Content
Note
On
1 March 1932, twenty-month-old Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., son of
Col. Charles and Anne (Morrow) Lindbergh, was taken from his family’s
home in East Amwell Township, Hunterdon County, NJ. Following instructions
from the kidnapper, who contacted the family through ransom notes
and parcels containing the toddler’s clothing, $50,000 was
delivered in April to an unknown man at St. Raymond’s Cemetery,
Bronx, NY. In May, a toddler’s remains were found in a grove
of trees about four miles from the Lindbergh estate, near Hopewell,
NJ. Col. Lindbergh and New Jersey StatePolice
identified the body as that of Charles Jr. based on numerous points
of identification.
After a lengthy, highly publicized investigation, authorities traced
ransom money to Bruno Richard Hauptmann of the Bronx. He was
arrested
and charged with kidnapping and murder on 19 September 1934. Hauptmann’s
sensationalized trial before the Hunterdon County Court of Oyer
and Terminer took place in Flemington, NJ, during January-February
1935. He was convicted of first degree murder on 13 February and
sentenced to death.
The State’s evidence at trial included testimony and physical
objects linking Hauptman to the scene of the crime, linking his
handwriting to the ransom notes, and linking the wood used in the
kidnap ladder to wood found in Hauptmann’s home and the lumber
yard where he was formerly employed. The prosecution further accounted
for investments and expenditures by the defendant amounting to the
ransom payment less nearly $15,000 in cash discovered on Hauptmann’s
property identified through serial numbers as ransom money.
This series consists of copies of 24 B&W photographs created
by the New Jersey State Police depicting evidence used at the
Hauptmann
trial. Note that the original photographs and evidence are held
by the New Jersey State Police Museum and Learning Center in West
Trenton, NJ, as part of an extensive archive relating to the Lindbergh
kidnapping.
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