|
Post by vigilante on Apr 12, 2012 2:03:46 GMT -5
Hello,
I'm new and just learned about this case in one of my college classes. I've read up some on the internet and have a few questions that I weren't able to find the answers on the board for.
I hope someone doesn't mind answering.
1) In the case it says the gold bills were found in Hauptmann's garage. I know some people claim his innocence but I feel it's hard to debate this....He clearly had something to do with the case...Is the argument that the bills were planted?
2) I've read a lot of posts on the board and the consensus is definitely that regardless of whether Hauptmann is guilty or innocent...There were clearly other people involved. Who is the next primary suspect?
3) It's obviously clear that more people were involved....is there any reason Hauptmann did not sell out the people he was working with? He was about to be executed...Why not scream it from the rooftops?
4) The most disturbing part about this is the maid Violet Sharpe who committed suicide. It just seems extremely suspicious...She had been questioned three times...clearly if she had nothing to hide there was no problem. But it seemed she knew at least SOMETHING. I'm confused as to how or why police found no ties from her to the crime. Shouldn't there be SOMETHING? It's the maid...
5) How is Hauptmann's son doing?
|
|
kevkon
Lt. Colonel
Posts: 2,800
|
Post by kevkon on Apr 12, 2012 9:34:22 GMT -5
Hello and welcome Vigilante. #1)I can't answer this since I have no idea regarding this theory.
#2) Take your pick. If you believe in the frame up as per question #1, then the field is wide. Personally, I see someone close to Hauptmann. Probably German and probably under the radar.
#3) I have heard numerous explanations with the most popular being a fear for his family. Another is honor among thieves, so to say. It may have been a combination of elements. My own belief is that he could not give up anyone without revealing his own involvement and losing the respect of his family. I think he genuinely valued what his mother, wife and son thought of him.
#4) I would go with the opinion of FBI profiler John Douglas, Violet killed herself because she had given out information which she felt aided the kidnappers. She may not have done this knowing it was to lead to a crime, it may have been indirect. But I do believe she was fearful of the repercussions of her actions.
#5) last I heard, Manfred is retired from his job and living in PA.
Hopefully you will get quite a few opinions from others on this board which will differ greatly. That's all part of what makes this case so fascinating.
|
|
|
Post by Michael on Apr 12, 2012 16:24:33 GMT -5
1) This was never an argument. Hauptmann claimed the money was discovered in the Box Fisch gave to him. It was dubbed "The Fish Story" ever since.
2) Kevin is right. Everyone has their own personal favorite due to what they've read or researched. It's all up for debate which can either help to trim down or add to the list.
3) All (3) of Kevin's points are among those I have seen. Also we must consider the different variations among them.
For example, when considering protecting a Family Member from harm - we must also consider one actually had been involved in which case revealing that would defeat the purpose of a confession. And so one angle would be he didn't want them shot in retaliation and another would be he didn't want them arrested.
Also we must remember that he did implicate Fisch, claiming the ransom came from him and later that his personal belief was he must have been involved.
Next, it had been suggested by Sam Leibowitz that Governor Hoffman's interference is what was preventing his confession. I say this must be considered within reason because despite some claims - Hauptmann did know he was going to die on April 3rd. So it could in fact be true up to a certain point. I have never said this before but I believe there was some evidence he was going to confess at one time but something happened to prevent it.
It's something I am still trying to develop.....
4) It is suspicious and both Schwarzkopf and Inspector Walsh indicated publicly that she had guilty knowledge. However, because "we" are focusing on this case then everything people did HAD to be associated directly with it. My best advice to anyone researching the Case is to consider other unrelated reasons too. Not every action or circumstance was a result of this Crime. The other is that, and I've said it a million times before, not everything is black and white. There are many shades of grey which could answer the questions. But because grey isn't always the main choice or the most attractive - its ignored and/or disregarded.
Don't make that mistake.
In any event, the NJSP quickly made an Investigation to try to determine whether or not Hauptmann had ever met Sharp. Smart yes, but not indicative of an Agency convinced he was a Lone-Wolf.
5) I have been told by those who have attempted to contact him that he just wants to be left alone. I've spoken to many people but since I've heard this more then once I believe its true, and that his wishes should be respected.
|
|
Joe
Lt. Colonel
Posts: 2,656
|
Post by Joe on Apr 14, 2012 10:20:03 GMT -5
Vigilante, some very good questions..
1) When confronted with the gold ransom bills in his garage, Hauptmann never once denied knowledge of them, although he did conveniently pin them on a dead Fisch. The totality of the physical evidence clearly shows Hauptmann had a lot to do with the case.
2) I tend to believe there were others who came to understand a kind of presumed involvement and that his close friends and acquaintances were continually torn between their desire to protect him if innocent, and turn him in if guilty. Cheerful, unemployed people who often treated their friends, in the Depression, were a very rare commodity and I’m sure many of the recipients did not want this behaviour to change.
3) Ultimately, I think Hauptmann’s sense of grim determination to beat the charges against him, Wilentz’s caustic prosecution of him at Flemington and his faith that Governor Hoffman would find a way to permanently stay his execution, led him to reject any notion of a confession. Dudley Schoenfled was right in 1932, when he profiled the perpetrator as someone who would not confess. And having to admit personal involvement would have been bad enough for Hauptmann, but it’s my opinion he would also have to implicate Anna, at least for her later knowledge, an accessory after the fact and before his arrest.
4) Violet Sharp was friendly with Tom McElvie, a reporter with the Daily News and information on the Lindberghs, that she passed along to him previously, had enabled his newspaper to scoop the competition. I think it’s evident that Violet as a whole, was considered a bit unstable and neurotic, so I can see how this kind of surreptitious activity could well have caused her to believe she was in some way responsible for the death of CalJr, or at the very least, that the Morrows would turn their back on her for spilling "secrets of the house."
5) The last I’ve heard, Fred Hauptmann was enjoying retirement and maintaining a strict sense of privacy about the case. Can't say I blame him.
|
|