Lindbergh Baby Case Study

The Strange Kidnapping of the Lindbergh Baby Famous pilot Charles Lindbergh became world famous for his great transatlantic flight of 1927, but since then, something strange would happen that would then change his life, his family’s life, and the entire world of crime stopping forever. Charles Lindbergh’s son was kidnapped out of nowhere at around 20 months old, and the police started a frantic search. After around 2 years, the police tracked down the possible kidnapper down to a German immigrant named Bruno Hauptmann. The entire world wanted him to be guilty, but was he really? The mystery behind the Lindbergh kidnapping could be summarized in 2 theories: he did it, or he’s innocent.

To begin with, on March 1, 1932, the Lindbergh family noticed that their son, Charles jr, had disappeared from his room causing media outrage, panic, and lots of chaos. The

The police searched his house and actually found $14,000 in ransom money, since the serial numbers of the bills matched with the ones from the ransom, providing a bit of evidence that he was guilty (Aaseng 17). Hauptmann already had a criminal record, as he was arrested and spent 3 years in prison for various crimes and felonies like armed robbery in Germany, which was where he was born (Newton 220.) Not long afterwards, It was discovered that Hauptmann had used a plank form his attic for use part of the ladder used to break in (Aaseng 18). Then the police got some handwriting experts to help out, “Later, his (Bruno Hauptmann) handwriting was compared with that of the ransom notes. It matched.” (Barclay 2) Considering how all this seemed to point in Hauptmann’s direction, it was no surprise that the police believed that this guy really was the kidnapper. Due to all the suspicious activity and evidence surround Hauptmann, the idea that he actually did the kidnapping made more sense than it probably