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From: john newman <>
Subject: [NJHUNTER] The Lindbergh Kidnapping
Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2003 12:19:24 -0700 (PDT)


I thought that this might interest a few out there. The Lindbergh Kidnapping and Trial is the subject of a New York Continuing Legal Education Course or "CLE." The article is from today's New York Law Journal.

Albany Judge Says Lindbergh Kidnapping Trial Would Turn Out Differently Today

By John Caher
New York Law Journal
Thursday, October 9, 2003


Albany Scholars and history buffs probably will debate the Lindbergh kidnaping in perpetuity. But for an Albany County Family Court judge, one thing is beyond debate: Bruno Richard Hauptmann did not receive a fair trial.

Tomorrow, Judge W. Dennis Duggan will preside over an unusual continuing legal education program at Albany Law School, where he will lecture on trial procedures and rules of evidence in a case that was technically put to rest decades ago.

"The trial," Judge Duggan said, "was a mockery."

There was virtually no pretrial discovery, so Mr. Hauptmann's attorney was unable to mount an effective cross examination. The capital charge was based on the unlikely theory that Mr. Hauptmann broke into the Lindbergh estate to steal the toddler's pajamas, and in the course of that crime killed the child.

Pioneering aviator Charles A. Lindbergh, arguably the most famous man on the planet at the time, directed the investigation and barred authorities from immediately questioning his staff. The trial judge's charge amounted to a directed verdict when he continually commented on the evidence and the futility of the defense.

And Mr. Hauptmann's own attorney, Edward J. "Big Ed" Reilly, a famous defense lawyer with a flair for the dramatic, was on the payroll of the Hearst newspaper chain, which paid his fees in exchange for exclusive access to Mrs. Hauptmann and daily trial commentary.

Today, Judge Duggan said, any one of a series of trial errors would have warranted reversal of the conviction.

"Having the knowledge of a history of law is helpful, and it shows how recently developed are many of our legal procedures and how much differently things were done not that long ago," Judge Duggan said.

Judge Duggan, a 10-year incumbent, became intrigued with the Lindbergh matter after reading a book. His interest led him to the East Amwell, N.J., estate where the baby was allegedly abducted and the Bronx cemetery where ransom money changed hands. The more he looked the more he became convinced that Bruno Hauptmann did not murder Charles Lindbergh's child.

"It is also instructive to see how fame and notoriety can twist the legal procedures," Judge Duggan said. "Whoever was arrested was going to be convicted no matter what. Somebody had to pay for this crime."

The historical record shows that on the rainy night of March 1, 1932, Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh, his wife Anne, their 20-month-old son Charley and domestic staff were at Highfields, the pilot's 250-acre estate near Princeton. It was the first time that little Charley was to spend a weekday night at Highfields.

A maid reported that the child was not in his room. Mr. Lindbergh grabbed a gun and searched the exterior while other members of the household looked inside. They did not find the child, but they did report finding a ransom note on the window sill demanding $50,000 for the toddler's safe return.

>From the start, Judge Duggan said, authorities utterly deferred to Mr. Lindbergh, who controlled the investigation and prevented police from thoroughly interviewing the staff or the parents even though parents are usually among the first to be questioned in a missing child case. Additionally, Mr. Lindbergh would not allow police to take part in the exchange of ransom money at a Catholic cemetery, although he did permit authorities to record the serial numbers on the ransom money and to include U.S. gold certificates that would be relatively easy to trace.

Some two months later, the child's body was found in a wooded area near the Lindbergh home. Charley Lindbergh had a fractured skull and had been dead for at least several weeks.

Scattered Evidence

It was another two years before a suspect was arrested, an illegal German immigrant named Bruno Richard Hauptmann, who bought gasoline with one of the gold certificates. Police found $14,000 of the ransom money in Hauptmann's home. Mr. Hauptmann claimed the money belonged to a business partner who had recently died. The jury did not believe him, and on April 3, 1936, Mr. Hauptmann died in the electric chair proclaiming his innocence.

The evidence against Mr. Hauptmann consisted largely of the ransom money, expert evidence that the handwriting on the ransom notes matched that of the defendant, proof that the wood used to construct a ladder found at the crime scene had come from Mr. Hauptmann's attic, and testimony from Mr. Lindbergh that he recognized the suspect's voice as the one he heard during the ransom exchange, even though he was 200 feet away.

Still, Judge Duggan said, the evidence does not add up, and procedures employed at the time failed to protect the defendant's fair trial rights.

"There was no discovery of anything, so every witness gave conflicting descriptions and none of it was available for cross-examination purposes," Justice Duggan said. "Every witness who made a visual identification was either prompted or shown photographs ahead of time. Evidence taken out of Hauptmann's home that would have verified some of his claims went missing."

Like other researches, Judge Duggan suspects someone from the Lindbergh household, perhaps Charles Lindbergh himself, killed the child either intentionally or accidentally and staged the kidnapping as a cover.

The CLE program focuses on trial procedure and rules of evidence. It is co-sponsored by Albany Law School and the Albany County Bar Association.



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