THE LINDBERGH KIDNAPPING HOAX

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But like so many other reviewers, Mary Ann Grossman never bothers to ask a rather obvious question: Why would the secretive Anne Morrow Lindbergh suddenly have a change of heart and give Berg exclusive access to the Lindbergh documents (2000 boxes in all) including her own personal letters and diaries? Are we to actually believe the deep dark secrets the Lindberghs have been keeping all these years could now be made public by Berg? Of course not. Mr. Berg’s 9 year book writing mission has accomplished little more than a very long house cleaning project: Whisk away a few cobwebs here, add a little polish to tarnished image there, and “voila” we have a beautifully written version of the Lindbergh myth. And while Berg, himself, admits he found some of Lindbergh’s behavior disturbing, his portrayal does not come close to revealing the real man who lurks behind the image of our great American hero.

My own research for a book which will be out next year focuses on the women whose lives were touched by the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. Betty Gow, the Scottish nursemaid, and the last person to see the child alive, reflected on Lindbergh as a man who had within his personality “that little bit of sadism.” Of all the kidnapping theories of the past 70 years , the most plausible is presented in “Crime of the Century; The Lindbergh Kidnapping Hoax” by Gregory Ahlgren and Stephen Monier. In this well thought out re-enactment, defense attorney , Ahlgren and chief of police, Monier blend modern-day investigative techniques with good old fashioned common sense to fill in some missing pieces of a crime that has baffled researchers for years. Lindbergh’s behavior fits the profile of a man trying to cover up his actions. Not only was Lindbergh never interviewed by the police, he insisted on heading up the investigation himself. And since at the time Colonel Lindbergh was the most famous man in the world, who would dare tell him no?

When I began the project more that 5 years ago, I had the greatest respect for Charles Lindbergh. My own Swedish grandfather had a proclivity for “Lindbergh style” practical jokes, so I had a personal interest in exploring his family history. While Berg is a masterful story teller, whisking the reader back through generations with great ease, he fails to explore the significance of the character flaws that helped mold Lindbergh’s personality. Charles Lindbergh had a cruel and sadistic sense of humor. One sweltering day he filled a fellow pilot’s water glass with kerosene and then laughed hysterically when the guy keeled over in uncontrollable agony. (The pilot was hospitalized.) And as a parent, I find the following Lindbergh practical joke the most horrifying... and the most revealing. Just months before Lindbergh’s child was abducted and eventually found dead in the nearby forest, Lindbergh, himself, actually hid the baby in a closet and proceeded to tell the entire household the child had been kidnapped. It was more than a half hour before Lindbergh gleefully admitted his prank to his hysterical wife and pulled the child back out of the closet. This is supposed to be amusing?

Certainly Charles Lindbergh deserves praise for the many spectacular achievements documented so skillfully in Berg’s book. But shouldn’t we also be allowed to probe deeper into the psyche of a man whose seeds of cruelty and hatred had been sown from a very early age? And on March 1, 1932, the night little Charles was kidnapped , just what are we to think when his father calls his attorney before calling the state police? While Mr. Berg is busy “cleaning up” with his new biography, there are some who are wondering if a decent, hardworking German immigrant was sacrificed in the electric chair in order to preserve the image of our so-called great American hero. ______________________________

MELINDA ROSE moved to the Lehigh Valley 6 years ago from Boston. “The Other Voices; Women of the Lindbergh Tragedy,” her book-in-progress, is to be published in 1999. She has also written three screenplays. Along with her book-in-progress, she has written 3 screenplays.

Until 5 years ago MELINDA ROSE wrote and lectured on the importance of healthy humor. Her lecture TONGUE FU: USING HUMOR TO COMBAT STRESS reached a broad range of audiences, including faculty and staff at Harvard, Radcliffe and N.Y.U as well as government agencies, including the U.S post office,(God knows these folks need a little humor) and for that added touch of drama, the Massachusetts prison system.

It was a book review in the Boston Globe that marked the beginning of Melinda's screenwriting career. In their book CRIME OF THE CENTURY: THE LINDBERGH KIDNAPPING HOAX, Gregory Ahlgren and Stephen Monier suggests our great American hero, Charles Lindbergh had a sadistic sense of humor. Well, that did it. Melinda dropped everything and began the daunting task of reading almost every book on Lindbergh as well as the kidnapping and the Trial of the Century. Lindbergh's particular style of humor disturbed and intrigued her, in part because her own Swedish grandfather had a remarkably similar repertoire of crude, tasteless practical jokes.

An entire year of research, including countless hours at the New Jersey State Police Archives, resulted in Melinda's first screenplay, IN THEIR HANDS. It quickly landed her an agent and made semi-finalist in Nicholl's Screenwriting Competition. But Hollywood never did care much about searching for the truth. Neither, it seems, does the American media. As A. Scott Berg's LINDBERGH biography makes its way through the reviews of every major newspaper, Melinda has written a letter to each and every editor. Not one newspaper has published her letter.

At the present time, Melinda is hard at work on a book, THE OTHER VOICES; WOMEN OF THE lINDBERGH TRAGEDY.

Here are the voices of the women whose lives were touched by the Lindbergh baby kidnapping and who, until now have remained hidden beneath the pages of history in order to make way for the heroes of the day. Follow the lives of the two nursemaids, Betty Gow and Violet Sharpe, as they are accused of the crime. Wait and watch helplessly with Anna Hauptmann as the nation demands retribution from her German immigrant husband for this crime he most likely did not commit. And listen to the outspoken and fiercely independent Amelia Earhart and other well known women whose observations help to snap the remaining puzzle pieces of this 65 year old mystery neatly into place.

Interspersed throughout these stories from the past, women who are today in their 80s and 90s reminisce about the Lindbergh kidnapping tragedy and the effect it had on their lives. Various theories published over the years are reexamined from a woman's point of view, with new light shed on some of the old evidence... evidence that could... and should result in reopening the Hauptmann case.

This historic narrative is more that just the unraveling of an age old mystery but an examination of the consequences of America's preoccupation with heroes. The women on these pages will leave the reader with only one possibility as to what really happened that night in 1932. The possibility is shocking and horrifying. But it will make perfect sense.

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