Lindbergh by Noel Behn

Author:Noel Behn
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781504048569
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2017-08-17T04:00:00+00:00

20

Hullabaloo

In the view of the authors Alan Hynd and Anthony Scaduto, who would write about the event much later, three trials were actually occurring: the trail in the courtroom, the trail in the newspapers, and the trial on radio.1 Almost from the time of his arrest, newspapers and radio had been proclaiming that the defendant was guilty. Since every juror knew what the media had been saying, the only question left open seemed to be, How guilty was guilty? It really didn’t matter. The media had mesmerized the nation with technology and hoopla. This was just the beginning. Matters of law and justice would come at a later time and in different courtrooms.

Because Sheriff John H. Curtiss was only five feet tall, his legs didn’t quite touch the floor as he sprawled in his chair at his Hunterdon County Courthouse office in Flemington. The pudgy lawman toyed absently with a watch chain, stroked his fox terrier, Buddy, chewed on an unlighted cigar, and announced to the reporters who had come to interview him that, yes, he would happily take “donations” of five and ten dollars for choice seats to the upcoming Hauptmann murder trial. Curtiss, a Republican, was reported to have already collected twelve hundred dollars in donations to help offset “expenses.” When news of his scalping activities reached Trenton, he received a telephone call from the Democratic governor and soon-to-be U.S. senator, A. Harry Moore, who forcefully reminded Curtiss that the state of New Jersey, not Hunterdon County, was bearing the cost of the trial. In rebuttal Curtiss pointed to a $150 bill for lumber to build press seats. No one is quite sure what the governor said to this, but it seems to have been persuasive. “All right, all right,” the wee law officer grunted, “I’ll return every cent of it.”2

Sheriff Curtiss grievously underestimated the marketplace. Though the main trial room of the hundred-year-old Hunterdon County Courthouse was uncomfortably small, poorly ventilated, and exceedingly hot, by the beginning of 1935 it was host to the most publicized criminal proceedings in the history of the republic. Scalpers in New York City were asking from one hundred to three hundred dollars a ticket for reserved seats to a so-so session, on the rare occasions when one was available. When and if the popular Jafsie Condon took the stand, the price was expected to soar to five hundred dollars. A section of the gallery was available to the public on a no-charge first-come, first-served basis, and eager spectators formed long lines each morning, hoping for admittance. Just waiting in the perpetual throng outside the courthouse and observing who was entering or leaving were usually worth the trip that sightseers made to be there. Many of the faces they saw were world renowned. Charles Lindbergh attended every session. Mrs. Lindbergh was often with him, as was Colonel Henry Breckinridge. Other well-known personalities were usually in possession of scalped tickets or were admitted by the prosecution or defense under the guise of being

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