Josh Gates Digs Into the Tragic Lindbergh Kidnapping

on an icy stormy evening an intruder slips through the window of Charlie Jr’s second floor nursery and just like that the boy is gone when Charles and an Lindberg discover their son is missing they’re terrified they call the New Jersey State Police when detectives arrive they find an envelope with a ransom note inside the kidnapper wants $50,000 for the safe return of Charlie Jr they also find Muddy Footprints but there’s no blood and no fingerprints investigators also discover a ladder with a broken rung suggesting the kidnapper snapped it while climbing up or down when the press catches wind of the kidnapping it sets off an international Firestorm not a single bet is overlooked in the search for the most famous baby in the world because Charles Lindberg is a living legend in 1927 Lindberg becomes the first Aviator to fly non-stop from New York to Paris across the Atlantic

Ocean after he lands he becomes the most famous man on the planet and with so much Fame comes incredible Fortune Lindy becomes one of the wealthiest celebrities in the world making the Lindberg family a Target stealing Charles lindberg’s son is an audacious crime and police have little to go on they launch a nationwide manhunt to locate the kidnapper and return Charlie Jr home safely desperate to get his son back wealthy Lindberg agrees to pay the $50,000 ransom for Junior’s release but to catch the kidnapper the FBI marks the serial numbers on the money used for the ransom payment the Trap is set if so much as a single bill is deposited in a bank investigators will be able to trace it back to Charlie’s kidnapper the kidnapper receives the ransom and reveals that the boy is at woodlon Cemetery at Whitmore and Fremont but when investigators arri

there is no sign of the boy Charles and Anne are devastated it’s a shocking setback but detectives begin to wonder is there more to this case than meets the eye months later the kidnapping case takes a horrifying turn Just 4 miles from the Flyers estate Charlie Jr is found dead in the forest and when detectives look closely at the boy’s body there is little trace of blood and Charlie has a hole in his skull even more alarming several vital organs are missing investigators want to know how did Charlie Jr suffer such ghastly injuries what they uncover will outrage the nation but a fresh analysis of the autopsy report almost a century later has inspired a controversial new Theory that suggests an even more twisted and maab motive for the young boy’s death if accurate the identity of the suspected killer is almost [Music] Unthinkable months after The

Disappearance of Charles lindberg’s young son he turns up dead just miles from the Family Estate and the condition of the boy’s body is disturbing there’s a hole in his skull which is also crushed there is little sign of blood and in a bizarre twist some of his organs appear to be missing looking at all the evidence detectives believe the kidnapper dropped Charlie while descending from the nursery when their wooden ladder broke creating the hole in Junior’s skull police suspect that within minutes the child dies from the massive impact and the abductor abandons Charlie’s body in the forest they suspect the to toler’s internal injuries are caused by wild [Music] animals when the Press gets a hold of the story outrage spreads from coast to coast the son of America’s greatest living hero dies in a Grizzly brutal murder and police still can’t find Charlie’s killer it isn’t until 2 years later that

some of the FBI’s marked bills from The Ransom are spent at a gas station in New York City agents trace the money back to the man who buys the fuel German Carpenter Bruno Richard Hopman you are under arrest looking into hopman’s background detectives are surprised they see no connection between Bruno and the Lindberg family however when they search hopman’s old junkyard Shack they find over $114,000 in marked r some bills Bruno is arrested for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindberg Jr but Hopman asserts he’s innocent around the world newspapers hail hopman’s case the trial of the century he wanted that money so he could and he did live a life of luxury and Le so he wouldn’t have to work he’s quit his job the day he collected the $50,000 the very day during his trial Bruno’s attorney claims the case against Hopman is

weak Bruno testifies the money found in his garage belongs to a deceased business partner Bruno’s wife Anna testifies that hofman was with her the night of the kidnapping and Bruno’s attorney reminds the court that none of hofman’s fingerprints are ever found on the ladder The Ransom note or inside the Lindberg Nursery but to the jury The Marked Ransom bills are compelling evidence Bruno Richard Hopman is found guilty of murder and on April 3rd 1936 he dies in the electric chair America is relieved justice has finally been served for the terrible murder of Charles lindberg’s poor baby son but many begin to wonder did authorities execute the wrong man in the Years following Charlie’s death biographers discover Lindberg was obsessed with his son’s physical appearance authors contend when Charlie is born in 1930 his Aviator father is unhappy with Junior’s large head and deformed toes on his right foot symptoms

of the condition known as rickets some allege that Lindberg America’s rugged handsome hero fears his own son looks like a weakling Charles Lindberg is also a believer in Eugenics a now discredited science based on the theory that one could use selective breeding to rid the world of genetically inferior humans and Lindberg was known to have a close relationship with the nefarious Godfather of eugenics Alexis Carell this leads a group of academics to come up with a new theory for Charlie’s Disappearance in 2020 forensic pathologist Dr Peter speth conducts new analysis on the forensic evidence from the murder and what he finds is disturbing when I looked at the autopsy report there was something that caught my attention the body when it was found was in a state of advanced Decay and the organs were gone but what struck me was the face the forehead was so well

preserved and the skin on the right foot was white and yet the legs were skeletonized how did that happen how was it possible to preserve the face and the right foot it suggests chemicals so I began to research what do taxidermists use to preserve the hide they use what is called tanic acid or tannin now I became interested in who had knowledge of tanic acid and I hit Pay Dirt Alexis Carell as we know Alexis Carell is the Godfather of the Sinister theory of eugenics who Lindberg counted as a close friend Dr speth speculates that this evidence points to a harrowing possibility I believe that Charles Lindberg and Alexis Carol carried out surgical procedures to solve some of these many problems that Chas Junior had because he’s abnormal and then failed so they personally were involved in the killing of that child many find this Theory too shocking to believe

however there’s compelling evidence supporting Dr spe’s claims why then preserve the face and the right foot well if the body’s in advanced Decay how are you going to identify the baby and what are the two identifying features one The prominent forehead and secondly the overlapping toes on the right foot Dr speth further speculates that Lindberg was certain that he wanted the body of Charles Jr recovered so that no one would come out later in life claiming they were the Lost boy there’s no doubt this is a highly controversial allegation but there’s one more detail that may fuel this Theory even more Charles Lindberg was leading the investigation and telling the state police what they could or could not do he had the baby cremated and put out an order that none of the evidence would ever undergo further scientific investigations to this day the governors

the Attorney General State Police have been upholding that Charles Lindberg was a larger than life icon who changed the world forever but he was also a very complex figure living a life of contradictions will we ever know what really happened that stormy night in [Music] 1932 most Lindberg authors Scholars and historians dismiss this unsettling Theory as too lurid to believe my own take is that the evidence to support it is highly circumstantial what cannot be doubted though is the true tragedy here the senseless death of an innocent [Music] child for