This was the first American pilot who, in May 1927, covered the distance between New York and Paris, flying over the northern Atlantic Ocean for almost 6,000 km alone. The name of the American pilot is Charles Lindbergh. This was the idol of the Americans of the late 20s of the last century. Only the British pilots A. Brown and D. Olcock, who both flew from the northeastern coast of the United States to the coast of Ireland in 1919, ventured to make such long-distance flights before him.
Children's and youthful years of the future pilot
So who is Charles Lindbergh? The biography of the future American pilot begins in Detroit, when on February 4, 1902, an heir was born into the family of an emigrant from Sweden. Charles's father was a staunch pacifist and categorically advocated the non-participation of Americans in World War I in the United States Congress. Since childhood, C. Lindberg was interested in various techniques. The subject of his hobbies was his father's car and an old motorcycle.
Left with his mother after the divorce of his parents, in search of a better life, he was forced to travel around the US states for a long time, having changed several educational institutions. In 1920, at the insistence of his mother, the young man entered the University of Wisconsin at the Faculty of Mechanics. However, the desire to fly was stronger, and in 1922, leaving his studies at Madison, Charles enrolled in a flight school in Nebraska, which he graduated in 1925.
The abduction and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr.
Year 1932, March 1. America is tormented by the Great Depression. New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt is preparing for the presidential election, in Germany Adolf Hitler is opposed to Paul von Hindenburg, Japan is invading China, and the new “Wonder of the World” in Manhattan is the Rockefeller Center.
And at the other end of the Hudson, the world's most illustrious aviator, Charles Lindbergh, is working in the library of his house near the town of Hopville, New Jersey, USA. On the second floor of a luxurious mansion, his twenty-month-old child Charles Lindbergh, Jr., lovingly called the parents of Baby, lies with a cold. Outside, wind and rain. A crack is heard, which C. Lindbergh takes for lightning. He does not check anything.
Shortly after 10 pm, Betty Gau, 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. A maid runs to Colonel C. Lindbergh 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.
The kidnappers' claims
An illiterate anonymous letter contains a requirement of $ 50,000. At the bottom of the handwritten text is the kidnapper’s sign - two circles plus a third at their intersection. The peculiarities of writing some words testified that the language of a possible kidnapper belongs to the German family.
Soon the police appeared in the mansion, and reporters immediately followed. A roughly knocked staircase is found near the house, and two prints on the ground under the window. The upper staircase is broken, and Charles Lindbergh recalls the sharp sound he heard around 10 p.m. Until the end of his life, he will regret that he did not react to this crack in time. The next day, all of America, having opened the morning newspapers, was shocked.
A few years earlier
Charles Lindbergh (photo above) was the greatest hero of the country. Five years earlier, this twenty-five-year-old pilot was the first to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean. Without a radio, or even without a sextant, on a small “St. Louis Spirit” plane, he flew from Long Island, New York. After 33 hours, Charles Lindbergh was greeted by enthusiastic Paris, where the hero received a prize of $ 25,000. He returned to the United States in triumph. New York rejoiced. Awarded all sorts of honors and the owner of a decent material condition, Charles becomes a symbol of courage and bravery of a real American.
For the transatlantic flight, the young pilot was awarded a high award - the Cross of Flight Merit, which Charles was awarded the very first. In addition, the International Federation of Aeronautics awarded him the FAI Aviation Gold Medal.
However, C. Lindbergh brought his fame with humble 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 the richest people in America. A little over a year later, the younger Charles Lindbergh, the son, was born.
The country sympathizes with its hero
Now the “lone eagle”, as America called its idol, could not find a place, and the whole country empathized with him and his family. Soon, an unprecedented search operation began. US President Herbert Clark Hoover promises that America will turn heaven and earth to find the culprit. 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. The head of the FBI, Edgar Hoover, also offered help . But the New Jersey police wanted to conduct search activities on their own. Charles Lindbergh Sr. also refused to help. As a result, the prints on the stairs and near the house were never verified by the FBI dossier.
Suspect everyone
On posters hung in all major cities of America, the child was described as a blonde, curly and blue-eyed baby with a hole in his chin. The whole staff of the Lindbergh family mansion fell under suspicion. There was a version that someone told the criminals that Charles Jr. was in Hopville because of a cold, since earlier the family was going to stay with Mrs. Lindbergh's parents near New York. Wyled Shark, an English maid, said she was in the cinema at the time of the abduction. Then she began to change her testimony, claiming that she had met with her friend. Called for further interrogations, she committed suicide. All residents of the town and its environs were interviewed.
The parents of the baby, Anna Spencer Morrow and Charles Lindbergh did not find their place either. The kidnapping of a child killed a young couple. Charles was ready to pay any ransom, just to return his son. To show the seriousness of his intentions, he hired two notorious gangsters.
The Lindbergh family appeals to the kidnappers
The local radio announcer said: “An urgent message from the Lindbergh 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 accept any other means of communication offered by the abductors. Signatures: Charles Lindbergh and Anna Spencer Morrow. "
Charles promised that when transferring the ransom he would not try to do any harm to the kidnappers. This aroused objections in society. They said that C. Lindbergh was not entitled to guarantee the inviolability of criminals.
A new turn of events
Soon two more letters came with mysterious rings. In one there were reproaches for attracting the police, and in the other a notice that the boy was alive and well. However, the intermediaries chosen by Charles were rejected. Instead, the anonymous man appointed a little-known retired scientist, Dr. John Francis Condon, a neighbor of the Lindberghs. An incurable newspaper enthusiast, Dr. Condon agreed to this and offered his correspondent services to describe further developments in Hill News, a periodical in the New York Bronx District. Charles Lindbergh agreed to this: the abduction 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 at the Westland Cemetery in the Bronx.
Ransomware meeting
The masked man in 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: “Will I be executed if the child is dead? Will I be executed if I didn’t kill him? ” After brief negotiations with the criminal, Dr. Condon demanded certain guarantees that the child was really alive.
When the bandits sent the sliders in which the baby was on the day of the abduction, C. Lindberg prepared to hand over the required ransom. The New Jersey Treasury issued the required amount with gold certificates, which could easily be traced in the future. This time, Charles went with Dr. John Condon to another cemetery in the Bronx.
Hearing the shout of a stranger, Charles handed over the required amount of $ 50,000 through the grave fence and found out that his child was in a boat off the coast of Massachusetts.
False track and unexpected find
The next morning, Charles Lindberg flew in a seaplane in search of his son. Escort destroyers and the U.S. Army Coast Guard examined every bay, every coastal corner, but, unfortunately, did not find anything there. Charles Lindbergh finally realized: his son was killed, and he became a victim of deception.
Six weeks later, two drivers found the boy’s body in the forest, seven kilometers from the Lindbergh family home. The police had combed this forest before. The decomposed corpse lay face down, covered with leaves. In the morgue, the nanny Betty Gau identified the deceased - it was baby Charles. When the turn to identify the corpse reached the father, he cut the curls from the child’s head as a keepsake. An autopsy revealed that Charlie Jr. died a few hours after the abduction, that is, 73 days ago.
The only thread to find the criminals were the very special banknotes that began to appear in the country. By the end of the year, 27 bills were revealed in New York, but only two years later they managed to reach the long-awaited track.
Bronx Carpenter
On September 16, 1934, the manager of a gas station in New York East Side remembered the license plates of one car: the driver paid with 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 abduction and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr. caused a huge resonance in the country. Crowds of onlookers gathered to look at the house of a man with a guttural German accent, in whom other denomination notes were also found in his pocket.
The next day, police found another 11,930 dollars in a garage, in cans under a rag, and 1,830 dollars wrapped in a newspaper.
Murder investigation
Investigative measures have begun. When the forensic examination of the handwriting was carried out, it was found that the ransom demand was written by Bruno Hauptmann. This was a significant evidence base for the involvement of a German carpenter in the murder of a child. During the investigation, Bruno Hauptmann denied everything and claimed that the money found in his garage was left to him by business partner Idor Fish, and since Fish died in Germany and owed to the German, he kept the money for himself. Bruno Hauptmann denied any connection with the abduction.
Court and enforcement
He was solemnly presented to the press, and the New York Police Commissioner declared the crime solved. The Attorney General believed that there was no doubt about Bruno Hauptmann. A lot of undeniable facts testified against the German carpenter. A particular argument in court was his criminal record and illegal attempts to enter the United States, as well as a number of illegal commercial transactions. Bruno Richard Hauptmann was executed in New York Prison on April 3, 1936. Until his death hour, he did not recognize himself as the kidnapper and killer of the child.
Relocation to Europe
After the execution of the verdict, photographers and reporters continued to annoy the pilot's family. At the invitation of the aviation company Lindbergh, Charles Sr. and his family moved to Europe, where he was well mastered and even supported the Nazi Party's policy in Germany. In 1938, German Goering awarded the American pilot the Order of the German Eagle, the first among the Third Reich orders designed to encourage foreign citizens. By the start of World War II, Charles Lindbergh became a technical expert and test pilot for the aircraft corporation.
US Air Force
In the spring of 1944, at the invitation of the US military, C. Lindbergh returned to the United States, where he taught American pilots the art of war.
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 receive appreciation. His book received the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in Literature.
In 1954, at the suggestion of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Charles Lindberg 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 social activities, advocating for a campaign to protect blue and humpback whales in the oceans.
Charles Augustus Lindbergh died on August 26, 1974 on the island of Maui (Hawaii) from cancer.