After more than two years of searching, investigators believed they had finally found the man responsible for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr.

In January 1935, Bruno Richard Hauptmann went on trial for the Crime of the Century. Reporters and spectators descended on the small town of Flemington, New Jersey to see the prosecution present its case.

Hauptmann maintained his innocence. And after weeks of testimony, his fate was placed in the hands of the jury.

But the verdict did not put an end to the Lindbergh case. In the decades that followed, questions about the evidence, the investigation, and what really happened that night at Highfields gave rise to new theories and has turned into the case that refuses to die.

Related Reading & Sources

The Spirit of St. Louis
Charles A. Lindbergh

Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Lindbergh
A. Scott Berg

Lindbergh: The Crime
Noel Behn

Little Lindy Is Kidnapped
Thomas Doherty

Scapegoat: The Lonesome Death of Bruno Richard Hauptmann
Anthony Scaduto

The Airman and the Carpenter: The Lindbergh Kidnapping and the Framing of Richard Hauptmann
Ludovic Kennedy

The Lindbergh Case
Jim Fisher

Crime of the Century: The Lindbergh Kidnapping Hoax
Gregory Ahlgren and Stephen Monier

The Case That Never Dies: The Lindbergh Kidnapping
Lloyd C. Gardner

Cemetery John: The Undiscovered Mastermind of the Lindbergh Kidnapping
Robert Zorn

The Lindbergh Kidnapping Suspect No. 1: The Man Who Got Away
Lise Pearlman

NOVA: Who Killed Lindbergh’s Baby?
PBS, 2013
NOVA | Who Killed Lindbergh's Baby? | Season 40 | Episode 4 | PBS

New Jersey v. Bruno Richard Hauptmann — Trial Transcript Collection
Rutgers University Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives
Collection: New Jersey vs. Hauptmann Trial Transcript | Archives and Special Collections at Rutgers

Bruno Hauptmann Trial Excerpts
CrimeArchives
CrimeArchives: Bruno Hauptmann | Trial Excerpts

Listen ad-free on Spotify with a subscription or membership on Patreon: True Crime of the Historical Kind Podcast

The kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh Jr. had ended in tragedy.

Now, the search for the missing child would become a manhunt for his killer.

As investigators encountered one dead end after another, the pressure to solve the Crime of the Century continued to grow.

Then, in September 1934, a single gold certificate led them to a suspect.

Related Reading:

The Spirit of St. Louis

By Charles A. Lindbergh

Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead

By Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Lindbergh

By A. Scott Berg

Lindbergh: The Crime

By Noel Behn

Little Lindy Is Kidnapped

By Thomas Doherty

The Case That Never Dies

By Lloyd C. Gardner

The Lindbergh Kidnapping Suspect No. 1: The Man Who Got Away

By Lise Pearlman

*Listen ad-free on Patreon: True Crime of the Historical Kind Podcast

The kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh Jr. became a story that gripped the nation.

As Charles and Anne Lindbergh waited desperately for word of their son, ransom notes arrived, intermediaries stepped forward, and a search stretched from the New Jersey countryside to the streets of New York. For more than two months, hope remained that Charlie would be brought home safely.

Then, on May 12, 1932, that hope came to a devastating end.

Related Reading:

The Spirit of St. Louis

By Charles A. Lindbergh

Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead

By Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Lindbergh

By A. Scott Berg

Lindbergh: The Crime

By Noel Behn

Little Lindy Is Kidnapped

By Thomas Doherty

The Case That Never Dies

By Lloyd C. Gardner

The Lindbergh Kidnapping Suspect No. 1: The Man Who Got Away

By Lise Pearlman

*Listen ad-free on Patreon: True Crime of the Historical Kind Podcast

Charles A. Lindbergh went from international hero to a father facing unimaginable heartbreak.

He and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, were seeking refuge from the relentless public attention that came with fame. The Lindberghs retreated to the New Jersey countryside, where the secluded home they hoped would be their sanctuary would instead become the setting for one of the most infamous crimes in American history.

Related Reading:

The Spirit of St. Louis

By Charles A. Lindbergh

Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead

By Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Lindbergh

By A. Scott Berg

Lindbergh: The Crime

By Noel Behn

Little Lindy Is Kidnapped

By Thomas Doherty

The Case That Never Dies

By Lloyd C. Gardner

The Lindbergh Kidnapping Suspect No. 1: The Man Who Got Away

By Lise Pearlman

*Listen ad-free on Patreon: True Crime of the Historical Kind Podcast

Few figures in history have inspired more myths, rumors, and legends than Grigory Rasputin.

To some, he was a holy man blessed with miraculous healing abilities. To others... he was a manipulative fraud whose negative influence helped bring down an empire.

The truth, as it often is, lies somewhere in between...

Related Reading:

Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs

By Douglas Smith

The Romanovs: 1613-1918

By Simon Sebag Montefiore

Rasputin: The Untold Story

By Joseph T. Fuhrmann

The Last Days of the Romanovs

By Helen Rappaport

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As travelers continued vanishing along the Osage Mission Trail, suspicions slowly began to gather around a lonely cabin on the Kansas prairie.
In Part II, we follow the unraveling of the Bloody Bender mystery...from the disappearance of Dr. William York to the manhunt that followed, and the legends that blurred the line between history and folklore.

Related Reading:

Hell's Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier

By Susan Jonusas

All the Blood We Share: A Novel of the Bloody Benders of Kansas By Camilla Bruce

Murder & Mayhem in Southeast Kansas

By Larry E. Wood

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Before it became one of the most disturbing cases in American frontier history, the Bender homestead was simply a stop along a remote stretch of prairie.

In this first episode, we trace the historical movements unfolding in Kansas...From the Homestead Act of 1862 to the travelers of the Osage Mission Trail, to understand the world the Bender family lived in and what might have motivated them in their crimes.

Hell's Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier

By Susan Jonusas

All the Blood We Share: A Novel of the Bloody Benders of Kansas By Camilla Bruce

*Listen ad-free on Patreon: True Crime of the Historical Kind Podcast

Marie Antoinette had already been judged long before she ever stood trial...

In Part III, we follow the final collapse of the monarchy as the Revolution turns towards the guillotine for justice.
 
Marie Antoinette, once a symbol of excess, is now destitute, at the mercy of the people she used to rule...

Marie Antoinette: The Journey

By Antonia Fraser

A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution

By Jeremy Popkin

Marie Antoinette: The Last Queen of France

By Evelyne Lever

Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution

By Simon Schama

The Scarlet Pimpernel

By Baroness Orczy

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Marie Antoinette’s role was clear: produce an heir, secure the dynasty, and stabilize the Bourbon monarchy.

She did her duty...But France was unraveling.

In Part II, we trace the years between the birth of her children and the Women's March to Versailles. As the financial crisis deepens and The French Revolution takes shape, the queen becomes the perfect representative for a nation past the point of frustration.

Related Reading:

Marie Antoinette: The Journey

By Antonia Fraser

A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution

By Jeremy Popkin

Marie Antoinette: The Last Queen of France

By Evelyne Lever

Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution

By Simon Schama

The Scarlet Pimpernel

By Baroness Orczy

*Listen ad-free on Patreon: True Crime of the Historical Kind Podcast

Before she became a symbol of excess, hatred, and revolution, Marie Antoinette was a child shaped by diplomacy.

In this first episode, we trace her life back to Vienna, where an Austrian archduchess was raised not for personal fulfillment, but to serve the political needs of empire.

From her childhood under the watchful eye of Empress Maria Theresa to her marriage into the French Bourbon dynasty at just fourteen, this episode follows the making of a queen as she entered a kingdom already strained by war, staggering debt, and a weakening monarchy...long before the consequences of that world would be laid at her feet.

Related Reading:

Marie Antoinette: The Journey

By Antonia Fraser

A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution

By Jeremy Popkin

Marie Antoinette: The Last Queen of France

By Evelyne Lever

Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution

By Simon Schama

The Scarlet Pimpernel

By Baroness Orczy

*Listen ad-free on Patreon: True Crime of the Historical Kind Podcast