Five years after Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly the Atlantic solo, his house at Hopewell, New Jersey was almost complete. The family was living there mostly on weekends and residing as father in law Dwight Morrow’s house during the week. The Hopewell house was isolated for the privacy that Lindbergh craved. On the stormy night of March 1, 1932, however, someone kidnapped 20 month old Charles, Jr. from the upstairs nursery. The kidnappers left behind a homemade sectional ladder and a ransom note demanding $50,000. The New Jersey State Police, under their founder and superintendent H. Norman Shwarzkopf were placed in charge of the case and presided over a nationwide investigation.
Lindbergh was probably the most famous and revered man in America at the time, so the publicity and level of public interest were high, and the police struggled to make sense of all the conflicting information and leads. The weeks passed and neither the baby nor the kidnappers were found. Finally, the ransom was paid and the wait for the baby’s return began. Soon after, however, the bay was found dead in a nearby woods.
Public outrage and criticism of the police escalated anew, but it was another two years before police could make an arrest. Bruno Hauptmann, an illegal German immigrant with a criminal record who was found with $14,000 of the ransom money (the serial numbers had been recorded.) hidden in his garage. Hauptmann protested his innocence, but in a sensational trial, was convicted and sentenced to die in the electric chair.
The Second Lindbergh Kidnapping 