- At 10:15, the child has been kidnapped.
- Tonight a high-profile kidnapping
grips the world,
when the infant son
of an aviation legend is snatched from his crib at home.
- We're speaking to you now from the press headquarters
during the Lindbergh case.
- After a nationwide manhunt,
the supposed culprit is brought to justice.
But did authorities get the right man?
- Based on the circumstances, there are signs
that this could've been an inside job.
- Now we'll uncover the top theories
surrounding what's been called "the crime of the century."
- How could this have succeeded
without someone having inside knowledge?
- There are at least two or more accomplices
that never got any attention.
- Why was Dr. Condon so heavily involved?
Did he have something to do with this?
- Can new evidence finally reveal the truth
behind this American tragedy?
- The alleged confession said
that I, not Bruno Richard Hauptmann,
am the kidnapper of the Lindbergh baby.
♪ ♪
- Who really is responsible for the kidnapping
of the Lindbergh baby?
[dramatic orchestral music]
♪ ♪
Hopewell, New Jersey, 1932...
for the past year,
world-famous aviator Charles Lindbergh
has called this area home.
- So Lindbergh has been a major celebrity
ever since he completed
his first transatlantic solo flight in 1927.
- In the drizzly, early morning of May 20, 1927,
the "Spirt of St. Louis" takes off
from Roosevelt Field in Long Island.
And after 33 1/2 hours of flying alone,
Lindbergh lands at Le Bourget Field
outside of Paris.
- Does Lindbergh do something that no one else
has ever done before?
Absolutely. He flies across the Atlantic Ocean
by himself, solo,
on a flight pattern that takes him 2,000 miles
farther than the last transatlantic flight--
a flight, by the way, which had two aviators,
not one.
- Lindbergh's flight proved that aviation had a future
for passenger transportation.
- This also earns Lindbergh
tons of accolades, tons of awards--
everything from the Medal of Honor,
the Flying Cross, a Congressional Gold Medal.
- But there's no way Lindbergh would've reached this level
of fame and adulation without one thing--
radio.
[radio crackling]
- You have to understand-- at the time,
no smartphones, no Internet, no television.
This is before almost any form of modern communication.
Radio is revolutionizing the way the world connects.
So, when Lindbergh is making this record-breaking flight,
this is the first time that an audience
can actually follow along with an historic event
in real time.
- This is a moment of instantaneous information,
not the delayed information we get in newsreel
or a newspaper account or a book.
This is happening in real time,
and that's very impactful for people.
After this flight, he comes back home.
There's a ticker-tape parade--
hundreds of thousands of people.
He gets millions of telegrams congratulating him.
Lindbergh is instantly internationally famous.
- But before long, the intensity
of this public adulation becomes overwhelming.
[cheers and applause]
- Lindbergh is badgered constantly by the press.
Everybody wants a piece of him.
- Charles Lindbergh and his wife decided
we've had enough of being in this crazy public eye,
so they bought some land in Hopewell, New Jersey.
- They purchase a remote 600-acre lot,
where they plan to build an estate
that will be their primary home,
along with their 20-month-old son, Charles, Jr.
- Construction on their new home begins
in March of 1931, but the Lindberghs
are just so anxious and so ready to leave New York
that they decide to head out to the house
before it's even completed,
and they start staying there a few days a week.
In addition to Charles, Anne, and Charles Jr.,
they've got the nursemaid, Betty Gow,
their butler, Olly Whatley, and his wife, Elsie,
living in the house with them.
They're a pretty tight-knit group.
- Lindbergh increasingly resents
the intrusions on his private life.
The purpose of the construction
of the estate outside of Hopewell
was to give the Lindberghs some breathing room
from the 24-7 press attention that the family is under.
- But before the Lindberghs find their respite,
on March 1, 1932, the unthinkable happens.
- So, shortly before 10:00, the nurse, Betty Gow,
heads into the nursery to check on Charles Jr.
[door creaking]
- She is horrified to find out that the crib is empty.
She runs to tell Lindbergh.
He follows her back to Charles Jr.'s room,
and he finds out that she's right.
The baby is gone.
- The house staff immediately begin searching the property.
- They are combing the house high and low,
and while they're searching, Charles Lindbergh comes
across something that confirms his deepest, darkest fears.
Near the window of his son's room,
he finds an envelope.
♪ ♪
There's a problem with this particular window.
It's warped, which means that it doesn't close properly.
The latch doesn't actually catch,
so this is the only way
that you could get into the house without a key.
- This was a second-floor window.
This wasn't one you could just
walk up to the house and climb through.
- In the envelope
is a poorly written, misspelled note
demanding $50,000 for the return of the baby.
It's a ransom note.
♪ ♪
The note reads, "Dear, sir, have $50,000 ready.
"$25,000 in $20 bills,
"$15,000 in $10 bills, and $10,000 in $5 bills.
"After two to four days,
"we will inform you where to deliver the money.
"We warn you from making anything public
"or notifying the police.
The child is in good care."
- At the bottom of the note,
the kidnappers leave a cryptic signature.
♪ ♪
- They had an image at the bottom
that was two interlocking circles,
couple of squiggly lines,
and then three punch holes.
It's a very strange pattern.
- So the author of the letter actually says
this particular symbol will let you know
that this is authentic correspondence
from me and no one else.
- As if this is some sort of secret code
to verify that the letters are genuine
and that, rather chillingly,
more letters may follow.
- It was as if the kidnappers were saying,
"This is just the beginning."
- As they comb the property,
Lindbergh and his butler, Olly,
find a few additional clues.
- There are also some scraps of wood from a broken ladder
underneath the window,
and they also find a set of muddy footprints.
- By 10:30 p.m.,
a small army of police officers arrive
and begin investigating.
- The police realize they have very little to go on.
They've got no fingerprints.
They've got no eyewitnesses.
- And you're in the middle of nowhere, really,
at a massive estate.
So, when it comes to this investigation,
where would you want to start?
On the inside, of course.
[tense music]
It's only natural to start with those
that are closest to the crime, and based on the circumstances,
there are signs that may have indicated
that this could've been an inside job.
First off, the precision of this kidnapping
and how it went down is a bit suspect.
It's as if the person or persons
knew exactly where to go, but how?
Based on the scene outside,
the footprints, the wood from the broken ladder,
it appears that whoever took Charles Jr.
went to one window only,
the window that led directly into the nursery.
We also know that Charles and Anne were awake
at the time of the kidnapping, so there's no way
that there's gonna be somebody outside of the property
moving a ladder from window to window trying to jimmy open
every window before they find the correct one.
They would've been heard.
- There's a dog. The dog doesn't bark.
There's a baby.
Babies cry, but this baby did not cry.
So there's a general sense that there must be someone
who's familiar with the household--
has to be involved.
- The nursery's condition is also suspicious.
- The baby's blankets after Charles Jr. is taken--
they're not just left in the crib.
They're actually folded very neatly
and placed on a shelf nearby.
Why would a stranger that's kidnapping
Charles Lindbergh's baby even bother to do that?
That seems more like a routine
of somebody that's in the house
that does this frequently.
- Authorities figured that the kidnapper
had to have had inside knowledge of the schedule.
- The Lindberghs are creatures of habit.
They do not go to the house in the country all the time.
Normally they're there on the weekend,
and they leave on Monday.
But Charles Jr. got taken on March 1st,
which was a Tuesday.
- They stayed one extra day at the home
because the baby had a cold, and so they thought
that the country air, the fresh air,
would be good for the baby.
- And the question becomes,
how would a random person know that?
- So, if you're looking at this as an inside job,
your first three suspects should be obvious.
The Lindberghs' staff members--
you've got Betty Gow,
you've got the butler, Olly,
and his wife, Elsie Whatley.
The Whatleys had been with the Lindberghs
all weekend long, so they pretty much have alibis.
Olly was actually in bed, and Elsie was downstairs
in the kitchen making lemonade.
- But nursemaid Betty Gow
has only arrived that afternoon.
- Does she have time to plan a kidnapping?
The police question her immediately.
- According to Betty's statement on March 1st,
Anne calls Betty and asks her to come to the weekend estate,
and Betty agrees, even though she had plans
at the time with her boyfriend,
Henry "Red" Johnson.
Betty says that she called her boyfriend
to cancel her plans because she had to go into work.
Police question Johnson,
and he backs up his girlfriend's story.
However, in Johnson's car, they do find a bottle of milk.
- This bottle of milk was really suspicious to police.
They wondered, you know, is that there to feed a baby?
- There are some theorists that suggest
that when Betty Gow called her boyfriend
to cancel the plans, that's not actually what she was doing.
She was actually calling him to signal to him
that, yes, he should kidnap the baby.
- Apart from a bottle of milk,
police have no evidence that implicates Johnson
or Betty Gow.
- Lindbergh intervenes to prevent the police
from really interrogating and bearing down
on the servants in his own household,
who he trusted without qualification.
- And that meant that Betty Gow
wasn't looked at any further.
That line of inquiry goes cold, but then they find another.
[dramatic music]
- When famed aviator Charles Lindbergh's
infant son is kidnapped on March 1, 1932,
it creates an unprecedented media uproar.
[crowd clamoring]
- It's a cliché nowadays to call something
a crime of the century, but this really was.
This was one of the biggest cases,
not just in America, but in the world.
- We have here a flash which reads as follows...
- News of the kidnapping leaks almost immediately,
and journalists just flock to the Lindbergh estate.
It's a madhouse.
- Of course, everybody wants to help.
One of the people who wants
to provide criminal expertise to this case
is the notorious gangster Al Capone,
who--currently residing in the Cook County Jail.
He offers his criminal and gangster contacts
to help the police find the Lindbergh baby
if they will just temporarily release him from prison.
The police do not take Al Capone up on his offer.
♪ ♪
- That was indicative of just how widespread
this story had gotten.
It was reaching everybody.
- Al Capone, sitting in a cell in Chicago,
finds out about this news only 12 hours after it happens.
Mind you, there is no Internet during this time.
But let's also remember--
the ransom note specifically said
do not make this a public deal.
Do not get the police involved.
- Is all the media attention
jeopardizing the life of the child?
- The Lindberghs soon learn the answer to that question.
- So, on March 6th, another ransom note arrives.
- And it follows the pattern of the first ransom note.
You've got the same handwriting.
You've got the same signature with the squiggly lines.
And you've got the three holes, but the tone of this letter
is much more threatening.
- And it starts off by saying,
"Dear, sir, we've warned you not to make anything public."
- "Now you have to take consequences."
And the consequences are severe.
The kidnappers basically say
that they're going to keep the baby
until things quiet down.
As long as this case continues to get as much attention
as it's getting from the police and the media
and the newspapers,
Lindbergh is not getting his son back anytime soon.
- Because of that transgression,
the kidnappers now have decided
that instead of a $50,000 ransom,
they want a $70,000 ransom.
- 70 grand back then is like a million dollars today.
- So they don't actually wait until things die down.
In fact, the story continues to get bigger and bigger
as it goes on.
But regardless, within a couple of days,
the kidnappers carry on with their plan.
In a series of notes that were sent both on March 8th
and March 10th, the kidnappers
are asking for a volunteer to serve as the go-between
for the handoff of the money.
Ultimately, they agree to let a former school principal
from the Bronx be that volunteer.
And his name is Dr. John Condon.
So probably seeking some fame for himself,
Condon placed an ad in his local paper
offering up $1,000 reward
if the kidnappers were to give up the baby to a priest.
Apparently the kidnappers saw this ad,
asked him to be the middleman,
and he agreed to do it.
And at this point, the police have so few leads
that they decide, "Go with it.
Why not? Let's see how this plays out."
- With the support of the Lindberghs and police,
Condon begins corresponding with the kidnappers.
- So, over the course of two weeks,
there is a chain of back-and-forth,
this, like, cat-and-mouse game.
Condon would put ads in the local paper,
and the kidnappers would respond with their letters.
And this back-and-forth keeps the Lindberghs hopeful
that their son is still alive and a solution will be reached
where they'll be able to get him back.
They eventually arrange a meeting between Condon
and the kidnappers at a cemetery in the Bronx.
- According to Condon, at this meeting,
he finally learns the kidnapper's identity.
♪ ♪
- Condon says he meets a man who calls himself John,
whom the media and the police will soon dub "Cemetery John."
- Cemetery John tells Condon he's part of a group
of Scandinavian sailors.
The baby is being taken care of by these sailors on a boat.
- He says the baby is safe and that we need
to make an exchange for the ransom money.
- This Cemetery John is about 30 to 35 years old,
athletic build, 5'9".
Based on Condon's description, police prepare a sketch
of Cemetery John.
He has a light complexion, light hair,
pointed chin, and he has a Scandinavian accent.
Meanwhile, during the meeting,
Condon wisely asks the kidnappers
for proof that they have the baby.
- On March 16th, Condon receives that proof.
- Cemetery John promises to send some evidence.
What turns up at Condon's house
is a gray sleeping suit
that Charles Jr. was sleeping in
the night he was taken.
- From here, you've got a number of things
that are happening in quick succession.
There are several more exchanges
between Condon and the kidnappers,
trying to haggle over what the actual ransom should be.
- Condon and the kidnappers ultimately agree
on the original $50,000 ransom amount.
- Police decide to use gold certificates
to pay the ransom.
This is actually a clever move by the authorities,
because here's the thing-- those gold certificates
have the same value as dollars, but for the past 70 years,
the United States had tied its currency to what was,
at the time, the gold standard.
They were a legal tender of money,
but they were a bit more unique.
The idea that the police had was,
if they pay up the ransom in these certificates,
because there's so few of them in circulation now,
if they're spent, they're easier to track down.
But that whole plan will have to come later.
Right now the Lindberghs only care
about getting their baby back,
and they firmly believe that tonight is the night
that it happens.
- On April 2, 1932,
John Condon goes to do the money exchange
to the kidnapper.
At the exchange, the kidnapper gives
John Condon a letter and then disappears with the money.
The letter says that the boy's on a boat called the "Nelly."
The "Nelly" is a small boat, about 28 foot.
It has two women on it, who apparently know nothing.
They've just simply been hired to watch a baby.
And you can find this boat between Horseneck Beach
and Gay Head near Elizabeth Island.
♪ ♪
- And when Condon shares this information,
police race off to this marina
at Martha's Vineyard to find this boat,
because you have to understand--
these cops are trying to get there as quickly as possible,
because think about it--if you're the first police officer
to find Charles Lindbergh's kidnapped baby,
it's like your guaranteed to be a hero.
Police get to this marina, and they search every slip,
every boat.
"Nelly" is never found,
and the baby Lindbergh is never found.
♪ ♪
- The thing about this Scandinavian gang theory
and all this is, they're assuming
that we're gonna get the baby back,
and that's not what happened.
And this really sets a new tone, I think,
in relation to this whole experience,
'cause people now are really more concerned
on some level about the fate of Charles Jr.
- With their ransom paid,
there is no further communication
from the alleged kidnappers.
- The kidnapper has the money,
but the Lindberghs do not have the baby.
- It was like losing Charles Jr. for a second time.
♪ ♪
- Then on May 12th,
the news everyone's feared.
- It's about six weeks after the ransom drop.
A truck driver named Orville Wilson
and his assistant, William Allen,
pull the truck over to the side of the road
in Mount Rose, New Jersey, which is a little less
than five miles away from the Lindbergh estate.
- William Allen was a Black man
who worked as a trucker.
One of the disgusting parts of American history
is that he wasn't allowed to use the bathroom
wherever he wanted.
So he pulled over to use the restroom in the woods.
He walked in a ways,
so as not to be spotted by anybody passing by,
and he noticed something on the ground.
At first, he assumes it's a dead animal.
But as he gets closer, he realizes it's a small child.
♪ ♪
- It's obvious that the head has been crushed
and animals are starting to scatter the remains.
All that is really left is a tattered white T-shirt.
♪ ♪
- The men notify police,
who bring in the Lindberghs' nursemaid,
Betty Gow, to identify the body.
- She confirms that the body is of Charles Lindbergh Jr.
♪ ♪
- A funeral director conducts a rudimentary autopsy
and declares that this child died from a blow to the head.
- This funeral director establishes that the baby
died probably two months ago.
That time line means that much of the time
that these notes were being exchanged
around returning the baby,
he was most likely already dead.
- Grieving parents Charles and Anne
have their son cremated.
And the investigation turns from kidnapping to murder.
- So, naturally, this marks a huge shift for police,
because if this child died the very night
that he was kidnapped,
well, this puts them back at square one.
And in this case,
square one means that maybe their initial instinct
was right all along.
Maybe this was an inside job.
[ominous music]
- In May of 1932,
the case of missing infant Charles Lindbergh Jr.
turns from kidnapping to murder.
- The police were confident
a man named Cemetery John was involved.
He and a group of accomplices send ransom demands
and eventually collect $50,000.
Once they pay the ransom, Cemetery John is gone,
and they find the body of Charles Jr.
and find out that he apparently died
the very night he was taken.
- With no new leads, police focus their attention
on the Lindberghs' extended family.
- The lingering question is why baby Lindbergh
was targeted at all,
and why on a Tuesday,
when the Lindberghs were not usually there?
And how did the kidnapper know which window to enter?
As the investigators work through a long list
of Lindbergh family and friends and associates,
eventually they find someone
whose story doesn't quite add up.
And they jump at the chance to label her a suspect.
♪ ♪
- New Jersey State Police question a domestic worker
named Violet Sharpe.
- Sharpe is a 20-something immigrant from England,
who works for Anne's mother at her house,
serving her meals, which means that she's working
for the baby's grandmother.
- So the minute they begin questioning her,
Violet becomes very nervous.
She doesn't want to answer questions.
Sometimes she's a little belligerent.
♪ ♪
It's obvious to the officers that she is being evasive.
But why?
- And her story keeps changing.
At first, she says that she's on a blind date
on the night of the kidnapping, but she can't remember the name
of her date or the other couple that she was with.
- She claims she went to a movie,
but she can't remember which one.
And later, she claims she went to a roadhouse
and not a movie at all.
- So the police decide that they need to take
a closer look at Miss Sharpe,
so they ask her for all of her bank statements
and all of her financial records
to see if there have been any large deposits
that've been made.
They also ask her to come in and to give an official account
of her whereabouts during the day of the kidnapping.
- They're pushing so hard because they're convinced
that Violet Sharpe must know something.
- So the police schedule several interviews
with Violet Sharpe.
And the last one, she just doesn't turn up to.
- And they start to think, "Is she on the run?
Did something spook her? Where is she at?"
Sadly, on June 10th,
one month after baby Lindbergh's body's discovered,
Miss Sharpe's body is also discovered.
She had ended up committing suicide
by eating silver polish.
And, ultimately, after her death,
investigators are actually able to prove her alibi
for the night of March 1st.
Turns out, she was on a date after all.
- Eventually every member of the Lindbergh inner circle
is questioned and discarded as a suspect--
everyone, that is, except for one,
Charles Lindbergh himself.
♪ ♪
- Today when we have any kind of crime
involving a child or a family,
the family members are the first suspects,
especially in kidnapping.
- The first person you would look at would be the parents.
In 1932, no one is going to question Lindbergh
or imagine that the hero of the age
could have anything to do with an exploit so sociopathic
as the kidnapping of his own son.
- One of the things that happens over time
is that people thinking about the crime
start to notice odd things about Lindbergh's behavior.
Theories start to emerge that perhaps Lindbergh
is involved in some way.
- Lindbergh had tremendous influence
over the investigators that were involved in this case.
In fact, according to one story,
when the police arrived at his home,
Lindbergh is standing outside with a rifle,
and he tells them,
"If anyone disobeys me, they're going to get shot."
- And the only statement that Lindbergh actually gives
is a one-page account where he can't really attest
to his own whereabouts the day before the event.
Lindbergh has very strong connections
to the New Jersey State Police,
and it's documented that he wanted them to be in charge.
Some say that Lindbergh wants control of the investigation.
- And here's another curious detail.
When the police want to copy down all the serial numbers
on those gold certificates, Lindbergh strongly objects.
♪ ♪
- Why would Lindbergh want to limit the scope
of the search for his son's killer?
♪ ♪
- People have suggested
that it was actually Lindbergh himself who was responsible
for the murder of his own son in a prank gone wrong,
and the kidnapping was just a ruse after the fact.
- Charles Lindbergh is a practical joker.
He likes to pull pranks on people,
but it's not funny stuff.
It's dangerous stuff.
There was a time where he actually put kerosene
in an acquaintance's drink and let him drink it.
And he thought that was pretty funny--ha.
♪ ♪
Lindbergh kidnapped his baby once before.
Just a week earlier, Lindbergh hid the baby in a closet,
and he allowed Betty and Anne to both get hysterical
believing that the baby had been kidnapped,
and Lindbergh thought that was funny.
- Anne Lindbergh wrote a letter to her mother-in-law
the next day explaining what had happened.
She said that when she saw the empty crib,
her first thought was
that Charles had taken the baby again as a joke.
- Theorists suggest that this time,
the prank takes an even darker turn.
[wind howling] - So the night
of the kidnapping,
according to the weather report,
it was cold and windy.
- What if Lindbergh
actually was pranking his family again?
And what if, during the course of that practical joke,
he actually fell down that ladder,
or worse, dropped the baby?
This will be borne out by the autopsy results.
The baby died from a skull fracture.
- And Lindbergh immediately ordered
that the child's remains be cremated.
There were never any toxicological tests done.
There was no further examination.
He concocted a cover-up of a kidnap story
in order to save his own reputation.
- But some think it wasn't an accident.
- Some people have suggested
that Lindberg took his own child's life on purpose.
- As police search for baby Lindbergh's murderer
in the summer of 1932,
a radical theory suggests
Charles Lindbergh is the culprit.
[dramatic music]
[camera shutters clicking]
- In the 1930s,
the pseudoscience of eugenics has taken hold,
and Lindbergh is an avid believer.
In eugenics, scientists, what they do is,
they will deem certain genetic traits superior,
and any sort of deformities that show up in somebody
are considered a weakness.
It's a concept that the Nazi party
would actually use to justify in their genocide
against the Jewish people.
♪ ♪
Lindbergh was definitely drawn to aspects of Nazism.
He gave speeches. He published papers.
He espoused all of these racist ideas
in front of Congress.
- Could these controversial political beliefs
have led to the death of baby Lindbergh?
- Charles Jr. was born with some mild deformities--
things like rickets.
His legs bowed.
He didn't have a whole lot of strength in his lower body.
He seemed to be a little slow on development in that area.
It didn't seem as though Charles Jr. fit the mold
of what Charles Lindbergh was saying
was the perfect person.
- So people do ask, "If Charles Lindbergh
"was worried that he had an 'inferior baby,'
"would he be capable of carrying out
the horrible act of murdering him?"
- The idea of Charles Lindbergh doing something so heinous
was absolutely inconceivable.
Nobody could assign something so evil
to such a celebrated man.
- And that includes investigators.
They stop looking into the Lindbergh family,
and the case goes cold.
In the two years after the Lindbergh baby's death,
police question nearly 1,000 persons of interest
with no luck.
Then in the summer of 1934,
detectives finally catch the break
they've been looking for.
It's all due to a seed they planted
at the very beginning.
♪ ♪
- They put together that $50,000 in ransom money
with gold certificates,
and they wrote down the serial numbers
so they would be easy to locate.
- So the more that those are spent,
the better the odds that somebody's going to notice.
- Months later, they start to surface
in New York City.
- It takes a while to really figure out
exactly where all the bills are being spent,
but when they do, they realize
that it's along a specific path.
- They're being spent along the Lexington Avenue subway.
This subway connects the Bronx to the East Side of Manhattan.
- One turns up at the East River Savings Bank,
another at the Loew's Sheridan Square Theatre.
Another comes from the grocery store
in the Yorkville neighborhood
and another at the Exquisite Shoe store.
- Ultimately, $5,100 worth of ransom bills
are recovered, but it's one in particular
that cracks the case wide open.
- September 18, 1934,
one of those gold notes
pops up at a bank in Manhattan.
But this gold certificate has something different.
It has a number written in the margin--
4U-13-41-NY.
It's a license plate number.
- The bill is traced to a local gas station.
- Station attendant Walter Lyle said
that that gold certificate caught his attention
and it felt suspicious to him.
He thought that that customer might have been
a counterfeiter, so to help him remember,
he wrote down the license plate right there on the spot
on that bill.
- Police run the plate and get a name.
- For two years, police only had a sketch
of their prime suspect in the Lindbergh kidnapping.
[tense music]
Now they finally have a name.
♪ ♪
- The police track down the car,
which belongs to one Bruno Richard Hauptmann.
The police now believe they know the true identity
of Cemetery John.
♪ ♪
- Hauptmann is a German-born immigrant
illegally living in the United States.
And he was actually charged
with multiple burglaries in Germany,
but he escaped by stowing away on an ocean liner.
He currently lives on East 222nd Street
in the Bronx with his wife, Anna, and their young child,
and he works odd jobs as a carpenter.
As soon as investigators connect the bill to Hauptmann,
they immediately put him under constant surveillance,
hoping that he'll slip up and incriminate himself.
At some point,
Hauptmann realizes that he's being watched.
Now, maybe he knows he's guilty,
or maybe he's worried about his status in the United States.
Either way, he decides to jump in his car
and make a break for it.
[sirens wailing]
- And it's a straight-ahead gangster-film chase,
riding through the streets.
Police cars after him,
running through traffic.
It's something right out of a movie.
He's finally pinned in on Park Avenue in the Bronx.
♪ ♪
Hauptmann is arrested,
and authorities begin a search of his car
and his house.
♪ ♪
They're searching through all his belongings,
not finding much of interest,
until they look inside this old garage
at the edge of the property.
- There, in a stack of old gas cans,
police finally find their smoking gun.
- They open some jars, and what do they find?
$14,600 in gold certificates.
- And once they find the cans of ransom money
in Hauptmann's garage,
it's a race to the finish to build a case against him.
And the evidence is pretty damming.
- Detectives check the serial numbers
on every bill found at Hauptmann's place.
And indeed, these are the certificates
that were given as part of the ransom.
- In Hauptmann's attic, there is more evidence.
- Remember, the night Charles Jr. goes missing,
they find those broken pieces of wood
underneath the nursery window that'd come from a ladder.
Well, in Hauptmann's attic, they find a ladder.
♪ ♪
- Not just any ladder--
a handmade telescopic ladder
designed to collapse in on itself.
This allows one person to carry it easily,
while being long enough to reach the height
of Lindbergh's second-story window.
♪ ♪
- Was it the ladder used to kidnap the Lindbergh baby?
Hauptmann is a carpenter, and so he has his own tools.
He has the ability to build the ladder.
- And during the attic search,
investigators find a section of floorboard
that had been cut.
♪ ♪
- A team of experts study the wood from the floorboards
and forensically compare it to the wood from the ladder.
- And this gets them thinking.
The wood grain in one rail of the ladder,
dubbed "Rail 16" seems to match up perfectly
with that cut section from Hauptmann's attic floor.
And the nail holes also match the nails
used to construct the attic.
So experts are convinced that the ladder is made
from slats in the floor of Hauptmann's attic.
♪ ♪
- But police need more for a conviction.
[camera shutter clicking]
- Of course, owning a ladder isn't a crime.
But then investigators find one more clue.
♪ ♪
- They found a phone number written on the wall
in the closet in the kitchen.
Whose phone number was it?
- Dr. John Condon,
the same man who was the intermediary
for the ransom handoff.
Finally, investigators commission
handwriting analysis between Hauptmann's handwriting
and the writing that appeared on the ransom notes,
and they find multiple similarities.
- Both sets of writing contained backward Ns,
curls on the Ys.
Additionally, he spelled some of the same words wrong.
♪ ♪
- On September 24th,
Hauptmann is indicted for extorting
the $50,000 ransom from Charles Lindbergh.
Shortly after, on October 8th,
he's also indicted for the murder
of Charles Lindbergh Jr.
[camera shutter clicking]
♪ ♪
- Hauptmann is represented by Edward J. Riley,
an attorney actually hired
by "The New York Daily Mirror"
for exclusive rights to Hauptmann's story.
♪ ♪
- The trial brought hundreds of reporters
into town.
People couldn't find hotel rooms for miles.
It was huge.
- He quit his job the day he collected the $50,000,
the very day!
- After a conviction and two failed appeals,
Hauptmann is executed by the electric chair
on April 3, 1936.
♪ ♪
- And that's it, everyone. Mystery solved.
We now know the truth of what happened.
Or do we?
- Even after the conviction of Richard Hauptmann
for the murder of Baby Lindbergh,
not everyone's convinced he's solely responsible.
- Obviously, the police want to close this case
as neatly and as efficiently as possible.
And looking at the evidence they have,
Hauptmann appears extremely guilty.
- It seems very likely
that he was involved in these crimes.
- But even the highest authorities wonder,
did he act alone?
♪ ♪
- While Hauptmann is awaiting execution,
the governor of New Jersey himself,
Harold Hoffman, visits him in his cell.
He also brings along
a translator who speaks fluent German.
- While there were no notes released
from this talk,
it seems like it was a pretty influential talk.
- After talking with Hauptmann,
the governor implores court officials
and the police to keep on investigating.
- He ended up granting him a reprieve.
- Governor Hoffman felt that there was more to the story
than what the state had put forward at the trial.
And he wanted to make sure that everyone who was involved
was identified and brought to justice.
- As we know, of course,
that request from the governor isn't followed upon,
and Hauptmann takes the fall
as the one and only perpetrator
of that crime.
Hoffman doesn't give any more reprieves,
and the execution takes place
four years after the kidnapping.
♪ ♪
- For the next six decades,
Hauptmann's guilt is generally accepted,
along with the idea that he acted alone.
Then in 2003,
a state police archivist makes a startling discovery.
Sitting right there in the archive
is a board with a signed confession written on it.
- It's written in German, but it translates to,
"I was one of the kidnappers of Lindbergh's baby,
not Bruno Richard Hauptmann."
It goes on to state that some of the ransom money
was buried in the town of Summit.
♪ ♪
- What's more intriguing still is that there's
a series of screw holes--
like a table leg or a brace was removed
with a large circle around it.
And when a comparison is made to the ransom note,
these holes line up perfectly
with the holes that were found in those ransom notes.
♪ ♪
- The board was apparently reported
to the state police in 1948.
A man found it attached to the bottom of a table
he had recently purchased.
- So authorities did not take this seriously
because there had been dozens of confessions.
Dozens of people had said that they were involved,
in some cases, that they were actually the baby.
♪ ♪
- Handwriting comparisons are made
between Hauptmann's writing and the writing on the wood,
and they don't match.
- If Hauptmann didn't write it, who did?
- In 2012, author Robert Zorn
offers a potential lead on who might have written this note.
- In his book "Cemetery John,"
he reports that his father, Eugene,
may have witnessed Hauptmann conspiring with two other men
in 1932.
Growing up in the South Bronx,
Eugene lived next to a John Knoll.
And one day at an amusement park,
Eugene claims to have seen John Knoll,
along with his younger brother Walter,
and Hauptmann in the amusement park
speaking in hushed tones in German,
plotting something.
He recognized the words "Bruno,"
which was Hauptmann's first name,
and the word "Englewood,"
which was the suburb where Lindbergh's family lived
in New Jersey.
- Zorn puts a few more details together
for this story as well.
John Knoll was a stamp collector,
and the Lindbergh ransom notes
use a variety of odd stamps.
And Knoll's residence on the South Bronx
was along the same Lexington Avenue subway route
of which the ghost certificates were spent.
If you look at the sketch,
Knoll and Cemetery John show a striking resemblance.
- Could John Knoll be the real Cemetery John?
- While this information is revealing and interesting,
at this point, it's impossible to prove
that John Knoll was Cemetery John.
♪ ♪
It's possible they sent the wrong man
to the electric chair,
or there at least two or more accomplices
that never got any attention.
- For a mystery that's supposedly already solved,
there are still a lot of questions
that people have that linger about this case.
- How could this have succeeded
without someone having inside knowledge?
What about the inconsistencies at the crime scene?
♪ ♪
- Why was Dr. Condon so heavily involved?
Did he have something to do with this?
- What about the death of Violet Sharpe?
What about John and Walter Knoll?
- And, of course, the biggest question of all--
could Lindbergh have possibly orchestrated the whole thing?
For now, we're left with the official story...
at least until a new clue appears.
♪ ♪
- As of today, less than 20,000
of the original $50,000 ransom
paid to Cemetery John has been recovered.
If the rest ever turns up, will it tie back to Hauptmann,
or will it point to a new suspect?
I'm Laurence Fishburne.
Thank you for watching
"History's Greatest Mysteries."
♪ ♪