Charles Lindbergh Timeline

Twenty-month-old Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. was abducted from the family's home near Hopewell, New Jersey. A ransom note demanding $50,000 was found on the nursery windowsill, launching what the press called 'the crime of the century.'

Image source: Lindbergh kidnapping

Lindbergh paid a $50,000 ransom through Dr. John Condon, a retired school principal acting as intermediary, to a man later identified as Bruno Richard Hauptmann. The child was not returned.

The child's body was discovered partially buried in woods near the Lindbergh estate about four miles from the home. An autopsy determined the child had died from a blow to the head, likely on the night of the abduction.

Carpenter Bruno Richard Hauptmann was arrested in the Bronx after being caught with some of the marked ransom money. Gold certificates from the ransom had been surfacing since 1932 despite a currency embargo tied to the case.

Image source: Bruno Richard Hauptmann

Hauptmann was tried in Flemington, New Jersey, in a sensational media circus attended by Lindbergh himself. Convicted of kidnapping and murder based partly on ransom money found in his garage, he was executed in Trenton on April 3, 1936, still professing innocence.

Exhausted by relentless press intrusion after the kidnapping and trial, the Lindberghs moved to Long Barn in Kent, England. They lived in Europe until returning to the United States in April 1939.

At the invitation of the U.S. military attaché in Berlin, Lindbergh toured German aviation factories and air force installations. Impressed by Germany's aerial strength, he made several visits and received an award from Hermann Göring in 1938, which drew criticism.

The Lindbergh family returned to the United States as war loomed in Europe. Lindbergh began writing and speaking publicly about airpower and neutrality, warning against American involvement in another European war.

Lindbergh became the most prominent spokesman for the isolationist America First Committee, urging the United States to stay out of World War II. His speeches drew huge audiences but also fierce criticism, including accusations of Nazi sympathies.

Image source: America First Committee

In a speech in Des Moines, Iowa, Lindbergh named British, Jewish, and Roosevelt administration groups as agitators pushing America toward war. Widely condemned as antisemitic, the speech badly damaged his public standing and led to resignations from America First chapters.

Days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt refused to reinstate Lindbergh's Air Corps commission following an exchange over a radio address. Lindbergh resigned his commission in the Army Air Forces rather than serve without it.

Working as a civilian technical consultant for United Aircraft, Lindbergh flew about 50 combat missions in the Pacific theater as a P-38 Lightning gunnery instructor, and is credited with shooting down a Japanese fighter while demonstrating engine lean techniques.

Lindbergh published his detailed account of the transatlantic flight, which won the 1954 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and helped restore aspects of his public reputation.

Image source: The Spirit of St. Louis (book)

In later life Lindbergh became a dedicated conservationist, working with the World Wildlife Fund and helping campaigns to protect endangered species such as whales and the Philippine eagle, and supporting establishment of national parks in Hawaii and Tanzania.

Charles Lindbergh died at age 72 of lymphoma on the Hawaiian island of Maui, where he had spent his final years. He was buried on a bluff overlooking the ocean at Kipahulu, having designed his own simple grave marker.