
more sons. He had these children with a woman named Marietta,
(22:29):
and who was Marietta Well, she was the sister of
Brigitte Hessheimer. Yikes, But that's not all. He also had
another son and daughter with his secretary, Veleska, who also
lived in Germany. And Veleska might have been the one
who had introduced Charles Lindberg to the sisters. So he
(22:52):
at least had seven German children from three different women.
And despite having that many relations in Germany, Charles Lindberg
himself never learned German. He's like, why would I need
to do that. I'm Charles Lindberg. They can just speak English.
So the three women also knew about his other relationships
in Germany and tolerated it.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
I guess.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
I mean, I'd be totally gross down if I had
kids with a dude that my sister had kids with.
But who am I to judge? One time I hooked
up with a ska musician, which is perhaps even worse.
So yeah, Charles would visit a few times a year
and go on his mistress tour of Germany. Writer Rudolph
(23:36):
Schruck wrote a book about these affairs, and he said
Lindberg would land in Frankfurt, drive south and visit Marietta,
then Vilesca, and then continue on to Munich and visit
Brigitte before returning to Frankfurt. He did this for fourteen years.
(23:56):
The only thing that stopped these affairs was Charles Lindberg's
death in nineteen seventy four, and a few days before
he died, he wrote a letter to Brigitte from a
ha spittle. He said, dear Brigitte, my strength is leaving
me every day. It is very difficult just to write.
All I can send to you and the children is
my love. After Brigitte's kids confronted her about their discovery
(24:19):
that Charles Lindbergh was their father, she asked them not
to reveal anything until after her death, so they waited.
She died in two thousand and one, which was the
same year as Anne Lindberg's death, and that year in
two thousand and one, the Hessheimer's approached the Lindbergh children
before going public, and the Lindberg kids they had no
idea that these affairs took place, and they also believed
(24:42):
that Anne also had no clue about what was going on.
After that, the Hesheimer's siblings parentage was confirmed with DNA testing,
but the four other kids in Germany didn't want to
come forward and their mothers also didn't want to talk
about it. The Hesheimer siblings collaborated on a book with
that writer Rudolph Schrock, and it came out in two
(25:03):
thousand and five and talked about the whole thing. It
included some of the letters, but it's a huge bummer
because it's written in German, and much like Lindburg, I
also don't know German, and the book hasn't been translated
into English, which sucks because I want.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
All the hot goss. I guess I have to learn German,
fly to Germany find the book. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Is it being suppressed by the lindberghs IDK. But for
the Lindbergh kids in America, can you freaking imagine your
mom just died and then you discovered your dad had
a secret family, and it was like, JK, it's actually
three secret families. That's insane, that's lunacy, especially after your
(25:49):
dad was such a control freak your whole life. It's like, oh,
are you so controlling just so that you can like
compartmentalize your whole life dad. There's also some very unsubstantiated
claims that Lindberg had even more affairs. Lucky lind was
maybe getting low across the globe. Some people have suggested
that he had an affair with a twenty year old
(26:10):
American stewardess and then also with some women in the Philippines.
The youngest of Charles and Ann's children is Reeve Limberg,
and like her mom, she's also a writer, and she
wrote this about her father's infidelities. I have the feeling
(26:31):
that he was the only person involved with all these
families who knew the full truth. And I keep thinking
that by the time he died in nineteen seventy four,
my father had made his life so complicated that he
had to keep each part separate.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
From the other parts.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
I don't know why he lived this way, and I
don't think I ever will know, But what it means
to me is that every intimate human connection my father
had during his later years was fractured by secrecy. Damn
isn't that sad? Dad's really just be doing what I
(27:07):
so heartbreaking, honestly so. Yet again we end American filth
on a bit of a downer, But every week we
learn a lesson from the episodes, and I think the
lesson we learn here is don't let a man get
on a plane unless you know where the heck he's
going and what he's doing. You ground that motherfucker until
(27:28):
he comes clean about whether or not he has a
secret family. So, yeah, that's the lesson. Don't let men
on planes. Cue the credits. American Felt is a production
of School of Humans and iHeart Podcast. This episode was written, hosted,
and produced by me Gabby Watts. Our theme song is
(27:50):
by Jesse and Eiswanger, and our executive producers are Virginia Prescott,
Elsie Croley, and Brandon Barr.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
You can follow along.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
With the pod on Instagram at American filth Pod and
also make sure to leave a review, leave some stars,
Tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell your dads, tell
your absent fathers, tell your secret family.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
To listen to the podcast and we'll be back next week.
Talk to you guys. Then School of Humans