The Lindbergh Baby: The Kidnapping, the Investigation, and the Trial of the Century

By | January 29, 2019

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Portrait of the American pilot Charles LINDBERGH, the first to succeed to cross the Atlantic without stop over. His fame made his young child a target for kidnappers. Source: (Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

Aviator Charles Lindbergh was a national hero and celebrity in the early 1930s, which, unfortunately, made him a target. When Lucky Lindy and his wife, Anne, had their first child, a boy named Charles Augustus Lindbergh, the public clamored for news and information about the young boy and his famous father. That fame brought danger to the family. On the night of March 1, 1932, someone took the 20-month old baby from the safety of his second story nursery and disappeared into the night, leaving only a ransom note behind. What followed was one of the nation’s first massive kidnapping case that ended in tragedy and changed laws. 

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Charles Augustus Lindbergh, the young son of aviator Charles Lindbergh. Source: (crberryauthor.wordpress.com)

The Lindbergh Baby Goes Missing

At about 10 o’clock at night on March 1, the nurse that Charles Lindbergh hired to care for his young child went to the baby’s nursery to check on him. To her surprise, he wasn’t in his crib. She alerted Charles Lindbergh and his wife. When they examined the room, they discovered a ransom note, which appeared to be hastily written, on the windowsill of the New Jersey home. The note demanded $50,000 for the safe return of the child.