Joe
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Post by Joe on Dec 30, 2023 13:03:56 GMT -5
I thought I'd redirect this secondary thread which arose out of the recent Ciphers thread, so that it doesn't get absorbed there without further reflection and comment.
Dec 19, 2023 at 2:45pm, Joe said: It's always refreshing to be able to acknowledge in no uncertain terms, the clear and straightforward circumstantial physical evidence that justly led to the conviction of a mentally-ill, German carpenter from the Bronx for the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh Jr.
Dec 23, 2023 at 1:09pm, A Guest said: Joe, could you elaborate on why you believe Hauptmann was mentally-ill? This was not a finding of the alienists who examined Hauptmann in 1934. Just curious. Thanks!
I think one has to seriously ask themselves how it would have been possible for anyone so conclusively proven to have been intimately involved within the kidnapping and ransom of the son of arguably the most famous and respected man in the world, carry through with such a scheme, be able to calmly look over his shoulder for two and a half years, totally frustrate his eventual captors with claims of absolute innocence, stoically endure the Flemington trial showcase, and then ultimately go to his death still proclaiming the same absolute innocence, without suffering from some degree of mental illness or injury.
The alienists (psychiatrists) within the Huddleson Report were gently probing Richard Hauptmann, without making any assumption of complicity on his part in the crime. Their analysis was not biased by any judgment of guilt or non-guilt, although they did attempt at times to have Hauptmann provide further indications which might then lead them to more focused lines of questioning, relating directly to the crime.
Psychiatric evaluation of what constituted mental illness in 1934, compared to what it is today, was relatively primitive. If these same alienists had had the benefit of modern day psychiatry, case studies and mental disorder type classifications at their disposal while knowing full well the extent of the circumstantial physical evidence which stood solidly against their subject, I believe they would have ultimately diagnosed Hauptmann in part:
Psychotic Disorder >>> Schizophrenic Condition >>> Delusions of Grandeur >>> Connections: Subject’s belief in a connection or a feeling of entitlement towards some association with someone or something significantly well beyond the subject’s own sphere of influence.
Other factors would include primal greed for a more desirable lifestyle as demonstrated by the $50,000 ransom and giving up his carpentry vocation. And quite possibly, some permanent but undiagnosed brain damage (mental injury) from the impact of shrapnel to his head during WWI. Such injuries are known to promote character changes for the worse, and also a higher degree of risk taking, (Kamenz crimes, prison escape and flight to America, stock market trading as livelihood) of which there was no shortage within the overall commission of this crime.
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Post by Sue on Mar 30, 2024 14:29:57 GMT -5
Dr. Blake Crider, who had recently been hired at Fenn College in Cleveland, Ohio sometime soon after Hauptmann's arrest in 1934, voiced the opinion that Hauptmann was insane.
I wonder if there were other psychologists who also may have deemed Hauptmann insane?
Is it possible that the "alienists" who DID examine Hauptmann believed the same thing, but fearing the public outcry for revenge, did not judge him insane?
Determining Hauptmann to be insane, he would have avoided a trial.
Here is the article from the Plain Dealer:
"Hauptmann Insane, Fenn Expert Thinks"
Bruno Hauptmann is technically insane, Dr. Blake Crider, head of Fenn College's psychology department, believes.
From reports of Hauptmann's reactions under severe grillings, toward Col. Charles A. Lindbergh in their recent meeting and toward his wife and baby, Dr. Crider concludes Hauptmann's mind is divorced from his emotions.
"I imagine experts will find Hauptmann insane," Dr. Crider said yesterday."But I doubt any court will accept that testimony because of public prejudice, which is bound to permeate any jury."
"Hauptmann is an emotional moron. He is the sort who would cry when others are glad and laugh when others are sad. When given the third degree he suffered very little from the emotional strain which would break most of us, guilty or innocent. Insanity is a disease of the emotions, not the mind."
"When asked what message to give his wife Hauptmann's mind only answered, 'Tell my wife I love her.' as he might have said, 'Tell her to feed the pigs.'"
Cleveland Plain Dealer October 2, 1934 Page 15
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Post by obi on Apr 4, 2024 7:38:46 GMT -5
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Joe
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Post by Joe on Apr 6, 2024 10:40:25 GMT -5
I can understand in part, why the prosecution would not have been too anxious to acknowledge and probe the subject of Hauptmann’s true mental state too deeply other than provide a cursory understanding of Dr. Dudley Schoenfeld’s conclusions to the jury. There would have been only a very small percentage of the American voting and tax paying public who were not anxious to see Hauptmann get the electric chair.
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Joe
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Post by Joe on Apr 6, 2024 11:00:42 GMT -5
Seeing death up close, or even it's effects, on a daily basis are known to de-sensitize human beings against what would be considered normal reactions to witnessing death.
Hauptmann may have suffered permanent concussion effects from the shrapnel hit to his helmet where he was knocked unconscious for hours before coming to on the battlefield where he fell. And I believe that resultantly, a good case could be made that his relative slowness to react and lack of mental clarity experienced in daily situations, would have delayed normal brain processing time to the point action would have been consciously avoided until it ultimately became action of increasingly added risk, to satisfy the self. And that Hauptmann would have struggled with this condition on-and-off continuously after the war.
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Post by Sue on Apr 6, 2024 13:38:17 GMT -5
I wonder if the injury from the shrapnel affected the limbic system of Hauptmann's brain?
The limbic area of the brain governs emotions.
Maybe that's why Dr. Blake Crider thought Hauptmann was "an emotional moron."
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Joe
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Post by Joe on Apr 13, 2024 9:49:18 GMT -5
If Richard Hauptmann had not been hit by that piece of shrapnel, I have my doubts he ever would have resorted to high risk and criminal behaviour, leading him from post-war larceny and on the road to an eventual psychological desire to kidnap the son of America's hero, Charles Lindbergh. And this final action, for a sum that would keep him materially happy but that could hardly be called a ‘king’s ransom,’ a fact not unnoticed by both investigators and members of the underworld. More than money was involved here.
Hauptmann’s mental condition before the war, ie. spelling peculiarities and speech difficulties, carried on after the war. Perhaps someone can confirm my belief, that the shrapnel hit Hauptmann's helmet near his right temple, a location where a person's memory can be affected and where inhibition at least in the area of speech, can be lessened and with recall of music and art actually being enhanced.
The real change in Hauptmann’s personality following the war though, appears to have been in his tendency to choose high risk and criminal behaviour in order to meet his physical and psychological needs. Having seen death close up could well have desensitized him to intentional killing beyond the battlefield, ie. Charlie's murder. I believe the 'x factor' which tied everything together and eventually led to his infamous actions, was his inordinately high level of steely self-determination and belief in his own abilities, as demonstrated by his tortuous battle to reach America. And that within his marriage and relationships, he thought in terms of, and displayed a strong but relatively understated 'ubermensch' type of personality, itself characterized by feelings of omnipotence. Whatever he set his mind to doing, he would accomplish. And he would do it alone. Just like the the man whom he targeted for his crime, did in his world famous 1927 flight. Alone.
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Post by Sue on Apr 13, 2024 11:07:44 GMT -5
Thank you for this post, Joe. Too bad we will never know the extent of the damage caused by the shrapnel. As far as high risk behavior goes, those beach photos of him rollicking with Anita Lutzenberg do not serve Hauptmann well! And this was at the time where he had Anna safely in Germany, but this does not mean he kidnapped the Lindbergh baby. His friend John Braue was the photographer. He could have told him "no pictures," so maybe this ALSO demonstrated high risk behavior, not caring who might find out about the photographic evidence! I don't feel Hauptmann's lawyers served him well. They could have taken the insanity defense route. There are many missing pieces in this case. If we are to believe that Hauptmann had an interpreter in the person of Emil Kemeny... well, where WAS this person to translate for him? Hauptmann seemed lost, irritated, and scared on the stand. library.syracuse.edu/digital/guides/k/kemeny_em.htm
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Joe
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Post by Joe on Apr 14, 2024 8:46:06 GMT -5
Thank you for this post, Joe. Too bad we will never know the extent of the damage caused by the shrapnel. As far as high risk behavior goes, those beach photos of him rollicking with Anita Lutzenberg do not serve Hauptmann well! And this was at the time where he had Anna safely in Germany, but this does not mean he kidnapped the Lindbergh baby. His friend John Braue was the photographer. He could have told him "no pictures," so maybe this ALSO demonstrated high risk behavior, not caring who might find out about the photographic evidence! I don't feel Hauptmann's lawyers served him well. They could have taken the insanity defense route. There are many missing pieces in this case. If we are to believe that Hauptmann had an interpreter in the person of Emil Kemeny... well, where WAS this person to translate for him? Hauptmann seemed lost, irritated, and scared on the stand. library.syracuse.edu/digital/guides/k/kemeny_em.htm Fawcett may well have contemplated an insanity plea for Hauptmann, as evidenced by the six alienists he hired to evaluate his client and whose findings can be found in the Huddleson Report. Given the public’s cry for blood though, he would have had a very tough go of it as on the surface and even with psychiatric probing, Hauptmann appeared to indicate few if any characteristics of a legally insane person. Hauptmann was far from normal though. He was able to effectively mask any signs of his conclusively proven involvement in the crime, by using his extraordinary ability to stand up and defend himself from attack, by whatever means he believed it took, truthful or otherwise. He was a master practitioner of 'CYA.' And he refused to capitulate during the trial where this otherwise nondescript carpenter from the Bronx successfully went toe-to-toe with the Attorney General of New Jersey, continuing his iron willed routine right up to the time of his execution. How many normally adjusted individuals could have held up as well as Hauptmann did under such circumstances, given what should otherwise have felt like an underlying and enormous burden of guilt, without breaking into little pieces. I’d venture not many in millions.
I believe all would have been better served by removing Hauptmann from the hostile atmosphere he had found himself in following his arrest, in favour of a less confrontational setting. There, his emotions could be most effectively appealed to until his mental defenses were basically overwhelmed by his own innate and opposing need to release his secret and cleanse his conscience. Both Dr. Dudley Schoenfeld and intermediary John Condon were more than aware of the need to appeal to Hauptmann’s emotional state, no matter how deeply buried it might be and they both appealed to authorities for the opportunity to intervene on their own terms. Captain Richard Oliver and Lt. James Finn of the NYPD were both open to Schoenfeld’s theories but this was also a major 1930’s crime against a beloved American hero, and few people would have been in the mood for psychology and emotional understanding at the time.
I’m sure there were occasions during the trial when Hauptmann was genuinely confused on the stand, as a witness to other trial proceedings and that an interpreter might have assisted him at times. I don’t know in what official capacity, Kemeny served as Hauptmann’s interpreter, whether in speech or writing. As I view Hauptmann, he gave no indication at any time that he considered himself disadvantaged, nor did he appear to request this kind of help. Reporters often commented on his aloof and almost disinterested nature, at other times how he seemed to be relishing his notoriety and spotlight position in the courtroom. Even during some of the more staccato exchanges between Wilentz and Hauptmann, I don’t see Hauptmann fumbling in order to try and and keep up with his attacker, although it seems possible at times, he could have been masking any momentary confusion in order to continue appearing his strong and indomitable self.
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Post by Sue on Apr 14, 2024 22:41:23 GMT -5
Hauptmann did not understand the American legal system, so how was he supposed to request an interpreter, or even know that he needed one?
Hauptmann was probably unsure how to conduct himself in court, especially if no one was advising him.
I think his lawyers left him to his own devices because they knew that they were never going to win the case.
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Joe
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Post by Joe on Apr 15, 2024 7:03:16 GMT -5
Hauptmann's lawyers were also aware of the shield their client presented to each of them, one as if to say, "beyond what I choose to tell you, don't bother going there." This was one of George Waller's direct observations from the trial.
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