B (4:34)

This episode is brought to you by. Prime Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice off campus. Elle every year after the Love Hypothesis, Sterling Point and more slow burns, second chances chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime Girl.

C (5:04)

Winter is so last season and now spring's got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders that perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done. Hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear open that envelope. It's time for a little in person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic.

A (5:36)

On May 20, 1927, 25 year old Charles A. Lindbergh was about to make history. That day he got into his single engine airplane called the Spirit of St. Louis and took off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York. Charles was headed across the Atlantic Ocean all the way to Paris, France. His goal was to become the first pilot to do so non stop and without any help. If Charles succeeded, he would win a $25,000 prize worth nearly half a million dollars today. But more importantly, he'd cement his place in aviation history. After 33 and a half hours, Charles touched down in Paris. He was greeted by a crowd of 100,000 adoring fans and There were even more waiting back in the U.S. once Charles was stateside, he came home to 2 million pieces of fan mail which. But that was just the beginning. He and his famous airplane toured every single state drawing a total of 30 million spectators across 82 stops. Everyone wanted to get a glimpse. In December 1927, Charles took his talents south for a tour of Latin America. While he was there, he met Anne Morrow, the 21 year old daughter of the US Ambassador to Mexico, who was pretty much love at first sight. And. And less than two years later, on May 27, 1929, they got married. Charles was 27 and Anne was 22. The next year, on Anne's 24th birthday, June 22, 1930, she gave birth to their first child, a little boy named Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. Or Charlie for short. Anne and Charles were over the moon. The Lindbergh saw a bright future for their son and hoped to make him a big brother soon. But on March 1, 1932, they had to put those plans on hold. That Tuesday started off like any other. 30 year old Charles, 25 year old Ann and 20 month old Baby Charlie were at their newly built vacation home in Hopewell, New Jersey. They called it Highfields and the family was really excited to finally spend more time there. Charles chose the 380 acre property because it was secluded and quiet. Plus he had tons of space to build a private airstrip. There was still more work to be done, but he'd already started clearing out the land for it. Usually they lived in Ann's family house in Englewood, New Jersey and would come to Highfields for the weekend. They'd usually head back to Englewood by Tuesday morning at the latest. But that day they were still at Highfields because Anne and baby Charlie were fighting off a nasty cold. That meant Charles had to commute a little farther to work in New York that day. But he was fine with the extra time in the car if that meant more rest for his family. And luckily Ann and Charlie had some extra help. Anne called her nanny, a young Scottish woman named Betty Gough from the Englewood house. Betty got to Highfields in time to help put Charlie to bed at 7:30pm in the second floor nursery they dressed him in his usual sleep suit. It was a windy night so they latched two of the three sets of shutters in the nursery. The third set was warped and wouldn't latch, but the family decided to just fix it later on. Once baby Charlie was in his crib, Anne, Betty, their butler and their dog headed downstairs to the first floor. Charles got home at around 8:25pm and the family sat down for dinner. Around 9:05pm Charles left the table and was in the living room when he heard a loud noise, almost like wood falling or cracking. At the time, he thought a wooden crate or something had fallen in the kitchen, so he ignored it. A little later, he and Ann went upstairs to wash up and get ready for bed. At 10pm Betty headed upstairs to turn on the space heater and take Charlie for his nighttime bathroom break since he was potty training. But when she walked into the room, Charlie wasn't in his crib. Betty ran to Anne's bedroom and asked if she had the baby. Anne said no and to check with Charles, who was back downstairs in the library reading. But Charles hadn't seen him either. So he raced up to the nursery to see the empty crib for himself. When he realized Charlie was actually gone, Charles ran for his rifle, then returned to the nursery. And when he took another look at the empty room, he noticed something everyone else had missed. There was an envelope sitting on the radiator just below the windowsill. Charles had the wherewithal not to touch the envelope, and he told everyone else the same. He knew there might be fingerprints. So at 10:25pm Just 25 minutes after they realized baby Charlie was missing, Charles told their butler to call the Hopewell, New Jersey Police. They in turn called the New Jersey State Police, who took charge of the investigation. At 10:46pm an alert went out instructing all New Jersey law enforcement officers to stop any car they saw that might be carrying a child in a sleep suit like Charlie had been wearing. By 11pm a statewide police blockade was in place. With those checkpoints set, the state police made their way to Highfields to search for clues. Clues starting with the envelope. Trooper Frank A. Kelly dusted it for prints before opening it. He didn't find anything usable on the envelope or the note inside. The message it contained was full of misspellings and the handwriting looked shaky, but the meaning was clear. Whoever had taken Charlie wanted $50,000 in cash broken into small bills. The Lindberghs were warned not to contact police or make the case public. But though the kidnappers claimed Charlie was safe, the family would receive further instructions in two to four days. And finally, the kidnappers mentioned a distinctive signature symbol to verify future notes. Today, that $50,000 would be more than $1.1 million. And the unique signature was two blue circles intersecting like a Venn diagram with a filled in red circle in the middle. The Police knew the the symbol had to be kept a secret from the public or else anyone could replicate it. But the state troopers at the scene made a couple more assumptions about the note based on the bad spelling and grammar. They thought English was the writer's second language, and they guessed their first language was German because the author used some German grammar. Placing the dollar sign after the numbers also matched how Germans wrote it out. At the time, that was all important information. But without any usable fingerprints, it was going to be tough to connect the note to a specific person. Luckily, the ransom letter wasn't the only piece of evidence left at the crime scene. While waiting for the police, Charles and his butler had searched the grounds and the road leading to the property for clues. And at some point they found a wooden extension ladder about 70ft from the house. It was broken into three pieces. When Trooper Kelly dusted it for prints, he didn't find anything. But the latter still had a story to tell. Each section was six feet long, so it would have been about 18ft fully unfolded, long enough to reach baby Charlie's second story window. And the fact that this was an extendable ladder is huge because you couldn't just go to the hardware store to buy an extendable ladder at the time. Between that and the fact that the ladder looked like it hadn't been used used before, police determined it was probably built specifically for this kidnapping. It also looked pretty flimsy, like the person who made it knew a bit about carpentry but wasn't an expert. Two of the side rails had apparently split while the kidnapper was carrying baby Charlie down, which was probably the cracking noise Charles Heard at 9:05pm but the police didn't see any marks in the mud under the ladder, so it didn't seem like the kidnapper had actually fallen off. But there was something else on the ground below the window. A large set of footprints. The prints showed a fabric pattern instead of tread marks from the sole of a shoe. So either the kidnapper had covered their shoes with cloth, or they carried out the whole abduction in socks. For some reason, the police didn't measure the footprints or make plaster casts of them. But one of the troopers compared his size 9 shoes and found that the prints in the mud were bigger. And it turned out the those weren't the only prints. Investigators also found a second, slightly smaller set. They thought these could have belonged to a reporter since a lot of them were snooping around the crime scene as the news began to break. This only added to the confusion. The police weren't sure which set of prints belonged to the kidnapper or if there were two people working together. But what they found and didn't find in the nursery was just as important. Important? Trooper Kelly dusted the entire room and found no prints at all. He did find some smudges or marks on the window, but nothing very useful. This was surprising because Anne Charles and Nanny Betty were always going in and out of the nursery. In fact, Betty had touched the window that day. She showed Trooper Kelly exactly where she'd placed her hand. Now the glass showed no prints. The only physical evidence detectives found in the nursery was a few splotches of mud on the floor and and on a suitcase under the corner window. It seemed like maybe the kidnapper had used that as a stepping stool. Those mud samples matched mud found on the ladder and samples from the soil outside underneath the window. This proved the kidnapper really had taken Charlie out the window. If they were still hiding in the house or had escaped another way they'd have tracked mud wherever they went. By the end of that first night, police didn't have much to go on. And soon the investigation would get even more complicated. The next morning, papers all over the country printed the news of baby Charlie's kidnapping. Even more reporters flocked to Highfields to see the crime scene for themselves. They swarmed the property trampling any evidence. And inside the Lindbergh house things were just as hectic. The state police were busy setting up a command center there complete with a 20 line switchboard for telephone tips and beds for officers to sleep in so they could help guard the property 24 7. It took multiple troopers working in shifts around the clock just to sort through all the mail the Lindberghs were receiving the person they wanted to hear from the most. The kidnapper had gone quiet. But the Lindberghs were certain it was just a matter of time until they got another message. In the meantime, the authorities started to come up with their own theories about what happened to Charlie and who took him. New Jersey State Police Chief Colonel H. Norman Schwarzkopf had some very strong opinions about what happened to 20 month old Charlie. At first he thought the kidnapper was someone close to the family. For starters, a stranger would have waited until later in the night after everyone went to bed to break in and take Charlie. He believed that only someone who knew knew the Lindbergs would have been aware that nobody really entered the nursery between the baby's bedtime and 10pm the family had very strict rules about this to help with Charlie's sleep training. Second it was common knowledge that the family typically spent Tuesday through Friday at their Englewood home. So the kidnapper must have known the family changed their plans that week. Otherwise they'd be looking for the baby in Englewood. Schwarzkopf also thought it was strange. Strange that the family's dog never barked during the kidnapping. He thought this meant the dog must have been familiar with the kidnapper. But not everyone agreed with the inside job theory. Some officers pointed out that Highfields was on a hill and the Lindberghs hadn't installed curtains yet. Anyone in the surrounding area with a pair of binoculars could see into the house. As for the dog, the kidnapping happened on a really windy night. It was possible the dog just couldn't hear the intruder over the gusts. Despite all that, Colonel Schwarzkopf requested a list of everyone who had ever worked at one of the Lindberg's two homes and planned to question them all. But Charles had some requests of his own. Even though he'd gone against the kidnapper's demands and involved the police, Charles planned to pay the ransom to try and get his son back. To make sure things went off without a hitch, Charles demanded the police wait to arrest anyone until Charlie was back home. Charles also insisted that the police didn't get involved in any communications between the Lindbergh family and the kidnappers. He actually threatened to shoot any officer who got in the way of future negotiations. Charles knew he had to move carefully because he had a theory of his own. He thought the Mafia took his son.

D (18:26)

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone. Paying Big Wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment

A (18:48)

of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full terms@mintmobile.com

E (18:59)

think about some of the cases that defined true crime in America. Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer. The kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart. The Karen retrial. Some crime cases are so shocking, they don't just make headlines, they forever change a country. I'm Katie Ring, host of America's Most Infamous Crimes. Each week I take on one of the most most notorious criminal cases, whether it's unfolding now or etched into American history, revealing not just what happened, but how it forever changed our Society, serial killers who terrorized cities, unsolved mysteries that kept detectives up at night, and investigations that changed the way we think about justice. Each case unfolds across multiple episodes released every Tuesday through Thursday, from the first sign that something was wrong to the moment the truth came out or didn't. These are the stories behind the headlines. Listen to and follow America's Most Infamous Crimes available now wherever you get your podcasts.

A (19:59)

As far as we know, Charles Lindbergh didn't have any beef with the mob. But there was a kidnapping epidemic going on in the US at the time, and a lot of people, including high profile members of the Hoover administration, believed organized crime was to blame. It also looked suspicious that mob boss Al Capone, who was in jail at the time, was already poking his nose into the Lindbergh case. On March 2, less than 24 hours after Charlie disappeared, Capone gave an interview from jail condemning the kidnapping. Capone put a $10,000 reward for information leading up to Charlie's safe return and even volunteered to to help find him. Of course, there were a few strings attached. He wanted to be released on bail so that he could use his underworld connections to help locate Charlie. That was a non starter and not that Charles Lindbergh really wanted Capone's help anyway. Still, Charles had his lawyers look into the Mafia theory and they hired a bootlegger named Mickey Rosner to look into it. But when Rosner contacted his mob connections, he found the the theory to be tenuous at best. They said it didn't look like the work of the mob, especially since they would have wanted way more than a $50,000 ransom. So at that point, the Lindberghs tried a different approach. Anne was seriously concerned that Charlie wouldn't recover from his cold in the kidnapper's hands. So on March 2, they sent out an urgent message via NBC radio saying the baby was sick and offering a special diet and medicine regimen for for Charlie. The Lindberghs also sent out a second message that day. They promised to keep ransom negotiations confidential and asked the kidnappers if they could designate an associate of the Lindbergh family as an intermediary, someone who could deliver the ransom. He and Anne waited and waited to hear from the kidnappers. But for four agonizing days, there was radio silence. Until finally, on March 6, 19, 1932, five days after the kidnapping, the second ransom note arrived at Highfields. It had been mailed from Brooklyn two days earlier and it wasn't good news. They warned that consequences were coming because the Lindberghs hadn't listened and gotten the police and the public involved. Because of that, the ransom went from $50,000 to $70,000. And the longer this dragged on, the longer they might keep the baby, though they still claimed he would be returned in good health. At the bottom was the same signature as on the note from the nursery. And two days later, a third letter arrived. This one was sent to the family lawyer, Henry Breckenridge, at his New York law office instead of the Lindbergh's home. It was another demand for $70,000 and was almost identical to the last message. The only difference was that it asked if Charles got the same second letter and theorized that the police may have intercepted it because they weren't sure. The kidnapper said they would send all future letters to Henry directly. This note also said the kidnapping had been in the works for a year. But the final line was the most important. It said, quote, please grab a short notice about this letter and the New York American. The New York American was a newspaper at the time. Finally, the kidnapped had given the Lindberghs a specific way to get in touch. And they were about to get someone very unexpected to help them do it. The same day Henry Breckenridge received the third letter, a 72 year old retired school principal named John Condon, who lived in the Bronx, placed a notice in the Bronx Home News. Condon was a huge fan of Charles and he wrote a long notice in the paper offering to be the intermediary for them. The police and the Lindberghs ignored him, but one person took him seriously. The kidnapper. On March 9, a day after Condon offered to help, he received a letter from the kidnapper accepting his services as an intermediary. He also included instructions. First, the kidnapper told Condon to deliver a sealed envelope with another letter to Charles. Condon was not to open this one himself. Next, Condon was told to get the money from the Lindberghs and put the words money is ready in the New York American. Once Condon received the money, the kidnapper told him to stay home between 6pm and 12am every night to wait for instructions on how to deliver it. After getting the letter, Condon tracked down the Lindbergh's phone number and spoke with Charles or someone who was helping the family. They said, no, ignore the kidnapper and read that sealed letter to us now. And Condon wasn't about to go against his idol's wishes. The note contained specific instructions on how to package the ransom money. It also told Charles to get an airplane ready to travel about 150 miles to retrieve Charlie and said there would be an eight hour delay between receiving the ransom and delivering the address where Charles could find his son. It all seemed really sketchy to Charles and he didn't see why he should take any of this seriously until Condon described the weird symbol on the bottom of the letter. At that point, Condon got the invite of his dreams. He was told to come to Highfields immediately. Condon got there around 3am on March 10. After some rest, he met with Charles and the family's lawyer, Henry. According to the FBI, Charles gave Condon the $70,000 that day, although some sources say that happened later on. Either way, he did get the money at some point. Before leaving, Condon also took some safety pins that were used to pin the baby's blanket down to the crib sheet the night of the kidnapping. The next day, March 11, Condon's reply to the kidnapper ran in the New York American as instructed. Now all he could do was wait. But it didn't take long to hear back. That night, Condon got a call from someone with a phone foreign accent. They reminded him to stay home between 6pm and 12am Condon said the caller was talking to someone else, possibly an Italian accomplice, in between speaking to him. Aside from that, Condon didn't get much information from that call. So the next night, March 12, he stayed home after 6pm again waiting to hear from the kidnapper. And around 8:30 that night, someone showed up at his door. It was a taxi driver named Joseph Pironi. Joseph said a stranger with blue eyes, brown hair and a foreign accent had flagged down his taxi, but he didn't want to ride. He gave Joseph a note for Condon, then took off before he could ask questions. It seemed legit because when Condon opened up the note, he saw the kidnapper's distinctive signature. This note instructed Condon to bring the money to a specific empty hot dog stand in of front 45 minutes. There, Condon would find another note beneath a stone telling him where to meet the kidnapper. Condon had a friend drive him over, but sources disagree on this next part. Either the money wasn't ready and hadn't been handed off to Condon yet, or Condon had the money but wasn't going to deliver it until the kidnapper proved he had the baby. Either way, Condon showed up to the hot dog stand on time and found a hastily written note telling him to go to Woodlawn Cemetery across the street and follow along the fence. 15 minutes or so after arriving at the cemetery, Condon saw a man signaling him with a white handkerchief from behind a tombstone. He introduced himself as John, which is why Condon ended up nicknaming him Graveyard John. Condon described him as 5, 9 or 5 10, between 160 and 170 pounds and about 335 years old. He also had a foreign accent and asked for the money right away. But Condon insisted he needed to either see the baby or be told where the baby was in order to pay the ransom. When Graveyard John refused, Condon started to wonder if he even had Baby Charlie. So Condon showed him the safety pins and asked if he knew what they were for. And Graveyard John correctly said they had been used to be pinned down the baby's blanket in the nursery. This convinced Condon he really was talking to the kidnapper. But he still wasn't handing over the money, which didn't sit well with Graveyard John. It seemed like he wasn't acting alone because he started talking about a boss who would be angry with him if he didn't return with this $70,000. Then he asked a very strange question, quote, would I burn if the baby is dead? And a moment later he clarified, quote, would I burn if I did not kill it? End quote. When Condon asked what that meant and if the baby was okay, Graveyard John insisted Charlie was doing well and was being cared for by two women on a boat. Condon also asked Graveyard John if he spoke German. Graveyard John said no, he was Scandinavian. After more back and forth about the boat and the ransom, the men put parted ways with Graveyard John, promising to send the baby's sleep suit as proof he had Charlie. After talking to Graveyard John, Condon reported back to the authorities. Although the kidnapper had a hat pulled low and handkerchief over his face, Condon thought he could still identify him. Condon worked with a forensic artist to create a detailed sketch of Graveyard John. But the police decided not to release it right away. They didn't want to spook the kidnapper and potentially put Charlie in danger. There was also a chance that Graveyard John was so offended that Condon had showed up empty handed that he wouldn't make contact again. So in an attempt to placate him, Condon and Charles ran advertisements in the newspaper every day for the next few days with the same code phrase, money is ready. Meanwhile, the police were busy with a new new lead of their own. On March 13, 12 days after the kidnapping, a fingerprint expert named Erastus Hudson met with police at the crime Scene. Hudson was a doctor, criminologist and expert witness known for creating a new process for exposing latent fingerprints, especially on wood. While Trooper Kelly hadn't found any prints on the ladder, Hudson identified over 500. Most were smudged or too partial to be useful. Some belonged to people involved with the household or the investigation. But there were several others that Hudson couldn't identify. Now the police had some forensic evidence to use if and when they found a suspect to use it on. Meanwhile, back in the Bronx, Condon was waiting on pins and needles to hear from the kidnappers. Finally, after four very tense days, on Monday, March 16, they reached back out. At around 10:30 that morning, Condon got a delivery at his house. According to the kidnappers, it was Charlie's sleep suit. And when Charles came to Condon's house in the Bronx, he confirmed it. This proved that Graveyard John either was the kidnapper or was working with him. But that wasn't the only notable thing about the suit. They also realized that it had been thoroughly washed, and that was a little scary. The best case scenario was that the kidnappers washed it because there might be identifying evidence on it, like their fingerprints or hair. But it was also possible that they'd washed it because there was blood on it and the kidnappers didn't want Charles to know that his son had been injured. The sleep suit also came with a note, again with the usual signature. It said the kidnappers weren't willing to show the baby to Condon or provide his exact location before the money exchanged hands. At that point, Charles had a difficult decision to make. Was he willing to pay the ransom without proof that Charlie was alive? Eventually, Charles decided to pay the ransom. Some sources say he'd already given John Condon the money by this point, while others say this was when he made the handoff. That part isn't what's really important. What really matters is that Charles wanted a way to track the money without the kidnapper noticing. And the authorities suggested using gold certificates to pay the ransom instead of cash. These were similar to today's dollar bills, but backed by actual gold, just like other paper money. Gold certificates had serial numbers so the bills could be identified. But unlike paper, money certificates were set to be taken out of circulation in two years. Years. That meant the kidnappers had to spend or deposit them before the deadline or they'd become worthless. Treasury Department officials helped Charles put together the ransom package, recording the serial numbers of each certificate. In the meantime, a few more notes were exchanged between the kidnappers and Condon to make Arrangements using the usual method. And baby Charlie's abductors were getting impatient. On March 30, 1932, nearly a month after Charlie was taken, the kidnappers reached out to Condon once again in that note, the ninth one so far. They threatened to increase the ransom demand from $70,000 to $100,000 if the money wasn't received by April 8. Charles promised they would get it on time. Then on April 2, Condon received a note again handed off by a taxi driver, directing him to bring the money and look under a stone in a local greenhouse for another message. Condon went to the greenhouse, but he took Charles with him. The note there demanded that Condon go alone to the next stop, so Charles stayed behind. This time, the kidnapper wanted to meet at a different cemetery, St. Raymond's per their instructions, Condon went alone, and before long, Graveyard John showed up. Condon managed to talk him down to the original ransom of $50,000. But things went from bad to worse when Graveyard John refused to hand over the baby then and there. He said he needed another six hours to count the money and prepare his escape. Then he gave Condon a sealed envelope containing a note which Graveyard John promised would return, reveal Charlie's exact location. But he made Condon promise not to read the note for six hours. Condon could see that he was at a stalemate. He handed off the ransom as told, took the sealed envelope and went back to the greenhouse where Charles was waiting. As soon as they were out of the kidnapper's sight, they opened the message. The note said Charlie was on a boat called the Nelly with two people. And apparently Charlie, Charles and Condon could find the boat near a place called Elizabeth Island. Charles knew this was in the general area of Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts, and he already had a plane fueled up and ready to search the waters below. Charles left immediately for a Connecticut airport where he boarded a plane the Navy had agreed to let him borrow for the search. This plane was capable of landing in water, unlike Charles personal plane, so it was perfect for scouring the area described in the note. Unfortunately, there was no boat matching Graveyard John's description anywhere in that vicinity. After that, Charles tried appealing to Graveyard John through more ads in the paper he posted every day for two weeks, starting on April 6. But there was no reply. It seemed the only way to find Graveyard John again was through the money. After the handoff, the treasury sent pamphlets to banks listing all the serial numbers on the ransom money. But there was a problem. Reporters got hold of one of the pamphlets, figured out what it was about, and published stories exposing the serial number tracking plan. After that announcement, there was no way the kidnappers were going to spend the ransom money anytime soon. At this point, all they could do was wait for the noise to quiet down. But soon they got a devastating new lead, one that confirmed the Lindbergh's worst fears. Hi listeners, it's Vanessa Richardson. I wanted to take a brief moment to tell you about another show from Crime House that I know you'll love, America's Most Infamous Crimes, hosted by Katie R. Ring. Each week, Katie takes on a notorious crime, whether unfolding now or etched into American history, revealing not just what happened, but how it forever changed our society. Serial killers who terrorized cities, unsolved mysteries that keep detectives up at night, and investigations that change the way we think about justice. Each case unfolds across multiple episodes, released every Tuesday through Thursday, from the first sign that something was wrong to the moment the truth came out or didn't. These are the stories behind the headlines. Listen to and follow America's Most Infamous Crimes Tuesday through Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. On May 12, 1932, more than two months after 20 month old Charlie Lindbergh was kidnapped, a trucker named Orville Wilson pulled over to the side of the road in Mount Rose, New Jersey. It was about four and a half miles from Highfields. The other trucker riding with him, William Allen, needed to pee, so he headed into the woods between 50 and 75ft into the trees. William looked down and saw something he would never forget. There was a skull and a foot sticking out of the ground. William ran out of the woods in a panic and told Orville what he'd seen. The two men went back together, and that's when they realized they'd found the badly decomposed body of a small child. They also saw blonde hair on the skull. Like everyone in the country at the time, William and Orville knew Charles Lindbergh was looking for his son. And they'd seen the photos. They knew little Charlie was blonde. There was no phone nearby, so the truckers went looking for a police officer in town. And soon the news had made its way to Colonel Schwarzkopf, the head of the New Jersey State Police. Minutes later, detectives swarmed the roadside scene and brought the body to a medical examiner, who tried to identify the child and their cause of death. The toddler was still wearing a flannel undershirt matching the one that Betty Gough had sewn for Charlie just before he disappeared. His right foot also had overlapping toes. This was one of baby Charlie's distinguishing features. It ran in the Lindbergh family. The autopsy determined that the cause of death was a skull fracture which happened while Charlie was still alive. Ultimately, Charles insisted on making the final identification himself. He looked at the body for a few moments, then said, quote, I am perfectly satisfied that it is my child. End quote. Just like that, baby Charlie went from a kidnapped child to a murder victim. The next day, May 13, the FBI officially took over the investigation. And based on the autopsy, they started looking into a new theory. Maybe Charlie was accidentally killed during the kidnapping. In a fall or by striking the side of the house when the ladder broke. The kidnapper then ran down the driveway to a waiting vehicle. After that, they gave the family false hope for more than two months. All to get a ransom for a child they had already killed. Whatever had actually happened, the FBI and the Lindberghs were determined to get answers. So the bureau aggressively chased down every lead they could. Maybe too aggressively in some cases. For a while they focused on Violet Sharp, a 28 year old British woman who'd been working for the family as a maid, but wasn't at Highfields on the night of the kidnapping. Early on she was evasive about her alibi. The authorities thought that was suspicious, so they started interrogating her even more aggressively. After numerous rounds of questioning, on June 10, 1932, Violet died by suicide. After her death, police realized Violet had just been hiding the fact that she spent the night of the murder at a speakeasy. And she wasn't the only one who suffered because of the investigation. About six months later, on December 3, a 23 year old small time criminal jumped into a river and died while trying to escape the police after they had identified him as a suspect in Charlie's murder. But after his his death, he was ruled out. His handwriting didn't match the notes and his physical features didn't match the man Condon described giving the ransom money to. And as it turned out, even Condon got the third degree. The FBI thought it was suspicious that this random retired school teacher was the only one the kidnapper trusted. They searched Condon's home repeatedly, ripping the wallpaper off his walls to look for the ransom. According to Condon, they even dug up his yard, but ended up clearing him. By then it was obvious that the only way to catch Charlie's killer was to wait for those gold certificates to turn up. But that took longer than anyone expected. Finally, on September 18th, 1934, more than two and a half years after the kidnapping, a certificate did turn up. A few had already been discovered in circulation, but none could be traced to the spender. Until this one came along. A bank teller noticed a $10 gold certificate with a number penciled into the margin. It turned out to be a License plate number 4U1341 New York. It was written by a Manhattan gas station attendant who rarely saw gold certificates and worried it might be a fake. When police located the gas station attendant, he remembered that the vehicle in question was a blue Dodge. The driver was a German man. The attendant said that he made a comment to the man about how rare gold certificates were nowadays. The man replied that he had a hundred more like this one at home. That was all the police needed to hear. They checked the license plate and before long they got a match. The owner of the car was 35 year old Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German American carpenter who'd served in the German military during World War I. After the war he couldn't find work and turned to crime. He got away with a few burglaries in Germany, but pushed his luck too far when he mugged two young mothers for their ration coupons in broad daylight. In March 1919, Hauptmann was caught and sent to prison. Four years later, after being paroled, he got arrested again for for selling stolen goods. This time he quickly escaped through an open gate. After that he tried to stow away on a ship bound for the U.S. his first two attempts didn't work. But on the third try, in November 1923, he made it into the U.S. by using a disguise and stolen documents. After that it seemed like he cleaned up his act. He found work as a carpenter and in October 1925 he he married a fellow German American immigrant who worked in a bakery. Eight years later, in November 1933, the couple welcomed their first and only child. But 10 months after that, Hauptman found himself on the wrong side of the law again. After spending a gold certificate traced to the Lindbergh Ransom. On September 19, 1934, Bruno Richard Hauptman was arrested at his home in the Bronx on suspicion of kidnapping and killed. Killing Charlie Lindbergh, then collecting the ransom. And it really seemed like the authorities finally had their man. He looked exactly like John Condon's composite sketch of Graveyard John. And Condon later identified Hauptman as the kidnapper he'd met with. Hauptman also had the carpentry skills to build a homemade ladder. A criminal record and he admitted to spending several of the ransom bills. However, he claimed that a mysterious man named Isidor Fish had left him the notes. According to Hauptman, Fish gave him a box for safekeeping, then returned to his home country of Germany, where he soon died. Hauptmann said he only opened the box and discovered it was full of gold certificates after Fish passed. But that was hard to believe, because right after the kidnapped kidnapping in March 1932, Hauptman had suddenly stopped taking carpentry jobs like he was expecting to come into money. And soon the authorities found even more evidence that Hauptman was behind the kidnapping. In Hauptman's garage, police found a can stuffed with $11,930 in gold certificates whose serial numbers matched the ransom bills. Combined with the earlier discovery, the total came to nearly $15,000 of the $50,000 Charles had paid. They didn't find the rest of the money, but detectives were still pretty sure they had their graveyard john. Especially because Hauptman's handwriting looked a lot like the ransom notes. And he misspelled things in a similar way too. Hauptman later claimed he was forced to copy the ransom notes and that's why the handwriting matched so perfect perfectly. But it would be a lot harder to fake the other evidence police found. Hauptman had a board in his attic that was made of the same kind of wood as parts of the ladder. In fact, it matched the 16th rail of the ladder perfectly. The grain lined up like the two boards were cut from the same exact piece of wood. And as if that wasn't enough, the ladder found at the scene had some markings from tools, tools that matched Hauptman's collection. This was pretty definitive as far as the police were concerned. But they found one more thing. When they searched Hauptman's house, Hauptman had a phone number and address written on the inside of his closet. They belonged to none other than John Condon, who Hauptman had no reason to call unless he was also graveyard John. With that, Bruno Hauptman's fate was sealed. It was time for him to go on trial for Charlie Lindbergh's murder. On October 8, 1934, about three weeks after he was first caught, 35 year old Bruno Hauptman was indicted in New Jersey on charges of first degree murder. His trial began less than three months later, on January 3, 1934. 5 the five week trial was unlike anything the country had seen before. And people managed to capitalize on it in the worst ways possible. There was even someone outside the courthouse claiming to be selling locks of hair from Charlie's head. And things were just as chaotic inside the courtroom. The prosecution's case was almost entirely circumstantial. But the latter slats played a huge role playing. Plus there were a few notable eyewitnesses. Lindbergh testified to recognizing Hauptman's voice from briefly listening in on one of his calls to Condon. Condon also testified and confirmed that Hauptman was Graveyard John, the man he met with twice. When it came to the defense, Hauptman decided to testify, which is pretty unusual for murder suspects. He was on the stand for two full days and made maintained his innocence the whole time. Hauptman said the only thing he was guilty of was spending some of the ransom money. Letting Hauptman testify might have been a bad call. Even his lawyer believed he was guilty. But Hauptman's best advocate wasn't his lawyer. It was Erastus Hudson, the fingerprint expert who found several prints during the second search. He said Hauptman's fingerprints didn't match any of the unidentified prints on the ladder. Hudson also took issue with the photos of the ladder rail that were presented in court. He remembered it looked differently and believed it didn't match the wood in Hauptman's attic. In fact, Hudson publicly implied that the police were tampering with evidence. But his testimony wasn't enough to overcome all the other damning evidence against Hauptman. On February 13, 1935, the jury spent about 11 hours deliberating before returning with a verdict. They found Bruno Hauptman guilty of first degree murder. He was sentenced to death by electric chair. On April 3, 1936, Hauptman was led to his execution. It took three ferocious shocks of 2,000 volts each to kill him. But by 8:47pm, Bruno Richard Hauptmann was dead at 36 years old. After Hauptmann's death, most of the country, including the Lindberghs, celebrated. They felt like they finally had closure and that their son's killer had gotten what he deserved. But there's still been a ton of debate about the case. There are a few main theories. The first is that Hauptmann was guilty. The circumstantial evidence was overwhelming, even without a confession or eyewitness. And there was no miscarriage of justice. Then there's the theory that Hauptman was guilty, but his trial might have been unfair. There's a lot of people who believe the police really did manipulate some evidence like the latter and coached some witnesses to lie. But that was only because Hauptman was so obviously guilty and they really wanted to get him. Other people think Hauptman was part of the kidnapping plot, but wasn't the only person involved. The these folks wonder if Houtman was the one extorting the ransom, but not the one who kidnapped and killed Charlie. Maybe he had an accomplice inside the Lindbergh household, either one of the servants or a family member. Or maybe the mafia really was involved. Then there are those who believe Hauptman was totally innocent. Most of these people think the Lindberghs were at fault, that Charlie's death was an accident or intentional. But in basically all the versions of the inside job theory, Lindbergh and the police both would have had to participate in framing Hauptman. And then there were a handful of people who think it wasn't Lindbergh or Hauptman, but maybe someone else like John Condon or maybe even the nanny, Betty Gao. But those theories are hard to believe unless you think all the evidence against Houtman was fake. There really isn't a convincing version of the story where he wasn't involved at all. So what do you think? Was Bruno Helpman guilty? Was he working alone? Or was this an inside job or a hit by the mob? Let us know in the comments. We'd love to hear your thoughts. Whatever the truth is, there's no denying that a real tragedy took place place, and because of someone's greed, a young boy died. Charlie Lindbergh was just a baby, but because of who his father was, he was used as a pawn in a game he didn't even know was going on. And nearly a century later, we're still wondering if this story could have had a different ending. Foreign. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Vanessa Richardson and this is Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes. Come back next time. We'll decode the episode together and hear another story about the real people at the center of the world's most notorious cults, conspiracies and criminal acts. Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media, Rimehouse on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and follow Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes. Wherever you get your podcasts, your feedback truly makes a difference. And to enhance your Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes listening experience, subscribe to Crime Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts you'll get every episode ad free. We'll be back on Wednesday. Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson and is a Crime House original. Powered by Pave Studios, this episode was brought to life by the Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertzovsky, Lori Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Kaylee Pine and Michael Langsner. Thank you for listening.

E (53:14)

I'm Katie Ring, host of America's Most Infamous Crimes. Each week I take on one of the most notorious criminal cases in American history. Listen to and follow America's Most Infamous Crimes. Available now wherever you get your podcasts.

A (53:30)

Thanks for listening to today's episode. Not sure what to listen to next? Check out America's Most Infamous Crimes hosted by Katie Ring. From serial killers to unsolved mysteries and game changing investigations, each week Katie takes on a notorious criminal case in American history. Listen to and follow America's Most infamous Crimes now wherever you listen to podcasts.