Lindbergh Kidnapping

On March 1, 1932, Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., son of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped. The toddler, 18 months old at the time, was abducted from his family home in East Amwell, New Jersey on the evening of March 1, 1932. Over two months later, on May 12, 1932, his body was discovered a short distance from the Lindbergh’s home. A medical examination determined that the cause of death was a massive skull fracture. After an investigation that lasted more than two years, Bruno Richard Hauptmann was arrested and charged with the crime. In a trial that was held from January 2 to February 13, 1935, Hauptmann was found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death. He was executed at the New Jersey State Prison on April 3, 1936 and Hauptmann proclaimed his innocence to the end.