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The kidnapping of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., the eldest son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was one of the most highly publicized crimes of the 20th century. The 20-month-old toddler was abducted from his family home, Highfields, 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 Lindberghs' home in neighboring Hopewell Township. 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 murder in the first degree 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."〔(''Notorious Murders ); CrimeLibrary.com; accessed August 2015〕 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. ==The crime== At 8:00 pm on March 1, 1932, the nurse of the family, Betty Gow, put 20-month-old Charles Lindbergh, Jr. to bed in his crib. She wrapped the baby in a blanket and fastened it with two large pins to prevent him from moving during sleep. Around 9:30 pm, Charles Lindbergh, the baby's father, heard a noise that made him think that the slats from the full orange crate in the kitchen had broken off and fallen. However, at 10:00 pm, Gow returned to the baby's bedroom to discover that he was not in his crib. She asked Anne Lindbergh, who had just come out of her bath, if the baby was with her. Not finding the infant with his mother, the nurse came downstairs to talk with Lindbergh, who was in the library just below the baby's room in the southeast corner of the house. He went immediately to the child's room to see for himself that the baby was gone. As he searched the room, he found a note in a white envelope on the window sill above the radiator. Lindbergh grabbed his gun and went around the house looking for intruders. In 20 minutes, the local police were on the way to the home, along with the media and the family's lawyer. Later that night, one tire print was discovered in the mud caused by the rainy weather conditions earlier that day. Shortly after the police had begun searching near the perimeter of the house, they discovered three pieces of a ladder in a nearby bush that appeared intelligently designed but crudely constructed. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lindbergh kidnapping」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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