DNA shows Lindbergh father of 3 in Germany

MUNICH, Germany, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- DNA tests show that American aviator Charles Lindbergh had a secret second family and fathered three children in Germany, the BBC reported Saturday.

Media consultant Anton Schwenk said tests concluded Lindbergh was the biological father of Dyrk and David Hesshaimer and their sister Astrid Bouteuil.

The children came from a romance between Lindbergh and Munich hatmaker Brigitte Hesshaimer that began in 1957 and lasted for decades, the BBC said.

Lindbergh, the first to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1927, had six children with his American wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Their first child, Charles Jr., was kidnapped from their New York home and found dead 10 weeks later. Bruno Richard Hauptmann was convicted of the child's murder and executed in 1936.

The German children said they do not want any of the Lindbergh estate, but merely wanted acknowledgement he was their father.

Their mother died at age 74 in 2001.