He was the first American pilot to fly the distance between New York and Paris in May 1927, flying almost 6,000 km solo over the North Atlantic Ocean. The name of the American pilot is Charles Lindbergh. It was the idol of Americans in the late 20s of the last century. Before him, only British pilots A. Brown and D. Alcock, who together flew from the northeast coast of the United States to the coast of Ireland in 1919, dared to make such long-distance flights.
Childhood and youth of the future pilot
So who is Charles Lindbergh? The biography of the future American pilot begins in Detroit, when on February 4, 1902, an heir was born in the family of an emigrant from Sweden. Charles's father was a staunch pacifist and categorically defended the non-participation of Americans in World War I in the United States Congress. Since childhood, C. Lindberg was interested in various techniques. The subject of his hobbies were his father's car and an oldmotorcycle.
Staying with his mother after the divorce of his parents, in search of a better life he had to travel around the US states for a long time, changing several educational institutions. In 1920, at the insistence of his mother, a young man entered the University of Wisconsin at the Faculty of Mechanics. However, the desire to fly was stronger, and in 1922, leaving training in Madison, Charles enrolled in the Nebraska flight school, which he graduated in 1925.
The kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr
Year 1932, March 1st. America is tormented by the Great Depression. New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt is preparing for the presidential election, in Germany Adolf Hitler opposes Paul von Hindenburg, Japan is invading China, in Manhattan a new "wonder of the world" - Rockefeller Center.
And on the other side of the Hudson, the world's most famous aviator, Charles Lindbergh, works in the library of his home near the town of Hopville, New Jersey, USA. On the second floor of a sumptuous mansion, his twenty-month-old baby, Charles Lindbergh Jr., affectionately called Tiny by his parents, is lying down with a cold. Outside the wind and rain. There is a crack, which C. Lindberg takes for lightning. It doesn't check anything.
Shortly after 10pm, Betty Gau, an English nanny, asks Lindbergh's wife, "Do you have a baby?" The mother gives a negative answer and goes to the baby's room. The maid runs to Colonel C. Lindbergh, shouting: “Baby is gone!” In the children's room, Charles finds an empty cradle. Windowopen, the shutters are broken, there is dirt everywhere on the floor, and there is a note on the radiator. It became clear that the child was stolen.
The demands of the kidnappers
Illiterately written anonymous letter contains a demand of $50,000. At the bottom of the handwritten text is the sign of the kidnapper - two circles plus a third at their intersection. The spelling of some words indicated that the language of the possible child abductor belongs to the Germanic family.
Soon the police appear in the mansion, followed by reporters. A roughly knocked together staircase is found near the house, and two prints are found on the ground under the window. The top step of the stairs is broken, and Charles Lindbergh recalls a sharp sound he heard around 10 p.m. Until the end of his life, he will regret that he did not react to this crack in time. The next day, all of America, opening the morning papers, was shocked.
A few years ago
Charles Lindbergh (photo above) was the country's greatest hero. Five years earlier, this twenty-five-year-old pilot was the first to fly non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean. Without a radio, and without even a sextant, he took off in a small Spirit of Saint Louis plane from Long Island, New York. After 33 hours, Charles Lindbergh was greeted by an enthusiastic Paris, where the hero received a $25,000 prize. He returned to the United States in triumph. New York rejoiced. Awarded with all honors and the owner of a decent financial condition, Charles becomes a symbol of the courage and courage of a real American.
For the transatlantic flight, the young pilot was awarded a high award - the Distinguished Flying Cross, which Charles was awarded the very first. He was also awarded the FAI Aviation Gold Medal by the International Federation of Aeronautics.
However, C. Lindberg carried his fame with submissive modesty. He received several lucrative positions in the aviation industry. And two years after the flight, he married the daughter of Dwight Morrow, the US ambassador to Mexico, one of the richest people in America. A little over a year later, the youngest Charles Lindbergh was born - a son.
The country sympathizes with its hero
Now the "lone eagle", as America called its idol, did not find a place for itself, and the whole country sympathized with him and his family. Soon an unprecedented search operation began. US President Herbert Clark Hoover promises that America will turn heaven and earth to find the criminal. Even Public Enemy 1 Al Capone offered to help find the child if he was released from prison. He posted a $10,000 reward. The head of the US FBI, Edgar Hoover, also offered help. But the New Jersey police wanted to conduct search activities on their own. Refused help and Charles Lindbergh Sr. As a result, the prints on the stairs and near the house were never checked against the FBI file.
Everyone is suspect
On posters hung in all major cities of America, the child was described as a blond, curly and blue-eyed baby with a cleft chin. Suspicion fell on the entire staff of the mansionthe Lindbergh family. There was a version that someone told the criminals that Charles Jr. was in Hopville because of a cold, since earlier the family was going to stay with Mrs. Lindbergh's parents near New York. Wyled Shark, an English maid, said she was in a movie theater at the time of the abduction. Then she began to change her testimony, claiming that she was dating her friend. Called in for further interrogation, she committed suicide. All residents of the town and its environs were interviewed.
The baby's parents, Anna Spencer Morrow and Charles Lindbergh, couldn't find their place either. The kidnapping of a child killed a young couple. Charles was willing to pay any ransom to get his son back. To show the seriousness of his intentions, he hired two notorious gangsters.
Appeal of the Lindbergh family to the kidnappers
The local radio announcer announced: “Urgent message from the Lindbergh house. If the kidnappers of our child do not want to speak directly, then we hire Salmos Vitali and Irving Fritz as intermediaries. We will also accept any other form of communication that the kidnappers suggest. Signatures: Charles Lindbergh and Anna Spencer Morrow.”
Charles promised that when handing over the ransom, he would not try to harm the kidnappers in any way. This caused public objections. It was said that C. Lindbergh had no right to guarantee immunity to criminals.
A new turn of events
Soon came two more letters with mysterious rings. In one there were reproaches for involving the police, and in the other a notice that the boy was alive and well. However, chosen by Charlesmediators were rejected. Instead, anonymously appointed a little-known retired scientist - Dr. John Francis Condon, a neighbor of the Lindberghs. An incurable newspaper writer, Dr. Condon agreed to this and offered his correspondent services to describe further events in The Hill News, a periodical printed publication of the New York area of the Bronx. Lindbergh Charles also agreed to this: the kidnapping of his son drove him crazy. Following the instructions of the police, he placed an advertisement in the newspaper that the required amount had been collected. The meeting was scheduled at Westland Cemetery in the Bronx.
Meet the extortionist
The masked man said in a guttural voice that his name was John. He said the child was safe and that there were six people in the gang. Suddenly, John asked, “Will I be executed if the child dies? Am I going to be executed if I didn't kill him? After some negotiations with the perpetrator, Dr. Condon demanded certain guarantees that the child was indeed alive.
When the gangsters sent the rompers, in which the baby was on the day of the abduction, C. Lindberg prepared to hand over the required ransom. The New Jersey State Treasury issued the required amount in gold certificates that could be traced back easily. This time, Charles went with Dr. John Condon to another cemetery in the Bronx.
After hearing a stranger shout, Charles passed the required amount of $ 50,000 through the grave fence and learned that his child was in a boat off the coast of Massachusetts.
False trail and unexpectedfind
The next morning, Charles Lindbergh took off in a seaplane in search of his son. Escort destroyers and the US Coast Guard searched every cove, every corner of the coast, but, unfortunately, found nothing there. Charles Lindbergh finally realized: his son was killed, and he became a victim of deception.
Six weeks later, two drivers found the boy's body in the woods, seven kilometers from the Lindberg family's home. This forest was already combed by the police. The decomposed corpse lay face down, covered with leaves. At the morgue, Betty Gau's nanny identified the deceased as baby Charles. When it was the father's turn to identify the corpse, he cut off the curls from the child's head as a keepsake. An autopsy showed that Charlie Jr. died a few hours after the kidnapping, that is, 73 days ago.
The only clue to find the criminals were the very special banknotes that began to appear in the country. By the end of the year, 27 banknotes had been identified in New York, but only two years later the long-awaited trace was reached.
Bronx Carpenter
On September 16, 1934, a New York Eastside gas station manager memorized the license plates of one car: the driver paid with a $10 gold certificate.
The owner of the car turned out to be a 34-year-old German carpenter from the Bronx, his name was Bruno Richard Hauptmann. The kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr. caused a huge outcry in the country. Crowds of onlookers gathered to look at the house of a man with a guttural German accent, who also had other ransom notes in his pocket.
The next day the policefound another $11,930 in the garage, in tins under rags, and $1,830 wrapped in newspaper.
Murder investigation
Investigations have begun. When a forensic examination of the handwriting was carried out, it was found that the ransom demand was written by Bruno Hauptmann. This was a weighty evidence base for the involvement of a German carpenter in the murder of a child. During the investigation, Bruno Hauptmann denied everything and claimed that the money found in his garage was left to him by his business partner Ididor Fish, and since Fish died in Germany and owed the German, he left the money to himself. Bruno Hauptmann denied any connection to the kidnapping.
Trial and execution
He was solemnly presented to the press, and the commissioner of the New York Police Department declared the crime solved. The Attorney General believed that there was no doubt left about Bruno Hauptmann. Many indisputable facts testified against the German carpenter. A special argument in court was his criminal record and illegal attempts to enter the United States, as well as a number of illegal trade transactions. Bruno Richard Hauptmann was executed in a New York prison on April 3, 1936. Until the very hour of his death, he did not recognize himself as the kidnapper and murderer of the child.
Moving to Europe
After the execution of the sentence, photographers and reporters continued to annoy the pilot's family. At the invitation of the Lindberg aviation company, Charles Sr. and his family moved to Europe, where he mastered well and even supported the policies of the Nazi Party inGermany. In 1938, Hermann Goering awards an American pilot the Order of the German Eagle, the first among the orders of the Third Reich, designed to encourage foreign citizens. By the beginning of World War II, Charles Lindbergh became a technical expert and test pilot for an aircraft manufacturer.
US Air Force Service
In the spring of 1944, at the invitation of the American military department, Ch. Lindberg returned to the United States, where he taught American pilots the art of war.
In 1953, his book "The Spirit of St. Louis" was published, in which the author describes in detail all the nuances of his transatlantic flight. Soon, the memories of the American pilot receive appreciation. His book won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Literature.
In 1954, on the nomination of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Charles Lindbergh received the military rank of brigadier general in the United States Air Force. Since the late 60s, Charles Lindbergh has been actively involved in social work, advocating a campaign to protect blue and humpback whales in the oceans.
Charles Augustus Lindberg died on August 26, 1974 on the island of Maui (Hawaii) from cancer.
