The Cases That Haunt Us: From Jack the Ripper to JonBenet Ramsey, the FBI's Legendary Mindhunter Sheds New Light on the Mysteries That Won't Go Away by Douglas John E. & Olshaker Mark

Author:Douglas, John E. & Olshaker, Mark [Douglas, John E. & Olshaker, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Psychology, History, Criminology/Criminal Psychology, Crime, Adult, Horror
ISBN: 9780743212397
Amazon: 0743212398
Goodreads: 7028164
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2000-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

WHODUNIT?

So did Bruno Richard Hauptmann do it?

I think he did something. If not, he is the victim of the most incredible, almost indescribable bad luck in the annals of law enforcement: that he was a semiliterate German immigrant when all indications pointed to a semiliterate German immigrant as the writer of the ransom notes; that his handwriting and usage were close enough to the notes for a series of experts to declare it a match; that he resembled the eyewitness descriptions; that he had maps of the area near Hopewell because he said he used to hunt there; that he had come to the United States illegally after a series of crimes that included armed robbery and breaking and entering using a ladder; that he was a skilled carpenter with drawings of ladders in his notebooks when the key to the crime was an individually designed and constructed ladder; that there was another sketch of the money box in one of the ransom notes that looked like something a carpenter would draw; that he had purchased lumber and once worked for the establishment where some of the wood for the ladder had been purchased; that he had about a third of the ransom cash hidden in his garage and he lied about it; that he had come into money and was able to start living a better lifestyle at exactly the same time as the ransom was passed; that he lived close to the cemetery where the original meeting with Cemetery John took place, and the cemetery where the ransom was handed over; that through a lapse of memory he forgot that he hadn’t actually written Jafsie’s address and phone number inside his son’s closet. This string of bad luck would have extended so far as to include having bought a keg of nails from the same batch as those that were used in the kidnap ladder!

We could go on, but I think you get the idea.

Hauptmann had a compulsive, controlling personality. Like many men of his generation, he controlled his household, he controlled the money, he made the decisions. His wife went along docilely and willingly. He kept many secrets from her, and no one has suggested she knew anything of the kidnapping or the presence of the ransom money in the garage. She didn’t even know his first name was Bruno until the police told her. She believed in him, and it is understandable that he didn’t want to disappoint that belief, even at the cost of his life.

So I have to conclude that Bruno Richard Hauptmann was involved in the Lindbergh kidnapping, though he did not work alone and was not necessarily the leader. His background showed him to be a risk-taker, both in terms of criminal record and in his means of getting to America. Moreover, that record suggested that when he did become involved with crime, it would be with others rather than alone.

I suspect that he was approached by one or more others in the German immigrant community because of his background and his skills as a carpenter.

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