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Bruno Richard HAUPTMANN
The Lindbergh Kidnapping
Classification: Murderer?
Characteristics:
Kidnapping
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder:
March 1, 1932
Date of arrest: September 19, 1934
Date of birth:
November 26, 1899
Victim profile:
Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., 20-month-old
(the son of famous aviator Charles Lindbergh)
Method of murder:
By
a blow to the head
(it
has never been determined whether the head injury was accidental
or deliberate)
Location: Hopewell, Mercer County, New Jersey, USA
Status:
Executed by electrocution in New Jersey on April 3, 1936
Trial Timeline
Week One, January 2-6,
1935
January 2, 1935
Excitement runs high as the The Trial of the
Century opens, nearly three years after the Lindbergh child was
abducted.
10 jurors are selected. Included are a
merchant, two farmers, four housewives, a laborer, an insurance
salesman and a camp education advisor.
January 3, 1935
Defense council Edward J. Reilly’s motion for
a mistrial, on grounds that Attorney General Wilentz’s opening
is impassioned and designed to prejudice the jury, is denied by
Justice Trenchard.
Mrs. Anne Lindbergh identifies the child’s
sleeping garments. Charles Lindbergh testifies that he heard
noises as the child was kidnapped.
January 4, 1935
Lindbergh identifies Hauptmann’s voice as
that of the man who took the ransom money in the cemetery.
January 5-6, 1935
Trial off for the weekend.
Lead defense attorney Reilly announces he
will name the gang of four who are responsible for the child’s
abduction.
*****
Week Two, January 7-13, 1935
January 7, 1935
Nursemaid Betty Gow testifies about events
the evening of the kidnap. She identifies the child’s undershirt
and thumb guard.
The 25 foot, 3 section ladder is brought to
the courtroom. Spectators crane their necks to get a good view.
A legal battle is begun to have it entered as evidence.
January 8, 1935
Amandus Hochmuth testifies he saw Hauptmann
in Hopewell with a ladder on the day of the kidnapping. Cab
driver testifies Hauptmann paid him to deliver a ransom note to
Dr. Condon in March, 1932.
January 9, 1935
Dr. John F. (Jafsie) Condon identifies
Hauptmann as the mysterious “John” who negotiated and took
$50,000 in ransom.
January 10, 1935
Despite defense speculation that Isidor Fisch
was the man who delivered the ransom notes, Dr. Condon holds
fast to his identification of Bruno Hauptmann as the man who
collected the ransom.
January 11, 1935
Handwriting expert accuses Hauptmann as the
writer of 14 ransom notes to Lindbergh.
Federal agent identifies Hauptmann as the man
in whose garage searchers found $14,000 of the ransom cash.
January 12-13, 1935
Trial off for the weekend.
A group of psychics, astrologers and mind
readers who ask to read Hauptmann’s thoughts are turned down.
*****
Week Three, January 14-20, 1935
January 14, 1935
Model Hildegarde Alexander testifies she saw
Hauptmann shadowing Dr. Condon in a Bronx railway station in
March, 1932, before the ransom was paid.
January 15, 1935
Relatives of Isidor Fisch arrive from Germany
to attack Hauptmann’s story that Fisch left him ransom money.
Two more handwriting experts say Hauptmann
wrote the kidnap notes.
January 16, 1935
Expert says address of package used to send
the baby’s sleeping suit to Dr. Condon was in Hauptmann’s
handwriting. Another says Hauptmann’s writing is so distinct,
“He might as well have signed his name....”
January 17, 1935
Hauptmann, in a rage, shouts “Stop your lying!”
at a federal agent on the witness stand. A Mercer County
physician testifies that a skull fracture killed the Lindbergh
baby.
January 18, 1935
“You are lying,” shouts Mrs. Hauptmann,
denying a former neighbor’s testimony that the Hauptmanns took a
trip shortly after the kidnapping. Judge Trenchard reprimands
both Hauptmanns for courtroom outbursts.
January 19-20, 1935
Infighting erupts between defense attorneys
and Reilly, who threatens to quit. When questioned by reporters,
Reilly denies there are any problems on the defense team.
*****
Week Four, January 21-27, 1935
January 21, 1935
A Manhattan building superintendent testifies
Hauptmann was not at work on the day of the kidnapping, or on
the day of the ransom payment.
Hauptmann’s claim that he recieved the ransom
bills from Isidor Fisch is badly damaged when Mrs. Cecil Barr, a
cashier at a Manhattan movie theater, identifies him as the man
who bought a ticket with a five-dollar gold note, well before
Isidor Fisch had sailed to Germany.
January 22, 1935
Two more men identify Hauptmann as the man
they saw lurking near Hopewell on the day of the kidnaping.
After some legal infighting the defense succeeds in getting the
ladder admitted as evidence.
January 23, 1935
Arthur Koehler, wood expert, testifies that a
board used in ladder construction matches a hole made by a plank
missing from Hauptmann’s attic.
January 24, 1935
After burying Hauptmann in circumstantial,
eyewitness and forensic evidence, Wilentz announces, “The State
rests.” Lloyd Fischer, gives the defenses opening remarks,
attacking the prosecution’s case and denigrating the NJ State
Police, concluding, “...no case in all of history was as badly
handled or as badly managed...” Hauptmann takes the stand for
the first time. He denies all involvement in the crime.
January 25, 1935
Wilentz begins his cross-examination ,
hammering Hauptmann with questions about his writing and the
ransom notes. He also establishes for the jury that Hauptmann
was a convicted felon who had spent nearly four years in a
German prison.
January 26-27, 1935
Verna Snyder, a 265 pound member of the jury,
after consuming a steak and potato dinner, fifteen rolls, two
pieces of pie, three cups of coffee, and dancing to the tune of
“Casey Jones,” complains of feeling ill.
*****
Week Five, January 28 - February 3, 1935
January 28, 1935
Hauptmann continues on the witness stand.
Wilentz confronts him with a drawing of a ladder similar to the
one used in the kidnapping from one of Hauptmann’s notebooks.
Hauptmann admits the book is his, but denies that he drew the
picture.
January 29, 1935
Hauptmann concludes his seventeen hours of
testimony, eleven of it cross-examination.
January 30, 1935
Anna Hauptmann takes the stand. Under stiff
questioning by Wilentz, she admits that she never saw a shoe box
on the top shelf of the kitchen closet. This seriously
undermines Hauptmann’s claim that the money had been left with
him by Isidor Fisch.
January 31, 1935
Reilly proceeds to produce a series of crooks,
con men and mental cases as alibi witnesses. Each was so
unbelievable that Hauptmann himself was prompted to ask, “Where
are they getting these witnesses?... They’re killing me!”
February 1, 1935
John Trendley, a documents examiner from St.
Louis, testifies that despite spelling and grammatical
similarities, he doesn’t believe Hauptmann wrote the ransom
notes. Many of the defense’s other handwriting “experts” end up
not testifying.
February 2-3, 1935
Judge Trenchard bars all cameras from the
court after discovering that secret movies of the trial had been
taken and shown in movie houses in New York and New Jersey.
*****
Week Six, February 4-10, 1935
February 4, 1935
Defense witness, Peter Somner, claims to have
seen Lindbergh maid Violet Sharpe and Isidor Fisch with a baby
on a New York ferry on the night of the crime. Wilentz gets him
to admit that he had testified in other trials for pay. Somner
is then unable to identify Sharpe from a photograph.
February 5, 1935
When asked to name the Governor of New Jersey
(Harold G. Hoffman) one NJ third grader responds: “Hauptmann!”
Hoffman, meanwhile, announces the trial will cost the state
$250,000. (The actual figure was over $600,000.)
Reilly calls a series of alibi witnesses who
testify they were with Hauptmann, celebrating his birthday, on
the night the ransom was paid.
February 6, 1935
During the lunch break, Reilly is approached
by a man volunteering to be a defense witness. Reilly responded,
“You’ve never been convicted of a crime? You’ve never been in a
lunatic asylum? I can’t use you!”
February 7, 1935
Charles J. Debisschop, a Conn. lumberjack,
testifies that many trees have similar grain patterns and that
the board used in the ladder did not come from Hauptmann’s attic.
February 8, 1935
After producing only a fraction of the
witnesses it had promised, and failing to disclose the identity
of the “real” kidnappers, the defense surprisingly rests its
case. The prosecution calls 20 rebuttal witnesses, including
many who testify that Fisch was nearly destitute in the months
prior to his returning to Germany.
February 9-10, 1935
To speed thing up the Judge calls a Saturday
session. Wilentz finishes his rebuttal witnesses and rests. The
defense offers no sur-rebuttal and also rests.
In a rare interview, Lindbergh expresses his
satisfaction with the prosecution’s case.
*****
Week Seven, February 11-13, 1935
February 11, 1935
Edward Reilly gives a five hour defense
summation, starting strongly, casting suspicion for the
kidnapping on everyone except Hauptmann. After a lunch break (and
four drinks) he seems to ramble aimlessly through the remainder
and finally sits down, to the relief of everyone in the
courtroom, including others on his defense team.
February 12, 1935
Lead Prosecutor Wilentz gives his five hour
summation. It is crisp and organized. He finishes with a call
for the death penalty, assuring a first-degree murder conviction.
February 13, 1935
The jury deliberates for 12 hours and returns
with a first-degree murder conviction. Hauptmann is sentenced to
die in March. Defense team promises appeals.
Hauptmann’s original execution date was
set for the week of March 18, 1935. He was transferred to the
state penitentiary in Trenton three days after the verdict,
where he lived in a ten-by-eight foot cell on death row. After
his appeals were denied, and other attempts to prove his
innocence failed, Hauptmann was executed via the electric chair
on April 3, 1936.
