Charles Lindenburg Kidnapping

On March 1st 1932, 20-month-old Charles Lindbergh III was kidnapped. He was the con of the internationally known pilot, Charles Lindbergh. Lindbergh and his wife Ana discovered the ransom note in their son’s room. The note demanded $50,000 for the return of the child. The kidnapper was very clever, using a ladder to sneak up to the child’s room and snatch him. He had left clues, however they were all false. Everyone wanted to help find the missing baby, even though locked up, Al Capone had offered his help. A few days later, another note showed up; this time demanding $70,000. This time the kidnapper seemed serious, giving a time and place to drop off the money. They told the Lindbergh’s that their child was on a boat called the Nelly off the coast of Massachusetts, but after long hours of searching nothing was found, no boat and no child. Shortly after, baby Charles Lindbergh III’s body was found not far from the Lindbergh’s mansion. The family was so heartbroken that they moved away after donating their mansion to charity. “The kidnapping looked like it would go unsolved until September 1934, when a marked bill from the ransom turned up. The gas station attendant who had accepted the bill wrote down the license plate number because he was suspicious of the driver. It was tracked back to a German immigrant and carpenter, Bruno Hauptmann.” When the detectives searched Hauptmann house, they found a large portion Lindbergh’s ransom money. He tried denying it but there was plenty of evidence proving he was the kidnapper. Besides the money, the handwriting on the ransom not seemed to closely resemble Hauptmann’s. Although the prosecution’s case was weak, there was still enough evidence to convict Hauptmann. He was then electrocuted the following year. “In the aftermath of the crime--the most notorious of the 1930s--kidnapping was made a federal offense.”