Lindbergh kidnapping

Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. was the eldest son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and was abducted from his family home on the evening of March 1, 1932. Over two months later, on May 12, 1932, the body of the 20-month-old toddler was discovered in Hopewell Township, a short distance from the Lindberghs' home town of Highfields, in East Amwell, New Jersey, United States. A medical examination determined that the cause of death was a massive skull fracture. After an investigation that lasted more than two years, 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 first degree murder and sentenced to death. He was executed by electric chair at the New Jersey State Prison on April 3, 1936. Hauptmann proclaimed his innocence to the end, and many historians question his guilt. Newspaper writer H. L. Mencken called the kidnapping and subsequent trial "the biggest story since the Resurrection."[6][7] Legal scholars have referred to the trial as one of the "trials of the century". The crime spurred Congress to pass the Federal Kidnapping Act, commonly called the "Lindbergh Law," which made transporting a kidnapping victim across state lines a federal crime. wrote: