The 1932 kidnapping and killing of 20-month-old Charles Lindbergh Jr. had gripped the nation for years. Hauptmann, a German immigrant carpenter, was convicted largely on handwriting analysis and marked ransom bills found in his possession. He was executed months later, though doubts about the evidence and his guilt persisted for decades afterward.
Charles Lindbergh's 1927 solo transatlantic flight had made him the most famous man in America, and the 1932 abduction of his baby son from the family's New Jersey home became an obsession for the press, dubbed "the crime of the century." A ransom of $50,000 in gold certificates was paid, but the child's body was found decomposing in nearby woods weeks later.
Bruno Richard Hauptmann's trial in Flemington, New Jersey drew hundreds of reporters and curiosity seekers; H.L. Mencken called it "the biggest story since the Resurrection." Prosecutors leaned heavily on testimony that Hauptmann's handwriting matched the ransom notes and that marked bills from the ransom had turned up in his garage, along with wood from his attic allegedly matching the crude ladder used in the kidnapping.
The jury deliberated eleven hours before returning a guilty verdict on February 13, 1935, and Hauptmann was sentenced to death. He was executed in April 1936, maintaining his innocence to the end. The case pushed Congress to pass the federal Lindbergh Law making kidnapping across state lines a federal crime, and it permanently changed how the press covered criminal trials.
Key people: Bruno Richard Hauptmann, Charles Lindbergh