Indianapolis Times, Volume 44, Number 2, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 May 1932 — Page 1

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Hoover Orders U. S. Forces Into Lindy Manhunt &sss ft ft * 0 Ct & & * •§ £• $ LINK KILLERS TO RANSOM FRAUD

EVIDENCE SHOWS MURDERERS GET JAFSIE’S $50,000 t f iiilrtl HOPEWELL, N. J., May 13. New Jersey authorities, backed by the mighty police power of the federal government, today apparently were on the direct trail of the kidnapers and murderers of the Lindbergh baby. Shortly after President Hoover had called on the government heads to make the murder of the baby “a live and never-to-be-forgotten case,’* it dramatically was revealed that Colonel Lindbergh’s emissaries had been in actual contact with the men believed without question to be the kidnapers. The revelation came through Dr. John F. Condon, the “Jafsie of the want ads,” who paid out $50,000 for Colonel Lindbergh to the kidnapers, and was double-crossed. Under examination by authorities, he disclosed that the men had sent as a “token” of identification for Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh the sleeping suit they had taken from the kidnaped child. Relentless Hunt Is Pushed lhe suit convinced Lindbergh the men had the baby and the money was paid, although the little victim’s body then was lying in the rain soaked Jersey woods. Authorities, at last, on a definite trail, are no longer hampered by the previous fear the baby would be harmed, have started relentlessly on the trail of those with whom Condon dealt. They have as first clew the message from the gang to Jafsie, and the knowledge of their w-here-abouts on the night the money was paid in the bronx. Condon and John Hughes Curtis, the Norfolk negotiator, moreover are expected to furnish other information that would guide police to the killers, now the object of the most relentless and widespread hunt in the history of crime. Recalls Newspaper Want Ad Condon, according to Prosecutor Ervin S. Marshall, re-; reived from the kidnapers three safety pins of peculiar make i when he first asked for proof. Lindbergh looked at them, thought they were those used on his child’s garments, hut could not he sure because while they were of a peculiar type, they were widely used. Actinjr on Lindbergh's instructions. Condon asked for!

Tragic Story of Baby Lindy Kidnaping Hunt and Discovery of Body Told in Pictures

Babv Lindbergh was stolen from his crib in the Lindberghs' Sourland Mountain home the night of March 1. The iSO.OOO ransom note, muddy footprints and ladder left by the kidnapers proved valueless clews in the “world's greatest manhunt" which followed. Scotland Yard's aid was invoked in the mystery as Betty Gow. the Lindberghs' maid, waa questioned and exonerated. Next, the spotlight turned to her sweetheart. Henry <Red> Johnson, who proved his alibi. Then out of the welter of false clews and disappointments there came the ‘Jafsie episode.

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VOLUME 44—NUMBER 2

Pml* p n v T [ A 4HL I- * I * jPPfI V

Baby Lindbergh's crib became the symbol of a nation's grief as word was flashed from Hopewell of*the discovery of the child's body in a gulley near Ml. Rose. N. J. This photo shows the crib in the nursery of the Lindbergh home from which kidnapers stole the child on the night of March 1. At its foot may be seen the highchair where

further proof, and received the sleeping garment. It bore the manufacturer's serial number on a lapel on the collar. Through this number Lindbergh traced it to the store where the baby's clothes had been purchased. He felt then Condon was in contact with the kidnapers, and the $50,000 was paid out. When the baby was kidnaped, it wore three garments—a flannel belly hand, a flannel undershirt and the sleeping garment. The sleeping garment was missing from the body. Marshall’s revelations recalled one of the series of newspaper advertisements through which Condon communicated with the kidnapers. It said. “The package had been received'' and that “the party" considered it “the real goods." Betty Go\\. who viewed the mutilated body and positively identified it as the Lindbergh baby, was positive because of the undershirt on the body when it was found. It had been too long for the baby and she had cut off the end and sewed a hem with blue thread, Marshall said. Discovery of the pitiful, mutilated corpse, with the skull crushed, at Mount Rose Hill Thursday afternoon, less than five miles from the Lindbergh home, horrified the nation. The child for which the world has been searching for two and a half months was murdered soon after the kidnaping—perhaps on the night of the kidnaping itself. Mrs. Lindbergh was at home when they brought her the news. Her grief and shock were hidden from the world, although she was said to be bearing up bravely within the closely-guarded Sourland hills home the Lindberghs had built. It had been planned as a safe retreat in which to rear their child and have their home life. The baby's body was taken to the morgue in Trenton for

Hope mounted for the baby's return when Dr. John F. Condon. 72-year-old former school principal of the Bronx, contacted the reputed kidnapers through his “Jafsie" ads and from them obtained a "token" which convinced Colonel Lindbergh he was dealing with the real abductors. Negotiations were climaxed the night of April 2 when Lindy drove "Jafsie" to a cemetery rendezvous with the kidnap gang's agent. There 150.000 was traded for a note saying the child would be found on a boat named Sally" at the southerly end of Martha* Vineyard, an island off the lower Massachusetts coast. *

INDIANAPOLIS, FRIDAY, MAY 13, 1932

THE EMPTY CRIB

.Photo coovrißhted, 1932. bv New York Dsilv News. Transmitted bv teleohoto.l the “world’s most famous baby’’ clanged spoons against his plate like the humblest youngster in the land. The churches, men, cows and trees which adorned the nursery’s wall paper were Just beginning to excite the curly headed boy's interest when kidnapers carried him out to his death.

a post-mortem and police recording. Dr. Charles 11. Mitchell, county physician, -.aid it would be reported for the time being as an “unknown” baby, but would be released to the Lindberghs as soon as they claim it. Then early today Dr. Phillip D. Inges, New York, physician connected with the Rockefeller institute, who examined the baby two weeks before the kidnaping, positively identified the body. It was 3:15 p. m. Thursday when a Negro truck driver and his helper found the skeleton in a clump of woods about four and a half miles south of the Lindbergh home near the tiny hamlet of Mt. Rosp.

The baby had been killed, apparently by a blow on the head, and the body secreted in the woods about seventy-five feet, from the road. An attempt had been made to conceal it in a shallow depression, probably scraped in the underbrush, and it may have been covered up until the wind and rain of more than two months brought it to light to be casually discovered by the horrified truckman. The body lay face down. The sleeping suit was missing. Two dirty and rain-soaked shirts lay on the shrivelled and decomposed form. The stomach band and diapers were gone. Remnants of the child's blond curly hair clung to the skull. The finder, William Allen, ran back to his truck, informed his companions ar\d the police were notified. In an incredibly short time, garments of the child were brought from the Lindbergh home and found to match perfectly. The Identification was completed more fully later. The child had

Lindy. ‘ Jafsie and two associates speeded to Bridgeport, Conn where, at dawn. Lindy excitedly seized the controls of the amphibian plane he had ordered and darted out across the waters of Martha's Vineyard. Eagerly. Lindy peered at each vessel, but in vain. After days of fruitless searching he knew he had been double-crossed, and he made public the numbers of the bill* given as ransom. Optimism mounted again as Norfolk negotiators gave assurances the baby was safe. For days, then weeks, the Norfolk trio pushed the search on the yacht Marcon, but it* was fruitless.

Entered a Second Oim Mutter at roatoffice. Indianapolis

eight teenth. the toes overlapped and other physical characteristics convinced Mrs. Lindbergh and the child's nurse. Betty Gow. that it was Charles Jr. The medical report tended to confirm the theory that the baby had been killed almost immediately after the kidnaping. After Miss Gow had identified the body at the Trenton morgue, slipping in the back door to avoid a large crowd, Dr. Mitchell said: “I examined the body for two hours in a post-mortem, removing the scalp and exposing the left side of the skull, which had been badly fractured. “The death could have been caused by a bullet, by the child having been banged against a tree, hit by an automobile or hit with a club or other instrument. “In any event, death was caused by a fractured skull. The baby (Tam to Page Threel

SECRET SERVICE, OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES TO AID (Tun) to Pages 2 and 8 for pictures nf the Lindhergh family and of events in the kidnaping tragedy.) By l nilnl Pm WASHINGTON, May 13. President Hoover today issued orders to the secret service of the federal government to “make the kidnaping and murder of the Lindbergh baby a live and never-to-be-forgotten case.” The President, in a brief, terse statement, ordered the federal government agencies never to relax “until those criminals are implacably brought to justice.” The President’s statement said: “I have directed the law enforcement agencies and the several secret services of the federal government to make the kidnaping and murder of the Lindbergh baby a live and never-to-be-forgotten case, never to be relaxed until those criminals are implacably brought to justice.” Sends Message of Condolence The President’s message was flashed immediately to all the government’s law enforcement agencies, and sudden activity ran like magic through the departments concerned. Attorney-General William Mitchell, arriving at the White House for the Friday cabinet meeting, said he had relayed the President’s message “to all the enforcement agencies under my command.’’ President Hoover also dispatched a message of condolence to the Lindbergh family. The President's order throws into tho case not only the department of justice and its various agencies, the prohibition bureau, the treasury secret service and the coast guard, all the army of the United States, marshals and other government forces, but conceivably even could extend to the use of the army and navy intelligence services which extend to almost every corner of the earth. Trained Detectives Are Available One important phase of the federal activity periainet to the $50,000 in notes paid by Lindbergh in the ransom hoax. Secret service men have been pursuing clews with all the deftness and skill accumulated during a long period of success in this field of detection. ' It was regarded as highly improbable that the trained investigators assigned to the case would fail to get result*. Passage of federal legislation which at least could reach kidnapers who take advantage of present deficiencies in laws by fleeing from one state to another seemed certain. Senator Roscoe C. Patterson 'Rep.. Mo.), author of a bill before the senate Judiciary committee, said that “nothing now can stop Its passage.'

Then. 72 days after the kidnaping. Colonel H Norman Schwarzkopf summoned newspapermen to the garage on the Lindbergh estate. There, with doors locked, telephones silenced, so that none might give premature announcement to an eager world. Colonel Schwarzkopf read the formal police statement announcing that the baby a body had been found by William Allen, a Negro, in a gulley on Mount Bose hill, near Mount Rose. N. J.. approximately four and one-half miles from the Lindbergh estate. From baby clothing obtained from the Lindbergh home, the body was definitely identified as that of baby Lindy.

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