Essay On Charles Lindbergh Kidnapping

The next question involved is with the courts, the adjudication, arraignment and the preliminary hearing. Throughout all of the investigations, they came down with one principle suspect. A Bronx carpenter by the name of Bruno Richard Hauptmann. He passed a $10 gold certificate at a gas station from the ransom money and this led to his subsequent arrest, trial and finally the death penalty. Ultimately, the police found about $14,000 or more of the ransom money at the suspect’s home. “In newspapers, the case appeared open-and-shut. Hauptmann had entered the United States as a stowaway, with a prison record in Germany for robberies.” (www.lindberghkidnap.proboards.com) With no fingerprints that linked Hauptmann to the crime, nothing but circumstantial evidence in the case and the handwriting expert said that

When investigators explored the crime scene, they noticed that the box that the child was lying in was special. According to the article, “The Creepy Mystery of the Boy in the Box”, The boy was found in 1 of 12 bassinet boxes that were sold at JC Penny. The investigators examined the box closely with the boy in it which resulted in the findings of this evidence. All of the boxes that were sold from the store were traced back to their owners except for the one the boy was found in (Swancer & Hanks). After examining closely, this determined that something was even more suspicious about the box. All of the boxes were traced back to the people who bought them, except for the 12th one, the box the boy was found in. The conclusion of knowing about the bassinet box is that the boy was bought a bassinet, which means he at least was with someone would could afford to give him the necessities he needed. Knowing that the boy was being bought a bassinet, this infers that the boy must have had some type of care.

The case that I will be discussing is the cold murder case of Lucille Johnson from Salt Lake City, Utah. Unfortunately, at the time of the murder the investigators didn’t take certain evidence serious in the case. The investigators thought that it was just evidence that had no meaning. None the less, it ended up convicting the murderer, John Sansing.

them. It didn’t make sense that there was a ransom note and then the dead body in the

Apart from the clues given they still had one more mystery to solve and it was who the boy was. Investigators still wanted to continue with the case so they kept the boy in a morgue. Many people from 10 different stated came to look at the boy to see if he was a missing family member. Unfortunately, nobody claimed him. Foot prints and fingerprints of the boy were taken and compared to hospital records but nothing was found. 400,000 flyers of the boy were sent out and even the AMA sent out a description but nothing came through. The fact that there is no proof that the boy even existed led to many theories of who

The police came quickly to the big mansion, and the investigation of the kidnapping was started. It was known to be the crime of the century.

On Saturday, December 1, 1900, a man named John Hossack was killed in his sleep with a hatchet by his wife, Margaret Hossack. The story told by Margaret was that she had heard what sounded like two boards banging together and by that time the attacker had fled and she didn’t catch a glimpse of him. The next thing she saw was her extremely wounded husband, John, who had a five-inch cut into his head and a fractured skull. A doctor, who came and examined John, and said there was no hope and John died the next morning. As an investigation started, a burglary was thought of as the first motive but the idea flawed because nothing was stolen so the idea was quickly abandoned. In the 4 days between the murder and the funeral, the police talked to

Now I am going to give you some background on this subject. The police officers had a lot of suspects and a lot of evidence and the evidence pointed to a lot of people, but then there was evidence that pointed to someone else. The crime scene was not sealed off like it should have been to preserve the evidence. The room in the basement that John found JonBenet in was checked twice by police

Charles Lindbergh entered this world on February 4, 1902 in Detroit, Michigan. He grew up in Rapid Falls, Minnesota on

The child was confirmed to have to have been that of the Lindbergh family, and his body was already rotting and mutilated. During the case, there were various ransom notes with similar handwritings which were used to convict Hauptmann, the case relied on a “tremendous amount of evidence [which included] depositions from eight handwriting experts” (Phelan). By having a tremendous amount of evidence rely merely on handwriting comparisons raises doubts towards the rest of the case’s affirmations. Help was provided from the public as “the Lindbergh Kidnapping case became a sensational media event.... authorities launched an extensive manhunt” (“Bruno Hauptmann”). With the media buzzing, there was going to be publicity and attention to those involved, decreasing the chances of authentic evidence. With the public involved, there were higher chances that more people would report false materials (which did happen). Not many had been skeptical of any findings until more materials arose, and the legitimacy of officials and their findings were questioned. As remorseful as it is, only after Hauptmann’s death was there doubt that began to pass through the minds of the public.

Condon, totaling to a staggering thirteen notes; some of which the Lindbergh’s provided the ransom money in gold certificates. All of the ransom notes were written in German penmanship and had countless grammar errors. Suspects in the case included: Charles and Anne Lindbergh, Elisabeth Morrow, Betty Gow, Oliver and Elsie Whately, and Bruno Richard Hauptmann. Charles Sr. was a suspect because of his suspicious actions during the night Charles Jr. was taken as well as throughout the investigation. He was in the study directly below his son’s nursery when he was taken and only heard a sound to which he suspected was something dropping in the kitchen. He was also the person who found the first ransom letter, after the police, Anne, and Betty Gow had searched the room for evidence. Anne was a suspect because she was also in the home at the time of the kidnapping. Resting in her room, due to a cold, she did not hear any suspicious noises. Anne’s sister, Elisabeth Morrow, was suspected of the crime as well. She was initially romantically involved with Charles Lindbergh, Sr. until he announced his engagement to Anne. Over time she became both physically and emotionally ill. Fits of violence made her staff believe that she had killed her own dog, and she was not allowed to be alone with Charles Lindbergh, Jr. for fear that she would harm him in one of her fits. Oliver and Elsie Whately were suspects because they were in the home at the time that the crime took place.

Investigators knew what they had to do, and knew they had the right suspect in questioned. They presumed with asking Bruno Hauptmann to write; where there would be a comparison of in handwriting from the ransom note to now, and the comparison was “unbelievable”. The similarities of strokes it takes to make that word or letter was amazing, gave investigator the evidence they needed to hold against him. Another component is the courts where substantial evidence will be used to hold Bruno Hauptmann with the crime. A preliminary hearing would proceed in which will show the court and jury the evidence that is brought before him.

Did you know that the kidnapping of a toddler was once considered the “Crime of the Century?” Charles Lindbergh was an aviator well known for his transatlantic flight in 1927. He and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, lost the life of their son Charles Lindbergh Jr. Due to the Lindbergh’s baby being taken, “the next four weeks witnessed the most massive and publicized manhunt in American History” (Campbell 254). The abduction and death of the young Lindbergh baby singlehandedly helped make kidnapping a federal crime.

So is it two people, three people. For sure it is not one person.” (John Douglas). Another researcher in the Lindbergh kidnapping case is historian Lloyd Gardner.

At one point in her last flight, Amelia had entered the longest and most difficult passage and the following results have been a mystery. The second to last checkpoint of this flight was from New Guinea to Howland Island. The 2,500 miles were never completed. The “Electra” was supposed to endure twenty hours. After the fifteenth hour or so, things started to go wrong. On July 2, radio workers on Howland Island started to hear some signals. They weren’t completely clear, but the workers knew the signals were coming in from Amelia’s plane. This showed that she was in some kind of trouble and really needed to talk to somebody. Very soon it became clear that she couldn’t hear their frantic radio signals back to her. Her last try of sending a radio signal was recorded 8:43 local time on July 2, 1937 (“Earhart Overview”). The immediate search for her and Noonan was headed by the Navy. The Navy started searching near and around Howland Island. Many people, even soldiers from the Civil War, came to help search for her and her navigator. They searched everywhere they could think of but had no success. On July 18, they called off the search. The Navy had their own opinion on what had happened. “The general opinion was that the plane had probably run out of gas, gone down at sea, and sunk without a trace.” (Beheim). She never finished the last leg of her flight, much to the people’s