The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping | A Kick of History

 Hi everyone! Welcome to A Kick of History. In today's blog, we will talk about one of the most notorious crimes in American history. The Lindbergh baby kidnapping. All my info is from this site: https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/lindbergh-kidnapping

Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. was the son of the famous aviator, Anne Morrow Lindbergh. He was kidnapped at about 9:00 pm, on March 1st, 1932. He was taken from his nursery, which was on the second floor of the Lindbergh home. His parents came to know he was missing from the child's nurse, Betty Gow. There was an immediate search of the premises and on the nursery window sill, they found a ransom note demanding $50, 000. The Hopewell police were notified, they then told this report to the New Jersey State Police. They were the ones who actually started the investigation. 

While the police searched the house, they found bits of mud on the nursery floor. They also found footprints, that were impossible to measure, under the nursery window. There were no bloodstains found in or about the nursery. There were no fingerprints found either. 

Everyone that worked around the house was questioned. Colonel Lindbergh started talking to friends and asking them to communicate with the kidnapper. They made many widespread appeals to start negotiations with the kidnapper. Various people from the underworld were contacted in attempts to contact the kidnapper. And many clues were advanced and exhausted. 

                                                     

Then suddenly, a second ransom note was given to Colonel Lindbergh. This note was received on March 6, 1932. It demanded an increase of $70, 000 in the ransom. Then, a police conference was called by the governor at Trenton, New Jersey. Colonel Lindbergh's attorney also hired some private investigators for this case.    

                                                 

A few days later, a third ransom note for Colonel Lindbergh's attorney arrived. This note stated that intermediary that the Lindbergh's hired would not be accepted and that they requested a note in the newspaper. On that same day, John F. Condon, a retired school principal, published in the newspaper, an offer to act as a go-between for the family, but they had to pay an additional $1,000 ransom. The next day, a ransom note was given to Condon saying that he would be acceptable as a go-between. This was then approved by Colonel Lindbergh, and on about March 10, 1932, Dr. Condon received $70,000 ransom, and he immediately started negotiations for payment in newspaper columns. He used the code name, "Jafsie".

At about 8:30 p.m, March 12, after having received an anonymous phone call, Dr. Condon received the fifth ransom note. This message stated that another note would be found beneath a stone at a vacant stand that was 100 feet away from an outlying subway station. When he found this note, the sixth one, he followed the instructions inside. He was directed to an unidentified man who called himself, "John". They discussed the payment of the ransom money. The stranger agreed then, to furnish a token of the child's identity. From then on, Condon was accompanied by "bodyguards", except when he was with the man named "John". 

The man gave Condon a baby's sleeping suit, as a token of the identity of the child. On March 16, was when Condon received this stuff, he got it from the seventh note. On the 21st, the eighth ransom note arrived. This one was insisting on complete compliance and advised that the kidnapping had been planned for a year.

After that, Betty Gow, the baby's nurse, found the baby's thumb guard (which the baby was wearing at the time of the kidnapping). It was found near the entrance to the estate. The day after that, the ninth ransom note was received. It threatened to increase the ransom payment to $100, 000. It also refused the use of code names in newspaper columns. The tenth ransom note received, asked Dr. Condon to have money ready for the following night. And two more notes came after that, instructing Condon to go to different places in New York. 

Shortly after this, after following the instructions of the twelfth note, Codon found the man who he thought to be "John." He met with "John to reduce the ransom payment to $50,000. This said amount was then given to "John" in exchange for a receipt and the thirteenth note. The thirteenth note said that the kidnapped child could be found on a boat named "Nellie" near Martha's Vineyard, Massachusets. But the next day, when they went to search for the baby near Martha's Vineyard, guess what happened. The baby wasn't there! 

Finally, on May 12th, 1932 the baby was accidentally found. The baby was half-buried and badly decomposed. He was found four and a half miles southeast of the Lindbergh home, 45 feet from the highway near Mount Rose, New Jersey. This discovery was made by a man named William Allen, an assistant on a truck driven by Orville Wilson. The baby's head was crushed and there was a hole in the skull. Some body parts were missing from the child. The body was cremated at Trenton, New Jersey, on May 13, 1932. From the Coroner examination, it was revealed that the child had been dead for about two months. The death was caused by a blow to the head. 

There we have it, my friends. The story of the Lindbergh kidnapping from the time it started to the time when the body was found. But I will leave you all with a small reassurance. The kidnapper was soon discovered. His name is Bruno Richard Hauptmann. And he was electrocuted for his crimes on April 3, 1936.