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Speaker 1: All right, How could a world famous individual at his

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Speaker 1: country estate with his wife's servants and guard dog not

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Speaker 1: hear somebody enter his home and kidnap his one year

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Speaker 1: old son. The Lindburg baby kidnapping was the biggest story

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Speaker 1: of nineteen thirty two. But Lindbergh was a flawed hero

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Speaker 1: who also believed in Aryan superiority. In an effort to

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Speaker 1: add to the tall, blonde, blue eyed population, he had

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Speaker 1: thirteen children of four women. I'm Patty Steele. Ninety years

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Speaker 1: after the kidnapping, there are suspicions about what really happened.

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Speaker 1: That's next on the backstory. The backstory is back, so okay.

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Speaker 1: Imagine it's nineteen thirty two, America in the grips of

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Speaker 1: the Great Depression, and everybody's looking for something to feel

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Speaker 1: good about. In the midst of this economic turmoil, one

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Speaker 1: man has captured the hearts and imaginations of not just Americans,

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Speaker 1: but folks all over the world. In nineteen twenty seven,

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Speaker 1: just five years old earlier, Charles Lindberg had become the

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Speaker 1: first person to fly solo NonStop across the Atlantic Ocean

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Speaker 1: at the age of just twenty five. He was an

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Speaker 1: icon for Americans to hold on to in dark times,

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Speaker 1: a symbol of hope and of the possibilities that America offered.

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Speaker 1: Probably the most famous man in the world at that time,

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Speaker 1: Charles married Anne Morrow, the daughter of a US senator

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Speaker 1: and ambassador, in nineteen twenty nine. She went on to

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Speaker 1: become his co pilot and radio operator on a lot

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Speaker 1: of his experimental flights, and she was the first woman

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Speaker 1: to get a US gliders pilot's license. Charles and Anne

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Speaker 1: were the Prince Harry and Megan Markle of their time,

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Speaker 1: without any of the negatives, if you think there are any,

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Speaker 1: but it was a life in an intense spotlight. In

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Speaker 1: June of nineteen thirty on her twenty fourth birthday, Anne

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Speaker 1: gave birth to their first child, Charles Lindberg Junior. So

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Speaker 1: they built a beautiful mansion on close to four hundred

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Speaker 1: acres called high Fields, in the countryside of western New Jersey,

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Speaker 1: thinking the remote location would be an escape from the

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Speaker 1: constant attention they got from the press and the public.

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Speaker 1: But it wasn't as idyllic as they hoped. Sometime before

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Speaker 1: ten o'clock on the night of March first, nineteen thirty two,

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Speaker 1: it became a horror story. The couple is sitting downstairs

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Speaker 1: by the fire when Charles says he hears a noise

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Speaker 1: a thud. Anne says she heard nothing, and the dog,

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Speaker 1: known to bark at strangers doesn't make a sound. Could

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Speaker 1: an insider have been involved? A bit later, Anne goes

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Speaker 1: upstairs to take a bath. Around ten pm, the baby's

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Speaker 1: nanny goes in to check on him and finds an

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Speaker 1: empty crib. One year old Charles Junior is gone. Immediately,

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Speaker 1: Charles Senior grabs a gun, and he and the family

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Speaker 1: butler search the house and the estate grounds. In the

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Speaker 1: baby's room, they find traces of mud near an open window,

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Speaker 1: as well as a ran note demanding fifty thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: written in broken English. Outside, there are footprints in the mud,

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Speaker 1: as well as a crudely built ladder and baby charles blanket.

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Speaker 1: The police are called in and the investigation begins. The

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Speaker 1: Lindberghs were literally compared to royalty at that time, and

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Speaker 1: the public ghost nuts. Hundreds of people immediately converged on

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Speaker 1: the estate to support the couple, but they also destroyed

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Speaker 1: valuable footprint evidence. Three days later, another ransom note arrives,

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Speaker 1: upping the demand to seventy thousand dollars. Over the next months,

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Speaker 1: more ransom notes arrive in the same handwriting, bringing the

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Speaker 1: total to thirteen notes, but no baby. Charles Lindbergh himself

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Speaker 1: runs most of the investigation, to the dismay of the

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Speaker 1: local police. He even drives a friend acting as an

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Speaker 1: intermediary to a meeting in New York City with the

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Speaker 1: alleged kidnapper at a cemetery. The baby isn't returned, but

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Speaker 1: Lindbergh claims the voice he heard while sitting in the

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Speaker 1: car during that meeting was the voice of the man

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Speaker 1: ultimately arrested in a case over two years later, Bruno Hautmann.

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Speaker 1: On May twelfth, the baby's badly decomposed body was finally

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Speaker 1: discovered in the woods, about four miles from the family estate.

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Speaker 1: He likely died the night he was kidnapped from massive

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Speaker 1: skull fractures, maybe by being dropped as he was taken

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Speaker 1: down the ladder they found the next day. The FBI

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Speaker 1: is empowered to coordinate the investigation. Finally, almost two and

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Speaker 1: a half years after the kidnapping, German immigrant Bruno Hautmann

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Speaker 1: is arrested for the murder. After he passed some of

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Speaker 1: the marked bills used for the ransom. More bills were

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Speaker 1: found in the garage at his house, and a piece

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Speaker 1: of wood taken from his attic is identified as the

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Speaker 1: same wood that had been used to build the ladder

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Speaker 1: used in the kidnapping. But it wasn't quite that simple.

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Speaker 1: While the case against Hautman was based only on circumstantial evidence,

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Speaker 1: including the money, handwriting, his German heritage, the piece of wood,

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Speaker 1: and Charles Senior's identification of his voice, Hautman was found

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Speaker 1: guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to death in

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Speaker 1: the electric chair. Even the governor of New Jersey said

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Speaker 1: Haltmann could not have possibly acted alone, but his appeals failed.

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Speaker 1: Hautman maintained his innocence to the end, and his wife, Anna,

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Speaker 1: fought to clear her husband's name even after his electrocution,

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Speaker 1: stating she'd been with him the night of the kidnapping.

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Speaker 1: She even tried to sue the state of New Jersey

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Speaker 1: for wrongful death. Her battle to clear him continued until

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Speaker 1: her death in nineteen ninety four at the age of

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Speaker 1: ninety five. So what's the latest on the investigation. Well,

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Speaker 1: for one, there's evidence that police strong armed people into

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Speaker 1: testifying against Hautmann and also hid evidence in the case.

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Speaker 1: It certainly seems he had some involvement, and authorities wanted

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Speaker 1: the culprit caught, tried, convicted, and executed as quickly as

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Speaker 1: possible to calm public fears, especially because it involved a

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Speaker 1: national hero. But at what cost. Several historians recently have

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Speaker 1: pointed to the possible involvement of Charles Lindberg himself in

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Speaker 1: the kidnapping and ultimate death of his son. Lindbergh was

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Speaker 1: known to be fascinated with social Darwinism or eugenics. He

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Speaker 1: and his wife became close with Adolf Hitler in the

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Speaker 1: lead up to World War Two. Charles really damaged his

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Speaker 1: reputation by pushing the US to stay out of the war,

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Speaker 1: though after the bombing of Pearl Harbor he relented. He

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Speaker 1: was a believer, like Hitler that people that were tall,

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Speaker 1: blonde and blue eyed Aryan types like him should be

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Speaker 1: the ones procreating problem is there's evidence that some health

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Speaker 1: problems plagued his baby son, Charles Junior, making him far

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Speaker 1: from perfect. Could that have motivated something so vile that's

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Speaker 1: kind of hard to imagine. Years later, it came out

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Speaker 1: that Lindbergh in an effort to add to the Aryan population,

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Speaker 1: had affairs with three German women, producing a total of

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Speaker 1: seven more babies in addition to the six he had

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Speaker 1: with his wife, Anne Morrow. He managed to keep those

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Speaker 1: baby mamas from going public, and in fact none of

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Speaker 1: this came out until after two thousand and one, when

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Speaker 1: Anne Morrow had died, And while three of Lindbergh's children

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Speaker 1: from those affairs have stepped forward, none of them have

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Speaker 1: ever tried to get any money from the linn Burgh estate.

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Speaker 1: At the end of the day, Charles Lindbergh, like a

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Speaker 1: lot of our heroes and a lot of us regular folks,

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Speaker 1: had some amazing capabilities, but some serious flaws as well.

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Speaker 1: Understanding both sides of this complex story is how we

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Speaker 1: learned from history. If today's episode of The Backstory has

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Speaker 1: sparked your curiosity, or if you have any other stories

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Speaker 1: to share, please reach out and please subscribe direct message,

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Speaker 1: leave a review, and follow on Facebook at Patty Steele

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Speaker 1: and at Real Patty Steel on Instagram. I'm Patty Steele.

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Speaker 1: The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis

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Speaker 1: Durand Group and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug

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Speaker 1: Fraser our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every

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Speaker 1: Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me

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Speaker 1: with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at real

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Speaker 1: Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for

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Speaker 1: listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces of

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Speaker 1: history you didn't know you needed to know.