KIDNAPPING AND EXTORTION 185
Verdict challenged
Hauptmann’s lawyer appealed the
conviction all the way to the US
Supreme Court, but none of the
appeals was successful. Still, Bruno
Hauptmann proclaimed his
innocence until his last moment.
He was executed in “Old Smokey”,
the electric chair at New Jersey
State Prison, on 13 April 1936.
The case did not end there,
however. In 1981, Hauptmann’s
83-year-old widow, Anna, sued the
state of New Jersey for $100 million
(£130 million), claiming that it had
wrongfully executed her husband.
She asked that his case be
reopened, but the court denied the
request. Her lawyer also asked theThey think that when I die,
the case will die.
Bruno HauptmannNew Jersey State Legislature to
officially declare Bruno Hauptmann
innocent. No action was taken.
The case has inspired more
than a dozen books and two films.
In 1982, the documentary, Who
Killed the Lindbergh Baby?, written
and narrated by British journalist
Ludovic Kennedy, argued that
Hauptmann was framed. In
Gregory Ahlgren and Stephen
Monier’s 1993 book Crime of thePolice officers scour Hauptmann’s
garage for clues that might tell them
what happened to Charlie Lindbergh
as hundreds gather outside
Hauptmann’s house during the search.Century: The Lindbergh
Kidnapping Hoax, they suggest
that Charles Lindbergh accidentally
killed his son and staged the
kidnapping as a cover-up. Other
authors have suggested there were
multiple culprits, pointing to the
use of “we” in the ransom notes,
and the presence of two sets of
footprints at the mansion.
In 2012, author Robert Zorn
posited that “Cemetery John”
was German grocery store worker
John Knoll, and that he and Bruno
Hauptmann performed the
kidnapping together. While Zorn’s
theory has gained traction,
particularly given the physical
similarities between images of
John Knoll and the artist’s
impression of “Cemetery John”
based on Dr Condon’s description,
we are still no closer to finding out
what happened that night. ■Capital punishment
The American Civil Liberties
Union contends that capital
punishment is irrevocable,
arbitrary, and permanent. It
forever deprives the individual
of the opportunity to benefit
from new evidence or new laws.
The International Commission
Against the Death Penalty has
noted that, while public support
for the death penalty is linked to
the desire to free society from
crime, there are more effective
ways to prevent crime than
killing the perpetrators.Those people and groups
opposed to capital punishment
point out that while it aims to
deter killers, it instead mirrors
the very behaviour it seeks to
prevent. They also argue that
the death penalty promotes the
idea that it is acceptable to kill
as long as it is the government
doing the killing.
The overwhelming majority
of developed nations have
abolished capital punishment
either in law or in practice. The
US remains the only Western
country that still carries out
capital punishment.178-185_Lindbergh_Baby.indd 185 13/01/2017 15:19