Charles Lindbergh Kidnapping Essay

Twenty-month old Charles Lindbergh, Jr. was abducted from his nursery at approximately 10 pm on March 1st, 1932. The abductor left a few key pieces of evidence, including a ransom note, which ultimately led to his arrest. After a two-year long investigation and the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bruno Richard Hauptmann was arrested and sentenced to death. The Lindbergh case changed the way that investigative and kidnapping cases were investigated and sentenced federally in the United States.

On March 1st, 1932, 20-month-old Charles Lindbergh, Jr. was kidnapped from his crib on the second floor of the Lindbergh residence in New Jersey. The child’s absence was discovered by his nurse, Betty Gow who then alerted his parents at around

This investigation was mainly reactive, meaning that the crime had already occurred, and the police were acting in response. After the discovery of the body, The Bureau of Investigation became the primary agency on the case and were permitted to use full resources from the United States Department of Justice (Britannica, 2023). The publicness of the case caused an outrage leading to the United States Congress to pass the Lindbergh Law (the Federal Kidnapping Act) which made kidnapping a federal crime punishable by death (Britannica, 2023). The FBI had informed the banks in greater New York to keep a close look out for ransom money that could be brought in by the suspect. Because of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order that gold certificates must be exchanged for Federal Reserve notes which in turn benefited the Lindbergh investigation by making the ransom money more trackable (Britannica, 2023). These changes in investigative acts is what ultimately led to the identification and apprehension of Bruno Richard

There are a few differences that could have been made throughout the investigation. One key factor would be calling authorities before Dr. Condon went and met “John”. In my opinion, he should have been working with the local police first before going to meet the man who called himself “John”, this would have helped tremendously in identifying and capturing the kidnapper sooner. To me, it seems that Hauptmann was ultimately caught on accident, based on his own carelessness for using a gold certificate for gas. It is unclear if the abduction could have been prevented. In the eighth ransom note which was received by Dr. Condon, it was written that Hauptmann had been planning the kidnapping for over a year (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2016). However, it could have possibly been prevented by having a more secure nursery, or by the parents initially investigating the “banging” noise that they