15 Messed Up Facts You Didn’t Know About The Lindbergh Kidnapping

7. A Massive Reward Was Offered For Any Helpful Information

Looking back at that ransom note for a second, $50,000 doesn’t seem like that tough a sum for the most famous person in the world to raise. Even taking into consideration inflation, the amount would be closer to $825,000 today, something any parent would be willing to pay for their child’s life so long as they had it. As it would turn out, Lindbergh had more than the money necessary to do this, despite the fact it took place in the midst of the Great Depression. However, initially not wanting to negotiate with terrorists and equally unwilling to wait the 2-4 days the kidnapper demanded, Lindbergh instead offered that amount as reward money for anyone who could help save his child. The New Jersey police offered an additional $25,000 on top of that, which in today’s terms would have made whoever found the kid a millionaire. These reward offers might have posed a problem, though, considering the kidnapper caught wind of them and upped his ransom amount accordingly.

8. A Third Party Received Further Ransom Notes

Here’s where things get seriously confusing. In the tumultuous period when everyone in America was offering the Lindberghs whatever help they could, the kidnappers apparently decided a Bronx schoolteacher named John Condon was the only man they would deal with. Condon had written a letter to a local newspaper offering his own modest reward as a Good Samaritan, which apparently convinced both the Lindberghs and the kidnappers that he was the man for the job. Bizarrely, the police at the time seemed to agree this total stranger was fit to make a drop-off and serve as a continued intermediary between the kidnappers and themselves. Why anyone trusted this random schoolteacher to serve such an integral role in a federal investigation is a complete mystery, with the only real explanation being they didn’t quite have any other options. By the time the kidnappers sent notes directed to Condon, there was nothing the Lindberghs could have done to remove him from the scenario anyway.