crime story

Crime of the Century: On March 1, 1932, 20-month-old Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. was kidnapped, and his body was found on the roadside 2 months later, on May 12. People are still interested in this incident that happened in America about 100 years ago.

Charles Augustus Lindbergh Junior: March 1, 1932, when 20-month-old Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. was kidnapped. 2 months later, on May 12, his body was found in a mutilated condition on the roadside. This incident was called the Crime of the Century. This case happened in America about 100 years ago, but even today, people’s interest in this case has not diminished. Now, speculations about the death of the child have again fired up the case of the incident and pressure for DNA testing of evidence.

ALSO READ: Maha Kumbh: 180 cottages, 5 bikes burnt to ashes. Did someone from outside set the fire?

The case of Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. is nearly 100 years old and is termed the ‘Crime of the Century’ due to the dramatic details of the incident and the high-profile status of the child’s parents. Charles Augustus Lindbergh’s mother, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was the daughter of a diplomat, and his father, Charles Lindbergh, was an aviator who gained fame by completing the world’s first non-stop solo flight from New York to Paris.

The death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. is back in the news after almost 100 years. It is because of the possible involvement of his father, Charles Lindbergh, in his son’s death. One of the most bizarre and terrifying theories surrounding this and a new legal push for DNA testing of evidence has brought one of the longest-running murder mysteries back into public attention.

Hauptmann, a German immigrant and carpenter residing in the Bronx borough of New York City, was hanged for the crime in April 1936. In this case, now, his great-niece Cejan Love and her aunt recently supplied DNA samples and are hoping the courts of New Jersey will choose to clear the way with modern science to unravel the old doubt about whether an innocent man had been sentenced to death. And, if not, did he do this incident alone?

Cejan Love said, ‘I do not believe that he did it. Hauptmann and his widow maintained their innocence and defence argument till the end. But if evidence links him to this case, then so be it. I want to know the truth.’

Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. was just 20 months old when he vanished from his bedroom in East Amwell, New Jersey, on March 1, 1932. Several points were established in the investigation, including a wooden ladder, a chisel, and a ransom note inside the house. Several other letters later demanded a higher amount. Still, the family had arranged for a $50,000 ransom, but the kid was found dead 10 weeks later on May 12.

The investigation continued until September 1934, when a $10 gold certificate from the ransom money was used to buy gasoline in New York. Investigators then traced Hauptmann after tracing a car at a gas station, and later, they recovered $13,760 in ransom money in his garage. However, Hauptmann later said he was told to keep the money by a man who died in Germany before the trial.

Also, fingerprints were not seen at the time of the abduction. Neither was able to confess to the crime. Also, the investigators failed to find any explanation for the fact that the child was kidnapped by a single person from a nursery on the second floor of the house in the downpour when there were five adults and a dog in the house. However, Hauptmann was convicted and awarded the death penalty by a six-week trial in Flemington, New Jersey.

When Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. was kidnapped and killed, his father Charles Lindbergh was a national hero for completing the world’s first nonstop solo flight from New York to Paris. But history will look far more seriously at the famous pilot who died 50 years earlier. Lindbergh was fascinated by the study of eugenics. The media condemned him after accepting a medal for his contribution to aviation from Hermann Goering on behalf of Adolf Hitler in 1938. Many took this to be an indication that he did favours for the Nazi regime.

Retired California Judge Lise Pearlman speculates now that Charles Lindbergh was able to do something even more sinister than the Nazi consideration and that he had sacrificed his son for scientific experiments, leading to the child’s death. “I make use of the leverage of time to regard the boy’s father as a suspect in his kidnapping and murder. Like everyone on the list, he is a human being, not a god,” Pearlman wrote in her book, The Lindbergh Kidnapping Suspect No. 1: The Man Who Got Away. It’s a theory that other Lindbergh researchers view with deep scepticism.