September 15, 2025 • 32 mins
The kidnapping of Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., the son of the famed aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne, transpired on the fateful night of March 1, 1932, sending shockwaves through the nation. This tragic abduction was not merely an isolated incident; it encapsulated the profound anxieties of a country grappling with the aftermath of the Great Depression. As we delve into the details of this harrowing event, we shall examine the chaotic investigation that ensued, marked by media frenzy and public hysteria. The ramifications of the case are far-reaching, influencing both the evolution of American law enforcement and the role of the media in shaping public perception. Join us as we explore the intricate narrative of this national trauma, from the initial kidnapping to the eventual trial that captured the attention of a nation in crisis.
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Takeaways:
- On the night of March 1, 1932, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. was kidnapped from his crib, which sent shockwaves throughout the nation.
- The infamous kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby served as a metaphor for the vulnerabilities faced by America during the Great Depression.
- The media frenzy surrounding the Lindbergh case not only altered public perception but also fundamentally changed law enforcement practices in the United States.
- The investigation into the kidnapping was chaotic, marked by a lack of coordination between law enforcement and the media's overwhelming influence on public opinion.
- The trial of Bruno Hauptmann, accused of the crime, showcased the profound impact of media on the justice process and public sentiment.
- Ultimately, the Lindbergh case led to the establishment of the Federal Kidnapping Act, significantly expanding federal jurisdiction over kidnapping cases across state lines.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:17):
The night of March 1, 1932,was a cold and rainy in the Sourland
Mountains of central New Jersey.
Inside a newly built isolatedcountry estate called Highfields,
and a light burned in the nursery.
Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr.A toddler with blond curly hair,
was asleep in his cribfighting a cold.
(00:38):
His parents, the most famouscouple in the world, were downstairs.
Around 9:10pm his father, Col.Charles Lindbergh, heard a strange
noise.
He later described it in courttestimony as sounding like, quote,
the top slats of an orange boxfalling off a chair.
End quote.
He thought little of it.
At 10pm the baby's nursewalked into the nursery.
(01:01):
The room was cold.
The window was open.
She went to the crib.
And then a scream.
The crib was empty.
Lindbergh raced upstairs.
He saw the disheveledblankets, the open window, and on
the radiator case beneath it,a plain white envelope.
On the floor there were tracesof mud.
(01:21):
Lindbergh, the man who hadconquered the Atlantic, the hero
defined by his cool control,did what any father would, as he
testified, quote, Iimmediately went into the closet
in our own room adjoining andgot a Springfield rifle.
He ran outside into the darkness.
But there was nothing.
Just rain, the wind and ahorrifying silence.
(01:42):
His child was gone.
And this wasn't just any child.
This was the firstborn son ofCharles Lindbergh, the.
The lone eagle.
In 1927, he had become thesingle most famous and admired man
on earth.
By flying solo from New Yorkto Paris.
He was more than a pilot.
He was a symbol of Americancourage, ingenuity and grace.
(02:06):
He was arguably the firstmodern global celebrity.
The public adored him, thepress stalked him, and his family
represented a kind of American royalty.
But America in 1932 was anation gripped by fear.
Since the Great Crash InOctober of 1929, the Great Depression
had hollowed out the country.
(02:26):
A quarter of the workforce wasunemployed, banks were failing, life
savings were vanishing andfamilies were breaking apart under
the strain.
The suicide rate had skyrocketed.
It was an era of profoundeconomic and psychological insecurity.
Up to this point, Lindberghand his family in their remote mansion
(02:47):
seemed to exist above all ofthat, a symbol of safety and success
in a world of failure.
And that is precisely why thiscrime struck so deep.
The kidnapping of theLindbergh baby was far more than
a tragic abduction.
It was a national trauma thatacted as a powerful metaphor for
the country's own vulnerability.
(03:08):
If the home of America'sgreatest hero could be breached so
easily, if his child could bestolen from its crib, then absolutely
no one was safe.
The crime pierced the veryheart of the American dream at a
time when that dream wasalready under siege.
Over the subsequent weeks, thekidnapping became a spectacle of
unprecedented scale.
(03:29):
It attracted a media frenzythat would both define and derail
the investigation.
Exactly.
And that's our focus today.
We'll argue that thekidnapping of the Lindbergh baby
and the nation's reaction toit reflected the raw anxieties of
a nation in crisis.
But more wide reaching thanthat, the nation's reaction revealed
(03:51):
the dangerous power of a newage media.
One in which the radio wasstill king, the newspapers were still
booming, and the movietheaters and the newsreels were also
becoming more prolific.
Furthermore, in its aftermath,the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby
would permanently alter thelandscape of American law enforcement,
(04:11):
giving birth to the modernFBI's federal power.
Welcome to history's greatest crimes.
I'm Michael.
And I'm Elena.
Stay with us as we follow thechaotic investigation of the Lindbergh
baby kidnapping.
From the bizarre ransom notesto the grim discovery in the woods.
We'll take you inside thecourtroom for the trial of the century.
And finally, we'll explore howthis one tragic crime led to a fundamental
(04:36):
shift in American law andforever changed the nation's relationship
with its heroes.
(05:00):
Before we dive into whathappened in the immediate aftermath
of the kidnapping, let's firstdiscuss a little further who the
Lindberghs were.
Excellent idea.
Charles Augustus Lindbergh Sr.Was the rock star of the 1920s.
If posters were a thing atthis time, his face would have been
plastered on every Americanteen's wall.
(05:21):
Lindbergh was an Americanaviator and military officer.
In May of 1927, he made thefirst non stop flight from New York
to Paris.
He flew alone for over 33hours for a distance of 3600 miles
and set a new flight distanceworld record.
This achievement garneredLindbergh worldwide fame and it stands
(05:44):
as one of the mostconsequential flights in history,
signaling a new era of airtransportation between parts of the
globe.
That's right, Michael.
His achievements spurredsignificant global interest in flight
training, commercial aviationand airmail, which revolutionized
the aviation industry worldwide.
In fact, historians call thisupswing in the aviation industry
(06:07):
the Lindbergh boom.
Following his most famousflight, he was named Time magazine's
first man of the year.
In 1929, President HerbertHoover appointed him to the National
Advisory Committee for aeronautics.
And in 1930, he received theCongressional Gold Medal.
In general, Lindbergh was seenas a wholesome and handsome young
(06:30):
man, a genuine hero incontrast to the cynicism of the Great
Depression.
And we should note thatLindbergh's wife Ann was no slouch
herself.
She herself was an aviator andin 1930 she became the first woman
to receive a US glider pilot license.
Throughout the 1930s sheserved as radio operator and co pilot
(06:52):
to Charles on multiple andexploratory fights and aerial surveys.
Together they explored polarair routes from North America to
Asia and Europe.
And they were the first to flyfrom Africa to South America.
And pairing well withLindbergh's handsome looks, Ann had
a classic refined look,characterized by a slim build, soft
(07:14):
facial features and an elegant demeanor.
After their marriage In May of1929, Charles and Anne Lindbergh
were frequently and intensely photographed.
And the public obsession withthe power couple grew even more when
their first child, Charles Jr.Was born on Ann's 24th birthday in
June of 1930.
(07:36):
Over the next 20 months, aslittle Charles grew from a baby to
a toddler, the public becamefascinated with the little boy, who
the press nicknamed Little Lindy.
And for the most part, theLindbergh's liked the press.
Newsreel companies evenpersuaded Charles Lindbergh to share
home movie footage of his child.
As one historian state stated,the American public felt like they
(07:59):
knew his wife, they knew hisbaby, and they felt that there was
a deeper emotional connectionto him on the part of virtually every
American.
But the same fame and presscoverage that the Lindbergh's enjoyed
came with some downsides.
It made them potential targetsfor crime.
And now In March of 1932,Charles Lindbergh Jr. Had been kidnapped
(08:21):
out of his crib.
In the immediate aftermath ofthe kidnapping, on the night of March
1, the Lindbergh Estate was chaos.
Police arrived, but so didhundreds of reporters, photographers
and morbidly curious sightseers.
They swarmed the property,trampling the muddy ground outside
the nursery window, likelydestroying footprints and other crucial
(08:45):
clues before they could evenbe properly examined.
Investigators found a crudelybuilt three section wooden ladder
abandoned nearby.
One of its rails was split,suggesting it had been broken as
the kidnapper made his descent.
But the most vital piece ofevidence was the envelope left on
(09:05):
the windowsill.
And this note immediatelyestablished the strange, almost alien
nature of the person or peoplethat they were dealing with.
It was written in a scrawledsemi literate hand with bizarre grammatical
constructions and many misspellings.
It began, quote, Dear sir,have $50,000 redeemed.
(09:27):
$25,020 bills.
$15,010 bills and $10,005 bills.
After 24 days we will informyou where to deliver the money.
We warn you for making anyding public or for notify the police
the child is in gut care.
Indication for all letters aresing nature and three holes, end
(09:52):
quote.
The use of the word gut care.
Gut care.
The use of the word signature.
The writer was clearly not anative English speaker, likely German.
And the note ended with astrange unique symbol.
Two interlocking blue circles,a solid red circle in the middle
(10:13):
with three holes punchedthrough the paper.
This symbol would become thekidnapper's calling card, the proof
of authenticity in all future communications.
Lindbergh, desperate anddeeply distrustful of the authorities,
took personal control of the investigation.
He sidelined the New JerseyState Police, led by Colonel H. Norman
(10:34):
Schwarzkopf.
You history buffs out theremight be familiar with that name.
This Norman Schwarzkopf wasthe father of the general from the
Gulf War.
But Lindbergh wanted to be incharge of it all, not the police.
He relied on his own privateteam and made a public plea promising
the kidnappers anonymity ifthey would just return his son.
(10:55):
This led to a flood of hoaxesand false leads.
But it also brought a strangenew character into the drama.
This was Dr. John F. Condon.
Dr. Condon was a 72 year oldretired school principal from the
Bronx.
A mix of local eccentric andpublicity seeker.
He published a letter in theBronx Home News offering his services
(11:19):
as an intermediary and adding$1,000 of his own money to the ransom.
To everyone's astonishment,the kidnappers responded.
A new note arrived acceptingCondon as the go between Lindbergh,
against the advice of manyagreed and Condon adopted the codename
(11:39):
Jaffsee, derived from hisinitials, jfc.
While Lindbergh and Condonpursued this bizarre clandestine
negotiation, the official lawenforcement apparatus was struggling.
And it's important tounderstand just how different that
apparatus was in 1932.
Today, a crime of thismagnitude would immediately become
(12:01):
a massive federal case.
But back then kidnapping was astate crime.
The FBI, then called theBureau of Investigation, had no jurisdiction.
A young ambitious directornamed J. Edgar Hoover could only
offer resources and technical.
Assistance, making it more challenging.
Forensic science was still inits infancy at the time.
(12:24):
The FBI's first official crimelab was only just being established
in the summer of 1932 with asingle full time examiner.
Its primary tools werehandwriting analysis, ballistics
and early chemical tests.
The kind of coordinated, multiagency high tech investigation we
expect today simply didn'texist at the time.
(12:45):
And this particularinvestigation was particularly chaotic
since it was now being run byan aggrieved father and a retired
school principal.
That chaos was then magnifieda third thousand times over by the
press.
Front pages of newspapersscreamed Lindy's baby snatched.
The nation holds its breath asthe greatest manhunt in history gets
(13:08):
underway for the kidnappers ofthe famous Eaglet.
End quote.
And it wasn't just the newspapers.
As historian Tom Dohertydetails in his book, Little Lindy
Is Kidnapped, this was thefirst time the three great pillars
of the modern media, print,radio and film newsreels, all converged
on a single unfolding story.
(13:29):
New York city alone had 12daily newspapers and they sent armies
of reporters to New Jersey.
Telegraph wires were strung upin the little town of Hopewell, near
the Lindbergh estate.
Radio announcers gavebreathless minute by minute updates.
And the home movies thatLindbergh had shared with the press
were now shown in theaters aspart of the newsreel.
(13:51):
Within a day, it was thebiggest story in the world.
Looking back, it's possiblethat the media coverage of the kidnapping
might have helped.
Maybe it would have helpedlocate the kidnappers earlier since
everyone would be looking for them.
But unfortunately, the mediafrenzy had a direct and devastating
impact on the investigation.
(14:12):
We had already mentioned howthe press and the public contaminated
the crime scene, but thedynamic was more complex than that.
Lynsburg's fame was a creationof the very media he now despised
for its intrusion.
His celebrity made the crimean irresistible, all consuming story.
At that point, Lindberghattempted to shut everyone out, not
(14:33):
just the press, but also the police.
He began to hoard informationrather than share it with the authorities.
And he continued to pursue hisown channels like the highly questionable
Jaff C.
Condon, the very engine thathad made Charles Lindbergh a hero,
became the primary obstacle tofinding his son.
The media needed a story andLindbergh, in trying to control it,
(14:55):
inadvertently supplied themwith far more dramatic and tragic
one.
Through Jaffsy, a series ofbizarre communications and meetings
were arranged.
The kidnapper, who calledhimself John, instructed Condon to
meet him in Woodlands Cemeteryin the Bronx.
Condon went, and in thedarkness he spoke with a man who
(15:17):
stayed in the shadows, a manwith a thick German accent.
A second meeting was arrangedat another cemetery, St Raymond's
this time Lindbergh himselfwent along.
Waiting in a car a hundredyards away, he heard the man's voice
call out, hey, Doctor.
But he never saw his face.
The kidnapper provided a tokenof proof the baby's Sleeping suit
(15:39):
which Lindbergh identified.
And convinced he was dealingwith the real culprits, Lindbergh
authorized the ransom payment.
On the night of April 2, 1932,Dr. Condon met Cemetery John for
the final time.
He handed over a boxcontaining $50,000 in cash, a mix
of regular bills and goldcertificates, all with their serial
(16:00):
numbers meticulously recorded.
In return, Cemetery John gaveCondon a note.
It claimed the baby was safeand could be found on a boat named
Nellie moored near Martha's Vineyard.
Lindbergh chartered a planeand flew over the coastline himself,
desperately searching.
But there was no boat named Nellie.
There was no baby.
(16:21):
It was a cruel, devastating hoax.
The money was gone and so washis son.
(16:47):
For five more weeks, theLindberghs and the nation clung to
a sliver of hope.
Then, on May 12, 72 days afterthe kidnapping, a truck driver named
William Allen pulled over torelieve himself in a patch of woods
just off a highway in MountRose, New Jersey, less than five
miles from the Lindbergh estate.
(17:07):
There, in a shallow makeshiftgrave, he saw something horrifying.
It was the badly decomposedbody of a small child.
The child had been dead forabout two months.
The coroner's report was brutal.
The cause of the death was amassive fracture of the skull.
It's widely believed that thekidnapper, perhaps startled or clumsy,
dropped the baby when theladder broke on a way down from the
(17:30):
nursery window.
The kidnapping had been amurder from almost the very first
moment Charles Lindbergh.
Was called to the morgue in Trenton.
The body was almostunrecognizable, but he was able to
make a positive identificationbased on a distinctive overlap of
the baby's toes and the dental records.
(17:50):
So the search was over.
But at that point, nationalgrief turned to rage.
President Herbert Hooverissued a powerful statement declaring
he had, quote, directed thelaw enforcement agencies and several
secret services of the federalgovernment to make the kidnapping
and murder of the Lindberghbaby a never to be forgotten case,
(18:10):
never to be relaxed untilthose criminals are implacably brought
to justice.
End quote.
The hunt for the kidnapper wasnow a hunt for the killer.
Investigators followedthousands of dead end leads, but
they had one crucial advantagethe the ransom money.
Before paying it, the TreasuryDepartment had recorded the serial
(18:32):
numbers of every bill and alarge portion of it was in gold certificates,
a form of currency that wasabout to become very conspicuous.
This was one of the greatlucky breaks in the case.
In April of 1933, PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt, as part of
his New Deal Reforms to combatthe Depression issued Executive Order
(18:52):
6102, recalling all goldcertificates from circulation.
Suddenly, spending one ofthose bills was like waving a red
flag.
And slowly the flag startedpopping up.
A ten dollar gold certificatehere, a five dollar one there.
Federal investigatorsmeticulously tracked each one, noticing
(19:14):
they were often spent at shopsalong the Lexington Avenue subway
line.
In New York, which ran throughthe predominantly German American
neighborhood of Yorkville, thenet was tightening.
The final break came onSeptember 15, 1934.
A gas station attendant in theBronx received a $10 gold certificate
(19:34):
from a customer paying forfive gallons of gas.
The attendant thought the billlooked suspicious.
And per his company's policy,he did something simple but brilliant.
On the margin of the bill, hewrote down the man's license plate
number.
Investigators traced the plate.
It was registered to a 1930Dodge sedan owned by a ger German
(19:56):
immigrant carpenter namedBrumo Richard Houtman.
And when police arrested him,at first he denied everything.
But in his wallet they found a$20 Lindbergh ransom bill.
And then in his garage, hiddeninside a tin can and concealed behind
some lumber, they found the jackpot.
A staggering $14,600 of theremaining ransom money.
(20:19):
Haltman was indicted forextortion and murder, and the stage
was set for what the press hadalready dubbed the the trial of the
century.
It's almost impossible tooverstate the spectacle that descended
on the small county seat ofFlemington, New Jersey in January
1935.
The great journalist H.L.
mencken, who was there,famously called it, quote, the greatest
(20:43):
story since the Resurrection.
End quote.
The town's population exploded.
700 reporters moved in.
Western Union strung 130,000ftof new telegraph range wire through
the trees.
The courtroom itself wasmobbed every single day, with tickets
being scalped for exorbitant prices.
(21:05):
A crowd of thousands stoodoutside the courthouse daily shouting,
kill Helpman when he wasbrought to and from the jail.
Historians have suggested thatthe public, traumatized by the crime
and battered by years of theDepression, desperately needed a
villain, a single identifiablesource for their anxieties.
(21:25):
And in Houtman, they found theperfect target.
He was a German immigrant witha criminal record back home who spoke
with a thick accent and whohad entered the country illegally.
The media fed this hunger,portraying him as, quote, public
enemy number one.
The media circus even invadedthe courtroom itself.
The judge banned stillphotography during testimony, but
(21:48):
photographers still snappictures with flashbulbs popping.
And in an even more flagrantviolation, newsreel company secretly
filmed Houtman's Testimonyusing a hidden camera in a soundproof
box, releasing the footage totheaters while the trial was still
going on.
Apparently, it was so bad thatin reaction, the American Bar association
(22:11):
adopted canon 35.
This was a rule that bannedcameras from courtrooms across the
country for nearly 50 years.
Inside this courtroom circus,the prosecution, led by New Jersey
Attorney General DavidWilentz, built its case.
It was entirelycircumstantial, but it was powerful.
It rested on three mainpillars of evidence.
(22:34):
First, the money.
Houtman's possession of nearly$15,000 of the ransom cash.
Second, the handwriting.
The state called eight of thenation's top handwriting experts.
One by one, they testifiedthat the writing on the 15 ransom
notes was, unequivocally Bruno Hauptmann's.
They pointed to dozens of similarities.
(22:56):
The unique way that he formedhis T's and X's, his tendency to
write a backwards N, and hisconsistent misspellings of specific
words.
And third, and perhaps mostdamningly, the wood.
The prosecution brought in awood expert from the US Forest Products
Laboratory named Arthur Koehler.
(23:16):
He had spent 18 monthspainstakingly tracing the lumber
used to make the kidnap ladder.
He testified that oneparticular piece of the ladder was
made of yellow pine that hadbeen milled with a dull planter,
leaving distinctive marks.
He then showed the jury afloorboard taken from Houtman's attic.
The wood grain, the growthrings and the planter marks were
(23:39):
a perfect match.
It appears that Houtman hadused wood from his own attic to make
the ladder even more revealing.
The wood expert demonstratedthat four square nail holes lined
up exactly with the nail holesin the attic joists where the board
had once been.
It was a stunning piece offorensic detective work.
(24:00):
It was the kind of scientificevidence that was new and incredibly
compelling.
To a 1930s jury, it seemedlike an open and shut case.
When Houptman took the stand,his defense was simple, and to many
it was preposterous.
He claimed he was completely innocent.
The money, he said, had beenleft with him for safekeeping by
(24:21):
a friend and former businesspartner, a man named Isidor Fish.
Houptmann testified that Fischgave him a shoebox in December 1933
before leaving for Germany,where he subsequently died of tuberculosis.
Haltmann said he put the boxin a closet and forgot about it until
he found it water damaged inAugust 1934.
Only then, he claimed, did hediscover it was full of money and
(24:43):
began spending it.
Because Fish owned him money.
The prosecution and the pressridiculed the Fish story.
The accused Isadore Fish wasconveniently dead and couldn't corroborate
or deny it.
It sounded like a desperate lie.
But was it?
That's the question that hashaunted this case for over 90 years.
(25:04):
Despite that mountain ofevidence, there are profound and
troubling questions about the verdict.
The entire case was circumstantial.
No witness ever placedHaltmann at the Lindbergh home on
the night of the crime.
And no fingerprints of hiswere ever found on the ladder, the
ransom notes or anywhere inthe nursery.
Several key witnesses for theprosecution had serious credibility
(25:26):
issues.
For one, Dr. Condon.
Two.
Jaffsee, as we know him, hadfailed to identify Haltman in a initial
police lineup, only laterbecoming certain he was Cemetery
John Charles Lindbergh himselftestified that the voice he heard
shouting in the cemeterybelonged to Houtman, a seemingly
impossible identification froma hundred yards away on a windy night.
(25:49):
There was also seriousallegations of police misconduct.
Witnesses claimed they werepressured to identify Houtman.
Evidence may have beentampered with.
One of the most suspiciouspieces of evidence was Dr. Condon's
phone number and address foundscrawled on a closet door frame inside
Haltman's home.
(26:10):
Haltman claimed he never wroteit, and years later, a reporter for
the New York Daily Newsallegedly admitted to a lawyer that
he had written the numberhimself to spice up the story.
And this is where we see theperspectives of historians diverge.
Pulitzer Prize winningLindbergh biographer A. Scott Berg,
while acknowledging the rabidpress and the flaws in the police
(26:33):
work, ultimately concludesthat there remained a veritable mountain
of undisputable evidenceagainst Houtman.
But other historians, likeLloyd Gardner, strongly disagree.
In his book, the Case thatNever Dies, Gardner argues that whether
Heltman was guilty or not, thestate simply did not have sufficient
(26:54):
evidence to convict him offirst degree murder.
He points to compellingevidence that the prosecution deliberately
ignored.
Evidence suggestingaccomplices, perhaps an inside job
involving the household staffwhose alibis were shaky.
The prosecution, Gardnerargues, needed a simple narrative
(27:14):
for the public, a lone evil foreigner.
So they ignored anything thatcomplicated that story.
It seemed the trial was aperfect product of its time.
I think that's exactly right.
It showcased the exciting newpower of forensic science.
But it was a science thatlacked the rigorous standards we
demand today.
(27:36):
It exposed the profounddangers of a justice system completely
overwhelmed by public pressureand media spectacle.
The kind of frenzy that wouldresult in an immediate mistrial.
Today, the verdict may havebeen less about proving guilt beyond
a reasonable doubt and moreabout fulfilling a national need
for vengeance and closure in atime of deep uncertainty.
(28:20):
On February 13, 1935, after 11hours of deliberation, the jury delivered
its verdict.
Bruno Richard Houtman wasguilty of murder in the first degree.
The sentence was death.
Houtman continued to professhis innocence through a series of
failed appeals.
He was offered a deal, life inprison if he confessed.
(28:40):
But he refused.
On April 3, 1936, he wasexecuted in the electric chair at
the New Jersey State Prison.
He went to his deathproclaiming his innocence.
So Haltmann was executed.
But the case was far from over.
In fact, its most significantand lasting legacy was already in
place.
The immense public outrageover the crime had forced the hand
(29:02):
of the US Congress.
This is the so what?
Factor.
This is why the case trulymatters in the grand scheme of American
history.
Precisely in the summer of1932, just weeks after the baby's
body was found, Congresspassed the Federal Kidnapping act,
universally known as theLindbergh Law.
Before this, as we discussed,kidnapping was a state crime.
(29:25):
And this made it incrediblydifficult for law enforcement to
pursue criminals who crossedstate state lines.
The Lindbergh Law changed everything.
It made kidnapping a federaloffense if the victim was transported
across state lines or ifkidnappers used the mail to send
ransom notes.
It also created a legalpresumption that if a victim was
(29:46):
not released within 24 hours,they had been transported across
state lines, giving thefederal government jurisdiction.
And that meant givingjurisdiction to J. Edgar Hoover,
the director of.
Of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Exactly.
This law was a cornerstone inthe transformation of Hoover's small
Bureau of Investigation intothe powerful nationwide Federal Bureau
(30:10):
of Investigation, the FBI,that we know today.
The case and trial marked amassive expansion of federal police
power into areas previouslyreserved for the states.
Fueled by the public's fearand anger over the Lindbergh case,
the federal government in themid-1930s was empowered to become
the nation's primary crime fighter.
(30:33):
In the end, the state of NewJersey executed Bruno Houptmann.
But the crime he was convictedof had already claimed more than
one victim.
It claimed Charles Lindbergh Jr.
It claimed whatever privacyand peace the Lindbergh family had
hoped to find in their estatein New Jersey.
They were so hounded by thepress and received so many threats
against their second son,John, that they fled the country
(30:56):
to live in Europe for several years.
And in many ways, the crimeclaimed a piece of America's innocence.
It became a dark mirror forthe nation.
It reflected our deepestanxieties during the Great Depression,
the fear that the socialfabric was tearing apart.
It demonstrated the terrifyingpower of modern media to create a
(31:17):
spectacle out of privatetragedy, blurring the lines between
news and entertainment.
And it raised profoundquestions about justice, celebrity,
and the possibility of a fairtrial in the face of overwhelming
public opinion.
Questions we are stillgrappling with today.
Charles Lindbergh, the herowho had conquered the sky, was brought
(31:39):
tragically and brutally downto earth, his personal agony becoming
public property.
The crime of the centurywasn't just about one family's unimaginable
loss.
It was about a nationconfronting the terrifying reality
that not even.
Even its greatest heroes weresafe from the darkness.
Thank you for listening tohistory's greatest crimes.
(31:59):
I'm Elena.
And I'm Michael.
Until next time.
Stay curious, Sam.
The night of March 1, 1932,was a cold and rainy in the Sourland
Mountains of central New Jersey.
Inside a newly built isolatedcountry estate called Highfields,
and a light burned in the nursery.
Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr.A toddler with blond curly hair,
was asleep in his cribfighting a cold.
(00:38):
His parents, the most famouscouple in the world, were downstairs.
Around 9:10pm his father, Col.Charles Lindbergh, heard a strange
noise.
He later described it in courttestimony as sounding like, quote,
the top slats of an orange boxfalling off a chair.
End quote.
He thought little of it.
At 10pm the baby's nursewalked into the nursery.
(01:01):
The room was cold.
The window was open.
She went to the crib.
And then a scream.
The crib was empty.
Lindbergh raced upstairs.
He saw the disheveledblankets, the open window, and on
the radiator case beneath it,a plain white envelope.
On the floor there were tracesof mud.
(01:21):
Lindbergh, the man who hadconquered the Atlantic, the hero
defined by his cool control,did what any father would, as he
testified, quote, Iimmediately went into the closet
in our own room adjoining andgot a Springfield rifle.
He ran outside into the darkness.
But there was nothing.
Just rain, the wind and ahorrifying silence.
(01:42):
His child was gone.
And this wasn't just any child.
This was the firstborn son ofCharles Lindbergh, the.
The lone eagle.
In 1927, he had become thesingle most famous and admired man
on earth.
By flying solo from New Yorkto Paris.
He was more than a pilot.
He was a symbol of Americancourage, ingenuity and grace.
(02:06):
He was arguably the firstmodern global celebrity.
The public adored him, thepress stalked him, and his family
represented a kind of American royalty.
But America in 1932 was anation gripped by fear.
Since the Great Crash InOctober of 1929, the Great Depression
had hollowed out the country.
(02:26):
A quarter of the workforce wasunemployed, banks were failing, life
savings were vanishing andfamilies were breaking apart under
the strain.
The suicide rate had skyrocketed.
It was an era of profoundeconomic and psychological insecurity.
Up to this point, Lindberghand his family in their remote mansion
(02:47):
seemed to exist above all ofthat, a symbol of safety and success
in a world of failure.
And that is precisely why thiscrime struck so deep.
The kidnapping of theLindbergh baby was far more than
a tragic abduction.
It was a national trauma thatacted as a powerful metaphor for
the country's own vulnerability.
(03:08):
If the home of America'sgreatest hero could be breached so
easily, if his child could bestolen from its crib, then absolutely
no one was safe.
The crime pierced the veryheart of the American dream at a
time when that dream wasalready under siege.
Over the subsequent weeks, thekidnapping became a spectacle of
unprecedented scale.
(03:29):
It attracted a media frenzythat would both define and derail
the investigation.
Exactly.
And that's our focus today.
We'll argue that thekidnapping of the Lindbergh baby
and the nation's reaction toit reflected the raw anxieties of
a nation in crisis.
But more wide reaching thanthat, the nation's reaction revealed
(03:51):
the dangerous power of a newage media.
One in which the radio wasstill king, the newspapers were still
booming, and the movietheaters and the newsreels were also
becoming more prolific.
Furthermore, in its aftermath,the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby
would permanently alter thelandscape of American law enforcement,
(04:11):
giving birth to the modernFBI's federal power.
Welcome to history's greatest crimes.
I'm Michael.
And I'm Elena.
Stay with us as we follow thechaotic investigation of the Lindbergh
baby kidnapping.
From the bizarre ransom notesto the grim discovery in the woods.
We'll take you inside thecourtroom for the trial of the century.
And finally, we'll explore howthis one tragic crime led to a fundamental
(04:36):
shift in American law andforever changed the nation's relationship
with its heroes.
(05:00):
Before we dive into whathappened in the immediate aftermath
of the kidnapping, let's firstdiscuss a little further who the
Lindberghs were.
Excellent idea.
Charles Augustus Lindbergh Sr.Was the rock star of the 1920s.
If posters were a thing atthis time, his face would have been
plastered on every Americanteen's wall.
(05:21):
Lindbergh was an Americanaviator and military officer.
In May of 1927, he made thefirst non stop flight from New York
to Paris.
He flew alone for over 33hours for a distance of 3600 miles
and set a new flight distanceworld record.
This achievement garneredLindbergh worldwide fame and it stands
(05:44):
as one of the mostconsequential flights in history,
signaling a new era of airtransportation between parts of the
globe.
That's right, Michael.
His achievements spurredsignificant global interest in flight
training, commercial aviationand airmail, which revolutionized
the aviation industry worldwide.
In fact, historians call thisupswing in the aviation industry
(06:07):
the Lindbergh boom.
Following his most famousflight, he was named Time magazine's
first man of the year.
In 1929, President HerbertHoover appointed him to the National
Advisory Committee for aeronautics.
And in 1930, he received theCongressional Gold Medal.
In general, Lindbergh was seenas a wholesome and handsome young
(06:30):
man, a genuine hero incontrast to the cynicism of the Great
Depression.
And we should note thatLindbergh's wife Ann was no slouch
herself.
She herself was an aviator andin 1930 she became the first woman
to receive a US glider pilot license.
Throughout the 1930s sheserved as radio operator and co pilot
(06:52):
to Charles on multiple andexploratory fights and aerial surveys.
Together they explored polarair routes from North America to
Asia and Europe.
And they were the first to flyfrom Africa to South America.
And pairing well withLindbergh's handsome looks, Ann had
a classic refined look,characterized by a slim build, soft
(07:14):
facial features and an elegant demeanor.
After their marriage In May of1929, Charles and Anne Lindbergh
were frequently and intensely photographed.
And the public obsession withthe power couple grew even more when
their first child, Charles Jr.Was born on Ann's 24th birthday in
June of 1930.
(07:36):
Over the next 20 months, aslittle Charles grew from a baby to
a toddler, the public becamefascinated with the little boy, who
the press nicknamed Little Lindy.
And for the most part, theLindbergh's liked the press.
Newsreel companies evenpersuaded Charles Lindbergh to share
home movie footage of his child.
As one historian state stated,the American public felt like they
(07:59):
knew his wife, they knew hisbaby, and they felt that there was
a deeper emotional connectionto him on the part of virtually every
American.
But the same fame and presscoverage that the Lindbergh's enjoyed
came with some downsides.
It made them potential targetsfor crime.
And now In March of 1932,Charles Lindbergh Jr. Had been kidnapped
(08:21):
out of his crib.
In the immediate aftermath ofthe kidnapping, on the night of March
1, the Lindbergh Estate was chaos.
Police arrived, but so didhundreds of reporters, photographers
and morbidly curious sightseers.
They swarmed the property,trampling the muddy ground outside
the nursery window, likelydestroying footprints and other crucial
(08:45):
clues before they could evenbe properly examined.
Investigators found a crudelybuilt three section wooden ladder
abandoned nearby.
One of its rails was split,suggesting it had been broken as
the kidnapper made his descent.
But the most vital piece ofevidence was the envelope left on
(09:05):
the windowsill.
And this note immediatelyestablished the strange, almost alien
nature of the person or peoplethat they were dealing with.
It was written in a scrawledsemi literate hand with bizarre grammatical
constructions and many misspellings.
It began, quote, Dear sir,have $50,000 redeemed.
(09:27):
$25,020 bills.
$15,010 bills and $10,005 bills.
After 24 days we will informyou where to deliver the money.
We warn you for making anyding public or for notify the police
the child is in gut care.
Indication for all letters aresing nature and three holes, end
(09:52):
quote.
The use of the word gut care.
Gut care.
The use of the word signature.
The writer was clearly not anative English speaker, likely German.
And the note ended with astrange unique symbol.
Two interlocking blue circles,a solid red circle in the middle
(10:13):
with three holes punchedthrough the paper.
This symbol would become thekidnapper's calling card, the proof
of authenticity in all future communications.
Lindbergh, desperate anddeeply distrustful of the authorities,
took personal control of the investigation.
He sidelined the New JerseyState Police, led by Colonel H. Norman
(10:34):
Schwarzkopf.
You history buffs out theremight be familiar with that name.
This Norman Schwarzkopf wasthe father of the general from the
Gulf War.
But Lindbergh wanted to be incharge of it all, not the police.
He relied on his own privateteam and made a public plea promising
the kidnappers anonymity ifthey would just return his son.
(10:55):
This led to a flood of hoaxesand false leads.
But it also brought a strangenew character into the drama.
This was Dr. John F. Condon.
Dr. Condon was a 72 year oldretired school principal from the
Bronx.
A mix of local eccentric andpublicity seeker.
He published a letter in theBronx Home News offering his services
(11:19):
as an intermediary and adding$1,000 of his own money to the ransom.
To everyone's astonishment,the kidnappers responded.
A new note arrived acceptingCondon as the go between Lindbergh,
against the advice of manyagreed and Condon adopted the codename
(11:39):
Jaffsee, derived from hisinitials, jfc.
While Lindbergh and Condonpursued this bizarre clandestine
negotiation, the official lawenforcement apparatus was struggling.
And it's important tounderstand just how different that
apparatus was in 1932.
Today, a crime of thismagnitude would immediately become
(12:01):
a massive federal case.
But back then kidnapping was astate crime.
The FBI, then called theBureau of Investigation, had no jurisdiction.
A young ambitious directornamed J. Edgar Hoover could only
offer resources and technical.
Assistance, making it more challenging.
Forensic science was still inits infancy at the time.
(12:24):
The FBI's first official crimelab was only just being established
in the summer of 1932 with asingle full time examiner.
Its primary tools werehandwriting analysis, ballistics
and early chemical tests.
The kind of coordinated, multiagency high tech investigation we
expect today simply didn'texist at the time.
(12:45):
And this particularinvestigation was particularly chaotic
since it was now being run byan aggrieved father and a retired
school principal.
That chaos was then magnifieda third thousand times over by the
press.
Front pages of newspapersscreamed Lindy's baby snatched.
The nation holds its breath asthe greatest manhunt in history gets
(13:08):
underway for the kidnappers ofthe famous Eaglet.
End quote.
And it wasn't just the newspapers.
As historian Tom Dohertydetails in his book, Little Lindy
Is Kidnapped, this was thefirst time the three great pillars
of the modern media, print,radio and film newsreels, all converged
on a single unfolding story.
(13:29):
New York city alone had 12daily newspapers and they sent armies
of reporters to New Jersey.
Telegraph wires were strung upin the little town of Hopewell, near
the Lindbergh estate.
Radio announcers gavebreathless minute by minute updates.
And the home movies thatLindbergh had shared with the press
were now shown in theaters aspart of the newsreel.
(13:51):
Within a day, it was thebiggest story in the world.
Looking back, it's possiblethat the media coverage of the kidnapping
might have helped.
Maybe it would have helpedlocate the kidnappers earlier since
everyone would be looking for them.
But unfortunately, the mediafrenzy had a direct and devastating
impact on the investigation.
(14:12):
We had already mentioned howthe press and the public contaminated
the crime scene, but thedynamic was more complex than that.
Lynsburg's fame was a creationof the very media he now despised
for its intrusion.
His celebrity made the crimean irresistible, all consuming story.
At that point, Lindberghattempted to shut everyone out, not
(14:33):
just the press, but also the police.
He began to hoard informationrather than share it with the authorities.
And he continued to pursue hisown channels like the highly questionable
Jaff C.
Condon, the very engine thathad made Charles Lindbergh a hero,
became the primary obstacle tofinding his son.
The media needed a story andLindbergh, in trying to control it,
(14:55):
inadvertently supplied themwith far more dramatic and tragic
one.
Through Jaffsy, a series ofbizarre communications and meetings
were arranged.
The kidnapper, who calledhimself John, instructed Condon to
meet him in Woodlands Cemeteryin the Bronx.
Condon went, and in thedarkness he spoke with a man who
(15:17):
stayed in the shadows, a manwith a thick German accent.
A second meeting was arrangedat another cemetery, St Raymond's
this time Lindbergh himselfwent along.
Waiting in a car a hundredyards away, he heard the man's voice
call out, hey, Doctor.
But he never saw his face.
The kidnapper provided a tokenof proof the baby's Sleeping suit
(15:39):
which Lindbergh identified.
And convinced he was dealingwith the real culprits, Lindbergh
authorized the ransom payment.
On the night of April 2, 1932,Dr. Condon met Cemetery John for
the final time.
He handed over a boxcontaining $50,000 in cash, a mix
of regular bills and goldcertificates, all with their serial
(16:00):
numbers meticulously recorded.
In return, Cemetery John gaveCondon a note.
It claimed the baby was safeand could be found on a boat named
Nellie moored near Martha's Vineyard.
Lindbergh chartered a planeand flew over the coastline himself,
desperately searching.
But there was no boat named Nellie.
There was no baby.
(16:21):
It was a cruel, devastating hoax.
The money was gone and so washis son.
(16:47):
For five more weeks, theLindberghs and the nation clung to
a sliver of hope.
Then, on May 12, 72 days afterthe kidnapping, a truck driver named
William Allen pulled over torelieve himself in a patch of woods
just off a highway in MountRose, New Jersey, less than five
miles from the Lindbergh estate.
(17:07):
There, in a shallow makeshiftgrave, he saw something horrifying.
It was the badly decomposedbody of a small child.
The child had been dead forabout two months.
The coroner's report was brutal.
The cause of the death was amassive fracture of the skull.
It's widely believed that thekidnapper, perhaps startled or clumsy,
dropped the baby when theladder broke on a way down from the
(17:30):
nursery window.
The kidnapping had been amurder from almost the very first
moment Charles Lindbergh.
Was called to the morgue in Trenton.
The body was almostunrecognizable, but he was able to
make a positive identificationbased on a distinctive overlap of
the baby's toes and the dental records.
(17:50):
So the search was over.
But at that point, nationalgrief turned to rage.
President Herbert Hooverissued a powerful statement declaring
he had, quote, directed thelaw enforcement agencies and several
secret services of the federalgovernment to make the kidnapping
and murder of the Lindberghbaby a never to be forgotten case,
(18:10):
never to be relaxed untilthose criminals are implacably brought
to justice.
End quote.
The hunt for the kidnapper wasnow a hunt for the killer.
Investigators followedthousands of dead end leads, but
they had one crucial advantagethe the ransom money.
Before paying it, the TreasuryDepartment had recorded the serial
(18:32):
numbers of every bill and alarge portion of it was in gold certificates,
a form of currency that wasabout to become very conspicuous.
This was one of the greatlucky breaks in the case.
In April of 1933, PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt, as part of
his New Deal Reforms to combatthe Depression issued Executive Order
(18:52):
6102, recalling all goldcertificates from circulation.
Suddenly, spending one ofthose bills was like waving a red
flag.
And slowly the flag startedpopping up.
A ten dollar gold certificatehere, a five dollar one there.
Federal investigatorsmeticulously tracked each one, noticing
(19:14):
they were often spent at shopsalong the Lexington Avenue subway
line.
In New York, which ran throughthe predominantly German American
neighborhood of Yorkville, thenet was tightening.
The final break came onSeptember 15, 1934.
A gas station attendant in theBronx received a $10 gold certificate
(19:34):
from a customer paying forfive gallons of gas.
The attendant thought the billlooked suspicious.
And per his company's policy,he did something simple but brilliant.
On the margin of the bill, hewrote down the man's license plate
number.
Investigators traced the plate.
It was registered to a 1930Dodge sedan owned by a ger German
(19:56):
immigrant carpenter namedBrumo Richard Houtman.
And when police arrested him,at first he denied everything.
But in his wallet they found a$20 Lindbergh ransom bill.
And then in his garage, hiddeninside a tin can and concealed behind
some lumber, they found the jackpot.
A staggering $14,600 of theremaining ransom money.
(20:19):
Haltman was indicted forextortion and murder, and the stage
was set for what the press hadalready dubbed the the trial of the
century.
It's almost impossible tooverstate the spectacle that descended
on the small county seat ofFlemington, New Jersey in January
1935.
The great journalist H.L.
mencken, who was there,famously called it, quote, the greatest
(20:43):
story since the Resurrection.
End quote.
The town's population exploded.
700 reporters moved in.
Western Union strung 130,000ftof new telegraph range wire through
the trees.
The courtroom itself wasmobbed every single day, with tickets
being scalped for exorbitant prices.
(21:05):
A crowd of thousands stoodoutside the courthouse daily shouting,
kill Helpman when he wasbrought to and from the jail.
Historians have suggested thatthe public, traumatized by the crime
and battered by years of theDepression, desperately needed a
villain, a single identifiablesource for their anxieties.
(21:25):
And in Houtman, they found theperfect target.
He was a German immigrant witha criminal record back home who spoke
with a thick accent and whohad entered the country illegally.
The media fed this hunger,portraying him as, quote, public
enemy number one.
The media circus even invadedthe courtroom itself.
The judge banned stillphotography during testimony, but
(21:48):
photographers still snappictures with flashbulbs popping.
And in an even more flagrantviolation, newsreel company secretly
filmed Houtman's Testimonyusing a hidden camera in a soundproof
box, releasing the footage totheaters while the trial was still
going on.
Apparently, it was so bad thatin reaction, the American Bar association
(22:11):
adopted canon 35.
This was a rule that bannedcameras from courtrooms across the
country for nearly 50 years.
Inside this courtroom circus,the prosecution, led by New Jersey
Attorney General DavidWilentz, built its case.
It was entirelycircumstantial, but it was powerful.
It rested on three mainpillars of evidence.
(22:34):
First, the money.
Houtman's possession of nearly$15,000 of the ransom cash.
Second, the handwriting.
The state called eight of thenation's top handwriting experts.
One by one, they testifiedthat the writing on the 15 ransom
notes was, unequivocally Bruno Hauptmann's.
They pointed to dozens of similarities.
(22:56):
The unique way that he formedhis T's and X's, his tendency to
write a backwards N, and hisconsistent misspellings of specific
words.
And third, and perhaps mostdamningly, the wood.
The prosecution brought in awood expert from the US Forest Products
Laboratory named Arthur Koehler.
(23:16):
He had spent 18 monthspainstakingly tracing the lumber
used to make the kidnap ladder.
He testified that oneparticular piece of the ladder was
made of yellow pine that hadbeen milled with a dull planter,
leaving distinctive marks.
He then showed the jury afloorboard taken from Houtman's attic.
The wood grain, the growthrings and the planter marks were
(23:39):
a perfect match.
It appears that Houtman hadused wood from his own attic to make
the ladder even more revealing.
The wood expert demonstratedthat four square nail holes lined
up exactly with the nail holesin the attic joists where the board
had once been.
It was a stunning piece offorensic detective work.
(24:00):
It was the kind of scientificevidence that was new and incredibly
compelling.
To a 1930s jury, it seemedlike an open and shut case.
When Houptman took the stand,his defense was simple, and to many
it was preposterous.
He claimed he was completely innocent.
The money, he said, had beenleft with him for safekeeping by
(24:21):
a friend and former businesspartner, a man named Isidor Fish.
Houptmann testified that Fischgave him a shoebox in December 1933
before leaving for Germany,where he subsequently died of tuberculosis.
Haltmann said he put the boxin a closet and forgot about it until
he found it water damaged inAugust 1934.
Only then, he claimed, did hediscover it was full of money and
(24:43):
began spending it.
Because Fish owned him money.
The prosecution and the pressridiculed the Fish story.
The accused Isadore Fish wasconveniently dead and couldn't corroborate
or deny it.
It sounded like a desperate lie.
But was it?
That's the question that hashaunted this case for over 90 years.
(25:04):
Despite that mountain ofevidence, there are profound and
troubling questions about the verdict.
The entire case was circumstantial.
No witness ever placedHaltmann at the Lindbergh home on
the night of the crime.
And no fingerprints of hiswere ever found on the ladder, the
ransom notes or anywhere inthe nursery.
Several key witnesses for theprosecution had serious credibility
(25:26):
issues.
For one, Dr. Condon.
Two.
Jaffsee, as we know him, hadfailed to identify Haltman in a initial
police lineup, only laterbecoming certain he was Cemetery
John Charles Lindbergh himselftestified that the voice he heard
shouting in the cemeterybelonged to Houtman, a seemingly
impossible identification froma hundred yards away on a windy night.
(25:49):
There was also seriousallegations of police misconduct.
Witnesses claimed they werepressured to identify Houtman.
Evidence may have beentampered with.
One of the most suspiciouspieces of evidence was Dr. Condon's
phone number and address foundscrawled on a closet door frame inside
Haltman's home.
(26:10):
Haltman claimed he never wroteit, and years later, a reporter for
the New York Daily Newsallegedly admitted to a lawyer that
he had written the numberhimself to spice up the story.
And this is where we see theperspectives of historians diverge.
Pulitzer Prize winningLindbergh biographer A. Scott Berg,
while acknowledging the rabidpress and the flaws in the police
(26:33):
work, ultimately concludesthat there remained a veritable mountain
of undisputable evidenceagainst Houtman.
But other historians, likeLloyd Gardner, strongly disagree.
In his book, the Case thatNever Dies, Gardner argues that whether
Heltman was guilty or not, thestate simply did not have sufficient
(26:54):
evidence to convict him offirst degree murder.
He points to compellingevidence that the prosecution deliberately
ignored.
Evidence suggestingaccomplices, perhaps an inside job
involving the household staffwhose alibis were shaky.
The prosecution, Gardnerargues, needed a simple narrative
(27:14):
for the public, a lone evil foreigner.
So they ignored anything thatcomplicated that story.
It seemed the trial was aperfect product of its time.
I think that's exactly right.
It showcased the exciting newpower of forensic science.
But it was a science thatlacked the rigorous standards we
demand today.
(27:36):
It exposed the profounddangers of a justice system completely
overwhelmed by public pressureand media spectacle.
The kind of frenzy that wouldresult in an immediate mistrial.
Today, the verdict may havebeen less about proving guilt beyond
a reasonable doubt and moreabout fulfilling a national need
for vengeance and closure in atime of deep uncertainty.
(28:20):
On February 13, 1935, after 11hours of deliberation, the jury delivered
its verdict.
Bruno Richard Houtman wasguilty of murder in the first degree.
The sentence was death.
Houtman continued to professhis innocence through a series of
failed appeals.
He was offered a deal, life inprison if he confessed.
(28:40):
But he refused.
On April 3, 1936, he wasexecuted in the electric chair at
the New Jersey State Prison.
He went to his deathproclaiming his innocence.
So Haltmann was executed.
But the case was far from over.
In fact, its most significantand lasting legacy was already in
place.
The immense public outrageover the crime had forced the hand
(29:02):
of the US Congress.
This is the so what?
Factor.
This is why the case trulymatters in the grand scheme of American
history.
Precisely in the summer of1932, just weeks after the baby's
body was found, Congresspassed the Federal Kidnapping act,
universally known as theLindbergh Law.
Before this, as we discussed,kidnapping was a state crime.
(29:25):
And this made it incrediblydifficult for law enforcement to
pursue criminals who crossedstate state lines.
The Lindbergh Law changed everything.
It made kidnapping a federaloffense if the victim was transported
across state lines or ifkidnappers used the mail to send
ransom notes.
It also created a legalpresumption that if a victim was
(29:46):
not released within 24 hours,they had been transported across
state lines, giving thefederal government jurisdiction.
And that meant givingjurisdiction to J. Edgar Hoover,
the director of.
Of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Exactly.
This law was a cornerstone inthe transformation of Hoover's small
Bureau of Investigation intothe powerful nationwide Federal Bureau
(30:10):
of Investigation, the FBI,that we know today.
The case and trial marked amassive expansion of federal police
power into areas previouslyreserved for the states.
Fueled by the public's fearand anger over the Lindbergh case,
the federal government in themid-1930s was empowered to become
the nation's primary crime fighter.
(30:33):
In the end, the state of NewJersey executed Bruno Houptmann.
But the crime he was convictedof had already claimed more than
one victim.
It claimed Charles Lindbergh Jr.
It claimed whatever privacyand peace the Lindbergh family had
hoped to find in their estatein New Jersey.
They were so hounded by thepress and received so many threats
against their second son,John, that they fled the country
(30:56):
to live in Europe for several years.
And in many ways, the crimeclaimed a piece of America's innocence.
It became a dark mirror forthe nation.
It reflected our deepestanxieties during the Great Depression,
the fear that the socialfabric was tearing apart.
It demonstrated the terrifyingpower of modern media to create a
(31:17):
spectacle out of privatetragedy, blurring the lines between
news and entertainment.
And it raised profoundquestions about justice, celebrity,
and the possibility of a fairtrial in the face of overwhelming
public opinion.
Questions we are stillgrappling with today.
Charles Lindbergh, the herowho had conquered the sky, was brought
(31:39):
tragically and brutally downto earth, his personal agony becoming
public property.
The crime of the centurywasn't just about one family's unimaginable
loss.
It was about a nationconfronting the terrifying reality
that not even.
Even its greatest heroes weresafe from the darkness.
Thank you for listening tohistory's greatest crimes.
(31:59):
I'm Elena.
And I'm Michael.
Until next time.
Stay curious, Sam.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.