Page 12 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • March 6, 2013 radicals, immigrants, or people of color -- refused to confess. Handwriting experts generally confirmed that Hauptmann’s handwriting was that of the ransom note, down to the Germanic misspellings of several words. Two experts who felt otherwise did not formally testify. Possession of part of the ransom money, Hauptmann’s service as a German machine-gunner in World War I, and his nonviolent post-war criminal record in the German state of Saxony -- including one theft involving the use of a ladder -- pointed to him as a very plausible suspect. The telephone number of one of Lindbergh’s bungling assistants, the contact man for the ransom drop-off, was found written on an interior wall in Hauptman’s house. Several forensic experts testified that the wood used for kidnap ladder came from Hauptmann’s garage -- and Hauptmann was a carpenter. Again, an expert who did not believe this did not testify. Hauptmann flatly denied he had kidnapped or killed the Lindbergh baby -- even when he was offered a chance to save his own life and benefit his family with cash before he got the chair on April 3, 1936. The decision split before the state threw the switch. People in the German-American community saw Hauptmann as one more victim of the World War I Creel Commission and British propaganda that attacked all things German. This argument can be overdone. When Prosecutor David Wilentz is heard on the sound movies of the trial blasting Hauptman as a “superman,” his reference is probably not to Hitler but to the Leopold-Loeb Case of the previous decade, where a couple of high-IQ punks from Chicago who wanted to be “supermen” murdered a teenaged boy to bond with each other by committing the “perfect murder.” (The two killers and the victim were all Jewish.) Hauptmann’s trial took place before Nazi government promulgated the Nuremburg Laws in the autumn of 1935, the first concrete Nazi venture into official anti-Semitism. Before the Nuremburg Laws and the November 1938 horror of Kristallnacht, mainstream Americans tended to see Hitler as an eccentric but useful anti-communist. New Jersey did not frame Hauptmann because he was German. State officials may, however, have pushed for a conviction because they needed a fall guy and Hauptman was an ex-con with some marked ransom money and some shady friends. One shady friend of Hauptmann’s was Isidor Fisch, a Jewish German known as a non-violent but capable swindler in the German-speaking community of the Bronx. Fisch returned to Germany in the summer of 1934 -- suggesting that fear of Nazism was not yet endemic -- and after Fisch died of tuberculosis in October of 1934 and Hauptmann got caught holding the marked money, Hauptmann claimed he got the marked ransom money from Fisch for payment of debts. Both Hauptman and Fisch were somewhat shady characters, despite the spirited defense of Hauptmann’s character by Hauptmann’s admirable but misguided wife, Anna, which went on for decades. A recent “Nova” program failed to mention Fisch -- perhaps another plausible suspect in the money matter, though not in the kidnapping. The various sources cannot agree on whether there were one or two kidnappers at the house at Hopewell, but the FBI confirms that no useful fingerprints were found inside the house and that no recovered footprint matched Hauptmann’s shoe size. “Nova” did add one or two elements to a case that may be crumbling, but has not yet collapsed. A man by the name of Sargur N. Srihari has developed a computerized handwriting analysis program. He scanned the Hauptmann handwriting specimens and the Lindbergh ransom note, and found the specimens and the note were not in the same handwriting. Earlier, a British expert whose advice was not part of the testimony had also pointed out “marked differences.” The ladder -- the key to conviction by the 1934 jury - also remains controversial. The wood of the ladder was 1/16th less thick than the boards from Hauptmann’s garage, and no exact match of the grain was possible because of the cut of the board, though a match seemed plausible based on specimens shown on “Nova.” The non-clincher is that DNA can now prove whether the ladder and the garage boards came from the same tree. The state has reportedly refused to release the ladder to be tested. New Jersey has also reportedly refused to pursue DNA tests of the traces of saliva on the ransom note envelopes. What happened? Pure guesswork, consonant with the new evidence, suggests that Fisch, possibly using Hauptmann for muscle, laundered the ransom money after he swapped a smaller amount of dirty street money to the actual kidnappers. Fisch then left much of the money with Hauptmann, who spent it too soon. They were probably accessories after the fact, but probably not the actual kidnappers, or the deliberate or accidental killers of the Lindbergh baby. They deserved jail time, but not the chair. However, when one side needs a martyr and the other side needs a scapegoat, the logical truth tends to evaporate. The Crime of the Century may last for another century unless somebody does the DNA tests. New Jersey is famous, among other things, for the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, which took place 81 years ago. New Jersey is also famous for the allegations that the investigation was bungled and the wrong guy got the chair. Since names like Wilentz and Schwarzkopf figure in the case, the baby’s mother, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was the daughter of Dwight Morrow, and Lindbergh was a familiar figure at Teterboro Airport and is a name-brand American hero, this case will never be closed. But what really happened? On March 1, 1932, Charlie Lindbergh, the aviator’s first baby, vanished from an upstairs bedroom in a mansion near Hopewell. Lindbergh himself seized control of the investigation, though police in New York and New Jersey were also involved. The kidnapper or kidnappers left behind a clumsy-looking but serviceable collapsible ladder with 400 fingerprints that turned out to be useless because investigators handled it too much. Various helpful or exhibitionistic buffoons tripped over one another and the evidence, further complicating matters, starting with the number of tracks they left on the lawn. The legendary Gaston B. Means, who had been both a British and a German spy before America’s entry into World War I and was acquitted of murdering a previous employer because he lost her investments, copped a cool $104,000 from a rich widow on the promise of rescuing the Lindbergh baby alive. Meanwhile, Charles Lindbergh and the Morrow family offered a negotiated ransom of $50,000, down from $70,000 -- paid in old-style U.S. gold certificates soon to be withdrawn from circulation, with the serial numbers recorded. The kidnappers furnished Lindbergh with the baby’s pajamas as evidence by mail on April Fool’s Day 1932, and the marked ransom money changed hands in a cemetery in the Bronx the next day. The baby was not found at the specified location, despite a frantic search. On May 12, a black truck driver who walked into the woods five miles from the Lindbergh home to answer the call of nature found the long-dead baby in the woods. Both of the child’s hands were missing -- gnawed by raccoons or feral dogs -- but the clothing and dental records identified Charlie to his father’s satisfaction. Suspecting an inside job, investigators questioned Violet Sharp, the family’s English housemaid. Sharp committed suicide before her fourth questioning. Charlie being dead, Means finally went to prison for the rest of his somewhat scabrous life. Marked gold certificates from the ransom began to turn up by the fistful in New York City, but nobody could trace them. Then, in September of 1934, a numbered gold certificate from the ransom with an automobile license number written on it turned up and was traced by license number to Bruno Richard Hauptmann, an illegal German immigrant who lived in the Bronx and had quit working about the time the ransom was paid. A police descent on Hauptmann’s house found $13,760 of the money hidden in Hauptmann’s house and garage. Hauptmann, despite a ferocious beating by the New York police -- fairly routine in those days in dealing with Why unsolved crimes stay unsolved Ho-Ho-Kus Jottings Dovlatyan to present talk on jewelry The Ho-Ho-Kus Woman’s Club will meet on March 4 at Saint Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, 70 Sheridan Avenue in Ho-Ho-Kus. At the noon meeting, Aram Dovlatyan of Rockport Jewelers will present a talk on how to give new life to gold and antique jewelry. The meeting is open to the public. For more information about the program, or for details about the club, call (201) 652-2236. Association announces registration The Ho-Ho-Kus/Saddle River Recreational Soccer Association will hold in-person registration for the fall 2013 soccer season on Saturdays, March 9 and 16, from 10 a.m. to noon in the Ho-Ho-Kus Public School multi-purpose room at 70 Lloyd Road. The program is open to Ho-Ho-Kus and Saddle River children who will be entering grades one through 12 in September 2013. Further information and registration forms are available online at www.HHKSRsoccer.com. The association is seeking new board members. The success of the program continues to be dependent upon the active involvement of parent volunteers. No experience is necessary. Anyone interested may inquire at registration or e-mail Jamie Tittensor at jays92@optonline.net. ‘March of the Warrior’ basketball fundraiser set The Ho-Ho-Kus Public School Class of 2013 will host a basketball fundraiser on Thursday, March 7. Two co-ed teams of eighth graders will battle it out at 5:30 p.m. in the school gym. Spectators are invited to a pasta dinner afterwards. The eighth grade class will serve. Tickets are $10. To purchase tickets, or for more information, contact Sue Reynolds at reynolds78@optonline. net. The school is located at 70 Lloyd Road in Ho-Ho-Kus. Foundation announces fundraiser The Ho-Ho-Kus Education Foundation will hold its annual Dinner Dance and Auction on Saturday, April 20 at the Ridgewood Country Club. The event celebrates the 20th year of the organization, which has awarded over $1 million in grants to enhance the educational experience of children at the Ho-Ho-Kus Public School. The foundation is currently seeking donations of auction items. For more information, or to donate an auction item, contact Nan Norbitz Kelly at cnkelly@aol.com. Library holds Winter Story Time Winter Story Time sessions are under way at the WorthPinkham Memorial Library, located at 91 Warren Avenue in Ho-Ho-Kus. This program meets on Tuesdays at 1:30 p.m. and Wednesdays at 11:45 a.m. Registration is not required. The program is recommended for children ages three and up. For more information, call (201) 445-8078. Police accept Reverse 911 updates Ho-Ho-Kus Police Chief John Wanamaker reminds residents who are not currently on the borough’s Reverse 911 list to call the police desk at (201) 652-1700 to have their contact information added. Anyone with a change of information or a new phone number is invited to call. The borough’s Reverse 911 system allows the municipality to relay important information to residents via telephone. While many residents’ home numbers are listed as part of the Reverse 911 system, citizens also have the option of registering their cell phone numbers so they may receive messages when they are away from home.