February 13: On This Day in World History … briefly
Twice during the 1980s, Anna Hauptmann sued the state of New Jersey for the unjust execution of her husband and both times the suits were dismissed on unknown grounds. She continued fighting to clear his name until her death at age 95 in 1994.
1935: Lindbergh baby-killer sentenced to death
On March 1, 1932, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr (20-month-old son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was abducted from his home Highfields in East Amwell, New Jersey, United States. On May 12, his body was discovered nearby.
In September 1934 Hauptmann was arrested for the crime. After a trial that lasted from January 2 to February 13, 1935, he was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Despite his conviction, he continued to profess his innocence.
Newspaper writer HL Mencken called the kidnapping and trial ‘the biggest story since the Resurrection’. Legal scholars have referred to the trial as one of the ‘trials of the century’. The crime spurred congress to pass the Federal Kidnapping Act, commonly called the ‘Lindbergh Law’, which made transporting a kidnapping victim across state lines a federal crime.
A New Jersey jury found Hauptmann guilty of kidnapping and murdering the flying ace’s infant son – three years after the incident.
Hauptmann was an illegal immigrant who fled from a life of crime in Germany. Lindbergh, who made the first solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, paid a $50 000 ransom after his son was snatched, but sadly the baby’s body was found two months later.
He was caught late in 1934 spending the ransom money and more of it was found in his cellar. Scientific evidence confirmed that he had made the ladder used in the kidnapping and the ransom note contained spelling mistakes that Hauptmann made repeatedly. Hauptmann turned down a large offer from a Hearst newspaper for a confession and refused a last-minute offer to commute his execution to a life sentence in exchange for a confession. He was electrocuted on April 3, 1936, just over four years after the kidnapping.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
