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Who Was Executed for the Kidnap and Murder of the Lindbergh Baby?

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German-American executed for kidnapping and murder (1899–1936)

Richard Hauptmann
Hauptmannmugshot2.jpg
Born

Bruno Richard Hauptmann


(1899-11-26)Nov 26, 1899

Kamenz, Saxony, German language Empire
Died Apr 3, 1936(1936-04-03) (aged 36)

Trenton, New Jersey, U.Southward.
Crusade of death Execution by electrocution
Occupation Carpenter
Criminal status Executed
Spouse(s)

Anna Hauptmann

​

​

(thou. 1925; his expiry1936)​
Confidence(s) Murder-kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh Jr.
Criminal penalization Decease past electric chair

Bruno Richard Hauptmann (Nov 26, 1899 – April 3, 1936) was a German-born carpenter who was convicted of the abduction and murder of the 20-calendar month-erstwhile son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The Lindbergh kidnapping became known as "The Crime of the Century".[ane] Both Hauptmann and his married woman, Anna Hauptmann (who after sued the State of New Jersey, various former police officers, the Hearst newspapers that had published pre-trial articles insisting on Hauptmann'south guilt, and former prosecutor David T. Wilentz), proclaimed his innocence until he was executed in 1936 by electric chair at the New Bailiwick of jersey State Prison.[ii]

Groundwork [edit]

Hauptmann was born Bruno Richard Hauptmann in Kamenz, a boondocks most Dresden in the Kingdom of Saxony, which was a land of the German Empire. He was the youngest of 5 children. Neither he nor his family unit or friends used the name Bruno, although prosecutors in the Lindbergh kidnapping trial insisted on referring to him by that name. At the age of eleven, he joined the Boy Scouts (Pfadfinderbund).[3] Hauptmann attended public school during the day while attending trade school (Gewerbeschule) at night, studying carpentry for the first year, then switching to motorcar edifice (Maschinenschlosser) for the next two years.[4]

Hauptmann's father died in 1917. During that same year, Hauptmann learned that his brother, Herman, had been killed fighting in French republic in Earth War I. Not long after that, he was informed that another brother, Max, had also been killed while fighting in Russia. Presently thereafter, Hauptmann was conscripted and assigned to the artillery.

Upon receiving his orders, he was sent to Bautzen just was transferred to the 103rd Infantry Replacement Regiment upon his arrival. In 1918, Hauptmann was assigned to the 12th Car Gun Visitor at Königsbrück.[iii] Hauptmann later on claimed he was deployed to western French republic with the 177th Regiment of Machine Gunners in either August or September 1918, then fought in the Boxing of Saint-Mihiel;[five] that he was gassed in September or October 1918; and that he was struck in the helmet past shrapnel from shelling, knocking him out so that he was left for expressionless. When he came to, he crawled back to safety and was dorsum on duty that evening.[6]

After the war, Hauptmann and a friend robbed two women wheeling baby carriages they were using to transport food on the route between Wiesa and Nebelschütz. The friend wielded Hauptmann's army pistol during the committee of this crime.[seven] Hauptmann's other charges include burglarizing a mayor'southward business firm with the apply of a ladder. Released after three years in prison, he was arrested iii months afterward suspicion of additional burglaries.[8]

Hauptmann illegally entered the United States past stowing away on an bounding main liner. Landing in New York City in November 1923, the 24-twelvemonth-erstwhile Hauptmann was taken in past a fellow member of the established High german community and worked as a carpenter. He married a German waitress, Anna Schoeffler (1898–1994), in 1925 and became a father eight years later.[viii] [9]

Lindbergh kidnapping [edit]

Crime and investigation [edit]

On the evening of March 1, 1932, Charles Lindbergh Jr., son of aviator Charles Lindbergh, was kidnapped from Highfields, New Jersey; a bootleg ladder was found under the window of the child's room. The $50,000 demanded in a ransom note had been delivered by Dr. John F. Condon, merely the infant's torso was institute on May 12 in forest 4 miles (6.4 km) from the family unit'south home. The death was ascribed to a blow to the head, which some have theorized occurred accidentally during the abduction.[10] [11]

On September fifteen, 1934, a bank teller realized that the serial number on a $10 gold document deposited past a gas station was on the listing of Lindbergh ransom bills.[12] [13] On the bill'due south margin, the attendant had written the license plate number of the customer's car, which turned out to be Hauptmann's. Hauptmann was placed under surveillance past the New York City Constabulary Department, New Jersey State Police, and the FBI.

On September nineteen, Hauptmann realized he was existence watched and attempted to escape, speeding and running through red lights. He was captured later on finding himself blocked by a truck on Park Avenue just north of Tremont Avenue in the Bronx.[xiv]

Trial [edit]

His trial was dubbed the "Trial of the Century",[15] while Hauptmann was named "The Near Hated Man in the Earth".

Show against Hauptmann included: $14,600 of the ransom money establish in his garage; testimony alleging handwriting and spelling similarities to that constitute on the ransom notes;[14] [16] testimony that lumber used in constructing the ladder probably originated in Hauptmann'south house;[17] Condon's address and phone number found written on the inside of one of Hauptmann'southward closets; and what appeared to be a mitt-fatigued sketch of a ladder found in one of Hauptmann's notebooks.[18] Experts retained by the defense were never chosen to show.[xix]

During the trial, Hauptmann was identified as the human being who received the bribe money, the man who had spent some of the ransom gold certificates, and as a man seen well-nigh the Lindbergh home on the day of the kidnapping. He had been absent-minded from work on the day of the bribe payment and had quit his job two days later.[ citation needed ]

Hauptmann'south chaser, Edward J. Reilly, argued that the evidence confronting Hauptmann was entirely circumstantial, as no reliable witness had placed Hauptmann at the scene of the law-breaking, nor were his fingerprints establish on the ladder, the ransom notes, or anywhere in the plant nursery.[xx]

Hauptmann was convicted, however, and immediately sentenced to death. His appeals failed, though his execution stayed twice while New Bailiwick of jersey Governor Harold G. Hoffman reviewed the case.

Execution [edit]

On Apr 3, 1936, Hauptmann was executed in the electric chair at the New Jersey Land Prison.[21] Reporters present said he fabricated no argument.[22] [23] His spiritual advisor said that Hauptmann told him, before existence taken from his cell, "Ich bin absolut unschuldig an den Verbrechen, die man mir zur Terminal legt" ("I am admittedly innocent of the crimes with which I am charged").[24]

Hauptmann's widow Anna had his body cremated. Two Lutheran pastors conducted a private memorial service in German language. A oversupply of some 2,000 gathered outside. Anna Hauptmann died in 1994 at age 95.

Guilt questioned [edit]

In the latter part of the 20th century, the case against Hauptmann came under serious scrutiny. For example, i item of evidence at his trial was a scrawled phone number on a board in his cupboard, which was the number of the homo who delivered the ransom, John F. Condon. A juror at the trial said this was the one item that convinced him the most; co-ordinate to some accounts, a reporter subsequently admitted he had written the number himself.[25]

Additionally, neither Lindbergh nor the get-between who delivered the ransom initially identified Hauptmann as the recipient.[26] Condon, afterwards seeing Hauptmann in a lineup at New York Law Department Greenwich Street Station told FBI Special Agent Turrou that Hauptmann was non "John," the homo whom Condon claimed he had passed the ransom money to in St. Raymond's Cemetery. He further stated that Hauptmann looked different (for instance that he had different eyes, was heavier, and had unlike hair), and that "John" was actually dead because he had been murdered by his confederates.[27]

While waiting in a car nearby, Lindbergh heard the vocalism of "John" calling to Condon during the bribe driblet-off, but never saw him. Although he testified before the Bronx thou jury that he heard just the words "Hey, Doc!", and that it would be very difficult to say he could recognize a man past his voice, he identified Hauptmann as having the same voice during his trial in Flemington.[28] The police vanquish Hauptmann while in custody at the Greenwich Street Station.[29]

Other coverage has said that sure witnesses were intimidated, and some claim that the police planted or doctored prove, such as the ladder; or that the police doctored Hauptmann's time cards and ignored swain workers who stated that Hauptmann was working the day of the kidnapping.[30] These and other findings prompted J. Edgar Hoover, the showtime Director of the FBI, to question the manner in which the investigation and the trial were conducted. Hauptmann's widow campaigned until the cease of her life to take her married man's conviction reversed.

Erastus Mead Hudson was a fingerprint expert who knew nearly the then-rare silver nitrate process of collecting fingerprints from woods and other surfaces on which the previous powder method would not piece of work. He found that Hauptmann's fingerprints were not on the forest, fifty-fifty in places that the man who made the ladder must have touched. Upon reporting this to a police officeholder and stating that they must look farther, the officer said, "Good God, don't tell u.s.a. that, Doctor!" The ladder was then washed of all fingerprints, and Colonel Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr, the Superintendent of the New Jersey Country Police, refused to disclose to the public that Hauptmann's prints were not on the ladder.[xvi]

Several books have been written proclaiming Hauptmann'south innocence. These books variously criticize the police force for assuasive the criminal offense scenes to become contaminated, Lindbergh and his associates for interfering with the investigation, Hauptmann's trial lawyers for ineffectively representing him, and the reliability of the witnesses and physical bear witness presented at the trial. Scottish journalist Ludovic Kennedy in item questioned much of the testify, such every bit the origin of the ladder and the testimony of many of the witnesses.

In her book about another loftier-profile trial of the 1930s, the Winnie Ruth Judd case, investigative reporter Jana Bommersbach argued that Hauptmann could not accept received a fair trial because the press created an atmosphere of prejudice against him. Bommersbach noted that in those days, newspapers acted as both "judge and jury," and covered law-breaking in a mode that would be considered sensationalistic today.[31]

For more than than 50 years, Hauptmann'due south widow fought with the New Jersey courts without success to have the case re-opened. In 1982, the now 82-year-old Anna Hauptmann sued the Land of New Jersey, diverse erstwhile police officers, the Hearst newspapers that had published pre-trial manufactures insisting on Hauptmann's guilt, and former prosecutor David T. Wilentz (then 86) for over $100 million in wrongful-death damages. She claimed that the newly discovered documents proved misconduct by the prosecution and the industry of evidence by government agents, all of whom were biased confronting Hauptmann considering he happened to be of German ethnicity. In 1983, the United states of america Supreme Court refused her asking that the federal judge because the example should be disqualified because of judicial bias, and in 1984 the judge dismissed her claims.[ citation needed ]

In 1985, more than 23,000 pages of Hauptmann-case police documents were institute in the garage of the late Governor Hoffman. These documents, forth with 34,000 pages of FBI files, which, although discovered in 1981, had not been disclosed to the public, represented a windfall of previously undisclosed data.[32] As a directly result of this new bear witness, Anna Hauptmann once again amended her ceremonious complaint on July 14, 1986, to clear her late husband's proper noun by standing to assert that he was "framed from beginning to end" by the police looking for a suspect.[32] She suggested that the track of the ladder taken from the attic, where they used to alive in 1935, was planted by the police, and that the ransom money was left backside by Isidor Fisch, who was possibly the real kidnapper. Fisch practical for a passport on 12 May 1932, the same day that the Lindbergh baby was found dead. On 9 December 1933, he sailed for Germany, taking with him $600 worth of Reichsmarks.[33] In 1990, New Jersey's governor, James Florio, declined her entreatment for a meeting to clear Bruno Hauptmann'south proper name. Anna Hauptmann died on Oct 10, 1994.

In 1974, Anthony Scaduto wrote Scapegoat, which took the position that Hauptmann was framed and that the police both withheld and made evidence. This led to farther investigation, and in 1985, Ludovic Kennedy published The Airman and the Carpenter, in which he argued that Hauptmann had not kidnapped and murdered Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. The volume was made into a 1996 television film Crime of the Century, starring Stephen Rea and Isabella Rossellini.

Non all modern authors agree with these theories. Jim Fisher, a former FBI agent and professor at Edinboro Academy of Pennsylvania,[34] has written ii books on the subject, The Lindbergh Case (1987)[14] and The Ghosts of Hopewell (1999)[35] to address, at least in function, what he calls a "revision motility".[36] In these texts, he explains in detail the prove against Hauptmann. He provides an estimation discussing both the pros and cons of that bear witness. He ended: "Today, the Lindbergh phenomena [sic] is a giant hoax perpetrated by people who are taking advantage of an uninformed and cynical public. Notwithstanding all of the books, Boob tube programs, and legal suits, Hauptmann is equally guilty today as he was in 1932 when he kidnapped and killed the son of Mr and Mrs Charles Lindbergh."[37]

Lindbergh believed that Hauptmann must have been involved in the kidnapping and murder of his son. He remarked that Hauptmann was magnificently congenital just had eyes like a wild boar.[38]

See likewise [edit]

  • Presumption of guilt
  • J. Edgar (picture)

References [edit]

  1. ^ Howard Chua-Eoan. "Top 25 Crimes of the Century – The Lindbergh Kidnapping". Time. Archived from the original on Jan 19, 2011. Retrieved Feb 1, 2011.
  2. ^ Linder, Douglas (2005). "The Trial of Richard "Bruno" Hauptmann: An Account". Academy of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. Archived from the original on July 9, 2009. Retrieved June 24, 2009.
  3. ^ a b Hauptmann, Richard The Story of My Life, Autobiography: Unedited & Uncorrected (Translated). New Jersey Land Police Museum and Learning Eye Archives, May 4, 1935.
  4. ^ Huddleson, Dr James H. Report to Mr James M. Fawcett: Examination of Bruno Richard Hauptmann; p.one, October 3, 1934. New Jersey State Police Museum and Learning Center Athenaeum.
  5. ^ Hauptmann, Bruno Richard. Statement. December 6, 1934. New Jersey State Police Museum and Learning Center Archives.
  6. ^ Huddleson, Dr James H. Report to Mr James M. Fawcett: Examination of Bruno Richard Hauptmann; pp. 2–3, October three, 1934. New Jersey State Police Museum and Learning Eye Archives.
  7. ^ Record Number ane A 95/nineteen against Fritz Petzold and accomplice, County Court at Bautzen, June 17, 1919,
  8. ^ a b Richard ("Bruno") Hauptmann Biography, Famous American Trials, Richard Hauptmann (Lindbergh Kidnapping) Trial by Douglas Linder, 2000 Famous Trials – UMKC School of Law – Prof. Douglas Linder – Biography of ("Bruno") Richard Hauptmann Archived June 21, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ The curtailed encyclopedia of criminal offence and criminals. Hawthorn Books, 1961, p. 134
  10. ^ "Federal Sleuth Believes Bruno Wasn't Alone". The Washington Post. January 28, 1935
  11. ^ The Due north American Review, Vol. 237, No. one, January 1934, p. 55
  12. ^ Horn, William F. Cpl. New Jersey State Police force Report. Investigation apropos a recovered $10.00 U.S. gold document which is part of the Lindbergh Ransom Coin; this written report too concerns the abort of ane Richard Bruno Hauptmann, charged with Extortion in connection with the $50, Thousand Lindbergh Ransom Money. September 25, 1934. New Bailiwick of jersey State Police Museum and Learning Middle Athenaeum.
  13. ^ Note: Gold certificates were chop-chop existence withdrawn from circulation and were becoming rare
  14. ^ a b c Fisher, Jim (1994). The Lindbergh Example. Rutgers University Press. ISBN978-0-8135-2147-3.
  15. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Capital punishment by courtroom to convict Hauptmann for kidnap and murder of son of avia...HD Stock Footage". YouTube.
  16. ^ a b Gardner, Lloyd C. (June 2004). The Example That Never Dies. Rutgers University Printing. p. 336. ISBN978-0-8135-3385-8.
  17. ^ Report of Examination of Ladder for the New Jersey State Police: Summary of Observations and Conclusions; U.S. Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, Wisconsin. March iv, 1933.
  18. ^ "The State of New Jersey vs. Bruno Richard Hauptmann," Hunterdon County Court of Oyer and Termeer; vol. 5, p. 2606, 1935. New Bailiwick of jersey State Police force Library.
  19. ^ Farr, Julia. Letter from Julia Farr to Lloyd Fisher; New Jersey State Police Museum and Learning Center Archives, Apr eleven, 1935.
  20. ^ "The Land of New Jersey vs. Bruno Richard Hauptmann," Hunterdon Canton Court of Oyer and Termeer; vol. 11 pp. 4687–88, 1935. New Jersey State Constabulary Library.
  21. ^ Bleam, I. C. Prison house Clerk, New Jersey Country Prison house. Death House Carte du jour, "Final meal served to Bruno Richard Hauptmann, #17400, April 3, 1936". 1600 File. New Jersey State Police Museum and Learning Center Archives.
  22. ^ Runyon, Damon "Bruno Dies in Chair". The New York American. April 4, 1936
  23. ^ Folliard, Edward "Witness to an Execution". The Washington Mail service. July 17, 1972.
  24. ^ Hoffman, Harold Giles. The Crime – The Case – The Claiming (What Was Wrong with the Lindbergh Case?), Original Manuscript: Unedited & Uncorrected, circa 1937. New Jersey State Police Museum and Learning Heart Athenaeum.
  25. ^ The crime of the Century: The Lindbergh Kidnapping Hoax, p. 164. (Gregory Ahlgren, Stephen Monier)
  26. ^ An Business relationship of the Trial of Bruno Hauptmann Archived July ix, 2009, at the Wayback Automobile
  27. ^ Turrou, Leon G. Special Agent FBI (62-3057) Memorandum For File: Unknown Subjects – Kidnaping and Murder of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr.; September 21, 1934. National Archives at College Park Maryland.
  28. ^ "People vs. Hauptmann," The Bronx Grand Jury; Charles Lindbergh Testimony, p. 5, September 26, 1934. The New York Urban center Municipal Archive.
  29. ^ Tamm, E. A. Banana Managing director FBI Memorandum For The Managing director; September 24, 1934. National Archives at College Park Maryland.
  30. ^ Extradition
  31. ^ Bommersbach, Jana (1992). The Torso Murderess: Winnie Ruth Judd. Simon & Schuster. ISBN978-1590580646.
  32. ^ a b Hauptmann 5. Bornmann et al. USDC (NJ) Civil Action No. 86-2426
  33. ^ Biography of Isidor Fisch - UMKC School of Constabulary
  34. ^ Fisher, Jim. "Biography". Retrieved April 29, 2011.
  35. ^ Fisher, Jim (December 15, 1999). The Ghosts of Hopewell: Setting the Tape Straight in the Lindbergh Case . Southern Illinois Univ Press. p. 224. ISBN978-0-8093-2285-5.
  36. ^ Fisher, Jim. "The Lindbergh Case: A Await Back to the Future – Folio 3 of 3". Retrieved April 29, 2011. For the Lindbergh case, the revisionist motility began in 1976 with the publication of a book past a tabloid reporter named Anthony Scaduto. In Scapegoat, Scaduto asserts that the Lindbergh baby was not murdered and that Hauptmann was the victim of a mass conspiracy of prosecution perjury and fabricated concrete prove.
  37. ^ Fisher, Jim. "The Lindbergh Case: How Tin can Such a Guilty Kidnapper be so Innocent? – Folio 3 of iii". Retrieved April 29, 2011.
  38. ^ Kennedy, L., The Airman and the Carpenter (1985)

Further reading [edit]

  • "Sleeping Dogs: A true story of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping," Carve up Oak Press, Ithaca, New York, ISBN 978-0-9823513-9-0, Copyright 2012 by Michael Foldes, 236 pages.
  • "The Sixteenth Rail," Fulcrum Publishing, Golden, Colorado, ISBN 978-one-55591-716-6, copyright by Adam Schrager, 2013, 314 pages.
  • "Hauptmann's Ladder: A Step-by-Step Analysis of the Lindbergh Kidnapping," Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio, ISBN 978-ane-6063519-three-2, Copyright 2014 past Richard T. Cahill Jr., 448 pages.
  • "The Dark Corners – Of the Lindbergh Kidnapping Volume i," Infinity Publishing, ISBN 978-ane-4958-1042-8, Copyright 2016 by Michael Melsky, 353 pages.

External links [edit]

  • Photographic Prove from the Hauptmann Instance on the New Jersey Land Archives Website
  • Writer Jim Fisher's Site on the Hauptmann Case
  • YouTube: Hauptmann Testifies, Millions Await 1935/01/30

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hauptmann

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