Latest news with #Lindbergh
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
KU professor joins lawsuit to pressure New Jersey to allow DNA testing of Lindbergh evidence
Jonathan Hagel, an assistant professor of history at the University of Kansas, is among plaintiffs in a New Jersey lawsuit filed to compel opening of a documentary archives tied to the kidnapping and murder of aviator Charles Lindburgh's son. Hagel and other researchers seek permission to expose certain documents to modern DNA testing. (Submitted) TOPEKA — An assistant professor at the University of Kansas is a plaintiff in a New Jersey lawsuit seeking modern DNA testing of state archive materials tied to the kidnapping and murder of the infant son of trans-Atlantic aviator Charles Lindbergh. The 200-page Mercer County Superior Court suit was filed amid controversy about decisions by New Jersey State Police to block access to the case archive. The plaintiffs — KU historian Jonathan Hagel, author Catherine Read and retired teacher Michele Downie — said their Open Public Records Act request related the 1932 kidnapping was rejected. Hagel, a New Jersey native who has studied the Lindbergh case, said DNA analysis of ransom notes or envelopes could contribute to understanding whether Bruno Richard Hauptmann, who was executed in 1936 after convicted of first-degree murder, acted alone in the high-profile crime. It is among questions that have riveted scholars and investigators since Hauptmann's trial. 'There were more than a dozen ransom letters overall, and they were sent through the post,' said Hagel, a New Jersey native who has studied the Lindbergh case. 'If Hauptmann's DNA is on it, then he definitely is not innocent of being involved. But, if there is other DNA, that would confirm other people's involvement.' Twenty-month-old Charles Lindbergh Jr. was abducted from the family estate near Hopewell, New Jersey. The family was contacted through ransom notes and parcels, and a demand for $50,000 was paid. The toddler's remains were subsequently discovered adjacent to a roadside several miles from the Lindbergh home. 'There are those who think we're likely to find Charles Lindbergh's DNA on the materials,' Hagel said. 'They believe there was some kind of accident, and he orchestrated this as a way to deflect responsibility.' At least one previous lawsuit unsuccessfully sought to compel New Jersey to allow DNA testing of documents associated with the case. A state appellate court said New Jersey law didn't guarantee a public right to physically examine archive materials. In 2023, the State Police said access was restricted to preserve contents of case files. 'My take is that states or police organizations, like any bureaucracy, just like to protect their stuff,' Hagel said. 'There are others who think the state police are embarrassed they may have botched it quite badly and been involved in a railroading.'
CBS News
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Book excerpt: "The Aviator and the Showman" by Laurie Gwen Shapiro
Viking We may receive an affiliate commission from anything you buy from this article. Everybody knows about Amelia Earhart's mysterious final flight. But what about the years before she disappeared? In "The Aviator and the Showman" (to be published July 15 by Viking), documentary filmmaker and journalist Laurie Gwen Shapiro draws on newly-uncovered sources to explore the famed pilot's life and her marriage to wealthy publisher George Putnam. Theirs was a relationship that lifted love, publicity and especially risk to mythic heights. Read an excerpt below. "The Aviator and the Showman" by Laurie Gwen Shapiro Prefer to listen? Audible has a 30-day free trial available right now. Amelia Earhart was sitting across from George Palmer Putnam. He was on the phone, not acknowledging her, taking his sweet time. He was a flamboyant, career-making publisher who liked to be in the news. Putnam was always photographed with famous people: standing next to Charles Lindbergh, first man to fly solo across the Atlantic; posing with Commander Byrd, the man who conquered the South Pole; smiling with Howard Carter, the man who discovered King Tut. Amelia was thirty-one years old, a Boston social worker. She was not a famous person. But unknown to her that spring of 1928, Putnam had decided he wanted to create a new hero—the first woman to cross the Atlantic in an airplane!—the counterpart to the world's most famous man, Charles Lindbergh. Putnam sent out feelers to find candidates for such a heroine, who merely had to be the first female Atlantic passenger to get famous. The idea was familiar: sponsor the wildly risky adventure, find someone physically attractive and willing to imperil their own life, sign them to an exclusive tell-all deal, publicize the thing to the max, and make a fortune on book sales. Soon word came from Boston: George Putnam's old friend, a PR guy named Colonel Hilton Howell Railey, had found a perfect candidate: Miss Earhart was an experienced flier, she was well spoken, and she had pleasing looks. George's response was swift and decisive: "She must be in my office by the start of the next morning!" When George Palmer Putnam wanted things done, there was no room for argument. Railey told Amelia that someone in New York City wanted to see her about a possible flying venture. She was a committed full-time social worker and only a part-time aviator, but Amelia's heart beat faster at the prospect of sponsored flying, a rarity for any woman, even the most accomplished pilot. She agreed to go to New York. Railey escorted her down from Boston by train. At 2 West Forty-Fifth Street, just off Fifth Avenue, a colossal Putnam banner fluttered from the rooftop. A landmark of New York's Jazz Age publishing district, the Putnam Building reached sixteen stories skyward. An elegant retail bookstore graced its lobby, and its prime location was often touted in newspapers as "just 100 feet off Fifth." Times Square, now ablaze with neon, was just a couple blocks west and had recently eclipsed Herald Square as the energetic heart of Manhattan. On the day of Amelia's arrival, thirty skyscrapers had already reshaped the Midtown skyline, transforming the area into a bustling hub aglow with neon lights. The district housed titans like The New York Times, the city's most respected newspaper, and The New Yorker, a sharp-witted rising star on the media scene that, even in 1928, held outsize influence among the cultural elite. Railey brought Amelia to the elegant reception room of G. P. Putnam's Sons and introduced her to George's neat and professional brunette secretary, Miss Josephine "Jo" Berger. Dressed in the day's standard attire for working women in publishing—back-seamed stockings and practical T-strapped low heels—Jo exuded an air of efficiency, and in her respectable brown day dress, with a powdered nose and a touch of rouge, Amelia, too, seamlessly blended into the office's urbane ambiance. Amelia Earhart and George Putnam's official wedding portrait, 1931. International News Photos/Wikimedia Commons Unbeknownst to her at that moment, Amelia Earhart was poised to become his next great triumph. George, the peacock at the handsome desk, was still conducting his power phone call, his deep voice filling the office. Impeccably dressed in a flawless double-breasted suit, he was well versed in commanding the room—and absorbing the admiring glances that often followed. To kill more minutes, Amelia's eyes might have scanned what the bookcase held: there was Lindbergh's famous G. P. Putnam's Sons book, "WE" (those peculiar quotes around all caps), probably signed by the fabled Lindbergh himself. Should she confess to having a clipped newspaper picture of Lindbergh tacked up in her social worker's bedroom? Would that be seen as genuine admiration or as an overly starry-eyed gesture for a woman her age? At last, the publisher ended his call, allowing dramatic silence before inquiring, "And how about you? Do you consider yourself a risk-taker?" Amelia replied, "It depends. I'm here to learn more." Weighing how much to disclose, and after securing her promise of secrecy, he shared glimpses of the confidential project: he was scouting for a female passenger to be the first across the Atlantic. Years later, when Amelia's name rang louder than even George's, Railey candidly admitted—off the record—that he had been in that very room the day the very married George Palmer Putnam met Amelia Earhart. Thinking back to that significant meeting, Railey would muse all those years later: For George, it was undeniably "love at first sight." From "The Aviator and the Showman," published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2025 by Laurie Gwen Shapiro. Get the book here: "The Aviator and the Showman" by Laurie Gwen Shapiro Buy locally from For more info:
New York Post
10-05-2025
- New York Post
Advanced forensic methods used to ID Gilgo Beach vics could resolve lingering Lindbergh baby mystery
The same forensic science recently used to ID victims of the Gilgo Beach serial killer could now determine whether German immigrant Bruno Hauptmann notoriously murdered the Lindbergh baby nearly more than 90 years ago. This month, three people — a history professor, retired teacher and developmental psychologist — filed a lawsuit against the New Jersey State Police, seeking access to ransom notes the Lindberghs received in 1932, Newsday reported. The lawsuit cites a genetic genealogist, who said 'it has only been recently that DNA testing and analysis have evolved with the potential of testing those envelopes to produce definitive investigative leads that could resolve lingering uncertainties.' The same technique the plaintiffs hope will finally decide who licked the Lindbergh stamps was recently used to identify the remains of Valerie Mack, Karen Vergata and Tanya Denise Jackson and her young daughter, Tatiana. The four bodies were among the 11 found along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County with between December 2010 and April 2011. 4 The toddler was kidnapped from his crib inside the Lindbergh's home. ASSOCIATED PRESS Architect Rex Heuermann has been charged with the murders of seven of the 11 Gilgo Beach victims. Over the years, historians have argued someone close to Charles Lindbergh — a household name after completing the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927 from Long Island's Roosevelt Field — had to have been involved in his son's March 1, 1932 kidnapping. Even after the famous aviator paid $70,000 in ransom, the 20-month-old wasn't returned — in a mystery that captivated the nation. 4 Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. was found in a shallow grave in the woods of Hopewell, N.J. ASSOCIATED PRESS Eleven days later, the boy's bludgeoned remains were found dumped in woods not far from Lindbergh's home. Hauptmann, who lived in the Bronx, was convicted for the crime in 1935 and electrocuted on April 3, 1936. But some have long-maintained Hauptmann's innocence. 4 Rex Heuermann was linked to the Gilgo Beach killings using advanced genealogy techniques. Newsday If provided with the envelopes, the trio will look to lift DNA from the undersides of the stamps, in hopes of identifying the sender using advanced genetic genealogy research, according to Newsday. 4 Heuermann has been charged with seven of the Gilgo Beach murders. Suffolk County Police Department Heuermann has not been criminally charged with killing Vergata or Jackson and her child. During a press conference last month, Nassau Country Homicide Det. Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick was asked if investigators believe Heuermann was involved in their murders. 'We're not saying it's him, but we're not saying it's not him,' Fitzpatrick said. 'We are proceeding as if it's not related.'
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Yahoo
A New DNA Test Could Potentially Solve the Lindbergh Baby Mystery After 93 Years
This story is a collaboration with As the nation is gripped by the upcoming trial in the case of the 'Long Island Serial Killer,' a surprising breakthrough has come along regarding possible additional victims. Two bodies found 14 years apart near Long Island's Gilgo Beach have finally been identified—and even more shockingly, they're connected. A dismembered adult body found in Hempstead Lake State Park, which had commonly been referred to as 'Peaches' due to a tattoo of the fruit being one of the only defining characteristics to remain, has been identified through DNA analysis as 26-year-old Tanya Jackson. The body of a 2 year old child found roughly 20 miles away from Jackson has been identified as her daughter, Tatiana Dykes. Now, investigators are trying to determine how these two victims died, and if they are connected to killings suspect Rex Heuermann is currently accused of having committed. When a story of modern forensic technology leading to a breakthrough in a cold case comes along, it's common for historians and true crime enthusiasts alike to wonder what would have happened if this tech had been around during some of the more infamous crimes of past eras. It raises the question: Could the cutting-edge DNA analysis currently being deployed in the Gilgo Beach case have secured—or even overturned—the verdicts in some of the most infamous trials of the past century? According to a report in Long Island's Newsday, some believe it still could. In what was called the Crime of the Century, the child of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped and held for ransom on March 1, 1932. The child's dead body would ultimately be recovered not far from Lindbergh's New Jersey home from which they had first been absconded. A German immigrant named Bruno Hauptmann was ultimately convicted of the kidnapping in 1935 and subsequently executed. But with a trial that hinged on elements like analysis of the wood grain of a ladder, some observers (both then and now) have been unconvinced of Hauptmann's guilt—or, at the very least, are convinced Hauptmann did not act alone. Now, as Newsday notes, three of those doubters have come forward with a lawsuit, seeking to utilize the same modern DNA analysis technology deployed to identify the potential victims of the Gilgo Beach killings to re-examine 90-year-old evidence from the Lindbergh case. 'The plaintiffs want access to certain pieces of evidence—namely several envelopes that contain the original ransom notes,' Newsday wrote, '[...] so they can submit the stamps and adhesives for forensic testing to possibly identify others involved in the crime and prove a conspiracy.' An attorney for the plaintiffs, comprised of 'an American history professor at the University of Kansas, a retired New Jersey teacher, and a developmental psychologist,' hope to recover DNA from the adhesive materials in much the same manner as investigators were able to recover samples from the heavily degraded bodies on that Long Island beach. In a statement for the court filing, genetic genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick remarked that 'it has only been recently that DNA testing and analysis have evolved with the potential of testing those envelopes to produce definitive investigative leads that could resolve lingering uncertainties.' While not one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Fitzpatrick spoke to Newsday about the intended goal of the suit, stating that 'in essence, genetic genealogy could allow researchers to backtrack through public databases to find other modern-day relatives of any potential and long-dead coconspirators in the kidnapping.' She notes that DNA had previously been extracted from 19th century envelopes, so such an effort is not without precedent. The attorney who filed the complaint, Kurt W. Perhach, asserts that such analysis could clarify if Hauptmann had assistance in the crime, including (possibly) an accomplice close to the Lindbergh family. 'There are far too many circumstantial things [in] this case,' Perhach wrote, 'to have any possible belief that one strange person acted alone.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Yahoo
Could DNA testing shed new light on 93-year mystery of Lindbergh baby case?
HL Mencken, the prominent journalist and critic, once called it the 'greatest story since the Resurrection'. Though it has been 93 years since the Lindbergh baby kidnapping case merged crime, fame and mass media together, the enduring mystery of the crime still holds fascination for many in the US. The case was shocking. The transatlantic aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh suffered the kidnapping and murder of their 20-month-old baby son on 1 March 1932. Now a new lawsuit filed in New Jersey – where the crime played out – seeks to force the state police to allow mitochondrial DNA testing on envelopes used to send a series of ransom notes. The crime was pinned on a 36-year-old German immigrant, Bruno Hauptmann, but his conviction relied on circumstantial evidence. Hauptmann, who was sent to the electric chair, maintained his innocence of the abduction and death of little Charles A Lindbergh Jr. But the involvement of unknown co-conspirators has never been entirely ruled out – and even the prosecutor in the case seemed to have doubts that Hauptmann acted alone when the infant was stolen from his second-floor nursery using a homemade ladder. The case had a profound impact on American legal and cultural history, expanding the authority of the FBI – then known as the BOI, or Bureau of Investigation – to investigate kidnappings involving interstate travel and expanding their role in law enforcement, while making kidnapping a federal offense and leading to a ban on photography and cameras in federal and most state courts. But enduring speculation about the death of the child – whose body was discovered on 12 May beside a nearby road – and who was behind the kidnapping and ransom demands has never entirely subsided. Now researchers want access to more than a quarter-million documents, photos and other bits of evidence in an archive at the New Jersey state police museum in West Trenton, New Jersey. The archive was made accessible 44 years ago by an executive order of the New Jersey governor, Brendan Byrne, so scholars and members of the public could study the crime. But for more than a year, researchers have been locked out as calls for advanced DNA testing on the evidence have mounted. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit contend that in an era when 'the very idea of historical or legal truth has come under political pressure it is incumbent on those of us who prize truthfulness in our public life to use every tool at our disposal to affirm its value'. Opening the case's archives to modern forensic science testing, they say, is a necessary step in the pursuit of truth and historical justice. DNA testing of the ransom letter 'has the potential to clarify lingering questions about the case, reaffirm or challenge past conclusions, and ultimately contribute to a fuller, more accurate account of our collective past.' The plaintiffs are Jonathan Hagel, a New Jersey native and professor at the University of Kansas who has studied the Lindbergh case for decades, Michele Downie, a retired schoolteacher, and Catherine Read, an author and developmental psychologist. They contend that saliva on the backs of stamps and on glue used to seal the envelopes could help to resolve questions about whether Hauptmann acted alone or in concert with unidentified others. But why would New Jersey want to prevent scientific testing of evidence? In response to a prior lawsuit over the archive, the state police said they wanted to ensure that there was no risk of damage or mutilation to the artefacts. The state police have said that closing the archive is a temporary measure so they can develop new access policies around genetic testing by experts. A court ruling in the earlier lawsuit, also brought by the current plaintiffs' attorney Kurt Perhach, over access to the material for genetic testing found that the suit had not sufficiently established a public interest in analytic testing. In message to the Guardian this week, the New Jersey's attorney general's office said it would not comment on pending litigation. 'This is a 93-year-old case and I don't think they actually care about knowing the truth,' says Perhach. 'But their argument about damaging the documents is completely laughable.' Perhach says there is an urgency to examine the documents because the Lindbergh documents have already been threatened by a water leak. 'It's not like they're being kept in the Smithsonian – it's not an environment where it's going to last indefinitely. They're deteriorating and wearing down, and will continue to do so.' The demand for scientific access to the documents comes as the Trump administration has released archives relating to the assassinations of President John F Kennedy and his attorney general brother, Robert F Kennedy, with little new gleaned from either. But the Lindbergh files, conceivably, could show that others were involved in a conspiracy to kidnap and ransom the child. They could either confirm or – perhaps more likely – dismiss conspiracy theories that have surrounded the case. Some have suggested that Hauptmann was the victim of a police frame-up; others that the hero-aviator may have been involved in the kidnapping and murder of his own son. 'Maybe there is no more saliva available there, but there's 15 total envelopes which contain 12 stamps and there's still adhesive. Unless somebody in 1932 had the foresight to dab water on the adhesive there's a high likelihood that there's still saliva attached to these pieces of paper,' said Perhach. Angelique Corthals, a forensic anthropologist at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, who has written a letter in support of the lawsuit argues that the envelopes would be handled in 'a non-destructive manner'. Corthals, who drew international attention in her successful attempt to extract DNA from ancient Egyptian mummies, told the Guardian that it was 'pretty realistic' to think DNA could be extracted. 'We have the technology to amplify very, very small amounts of DNA and are getting better at parsing out contaminate DNA, including recovering particles from a document or a stamp without destroying it,' Corthals told the Guardian. Advances in DNA analysis have produced, for instance, an entire Neanderthal genome, identified by the evolutionary genetics specialist and Nobel prize winner Dr Svante Pääbo, and the arrest of 'Golden State Killer' Joseph DeAngelo using DNA from a cup collected at the 1980 double murder of Lyman and Charlene Smith, and running it through a genealogy database. Few seriously doubt that 36-year Hauptmann was at least involved with the Lindbergh baby case. He was arrested in September 1934 after using a $10 bill from about $50,000 in ransom paid by Lindbergh. Some of the ransom money was found in Hauptmann's garage and wood used to make the ladder matched wooden beams in his home. But the man who came to collect the ransom through an intermediary at a Bronx cemetery, who became known as 'Cemetery John', did not match Hauptmann's appearance. The intermediary on the exchange, Dr John Condon, specifically said the man he had met was not Hauptmann. But opening up the Lindbergh files to DNA testing under open public access records laws could open up access to countless government-controlled records and documents, says Perhach. 'In the event that Hauptmann's DNA is found on the envelopes it just proves he was a conspirator like everyone knew, but the broader concern they have is that extending the Open Public Records Act will open up DNA testing in future cases,' he said.
