Sunday 19 August 2012

Lindbergh Baby Murder Hunt

Daily Mirror dated Saturday May 14th 1932
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Since his historic solo flight of the Atlantic in May 1927, Charles A Lindbergh had become a national hero in the USA and a celebrity around the World. In 1929 he married Anne Morrow and their first child, Charles Jr. was born a year later. On March 1st 1932 Charles Jr. was kidnapped from the Lindbergh home in New Jersey. Ransom notes followed and money paid, but the child was not returned. Then on May 12th the child’s body was found just a few miles from the house. The Police, the FBI and even Lindbergh-hired Private Detectives were now hunting for one or more murderers, but it wasn’t until September 1934 that a German illegal immigrant and petty criminal, Bruno Hauptmann, was arrested and charged with the killing. His trial was a media circus that ended with a guilty verdict. Hauptmann was executed in 1936.
The case resulted in the Lindbergh Law which made kidnapping a Federal offence which gave the FBI automatic jurisdiction.

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The Dartmoor Prison Mutiny had occurred on January 24 1932, but had been quickly suppressed by police reinforcements from Plymouth. 32, of the 150 convicts involved, were tried for their part in the disturbances.
Amazon.com have a jigsaw depicting an aerial photo of the prison admin block on fire during the Mutiny!

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Russian born Paul Gouguloff assassinated M. Doumer, the President of the French Republic and admitted at his trail that he had wanted to kill the President of Germany, Paul Von Hindenberg and Russian Soviet leader Lenin as well.

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The fledgling BBC (then the British Broadcasting Company rather than Corporation) opened studios at Savoy Hill in the Strand, London, in the headquarters of the Institute of Electrical Engineers in May 1923. It broadcast from there until it moved to the purpose-built Broadcasting House in Portland Place in May 1932.

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Lou Reichers' trans-Atlantic flight failed when he ditched about 50 miles off the west coast of Ireland. When the crew of the American liner ‘President Roosevelt’ picked him up from the rough sea he had a broken nose, cuts and bruises. Despite his Germanic sounding name, he was an American and flew for the USAAF during WWII and died in 1962.

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That’s the spirit that made Britain what it was. Aviation pioneers but lousy at making undercarriages.

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The third largest of the cat family, Jaguars, have been around since the Pleistocene epoch (a heck of a long time ago) and will be around for a while yet, despite this later-day Robin Hood trying to wipe them out.

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Untypically for the Mirror in the 1930's this is a confusing and badly written item. I have found a much clearer account online in the Singapore Strait Times, which explains that Mr Baldock and Mr Philpott conspired with jeweller’s shop manager Mr Tom to stage a robbery outside the shop. Baldcock and Philpott would snatch an empty bag supposedly holding gems worth £12300 and Tom would then claim the ‘loss’ on insurance. The 2 ‘robbers’ got 3 years a piece and Mr Tom was tried in 1933 for attempted insurance fraud.

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Modern greyhound racing with an artificial hare was introduced to the UK in 1926 and became very popular with the public, reaching its peak attendances just after World War II.

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I blame the passing of the Locomotives on the Highway Act of 1896, which raised the speed limit from 4 mph to 14 mph and abolished the requirement for these vehicles to be preceded by a man on foot.

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Wet weather on a Bank Holiday weekend? Whatever next?

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