EP 147: The Lindbergh Kidnapping

This week on Hashtag History, we will be discussing the Lindbergh Kidnapping. In March of 1932, the one-year-old son of Charles Lindbergh (the famous American aviator who is most known for being the first person to complete a solo, nonstop transatlantic flight) went missing. While other people were in the home – including the baby’s parents – Charles Lindbergh, Jr. was taken from his crib from the second-floor of the house…never to be seen again. The kidnapper would leave a ransom note which the desperate Lindberghs complied with, paying $50,000 for information related to their son. This note, however, turned out to be a hoax.

The Lindberghs, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and the country at large searched for the missing baby furiously, only to discover – ten weeks after the kidnapping – that the little boy had been killed and buried in the woods less than five miles from the Lindbergh home.

A man would be arrested, convicted, and eventually sentenced to death for the crime but…to this day, there are still people that profess his innocence (just as he did for the remainder of his life).

This case changed history. It is often referred to as one of the “crimes of the century." It was this case that led the US Congress to pass the Federal Kidnapping Act, making it a federal crime to transport a kidnapped victim across state lines. It is this act that gave the FBI jurisdiction to investigate these types of kidnappings (something that they did not have prior to 1932).

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- Rachel and Leah