Unit 1 Assignment
Kaplan University
In March 1932 Charles A Lindbergh Jr, twenty month old was kidnapped. According to the author Russell Aiuto, nd. New Jersey state police was notified around 11:30pm. The child was last seen by the nurse Betty Gow at 8:00pm. There was a ransom letter on the window sill that stated, the kidnapper wanted $50,000 and advised Mr. Lindbergh not to contact the authorities for anything. Lindberg mansion was big and had 14 rooms. During the search at the kidnapping scene, traces of mud were found on the floor of the nursery. Footprints, impossible to measure, were found under the nursery window. Two sections of the ladder had been used in reaching the window, one of the two sections was split or broken where it joined the other, indicating that the ladder had broken during the ascent or descent. There were no blood stains in or around the nursery, nor were there any fingerprints. The servants in the house and the parents were suspects as well, anyone could have kidnapped Charles Jr. What was surprising is that the amount of intelligence the kidnapper had of the house, where the baby would be etc. A second ransom note was received by Lindbergh attorney on March 6, 1932, the kidnapper ransom demand was increased to $70,000. The governor called a police conference at Trenton, New Jersey, that was attended by prosecuting officials, police authorities, and government representatives. Various theories and policies of procedure were discussed. Private investigators also were employed by Lindbergh’s attorney, Colonel Henry Breckenridge. The kidnapper sent a few notes. On March 29, Betty Gow, the Lindbergh nurse, found the infant’s thumb guard, assuming it was worn at the time of the kidnapping, the following day the ninth ransom note was received by Condon, threatening to increase the demand to $100,000 and refusing a code for use in newspaper columns. The tenth ransom note, received by Dr. Condon, on April 1, 1932 instructed him to have the money ready the following night, to which Condon replied by an ad in the Press. The eleventh ransom note was delivered to Condon on April 2, 1932, by an unidentified taxi driver who said he received it from an unknown man. Dr. Condon found the twelfth ransom note under a stone in front of a greenhouse at 3225 East Tremont Avenue, Bronx, New York, as instructed in the eleventh note. The Police played a major part in this investigation they used marked money to catch the kidnapper and apprehend him. They also had the ransom note which they compared it to Hauptman’s handwriting and noticed it was a perfect match. The author indicated The Supreme Court took people into custody for the kidnapping of Charles A Lindberg and they had nothing to do with the kidnap but was convicted of hoax scheme they all lied about to get a reward. According Dahn Batchelor opinion article 2009, while the baby was still missing, at least two separate men, Gaston Means and John Hughes Curtis, came forward with false claims that they were associates of the kidnappers. Gaston Means, who was a former FBI agent and conman, was convicted of larceny after extorting $100,000 from Washington D.C. socialite Evelyn Walsh McLean. McLean had unwittingly provided Means the money in an attempt to pay a ransom for the return of the Lindbergh baby.
Means was sentenced to fifteen years in prison and died in prison in 1938. John Curtis, a respected boat builder in Norfolk, Virginia, also made claims that he also was in contact with the kidnappers. Curtis even claimed that at one point he had held the baby in his arms. After the baby's body was found, Curtis confessed that his stories were false and were brought about by "financial pressures". He was fined and given a one year suspended sentence. The Lindbergh’s were the victims of several other pranks and claims about their baby. The article signify that recently, a man asserted that he was the Lindbergh’s son who had