NEW YORK -- A book claiming that Charles Lindbergh covered up the murder of his 'kidnapped' baby because he suspected his sister-in- law of the crime appeared Monday in bookstores, touching off another round of debate about 'The Crime of the Century.'
The 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Charles Lindbergh Jr., son of the world renowed aviator and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, has been given a new twist by veteran writer Noel Behn, who spent eight years of research on 'Lindbergh: The Crime,' which originally was scheduled for publication by Grove/Atlantic Inc. early next month.
The book claims the kidnapping was a hoax created by Lindbergh to cover up the death of the two-month-old child, who was found lying outside the Lindbergh's New Jersey mansion, his head caved in. Lindbergh's sister-in-law, Elizabeth Morrow, was inside the house in a 'hysterical fit.'
Behn, an alumnus of the U.S. Army Couterintelligence Corps, says there is evidence that Elizabeth, elder sister of Anne, was in love with Lindbergh and the hero of the first trans-Atlantic flight in 1927 feared the scandal that would ensue if it emerged that Elizabeth had committed the slaying.
The Morrows, a rich and socially prominent New Jersey family, were to be protected at all costs, Behn said, pointing out 'the story would have caused them untold harm.'
Thus the kidnapping was invented during a two-day strategy session at the estate and Lindbergh was the most surprised man in the world to receive the first extortion letter from an outsider trying to cash in on the crime. The letters were later traced to Bruno Richard Hauptmann who was eventually found guilty of murdering the Lindbergh tot and executed in the electric chair.
'He (Lindbergh) could hardly not pay the ransom,' Behn observes. 'That wouldhave made him seem heartless. He figured $50,000 was a cheap price if it meant the whole tragedy would finally be forgotten and he could get out of the headlines.'
Hauptmann tipped off his role in the coverup gone wrong by passing some of the ransom money, resulting in his arrest in 1934. The arrest and ensuing trial catapulted the kidnap story back into the headlines, just what Lindbergh had hoped to avoid.
'He had not reckoned on anyone being arrested because there hadn't been a crime comitted,' Behn concludes. 'He figured the worst that would hapipen to Hauptmann would be an extortion conviction. He knowingly let Hauptmann die in the murderer's place.'
Elizbeth Morrow survived the kidnapping by only a few months, dying at 30. Death was officially ascribed to a heart attack and pneumonia but there was 'some talk of suicide,' Behn reports, suggesting another coverup.
Among those who discovered the identity of the actual murderer was Gov. Harold Hoffman of New Jersey, Behn claims. Hoffman destroyed his political career by re-opening the case and then granting a stay of execution to Hauptmann when he discovered the actual murderer but lacked sufficient proof to make the explosive allegation.
Behn said began his investigation by picking up the thread of the governor's bungled investigation, weighing old evidence and discovering new details in 51-year-old crime. His conclusion: 'Lindbergh took charge of and manipultated the investigation from the very start.'