KIDNAPPING AND EXTORTION 183
The bank notified the FBI, which
traced the licence plate back to a
German immigrant named Bruno
Hauptmann. He was a carpenter
living in a quiet neighbourhood in
the Bronx, New York.Hauptmann arrested
Police arrested Hauptmann on
19 September 1934, as he left his
home. Inside his wallet was a $20
gold certificate, also from the
Lindbergh ransom.
A search of Hauptmann’s home
turned up nearly $14,000 (£180,000)
of the ransom money in an oil can,
inside a package stuffed behind
boards in his garage. Hauptmann,
however, insisted that he was
innocent. He was holding the
money, he claimed, for Isidor Fisch,
a friend who had since died. Fisch,
also from Germany, had applied for
a passport on 12 May 1932, the
same day that Charlie Lindbergh’s
body was found. By December the
same year, Fisch had sailed for
Leipzig, Germany, to visit family.
His friend, Hauptmann told
police, had left a shoebox with
some of his belongings inside.Recreating the crime, officers stand
outside the Hopewell mansion in an
attempt to find clues. A long ladder, like
the broken one found near the house,
leads up to the open nursery window.Hauptmann only learned that it
contained money when he had a
leaky roof and emptied the
dampened box. Hauptmann said
that he had kept the money,
hoarding the gold certificates due
to his fears about inflation.
According to news reports, the
police did not believe him, referring
to Hauptmann’s claims as “the
Fischy story.” Fisch, who died of
tuberculosis in Germany in 1934,
never returned to America.
In Hauptmann’s attic,
investigators discovered a piece of
yellow pinewood that matched the
ladder used in the kidnapping.
Handwriting experts were called
in, and declared Hauptmann’s
script a match for the writing in
the ransom notes.
The court proceedings attracted
thousands of spectators and
writers, who crammed into the tiny
town of Flemington, New Jersey. ❯❯Charles Lindbergh III
Lindbergh was born in Detroit,
Michigan, in 1902, but grew
up in Minnesota. His father,
Charles August Lindbergh,
was a member of Congress for
Minnesota from 1907 to 1917.
Lindbergh studied mechanical
engineering in college for two
years, but dropped out to
begin flight training.
On 20 May 1927, he made
history by flying solo from
New York to Paris on his
monoplane The Spirit of
St Louis. After 34 hours of
nonstop flying, he landed at
Le Bourget Aerodrome, Paris,
to win the $25,000 Orteig
Prize. At only 25, the
transatlantic feat changed his
life completely, bringing with
it fame and fortune.
On a goodwill flight to
Mexico City, Lindbergh met
Anne Morrow, whose father
was ambassador to Mexico.
The couple soon married and,
in 1930, had their first of six
children, Charles Jr.
After the Pearl Harbor
attack in 1941, Lindbergh
applied to join the Air Force,
but was refused by President
Roosevelt after a long-running
spat between the two men.
Lindbergh later helped the
war effort by training pilots.178-185_Lindbergh_Baby.indd 183 12/12/2016 17:13