Clubbeaux to the LKH Public Forum
Condon, The Great Bamboozler
Thu Feb 21  2002

Verdict Defenders rarely like to admit, even to themselves, how much of what they believe rests on the good Dr. John F. Condon. Certainly his identification of Hauptmann as Cemetery John is one of the nails in Hauptmann’s coffin. Yet they close their eyes to the total tonnage of lies and prevarications he emitted while parsing Hauptmann’s testimony for inconsistencies.
Condon first stated he was in Max Rosenhain’s restaurant on the night of March 7, 1932 when he lectured a group of foreign "ruffians"about what a great country America is despite the Lindbergh kidnapping. Later he said he was in Bickford’s. Such self-contradiction, of which there were dozens of examples, is minor compared to what was to follow.

The FBI reported that “Condon is an extremely difficult person to interview, expecially [sic] when the topic of conversation relates to this case. He gives the impression, presently [February 1934] at least of being somewhat of an eccentric individual and seems careful to avoid a discussion relating to what he terms the ‘delicate’ angle of this case. A reading of his statement made in the Bronx County District Attorney’s office on May 24, 1932, and of his testimony before the Bronx County Grand Jury on May 20, 1932, readily indicates that his explanations of his activities in the course of the ransom negotiations are rather incoherent.”

It notes his embarrassingly conflicting accounts of what happened when with whom, a random example of which would be his meeting with the Italian woman at Tuckahoe. He once stated that he went there to meet her, conversed with her, and she told him that he’d be receiving another message soon. In another account he said he didn’t meet anyone at the station and had gone there merely to see a – unnamed -- relative.

The FBI stated that as a matter of fact Condon’s version of events was too “incoherent” to be trusted, and that to assemble a simple chronology the Bureau had to corroborate Condon’s statements as far as possible with other sources. The FBI’s Summary Report notes that as of February 1934 “Dr. Condon has tentatively identified the photographs of at least six men as a likeness of the man to whom he paid the ransom money.”

As a matter of fact, on May 18, 1932, a conference was held in Schwarzkopf's office in Trenton, New Jersey, attended by Messrs. Nathan, Connelly and Fay from the Department of Justice, Messrs. Wilson and Madden of the Treasury Department; Mr. Lanigan, Assistant Attorney General of the State of New Jersey; Prosecutor Marshall of Mercer County; Prosecutor Hauck of Hunterdon County; Inspector Walsh of the Jersey City Police Department; and Major Schoeffel and Lieutenant Keaton of the New Jersey State Police.

At that meeting Nathan asks Walsh “Are you convinced that Condon is on the level?” Walsh answers “No.” A little while later Schwarzkopf says that Condon received “the sleeping suit, a Dr. Denton #2 sleeping suit, which was the same kind that the baby had worn the same night the baby had been taken away, however, this suit had one button off and it had apparently been washed and was not accepted as conclusive, it was accepted as being the same kind of a suit but as being the suit, there was nothing to positively identify it.” Leaving aside that this fact makes a lot of testimony manufactured by Wilentz and Lindbergh under oath at the trial a little more, um, interesting, it does raise the question of just where did Condon acquire this suit.

Interesting that he recounts seeing John’s face for but an instant, yet tells police he could easily identify him again, but when he accompanies Lindbergh to pay the ransom he has a conversation with a man and girl standing near the cemetery, and later tells police he couldn’t describe the first thing about them. Quite a selective memory.

“Condon tried to catch some German accent from ‘John’ but was unable;” the FBI report says, and bear in mind that he’s held about two hours of freewheeling conversation with John by this point, but “in conversing with ‘John’ further he was satisfied that he was the so-called ‘Scandinavian,’ with whom he had previously spoken in the Woodlawn Cemetery.”
Condon also describes John as weighing about thirty pounds less than Hauptmann. This is not an “error” a man who has spent many years classifying boxers makes.
Condon told the FBI that he took some wood to a friend’s shop to have him make the box specified in the ransom notes to hold the money, but couldn’t remember the friend’s name. Later he pointed out a shop and said he’d paid $3.25 to have the box made there, when the FBI interviewed the owner of the shop he said no, he never made a box for Condon. The FBI called Condon’s account “apparently untruthful,” especially since he later told police that the box in question was a “family heirloom.” On such testimony the intrepid Lt. Finn builds his case against Hauptmann “beyond any miscalculation or doubt.”

Interestingly, Breckinridge reported personally making a cast of one of John’s footprints the night of the ransom payment. The FBI notes that the cast was in the possession of the NJSP. Never turned up at the trial. Funny, that. Would’ve been a real strong piece of evidence, had it matched Hauptmann’s shoe.

And consider the following chronology, which I believe Siglinde originally contributed:

March 6th, 1932: A woman giving her name as “Mary Cirrito” comes to the Princeton Junction Hotel with her common-law husband, Peter Berritella. Berritella’s spiritualist church on E. 127th Street in Harlem is noted for being a) directly across the street from Fisch’s rooming house, and b) attended by a large number of Italians and blacks – as well as Violet Sharpe and Oliver Whateley. Karl Henkel identifies Fisch as a “member” of the church. The church is half a block from the Warner-Quinlan gas station.

Cirrito tells Schwarzkopf and Breckinridge [whom she called “Mr. Breckinbridge”] that they would soon get a note from the “kidnappers” in which the name “Jafsie” appears. She says the baby’s body will be found on the Heights above Hopewell.

March 8th, 1932: Condon’s famous letter appears in the Bronx Home News.

March 10th, 1932: A letter addressed to “Mr. Breckinbridge” arrives at Breckinridge’s office at 25 Broadway. The letter has the identifying symbol.
March 11th, 1932: Condon suggests his using the name “Jafsie” as a code.

In case anyone else is inclined to believe anything Condon says, in a statement given to the New Jersey State Police Thayer recalls taking the phone call from Condon at the Lindbergh house “about 12 o’clock on the night of March 10th,” and asking him how the letter in his possession was signed. “With the sign of the Mafia,” he replied. Of course there was no signature on the letter Condon had opened, and he had not opened the one addressed to Lindbergh. Quite a clairvoyant himself, I’d say.

One truly wishes Thayer had been called as a witness in the trial, but of course one can understand why the State had no intention of doing so.

I believe a while ago someone, maybe Michael, was wondering about the Mafia connections to the case. The vast majority, I think, can be traced back to statements by Condon that were never corroborated – “statti citto,” the Italian woman at Tuckahoe, his “Mafia” statement to Thayer, his stated opinion that Italians frequently held meetings in graveyards, etc. It seems that the early fix was to pin the child’s disappearance on an Italian, most probably Mafia, so they instructed Condon to drop as many Italian/Mafia “clues” as he could, then when cops couldn’t make that stick they started casting about for some other patsy.

It does seem as if the cops really had something on ol’ Jafsie, something to keep him from getting out of line. The police’s deep distrust of Condon comes through loud and clear in the Trenton parley, and later Walsh says that he’s “heard” that Condon had been arrested two or three times on complaints of corrupting the morals of minors, and another time on a sex case or carnal abuse case. Police suspicion of Condon is found at all levels and almost continually throughout the case, taking a brief holiday only at the trial. And when Hoffman announces that he’s reopening the case Condon has a ticket to Panama shoved in his hand and is pushed out the door.

I have a good friend who, upon learning of Condon’s sordid past, remarked that if we accept the fact that Jafsie did have a dirty background, we can safely assume that he was putty in the police's and prosecution's hands once they threatened him with exposing his
past. He became a perfect blackmail target and had no choice but to identify
Hauptmann as Cemetery John.

There’s certainly a lot to this idea, and the gist of it is probably correct. At the same time I’d hate to paint the lying fool as a sympathetic figure. It’s illustrative that the cops knew he wasn’t being honest, but rather than trying to find out the truth they simply used him as a tool to help frame Hauptmann.

I haven’t researched this out, but I’m wondering if anyone else has noticed that Condon has most of his trouble with the FBI. I’m guessing that the local cops soon knew they had Condon under their thumb with his past actions or whatever they were going to blackmail him with, and the federal boys didn’t know this. So the cops and Condon had an understanding, one the FBI wasn’t in on. Just guessing here.

The cops didn’t particularly care about the truth – or the ransom money – as long as they could convict some poor sap and close the case. They saw Condon probably as some petty swindler who’d gotten in over his head, along with the Berritellas, et al, but rather than bust him down figured to use him to their advantage, so they kept stringing him along, first to build up a “case” against a future Italian/Mafia detainee, then against Hauptmann.

A Condon Conspiracy
Michael Melsky to the LKH Public Forum
Fri Mar 8   2002
N.Y. FBI File 62-3057 p176:

Al Reich was then of the opinion that the medium sized Italian man who passed Condon while he was walking on Jerome Avenue in the direction of East 233rd Street prior to his meeting "John" was one of the confederates of the kidnappers and was employed for the purpose of observing Condon remove the note from under the stone on the porch of the frankfurter stand and that when Condon did so, this medium sized Italian gave to "John" the signal verifying Dr. Condon's identity.
p177:

....an incident occurred at the home of Dr. Condon which might have some bearing on this case. Colonel Henry Breckinridge and Dr. Condon were at the latter's home awaiting further word from the kidnapers, when a young Italian about 25 years of age, height 5'7", dark complexion, came to the house and stated he was selling needles. Both Dr. Condon and Colonel Breckinridge went to the door and Dr. Condon purchased some of the needles. The Italian then departed and as far as Colonel Breckinridge could see, he walked off the block entirely without making any effort to sell needles at neighboring houses.

About an hour after the above incident, another Italian individual, of a similar description to the first, called at Dr. Condon's house with a scissors grinding apparatus. (omit) ...Dr. Condon gave him a few implements to sharpen, and upon completion of the job, the Doctor handed him a quarter....(omit) Thereafter the scissors grinder took his departure and as in the case of the first Italian, walked off the block without making an effort to solicit business elsewhere in the neighborhood.

Colonel Breckinridge expressed an opinion that either the needle vendor or the scissors grinder or both were emissaries of the kidnapers employed for the purpose of visiting Dr. Condon's house to determine whether there was a "plant" in the house and to determine accurately just how well the police were guarding the house. It appears possible that either one or both of these persons may be identical with one or the other of the "lookouts" observed at Woodlawn and St. Raymond Cemeteries.....
p.182:

During the course of that day, the eleventh ransom note of this case was delivered to Dr. Condon at his home on Decatur Avenue, allegedly by a taxicab driver. At the time of the delivery of this note Colonel Breckinridge was in a back room of Dr. Condon's house, and Colonel Lindbergh was also in the house, but neither saw the person who delivered the note.
p183:

It is Condon's statement that the communication received by him from an unidentified taxicab driver on April 2, 1932, was delivered to his home shortly after 8: o'clock on that evening although the surrounding circumstances relative to the delivery of this particular note are still in dispute.
p185:

Colonel Lindbergh and Condon arrived at Bergen's Flower Shop on the night of April 2, 1932 at exactly five minutes after 9: o'clock....
p196:

While Colonel Lindbergh was parked in Al Reich's car near Bergen's Flower Shop on that night and while Dr. Condon was walking down East Tremont Avenue near Whittemore Avenue close to St. Raymond's cemetery, Colonel Lindbergh from the car observed a man with a handkerchief held to his face. This man blew his nose in a loud manner and then dropped the handkerchief. (omit) It is the opinion of both Colonel Lindbergh and Colonel Breckinridge that this person who discarded the handkerchief it was the signal to "John" or any of the other kidnapers concerning Dr. Condon's identity.
p.185:

....Condon walked down to the corner of East Tremont Avenue to the Wittemore Avenue entrance of St. Raymond's Cemetery, where he saw a man and a little girl on the corner and from them he inquired as whether they knew where Whittemore Avenue was.

Officer James A. Avon, Bronx Police Department - Report 7-19-32:

Confidential Investigation Relative to the Activities of Dr. John F. Condon

p2:

At 12-55 P.M. April 14th, 1932 we interviewed Bernard Uebel of 116 Swinton Avenue, special officer in St. Raymond's Cemetery badge 1097. He stated that on April 1st, 1932, about 1-30 P.M. he saw a dark complexioned man with three or four others get out of a maroon sedan on Whittemore Avenue and St. Raymond's Cemetery (where ransom money is alleged to have been passed as pictured and mentioned in the newspapers). He stated that said men walked around as if they were looking for someone, they stayed about three or four hours and then drove away...(omit) Description of dark complexioned man:- Apparently an Italian....

Uebel further stated that on April 2nd, at about 2-30 P.M. while operating a cement mixer, he observed Dr. Condon park his auto at section 5 on Whittemore Avenue (same location as others parked on previous day) with a man driving him, car was faced east. Both alighted from car and Dr. Condon walked over to a Ford touring car, painted Green, no license obtainable, with side curtains drawn, containing several men, said car having driven up after Dr. Condon's and they parked behind his auto on Whittemore Avenue, facing south. Dr. Condon talked to them a few minutes and rejoined his friend, they both walked south on Whittemore Avenue, in the meantime the gree [sic] touring car with men, turned about and drove away. When Dr. Condon and friend reached section 8, Dr. Condon left him, walked across Balcom Avenue into marshes, then walked in an easterly direction in marshes alongside of ditch for about four city blocks, then came out at a red barn in the cemetery, rejoined his friend in section 8, walked back to his parked car taking a course on the inside of the hedge, parallel to Whittemore Avenue. His friend got into the automobile but Dr. Condon walked to Ford touring car which had again parked in same place. Dr. Condon took a large white envelope out of his pocket and handed it to an occupant of said automobile. He then walked back to his car and got in it with his friend, backed up and drove north on Wittemore Avenue toward E. Tremont Avenue and Ford, T.C. followed. Uebel stated that he was on a mixer about three hundred yards from parked automobile and he observed everything that took place as he had field glasses with him. He also stated that he spoke to Dr. Condon as he passed, as he knew him, Uebel could not describe Condon's friend or any occupant of the Ford, .....(omit)

Uebel stated that at about 7-45 A.M. Monday April 11th, 1932 he saw the maroon automobile again, no license number obtainable, drive up and park on Whittemore Avenue, at the same location, with same dark complexioned man sitting alongside the driver. He observed the dark complexioned man walk to a box-wood bush in the rear of 3254 E. Tremont Avenue,. which is about 75 feet west of Whittemore Avenue, reach into bush, take out a box and put it under his coat, go back to automobile and drive away.


**Thanks to Phillip in helping me with this post!

Michael Melsky to LKH Forum
Re: Hmmm.
Sat Mar 9 14:47:02 2002

I think the key is the documentation. It seems with every new report I get my hands on - turns up more evidence that Hauptmann wasn't involved.

Officer James A. Avon, Bronx Police Department - Report 7-19-32:

Confidential Investigation Relative to the Activities of Dr. John F. Condon

At 9-25 P.M. April 13th, 1932, in presence of Det. Thompson Colonel Breckenridge and Al Reich,  I interviewed Dr. Condon. I requested Dr. Condon to furnish me with the description of the above mentioned persons, and he stated that as much as he would like to help and cooperate with the police, he did not think it was fair at this time, as the life of a child was at stake, however, he did inform me that the description furnished in the newspaper as to the man he had contact with, was incorrect; but the location mentioned were correct.

(omit)

At 2-00 P.M. May 14th, 1932 Dr. Condon (Jafsie) and Al Reich appeared at the District Attorney's office, Bronx, and a statement was taken from Dr. Condon by Asst. Dis. Atty. Bresslin, as to his connections with the Lindbergh kidnaping case, in the presence of Detectives Winterhalter, Thompson, and myself.

I interviewed Dr. Condon and obtained from him a description of "John" as stated on the reverse side, he being the man he negotiated with in the payment of the $50,000. ransom money, for the return of the baby. Dr. Condon further informed me that the original ransom notes were turned over by him to Edmund Hoover, Department of Treasury.

DESCRIPTION OF MAN KNOW AS "JOHN"

Scandinavian 30 yrs., 5'9" 158 to 165 lbs bluish gray, dirty blond, medium complexion, oval shaped face, prominent forehead, brown fedora hat, dark brown band, with a snap rim, black coat, light in fabric, pepper and salt trousers, black shoes, acted very nervous and was continually coughing.

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