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

Lise Pearlman

Apr 2021 · Regent Press · Narrated by Lise Pearlman

About this audiobook

In the depths of the Depression, millions worldwide followed every twist and turn of the Lindbergh baby kidnap/murder. Yet what was reported was largely fake news. Nearly a century after undocumented immigrant Bruno Richard Hauptmann was executed for the dastardly crime, questions still linger. If the wrong man was convicted, who did it? When? Why? Where? How? The shocking answers have eluded all prior authors. Now in The Lindbergh Kidnapping: Suspect No. 1 -- The Man Who Got Away award-winning author Lise Pearlman and her team of researchers combed dusty archives to obtain crucial forensic evidence never before analyzed in published accounts. Listeners are invited to reexamine "the crime of the century" freshly focused on a key suspect - a slim, clean-shaven man wearing a fedora that obscured his face. He was spotted with a ladder in his car near the Lindberghs' driveway early that fateful night. The police let an insider who fit that description oversee the entire investigation - the boy's father, international hero Charles Lindbergh. Abuse of power, amorality and xenophobia all feature in this saga set in an era dominated by white supremacists and social Darwinists.

Astonishingly more key evidence is accessible today than was presented at the death penalty trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann for the kidnap/murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr. You get to judge for yourself who committed the "crime of the century."

Ratings and reviews

Many people contributed their talents, time and expertise to help make this book possible -- for a list of whom I invite listeners to consult the lengthy acknowledgments. Two in particular deserve a shout out here for their enormous contributions of original research: renowned pathologist Dr. Peter Speth and my chief research assistant, Jamie Benvenutti. Dr. Speth's interpretation of the data concerning the corpse of Charles Lindbergh, Jr. is set forth in a detailed opinion included as an appendix to the book. He pointed out compelling forensic evidence that the toddler did not die when, where or how Bruno Richard Hauptmann was convicted and executed for that crime. My daughter Jamie Benvenutti conducted her own painstaking and inspired research, reviewed my manuscript for factual accuracy and offered incisive analysis of key data in support of my theory as to what really happened. Her dissection of the Squibb lab report that the New Jersey State Police kept confidential for decades was particularly revelatory, as was her intuition and research on the likeliest source of the rails used in the "kidnap" ladder. I am currently pursuing Hauptmann's posthumous exoneration based in large part on the phenomenal work of both Dr. Speth and Jamie as my collaborators.