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Bruno Richard Hauptmann was a German-born carpenter who was convicted of the abduction and murder of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., the 20-month-old son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The Lindbergh kidnapping became known as "The Crime of the Century". Both Hauptmann and his wife, Anna Hauptmann, proclaimed his innocence to his death, when he was executed in 1936 by electric chair at the Trenton State Prison. Anna later sued the State of New Jersey, various former police officers, the Hearst newspapers that had published pre-trial articles insisting on Hauptmann's guilt, and former prosecutor David T. Wilentz.
On March 1, 1932, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of colonel Charles Lindbergh and his wife, aviator and author Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was murdered after being 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.
Kate Barker, better known as Ma Barker, was the mother of several American criminals who ran the Barker–Karpis Gang during the "public enemy era" when the exploits of gangs of criminals in the Midwestern United States gripped the American people and press. She traveled with her sons during their criminal careers.
Alvin Francis Karpis, was a Canadian–American criminal of Lithuanian descent known for being a leader of the Barker–Karpis gang in the 1930s. Nicknamed "Creepy" for his sinister smile and called "Ray" by his gang members, Karpis led the gang along with Fred Barker and Arthur "Doc" Barker. There were only four "public enemies" ever given the title of "Public Enemy #1" by the FBI and he was the only one to be taken alive. The other three, John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Baby Face Nelson, were all killed before being captured. He also spent the longest time as a federal prisoner at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, serving twenty-six years.
George Kelly Barnes, better known by his nickname "Machine Gun Kelly", was an American gangster from Memphis, Tennessee, active during the Prohibition era. His nickname came from his favorite weapon, a Thompson submachine gun. He is best known for the kidnapping of oil tycoon and businessman Charles F. Urschel in July 1933, from which he and his gang collected a $200,000 ransom. Urschel had collected and left considerable evidence that assisted the subsequent FBI investigation, which eventually led to Kelly's arrest in Memphis on September 26, 1933. His crimes also included bootlegging and armed robbery.
Following the historic Lindbergh kidnapping, the United States Congress passed a federal kidnapping statute—known as the Federal Kidnapping Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1) —which was intended to let federal authorities step in and pursue kidnappers once they had crossed state lines with their victim. The act was first proposed in December 1931 by Missouri Senator Roscoe Conkling Patterson, who pointed to several recent kidnappings in the Missouri area in calling for a federal solution. Initial resistance to Patterson's proposal was based on concerns over funding and state's rights. Consideration of the law was revived following the kidnapping of Howard Woolverton in late January 1932. Woolverton's kidnapping featured prominently in several newspaper series researched and prepared in the weeks following his abduction, and were quite possibly inspired by it. Two such projects, by Bruce Catton of the Newspaper Enterprise Association and Fred Pasley of the Daily News of New York City, were ready for publication within a day or two of the Lindbergh kidnapping. Both series, which ran in papers across North America, described kidnapping as an existential threat to American life, a singular, growing crime wave in which no one was safe.
Roger Touhy was an Irish American mob boss and prohibition-era Chicago bootlegger. He is best remembered for having been framed by his rivals in Chicago organized crime for the fake 1933 kidnapping of Jewish-American organized crime figure and Chicago Outfit associate John "Jake the Barber" Factor, a brother of cosmetics manufacturer Max Factor Sr.
The kidnapping of nine-year-old George Weyerhaeuser occurred in 1935 in Tacoma, Washington, United States. The son of prominent lumberman J. P. Weyerhaeuser, George was successfully released for ransom and eventually succeeded his father as the chairman of the Weyerhaeuser company. The four participants in the kidnapping were apprehended and sentenced to prison terms totaling 135 years.
Morris Lynn Johnson is a Kentucky-born criminal, whose crimes include armed robbery, escape and rescue, bank robbery, and assaulting a police officer. He was briefly listed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list in 1976.
Edna "Rabbit" Murray (1898–1966) was an American criminal associated with several high-profile gangs in the Depression-era of the early 1930s. Although popularly known to the press as the "Kissing Bandit" for kissing a male robbery victim, she was known in the underworld as "Rabbit" for her skills in breaking out of the penitentiary.
Ruth Eisemann-Schier is a Honduran criminal who was the first woman to appear on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.
John Henry Seadlund was a 27-year-old woodsman, executed by the United States federal government in Illinois for kidnapping. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover called him "the nation’s cruelest criminal" and the "most cold-blooded, ruthless and atrocious killer" he'd ever encountered.
Basil Hugh "The Owl" Banghart Jr. was an American criminal, burglar, and prison escape artist. Although a successful "stickup artist" during the 1920s and early 1930s, he is best remembered for his involvement in the hoax kidnapping of Chicago mobster Jake "the Barber" Factor, a crime for which Roger Touhy and he were eventually proven innocent after nearly 20 years in prison.
Herbert Allen Farmer, was an American criminal who, with his wife Esther, operated a safe house for underworld fugitives from the mid-1920s to 1933.
Charles Frederick Urschel was an American oil business tycoon and kidnap victim of George "Machine Gun" Kelly.
The kidnapping of Edward Bremer was the last major criminal enterprise of the Barker-Karpis gang. Though successful in netting the gang a large ransom, it brought down the full force of the FBI on the gang, resulting in the death or capture of its main members in the months afterwards. The kidnapping was ordered by St. Paul Jewish-American organized crime boss Harry Sawyer, and carried out by Fred Barker, Alvin Karpis, Arthur Barker, Volney Davis and Chicago Outfit mobster George Ziegler.
The Barker–Karpis Gang was one of the longest-lived criminal gangs during the Depression Era, spanning from 1931 to 1935. The gang was founded by Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis, and later joined by Fred's brother Arthur "Doc" Barker. Along with the three core members, the gang's network spanned up to 25 members at one point.
Charles A. Appel, Jr., known as the founder of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Laboratory, was an FBI Special Agent from 1924 through 1948. Assigned in 1929 by then-Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover to coordinate outside experts for forensic examinations, Appel became the Bureau’s one-man forensic laboratory in 1931. In November 1932, the FBI’s Technical Laboratory was formally established. In August 1933, he began processing evidence and testifying on handwriting, typewriting, fingerprints, ballistics, and chemicals submitted by U.S. police agencies. Appel was joined in late 1933 by Special Agent Samuel F. Pickering, a chemist, and in 1934, by Special Agents Ivan W. Conrad and Donald J. Parsons, also scientists. In September 1934, the FBI Laboratory came to widespread attention due to Appel’s identification of Bruno Hauptmann as the kidnapper of Charles Lindbergh Jr., from hand-written ransom demand notes.
The kidnapping of Howard Woolverton, which began in South Bend, Indiana, the evening of January 26, 1932, and concluded when Woolverton returned to his home unharmed about 24 hours later, received extensive contemporary newspaper coverage, impacted the way the press covered kidnapping in the following weeks, and played a leading role in passage of the Federal Kidnapping Act later that year.
Edward Doll was an American gangster from Chicago, Illinois, active during the Prohibition era. Although he is remembered as a lesser figure in Prohibition crime, Doll was featured by name in two 1930s radio dramatizations, was mentioned in books and articles by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and played a leading role in several historic crimes, including the kidnapping of Howard Woolverton and the Lincoln National Bank robbery.
References
- 1 2 "Mrs. Stoll Is Found Alive. Insane Kidnapper Named. His Wife Got The Ransom. Arranged Own Release But Federal Men Halt Car And Arrest The Wife Of Her Captor". New York Times . October 17, 1934. Retrieved April 20, 2008.
Kidnapper Being Sought He Is T. H. Robinson Jr. Of Nashville -- His Father Is Being Questioned. Victim Near Collapse 'Brutally Treated' During Six Days In Indianapolis Flat -Only $500 Recovered. Mrs. Stoll Home. Captor Identified Accused Kidnapper Of Mrs. Stoll. Louisville. Mrs. Berry V. Stoll, bruised and weak, returned to her own home tonight after six days in the hands of kidnappers.
- 1 2 "Absent Transvestite". Time. October 21, 1935. Archived from the original on December 22, 2011. Retrieved April 20, 2008.
In the Federal district court at Louisville a kidnapping trial began without the actual snatcher. ...
- ↑ Hunt, Brian (October 24, 2016). "A Stolen Stoll: Louisville's Crime of the Century". Louisville Magazine. Retrieved July 8, 2018.
- ↑ "MRS. STOLL TELLS JURY OF ABDUCTION; At Louisville Trial of Wife and Father of Robinson, She Reveals His Blows With Pipe". The New York Times . October 8, 1935. Retrieved July 8, 2018.
- ↑ "G-Men Capture Final Fugitive". Prescott Evening Courier. May 12, 1936. p. A1.
- ↑ Strain, George L. (1998). "Stolnap". Society of Former Agents of the FBI. Turner Publishing. pp. 83–84. ISBN 9781563114731.
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