The kidnapper had seemingly vanished. The IRS did have one possible foothold: They had copied the serial numbers of the ransom money, including gold certificates pictured , which were more uncommon than regular cash as they were being phased out. Unfortunately, they didn't have a way to flag serial numbers back then. It would require manually checking the numbers. It wasn't until two and a half years later, in fall of , this finally paid off, according to Famous Trials.
A teller at Corn Exchange Bank in the Bronx came across a gold note with a license plate number written in the margin. Feeling this was suspicious, the teller contacted the police. They traced the bill back to a gas station. The owner there had copied down the license plate of the man who gave him the note because he said something odd during the transaction.
When the owner remarked he didn't see many gold notes anymore, the man replied, "No, I only have about left. Using the license plate number, police arrested a German carpenter named Bruno Hauptmann. Condon's phone number written on a wall, and a missing board in the attic that matched the makeshift ladder found outside the Lindberghs' house.
Hauptmann's trial was a media circus unlike anything before it. Readers hung on every word reporters wrote, and the whole affair was dubbed the "Trial of the Century. His alibi for the most damning evidence, the ransom bills, was that the money had been left to him by an acquaintance named Isidor Fisch.
A fellow German, Fisch had purportedly asked Hauptmann to safeguard some belongings for him while he visited Germany. Fisch died of tuberculosis shortly after arriving in Germany, though, and once Hauptmann found out Fisch was dead, he decided to see what was in the boxes Fisch had left, according to Famous Trials.
Inside, he claimed to have found the ransom money. Since Fisch was dead, Hauptmann helped himself to the cash and began spending it. Investigators confirmed Fisch was a real person, he had been friends with Hauptmann, and he had died in Germany. While this introduced doubt to a key component of the prosecution's case, they went ahead using experts in handwriting analysis, wood identification, and dozens of witnesses, including both Lindberghs and Dr.
They even presented a journal of Hauptmann's where he had misspelled "boat" as "boad," similar to the ransom notes. Hauptmann was convicted and sentenced to death. He maintained his innocence, even amidst offers to avoid execution if he confessed.
On April 3, , just over four years after the death of Charles Jr. Now, nearly years later, alternative theories about the case continue to perpetuate. Most common of these is that Hauptmann was innocent, and police tampered with evidence and produced false testimony to railroad Hauptmann and end the case. Hauptmann's arrest and execution, they say, was a big frame job, enabled by the fact that the case was so enormously high profile and the public was desperate to see someone put away for the horrible crime.
One of these people was Hauptmann's own wife, Anna. After documents regarding the case were publicly released in the s, Anna Hauptmann sued the state of New Jersey, accusing them of framing her husband. The case was thrown out for being far past the statute of limitations and because the judge found no compelling evidence the case was mishandled.
Hauptmann and her lawyers appealed this all the way to the Supreme Court more than once, but ended up being denied each time, according to the L. While plenty of doubt has been raised about nearly every single piece of evidence in the case, to date there's no proof Hauptmann was convicted unjustly, according to Jim Fisher , a crime writer, former FBI agent, and professor of criminal justice at Edinboro State College.
But in a case with no eyewitnesses to the crime and no confession, plenty of room for doubt remains. The intermediary was a stranger to the Lindberghs Wikipedia. The kidnapper asked for a higher ransom Wikimedia Commons.
Lindbergh testified on January 3, Click here to read all of Charles Lindbergh's testimony. Bruno Richard Hauptmann was on the witness stand for five days. Click here to read his first day of testimony. The signature the kidnapper used to sign the ransom notes. Click here to see the ransom notes.
Click here to see the comparison writings used to compare Hauptmann's known writing to the ransom notes' writing. The heartbroken Lindberghs ended up donating the mansion to charity and moved away.
The kidnapping looked like it would go unsolved until September , 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 his home was searched, detectives found a chunk of Lindbergh ransom money. Hauptmann claimed that a friend had given him the money to hold and that he had no connection to the crime.
The resulting trial was a national sensation. The prosecution also tried to establish a connection between Hauptmann and the type of wood that was used to make the ladder. Still, the evidence and intense public pressure were enough to convict Hauptmann and he was electrocuted in In the aftermath of the crime—the most notorious of the s—kidnapping was made a federal offense.
But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Ten weeks after the kidnapping, on May 12, the body of a toddler was found partially buried in the woods near the Lindbergh home. Charles Lindbergh identified the body as that of his son, who had apparently died the night he was taken. Lindbergh kidnapping wanted poster. With no suspects and no leads, the case went cold. But two years later one of the ransom bills surfaced, leading investigators to indict Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German immigrant, on charges of extortion and murder in the first degree.
Hauptmann pleaded not guilty. Condon known as "Jafsie". Condon identified Hauptmann as the man to whom he paid the ransom. Other crucial testimony came from a wood scientist, who examined the ladder and concluded that parts of it matched pieces of lumber from Hauptmann's attic.
Three weeks into the trial, a visibly nervous Hauptmann took the stand.
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