Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr.
Kidnap victim
Died when: 1 years 254 days (20 months)Star Sign: Cancer
On March 1, 1932, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. (born June 22, 1930), the 20-month-old son of aviators Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was abducted from his crib in the upper floor of the Lindberghs' home, Highfields, in East Amwell, New Jersey, United States.
On May 12, the child's corpse was discovered by a truck driver by the side of a nearby road.In September 1934, a German immigrant carpenter named Bruno Richard Hauptmann was arrested for the crime.
After a trial that lasted from January 2 to February 13, 1935, he was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.
Despite his conviction, he continued to profess his innocence, but all appeals failed and he was executed in the electric chair at the New Jersey State Prison on April 3, 1936.
Newspaper writer H.L.Mencken called the kidnapping and trial "the biggest story since the Resurrection".Legal scholars have referred to the trial as one of the "trials of the century".
The crime spurred Congress to pass the Federal Kidnapping Act, commonly called the "Little Lindbergh Law", which made transporting a kidnapping victim across state lines a federal crime.