Lingering doubts surround the Lindbergh baby kidnapping conviction
Bruno Richard Hauptmann was executed in 1936 for the murder of Charles Lindbergh's son, but questions about the evidence have persisted for decades.
Outside Charles Lindbergh's New Jersey home, a broken ladder lay beneath the nursery. It was March first, nineteen thirty-two. His twenty-month-old son had disappeared, and a ransom note was outside.
The family paid fifty thousand dollars. The child was later found dead near the home. For over two years, investigators followed marked ransom bills.
The arrest and evidence
One bill led them to carpenter Bruno Richard Hauptmann. In his garage, they found more ransom money. Hauptmann said it belonged to a deceased friend and denied involvement.
Prosecutors told jurors the ladder's wood matched Hauptmann's wood and the notes matched his handwriting. A jury convicted him of murder, and he was executed in nineteen thirty-six. The verdict stood.
Questions that remain
But doubts about the ladder and handwriting evidence and possible accomplices never disappeared.
