A Retired Oakland Judge Has A New Theory About The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping 91 Years Ago

S & WORLD // CALIFORNIA Retired Oakland judge has shocking theory about infamous Lindbergh kidnapping. And it’s catching on By Kevin Fagan Jan 2, 2024 Gift Article True crime author and retired judge Lise Pearlman has recruited supporters in a campaign to exonerate Bruno Hauptmann nearly 90 years after he was convicted of kidnapping the baby of aviator Charles Lindbergh. True crime author and retired judge Lise Pearlman has recruited supporters in a campaign to exonerate Bruno Hauptmann nearly 90 years after he was convicted of kidnapping the baby of aviator Charles Lindbergh. Loren Elliott/Special to the Chronicle It’s been 91 years since celebrity aviator Charles Lindbergh’s baby was kidnapped, a crime that plunged the nation into a paroxysm of anguish that ended with the capture of a German immigrant named Bruno Richard Hauptmann. Prosecutors at the time said he snatched the child to squeeze a $50,000 ransom from the family, but to the day he was executed in the electric chair, Hauptmann insisted he was innocent. Questions about Hauptmann’s guilt have swirled ever since his death, and now respected Bay Area historians are proposing a new, macabre theory about the case: that Lindbergh offered up his child as a subject for medical experiments and faked the kidnapping to cover up the child’s death. That’s what an author and retired judge in Oakland says, and she is joined by a growing chorus of supporters who say her theory is worth investigating, including the former vice mayor of Tiburon, the co-founder of the Innocence Project and Hauptmann’s descendants. ADVERTISEMENT Article continues below this ad Back in March 1932, when 20-month-old Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. was snatched from his New Jersey home in the dark of night, it was called the “crime of the century,” and his father was one of the most vaunted figures in the world. Dubbed “Lucky Lindy” for flying his single-engine Spirit of St. Louis plane from New York to Paris in the first solo trans-Atlantic flight in 1927, Lindbergh had married socialite and poet Anne Morrow. The birth of their son in 1930 was worldwide front-page news. More From Kevin Fagan S.F.’s drug markets have transformed: More violence, new dealers and ‘chaos’ at night A woman smokes fentanyl after buying drugs on Turk Street in San Francisco on Friday, Dec. 22, 2023. The open air drug market which was once commonly seen during the day has shifted to the nighttime largely due to law enforcement crackdowns. Homelessness jumped 6% in California last year. Here's why some experts are encouraged Toro Castaño rearranges his tent on Castro St. in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug 8, 2023. The abduction led to the biggest manhunt in U.S. history at the time, and the subsequent trial that led to Hauptmann’s death sentence was called the “trial of the century.” But retired judge and award-winning true crime author and filmmaker Lise Pearlman now contends it was instead one of the great injustices of the century, and she wants New Jersey authorities to release archived evidence from the killing to prove her theory. “A lot of leads weren’t followed, about a dozen state witnesses likely committed perjury, and the prosecution had 90,000 pages of investigation they didn’t let Hauptmann or his defense see,” Pearlman told the Chronicle. “The wrong man was executed, and my hope is that Hauptmann will be posthumously exonerated. And I am certainly not the only one who wants that.” Using information gleaned from medical reports on the kidnapping and the dead baby’s body, New Jersey State Police files and papers written by Lindbergh and Nobel Prize-winning French biologist Alexis Carrel, Pearlman theorizes that Lindbergh may have offered his son to Carrel to see whether they could preserve living organs outside of the body long enough to be transplanted. That type of preservation would have revolutionized surgery in the 1930s, and Pearlman suggests — using medical writings and photos by Carrel and others — that Carrel or his team may have removed a thyroid and part of a carotid artery from young Charles, leading to his death, then concocted a kidnapping hoax to cover up the crime. ADVERTISEMENT Article continues below this ad Historians have long noted that Lindbergh and Carrel were both advocates of eugenics, or weeding out human deficiencies so they won’t be inherited, and the Lindbergh baby was known to be sickly and to have an abnormally large head. Pearlman contends that, to Lindbergh, the child may have been disposable. Others, including the authors of 1993’s “Crime of the Century: The Lindbergh Kidnapping Hoax,” previously theorized Lindbergh was involved in the kidnapping. Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. in 1931, shortly before he was kidnapped on March 1 from his parents’ new home at Hopewell, N.J. On May 12, the body of the 19-month-old was found in a shallow grave 5 miles away. Five years later, Bruno Hauptmann was executed for the crime. Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. in 1931, shortly before he was kidnapped on March 1 from his parents’ new home at Hopewell, N.J. On May 12, the body of the 19-month-old was found in a shallow grave 5 miles away. Five years later, Bruno Hauptmann was executed for the crime. Associated Press 1932 “My theory is that the child was operated on,” Pearlman said. “We think at the very least that his carotid and probably his thyroid were taken out and kept viable for 30 days. We think he died on the operating table. “And I think Carrel conducted the operation with Lindbergh’s permission — and Lindbergh was likely present at the operation.” Hauptmann was an unfortunate victim of circumstance, Pearlman posits. Police nabbed him after he spent some of the traceable ransom money at a gas station two years after the baby’s disappearance, but he always said he had the money only because a friend gave it to him before traveling to Europe and dying of tuberculosis. ADVERTISEMENT Article continues below this ad Pearlman published a 554-page book on her theory in 2020 called “The Lindbergh Kidnapping Suspect No. 1, The Man Who Got Away.” In it she poses the same question she has today: “Was international hero Charles Lindbergh himself Suspect No. 1, the man who got away?” Since then, a researcher in New Jersey has filed a lawsuit seeking to open evidence still kept by the New Jersey State Police with the goal of clearing Hauptmann. Last February, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences published Pearlman’s contentions after she presented them with research by herself, her daughter Jamie Benvenutti and Dr. Peter Speth at its annual convention. Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, has consulted with Pearlman and is backing a reopening of the case, writing in support of her book that it “addresses an enduring, troubling question: Was an innocent man convicted of kidnapping and killing Charles Lindbergh’s baby? Fascinating read with surprising conclusions.” Kurt Perhach, the attorney handling the New Jersey lawsuit to unlock state evidence in the case, said he has been fascinated by the kidnapping since he was 13 years old. “I do think Lise Pearlman has a point,” he said, adding that any of a number of theories could also hold water. “I don’t think anybody knows what happened, and we have an opportunity to get some answers, but the state of New Jersey is refusing to let us look at the evidence. I don’t really understand why.” ADVERTISEMENT Article continues below this ad A state judge dismissed the suit in 2023, saying the plaintiffs might destroy evidence if they subjected it to forensic testing. Perhach has appealed. The New Jersey Office of Attorney General said it was unable to discuss the matter because it involved pending litigation. Hauptmann’s 58-year-old great-great niece, Cezanne Love, said she is convinced Pearlman’s theory is on target, and she is ready to participate in legal action to force a reexamination of the evidence. “It’s amazing, the research Lise has done; phenomenal,” said Love, a flight attendant living in Southern California. “Her medical theory? I totally believe that. Only God and Richard (the name Hauptmann and his family preferred over Bruno) know for sure, but from everything I’ve heard, he sounds innocent. And Lindbergh didn’t sound like a nice person.” She said that except for Hauptmann’s widow, Anna, the family didn’t talk much about the worst chapter in its history. “It was … so infamous just about nobody wanted to even mention it, certainly not in public,” Love said. “But privately, my aunt remembered growing up and having my grandmother tell her, ‘Please try to clear his name someday.’ ” ADVERTISEMENT Article continues below this ad But until now, the only relative who has vigorously tried to exonerate the man was his widow, Anna Hauptmann. She sued New Jersey — with San Francisco attorney Robert Bryan — in 1981 to get her husband’s name cleared, insisting that she was with him at her Bronx bakery job on the night of the kidnapping, nowhere near the Lindberghs’ New Jersey home. She lost her case and died in 1994 at age 95, having never remarried and proclaiming Hauptmann’s innocence to the end. Doubts about Hauptmann’s conviction have been raised since even before he was executed in April 1936, with several earlier books contending the baby’s death was an accident or that Lindbergh might have been involved somehow. But this medical theory of Pearlman’s is new and based on more than a decade of forensic investigation. Pearlman said she became interested in the Lindbergh case when she wrote “The Sky’s the Limit” in 2012, which examined the 1968 murder trial of Black Panther leader Huey Newton and more than 30 other notable trials of the 20th century. She included the Lindbergh case in that International Book Awards-winning book, one of five she’s written. “The more I looked into Lindbergh, the more my suspicions were raised about his involvement and the fact that he wasn’t treated as a suspect,” she said. “He was home when it happened. He should have been a suspect.” But at the time of the kidnapping, he was too famous to be considered, she said, and because of that fame he was allowed to help lead the investigation. Scotland Yard investigators who consulted on the case suggested looking into the parents, and the local police chief suggested an insider in the house was involved, but they were ignored, she said. Among the things Pearlman wants are DNA testing of the ransom note and envelope and the ladder police say the kidnapper used to get into the second-floor nursery. Great-great niece Love and her aunt have given Pearlman swabs of their DNA to use for comparison if she gets access to the evidence. They are all convinced the testing will show Hauptmann did not handle those key items. True crime author and retired judge Lise Pearlman shows pages of her book at her home in Oakland. True crime author and retired judge Lise Pearlman shows pages of her book at her home in Oakland. Loren Elliott/Special to the Chronicle The decades-old theories about the kidnapping are freely discussed at the Charles Lindbergh House and Museum in his hometown of Little Falls, Minn., and Pearlman’s book has made an impression there. “It was a really interesting read,” said Lacey Fontaine, museum program associate. “But then, the kidnapping is the thing visitors ask about the most anyway,” even above his famous flight, his prewar Nazi sympathies, or the fact that he had seven children with three German mistresses in addition to the six he had with his wife. “It’s hard to keep up with all the conspiracy theories, and the most popular one we get is that Charles Lindbergh had something to do with the kidnapping,” she said. “None of them ever holds enough water to reopen the case, though.” That may change if those who back Pearlman’s theory have their way. Noah Griffin, historian, former vice mayor of Tiburon, and spokesperson for Frank Jordan when he was San Francisco mayor, is among Pearlman’s supporters and wants to stage a mock trial in San Francisco City Hall reexamining the case. “Lise’s book goes further than anything, and it has the ring of credibility to me,” Griffin said. He staged a mock retrial of the Lindbergh case in 1986, after his mention of the kidnapping on his KSFO radio show drew a tsunami of interest. He flew Anna Hauptmann out for that event. “His widow was just a wonderful human being, and it was clear to me there was an injustice,” Griffin said. “Richard (Hauptmann) didn’t have much of a constituency. You had Lindbergh, who was a national hero, a lot of evidence was covered up, and there was a lot of anti-German sentiment in the country. He didn’t have a chance.” Now that what could be a solid theory is gaining steam, he said, “I would love to have a debate onstage, maybe another mock retrial, maybe at City Hall. I think Lise is really onto something. People want to look back on history and get it right. “They should get this one right.” Reach Kevin Fagan: kfagan@sfchronicle.com Jan 2, 2024 Photo of Kevin Fagan By Kevin Fagan Kevin Fagan is a longtime, award-winning reporter at The San Francisco Chronicle, specializing in homelessness, enterprise news-feature writing, breaking news and crime. He has ridden with the rails with modern-day hobos, witnessed seven prison executions, written extensively about serial killers including the Unabomber, Doodler and Zodiac, and covered disasters ranging from the Sept. 11 terror attacks at Ground Zero to California’s devastating wildfires. Homelessness remains a core focus of his, close to his heart as a journalist who cares passionately about the human condition. He can be reached at kfagan@sfchronicle.com. 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