The Trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann—Accused Murderer of the Lindbergh Baby—Began in New Jersey on This Day in 1935

The German-born man was convicted of kidnapping and killing the son of pilot Charles Lindbergh

Bruno Richard Hauptmann (center) consults with his laywers in court on September 20, 1934.
Bruno Richard Hauptmann (center) consults with his laywers during pretrial court proceedings on September 20, 1934. Irving Haberman / IH Images / Getty Images

On January 2, 1935, Bruno Richard Hauptmann stepped into a courtroom in Flemington, New Jersey, accused of the so-called crime of the century. Prosecutors were tasked with convincing a jury that the defendant had kidnapped and killed the young son of star aviator Charles Lindbergh. The crime and trial fueled a gruesome media circus that drove the Lindberghs to Europe—and Hauptmann to the electric chair.

Lindbergh and his wife, Anne, lived on a country estate near Hopewell, New Jersey. They aimed to raise their son away from the media attention Lindbergh had attracted as a groundbreaking pilot who, among other accomplishments, made the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927.

But on March 1, 1932, disaster struck the wealthy couple. That evening, their nanny discovered their son’s nursery empty. Someone had taken 20-month-old Charles “Charlie” Augustus Lindbergh Jr., leaving a ransom note demanding $50,000 on the windowsill.

Newspaper photo of Charles Lindbergh Jr., as well as sites and items linked to his kidnapping
Newspaper photo of Charles Lindbergh Jr., as well as sites and items linked to his kidnapping The Evening Star via Library of Congress

At the crime scene, police recorded a broken ladder outside the nursery window and mud on the nursery floor. But the evidence indicated no suspects, and the authorities had no leads. Desperate to find their son, the Lindberghs began a long and arduous attempt to get him back themselves.

The ransom note on the windowsill turned out to be the first in a series of 13 communications by the self-proclaimed kidnappers. On April 2, John F. Condon, a New Yorker from the Bronx who’d offered to act as a go-between for Lindbergh and the kidnappers, delivered $50,000 of Lindbergh’s gold certificates to a man who told him Charlie was being held on a boat in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Authorities searched Martha’s Vineyard the next day but found no sign of the Lindberghs’ son. It wasn’t until May 12, 1932, that Charlie’s body was found—partially buried and decomposed—about four and a half miles from the Lindberghs’ house. A coroner’s examination found that the child had been dead for two months, having suffered a blow to the head.

Aviator Charles Lindbergh testifies at Bruno Hauptmann's trial.
Aviator Charles Lindbergh testifies at Bruno Hauptmann's trial. Hauptmann appears in profile, seated at right. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

As the Lindberghs’ daughter Reeve—born 13 years after Charlie’s death—later recalled, her father never talked about his firstborn. “I can imagine how much this baby must have meant to my father, who had been raised as an only child … this Charles, this namesake,” she wrote. “I know that the loss was immeasurable and unspeakable.”

After Charlie’s body was found, the case went cold. But a few years later, one of the ransom payment’s gold certificates showed up at a bank in New York City. The bill had been deposited by the owner of a gas station, who’d received it as payment and noted the license plate number of the customer. Investigators traced the license plate number to Hauptmann, a German immigrant living in the Bronx.

In Hauptmann’s home, authorities found $14,000 of the ransom money, as well as the go-between’s phone number written on a closet wall. Hauptmann was indicted and pleaded not guilty.

1935 trial of Bruno Hauptmann (1935)

During his trial, Condon identified Hauptmann as the man who’d told him about Martha’s Vineyard. A wood scientist claimed that pieces of the ladder used by the kidnapper matched lumber from Hauptmann’s attic. Though Hauptmann testified to his innocence, the jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to death.

After numerous failed appeals, on April 3, 1936, Hauptmann was executed in a prison in Trenton, New Jersey. At the time, many were outraged at Hauptmann’s execution, and legal scholars today still believe the evidence against him was insufficient.

Lindbergh’s wife, Anne, had given birth to a second son, Jon, shortly after Charlie’s death. As historian Lynne Olson wrote in Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh and America’s Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941, so many Hauptmann supporters threatened the new Lindbergh baby’s life after the trial that the family hired armed guards to keep watch over them. Eventually, tired of the media circus that surrounded Lindbergh’s life and the tragedy of his son’s death, the family moved to England in 1935.

“We Americans are a primitive people,” Lindbergh told a friend shortly before leaving the country. “We do not have discipline. Our moral standards are low. … It shows in the newspapers, the morbid curiosity over crimes and murder trials. Americans seem to have little respect for law, or the rights of others.”

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