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

13. Hauptmann Claimed The Money Was Given To Him By A Friend

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From the moment of his capture, Richard Hauptmann firmly denied any involvement in Charles Lindbergh, Jr.’s kidnapping or murder. According to him, the $13,000 found in his home, plus all the other ransom money he had been seen spending, was all a gift given by a friend, Isidor Fisch, who had conveniently died in Germany several months earlier. Fisch had allegedly owed Hauptmann a large sum of money, explaining why he had no problem in taking it without question. Hauptmann’s wife stood by his story for decades, although she also admitted to having never seen nor been told about the shoebox where all the money was found until hearing about it during the trial. It could also be said that Hauptmann’s story about the money wasn’t that important since experts also found the same sort of wood used to make the ladder used in the kidnapping in his attic, along with the exact type of tools he would’ve needed to make it.

14. Hauptmann Was Tried And Deemed Solely Responsible For The Crimes

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Despite the staggering circumstantial evidence against him, Richard Hauptmann continued to proclaim his complete innocence throughout a five-week trial. Not even after Hauptmann was sentenced to death and told that the sentence could be commuted to life imprisonment via a confession did he change a word of his story. As noted, Hauptmann’s wife likewise proclaimed his innocence until her death decades later, ceaselessly petitioning New Jersey courts to exonerate him for the conviction to no avail. Quite frankly, all these years later, the evidence against Hauptmann probably wouldn’t hold up in court, at least not beyond all reasonable doubt. That said, his story doesn’t sound believable in the slightest either, and he almost definitely had to have some involvement in the crime to wind up with that much of the ransom money. The fact three-quarters of said money was never found, however, means he may not have acted alone. Even so, Jersey courts decided he did, finding him guilty of murder in the first degree.

15. Conspiracy Theories Have Persisted For Decades

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Whenever media give this much attention to a single event, skeptics will question every single piece of reporting on the matter and assume it’s some sort of massive conspiracy. Being the first chance many skeptics had at doing this, the Lindbergh kidnapping case remains a favorite topic of discussion amongst those who feel the world simply isn’t as it seems. In addition to Richard Hauptmann’s wife repeatedly proclaiming his innocence after his execution, films and books have been written suggesting he may have been innocent or at least that he wasn’t acting alone. Again, it’s our stance that Hauptmann was almost certainly involved, and that falls in line with what the courts decided, so there are probably fewer mysteries to the Lindbergh kidnapping than these doubtful cynics believe and/or hope. That said, it remains a fascinating case to study all these years later, showing how the entire world can be watching a crime without anyone being able to figure out for sure what really happened.

Credits: therichest

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