When Charles A. Lindbergh landed outside of Paris on May 21, 1927, completing the first successful solo trans-Atlantic fight, he immediately became the most famous person in the world. But his celebrity would lead to tragedy. In the dark of the night on March 1, 1932 without warning, the unthinkable happened. Twenty month old Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., the first born son of the famed aviator and his wife, author Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was taken from his crib in the family home near Hopewell, New Jersey. On May 12, 1932 the baby boy was found lying in a shallow grave in the woods five miles from home, hideously murdered. The global outrage that resulted was overwhelming.
Following a two year investigation, on September 19, 1934, an illegal German immigrant and unemployed carpenter with a criminal past, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, was arrested in New York and charged with the crime. A spectacular trial followed in the sleepy little rural town of Flemington, New Jersey that resulted with the conviction and execution of Hauptmann in New Jersey’s electric chair on April 3, 1936. However until this very day a debate has endured over the verdict in the trial. The debate is based in part, on the fact Hauptmann was convicted on circumstantial evidence.
Following the trial and execution of Hauptmann, Col. Lindbergh and his wife Anne relocated to Great Britain. However with the war drums of Nazi Germany starting to beat across Europe, the Lindberghs returned to the United States. Immediately, Col. Lindbergh became involved in the anti-war movement, while his wife wrote a controversial anti-war book. Consequently, the legacy of Charles Lindbergh one of America’s greatest heroes becomes forever tainted.
William Cook's recounting of these historical events is written with laser like accuracy using actual police reports and actual trial transcripts and personal documents of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. Also the last surviving member of the investigating team, Major Hugo Stockburger (NJSP) was interviewed for the work and his private papers reviewed.
Cook has exercised great care through-out to present the facts of the case as they were known and reported in order to ensure that the reader will reach their own conclusion on the guilt or innocence of Bruno Richard Hauptmann. In previous published works on the Lindbergh case, Hauptmann is never portrayed as anything less than a cold blooded killer and the moment he is arrested, the author convicts him. While this work is not sympathetic to Hauptmann, the reader can detect a human quality in him that fuels the fire of doubt on his guilt.
