Charles Lindbergh: biography, photo, kidnapping and murder of a son, Charles Lindbergh, Jr.

This was the first American pilot, who in May 1927 overcame the distance between New York and Paris, flying over the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean almost 6000 km alone. The name of the American pilot is Charles Lindbergh. It was the idol of Americans of the late 1920s. Prior to him, such long-range flights were only ventured by the British pilots A. Brown and D. Alcock, who flown together from the north-eastern coast of the USA to the coast of Ireland in 1919.

Child and youth years of the future pilot

So, who is he - Charles Lindbergh? The biography of the future American pilot begins in Detroit, when on February 4, 1902, an heir appeared in the family of an emigrant from Sweden. Charles's father was a convinced pacifist and categorically defended the non-participation of Americans in the First World War in the Congress of the United States. From childhood, Charles Lindberg was interested in various techniques. The subject of his hobbies were his father's car and an old motorcycle.

Remaining with his mother after the divorce of his parents, in search of a better life, he had to travel long enough for American states, changing several educational institutions. In 1920, at the insistence of his mother, the young man entered the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Viscón University. However, the desire to fly was stronger, and in 1922, leaving training in Madison, Charles enrolled in the flight school of Nebraska, which ends in 1925.

The abduction and murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr.

Year 1932, 1st of March. America is tormented by the Great Depression. The Governor of New York, Franklin Roosevelt, is preparing for the presidential elections, in Germany Adolf Hitler is against Paul von Hindenburg, Japan invades China, Manhattan is the new "wonder of the world" - the Rockefeller Center.

And on the other end of the Hudson, the most celebrated aviator in the world, Charles Lindbergh, works in the library of his home near the town of Hopville, New Jersey, USA. On the second floor of the luxurious mansion, his twenty-month-old child, Charles Lindbergh, Jr., lovingly called the Little One's parents, lies with a cold. In the street there is wind and rain. There is a crash, which Lindberg takes for a lightning bolt. He does not check anything.

Soon after 10 pm, Betty Hau, an English nanny, asks Lindberg's wife: "Do you have a baby?" The mother gives a negative answer and goes to the baby's room. The maid runs in to Colonel C. Lindberg with a cry: "The baby is gone!" In the children's room, Charles finds an empty cradle. The window is open, the shutters are cracked, dirt is everywhere on the floor, and there is a note on the battery. It became clear that the child was stolen.

Claims of abductors

An illiterate written anonymous letter contains a claim of $ 50,000. At the bottom of the handwritten text, the mark of the kidnapper is two circles plus the third at their intersection. The features of writing some words testified that the language of a possible child kidnapper belongs to the German family.

Soon, the police appears in the mansion, followed by reporters. Near the house is found a roughly stitched ladder, and on the ground under the window - two prints. The upper staircase is broken, and Charles Lindbergh recalls the sharp sound he heard around 10pm. Until the end of his life he will regret that he did not react to this crack in time. The next day, the whole of America, opening the morning papers, was shocked.

A few years earlier

Charles Lindbergh (photo above) was the greatest hero of the country. Five years earlier, this twenty-five years old pilot first made a non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Without radio and even without a sextant on a small plane "The Spirit of Saint Louis", he flew off Long Island, New York. In 33 hours Charles Lindbergh welcomed the enthusiastic Paris, where the hero received a prize of 25,000 dollars. In the United States, he returned with triumph. New York rejoiced. Honored with all honors and possessor of a decent financial condition, Charles becomes a symbol of courage and courage of a real American.

For the transatlantic flight, the young pilot was awarded a high award - the Cross of Flight Merit, to which Charles was awarded the very first. In addition, the International Federation of Aeronautics awarded him the FAI Aviation Gold Medal.

However, Charles Lindberg carried his fame with submissive modesty. He received several profitable posts in the aviation industry. And two years after the flight he married the daughter of Dwight Morrow, the US ambassador to Mexico, one of America's richest men. A little over a year later the younger Charles Lyndberg, the son, was born.

The country sympathizes with its hero

Now the "lonely eagle", as the America called its idol, did not find its place, and the whole country empathized with him and his family. Soon an unprecedented search operation began. US President Herbert Clarke Hoover promises that America will turn heaven and earth to find a criminal. Even the enemy of society No. 1 Al Capone offered his help in finding a child if he was released from prison. He announced a reward of 10,000 dollars. Proposed assistance and the head of the US FBI Edgar Hoover. But the New Jersey police wanted to conduct search activities on their own. Charles Lindbergh Sr. himself refused to help. As a result, the prints on the stairs and near the house were never checked on the FBI file.

Suspect all

On the posters hanging on all large cities of America the child was described as a blonde, curly and blue-eyed kid with a pit on his chin. Under suspicion, all the attendants of the Lindbergh family mansion fell. A version appeared that someone told the criminals that Charles Jr. is in Hopville because of a cold, as the family had previously planned to stay with Mrs. Lindbergh's parents near New York. Vayled Shark, an English maid, said that at the time of the abduction, she was at the cinema. Then she began to change her testimony, claiming to have met her friend. Caused for further interrogation, she committed suicide. All residents of the town and its environs were interviewed.

Did not find a place for the baby's parents, Anna Spencer Morrow and Charles Lindbergh. Kidnapping killed a young couple. Charles was ready to pay any ransom, just to get his son back. To show the seriousness of his intentions, he hired two notorious gangsters.

The Lindberg family's appeal to the kidnappers

The local radio announcer notified: "An urgent message from the Lindberg house. If the kidnappers of our child do not want to speak directly, then we hire Salmos Vitali and Irving Fritz as intermediaries. We will also take any other means of communication that the kidnappers will offer. Signed by: Charles Lindbergh and Anna Spencer Morrow.

Charles promised that in the transfer of ransom, he would not try to cause any harm to the kidnappers. This caused objections in society. It was said that Charles Lindberg did not have the right to guarantee inviolability to criminals.

A new turn of events

Soon came two more letters with mysterious rings. In one there were reproaches for attracting the police, and in another there was a notice that the boy was alive and well. However, the mediators chosen by Charles were rejected. Instead, the anonymous appointed a little-known scientist in retirement - Dr. John Francis Condon, a neighbor of the Lindberg family. An incurable lover of writing in newspapers, Dr. Condon agreed to this and offered his correspondent services to describe further developments in Holm News, the periodical print edition of the New York Bronx area. Lindberg Charles also agreed: the kidnapping of his son drove him crazy. Following the instructions of the police, he placed an ad in the newspaper that the required amount was collected. The meeting was scheduled for the Westland cemetery in the Bronx.

Meeting with extortionist

The man in the mask with a guttural voice said that his name was John. He said that the child is safe, and that there are six people in the gang. Suddenly, John asked: "Do I get executed if the child is dead?" Do I get executed if I did not kill him? "After short negotiations with the criminal, Dr. Condon demanded certain guarantees that the child is really alive.

When the bandits sent sliders, in which the kid was on the day of the abduction, Charles Lindberg prepared to transfer the requisite ransom. The New Jersey State Treasury issued the required amount of gold certificates, which could easily be traced in the future. This time Charles went along with Dr. John Condon to another cemetery in the Bronx.

Hearing the stranger's cry, Charles passed through the grave fence the required amount of $ 50,000 and learned that his child was in a boat off the coast of Massachusetts.

A false track and an unexpected find

The next morning, Charles Lindbergh flew on a seaplane in search of his son. The destroyers of escorts and the Coast Guard of the US Army examined each cove, each coastal area, but, unfortunately, nothing there was found. Finally realized Charles Lindbergh: they killed his son, and he became a victim of deception.

Six weeks later, two drivers found the boy's body in the forest, seven kilometers from the Lindberg family's house. This forest the police had already combed before. The decomposed corpse lay face down, covered with leaves. In the morgue, the nanny Betty Hau identified the deceased - it was the baby Charles. When the turn to identify the corpse reached his father, he cut the locks from the child's head in memory. An autopsy revealed that Charlie the younger died a few hours after the abduction, that is 73 days ago.

The only thread to find criminals were those very special banknotes that began to appear in the country. By the end of the year 27 banknotes were revealed in New York, but only two years later we managed to reach the long-awaited trail.

Carpenter from the Bronx

September 16, 1934, the manager of the gas station in New York's Eastside, remembered the license plates of one car: the driver paid a gold certificate of $ 10.

The owner of the car was a 34-year-old German carpenter from the Bronx, his name was Bruno Richard Hauptmann. The kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr. caused a huge response in the country. To look at the house of a man with a guttural German accent, in whose pocket other bills of ransom were found, crowds of onlookers gathered.

The next day the police found another $ 11,930 in the garage, in tin cans under rags, and $ 1,830, wrapped in a newspaper.

Investigation of the murder

Investigation began. When a forensic examination of handwriting was carried out, it was established that the demand for redemption was written by Bruno Hauptmann's hand. This was a weighty evidence base for the involvement of a German carpenter in killing a child. During the investigation, Bruno Hauptmann denied everything and claimed that the money he had found in his garage was left to him by his business partner Ididor Fish, and since Fish had died in Germany and was left to the Germans, he left the money to himself. Bruno Hauptmann denied any connection with the abduction.

Court and enforcement of the sentence

He was solemnly presented to the press, and the New York police commissioner declared the crime uncovered. The Attorney General believed that there was no doubt about Bruno Hauptmann. Against the German carpenter, many undeniable facts testified. A special argument in court was his conviction and illegal attempts to enter the US, as well as a number of illegal trade transactions. Bruno Richard Hauptmann was executed in the New York prison on April 3, 1936. Until his death, he did not recognize himself as a kidnapper and murderer of a child.

Moving to Europe

After the execution of the verdict, photographers and reporters continued to plague the pilot's family. At the invitation of the Lindbergh aviation company, Charles Sr. is moving to Europe with his family, where he perfectly mastered and even supports the Nazi party policy in Germany. In 1938 Hermann Goering rewards the American pilot with the Order of the German Eagle, the first among the orders of the Third Reich, intended to encourage foreign citizens. By the beginning of World War II, Charles Lindbergh became a technical expert and test pilot of the aircraft building corporation.

Service in the US Air Force

In the spring of 1944, at the invitation of the US military department, C. Lindberg returns to the United States, where he trains American pilots for military art.

In 1953, his book The Spirit of St. Louis was published, in which the author describes in detail all the nuances of his transatlantic flight. Soon the memories of the American pilot are receiving gratitude. His book received the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in Literature.

In 1954, at the suggestion of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Charles Lindbergh received the military rank of brigadier general of the United States Air Force. Since the late 60's, Charles Lindbergh has been actively involved in public activities, advocating a campaign to protect the blue and humpback whales in the world's oceans.

Charles Augstes Lindbergh died August 26, 1974 on the island of Maui (Hawaii) from an oncological disease.