Post by bookrefuge on May 21, 2012 17:34:49 GMT -5
I wrote an article for the current hard-copy edition of The New American Magazine, commemorating Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight for its 85th anniversary. In researching the article, which had zip to do with the kidnapping, I learned a couple of facts about Lindbergh that might be useful on this board.
1-- Lindbergh was a crack shot since his youth. He got his first rifle when he was six and could eventually shoot a duck in the head in full flight. In his freshman year at U of Wisconsin he joined the shooting team, which won the national championship, with Lindbergh honored as its best marksman.
I expect that, after Lindbergh’s flight, a great deal was published about his life, including his marksmanship skills. This is therefore a fact the kidnappers would likely have been acquainted with.
Why is this significant? Because you don’t want Lindy around when you snatch the kid. If he could shoot a flying duck in the head, he could certainly shoot a fleeing intruder in the head. I believe this may have been a reason for choosing March 1 as the snatch night—a rare evening when the baby would be at Highfields, when you could strike in the dark, yet without the presence of Daddy, whom newspapers had declared would be at the NYU dinner.
If a criminal wanted to snatch a woman’s purse, he certainly wouldn’t choose to do it when an armed policeman was standing nearby—I think that’s about the gist of it.
This is the reason I began the thread “Did Lindbergh’s arrival alter the kidnapping?” I have to wonder if, after Lindbergh arrived, the kidnappers switched modes, like bank robbers who have just seen a cop car pulling up outside the bank. Did they panic at that moment, hurry the plan, or in some other way alter it? Do the footprints of stocking feet perhaps represent, not leisure, but instead haste—a man who is in such a hurry that he doesn’t stop to put his shoes back on? Yet as Michael has noted, these seem to be the prints of man who is walking, not running.
2-This is MUCH less significant, a minor point at best, but Lindbergh was an outdoorsman. He spent much of his youth hunting and exploring. He loved to sleep outside, even in subfreezing temperatures, which is one reason he didn’t mind the sleet pelting him in his cockpit as he crossed the Atlantic.
I only mention this because on the night of the kidnapping, Lindbergh helped the police track the footprints. I don’t mean that he was an “expert tracker,” but I expect that his experience from all that hunting probably made his tracking skills pretty good, and I think it fair to say he had excellent visual perception. Therefore it may add a little credence to the reports of footprints which Lindbergh tracked with the police (specifically the ones leading to the abandoned house/chicken coop).
1-- Lindbergh was a crack shot since his youth. He got his first rifle when he was six and could eventually shoot a duck in the head in full flight. In his freshman year at U of Wisconsin he joined the shooting team, which won the national championship, with Lindbergh honored as its best marksman.
I expect that, after Lindbergh’s flight, a great deal was published about his life, including his marksmanship skills. This is therefore a fact the kidnappers would likely have been acquainted with.
Why is this significant? Because you don’t want Lindy around when you snatch the kid. If he could shoot a flying duck in the head, he could certainly shoot a fleeing intruder in the head. I believe this may have been a reason for choosing March 1 as the snatch night—a rare evening when the baby would be at Highfields, when you could strike in the dark, yet without the presence of Daddy, whom newspapers had declared would be at the NYU dinner.
If a criminal wanted to snatch a woman’s purse, he certainly wouldn’t choose to do it when an armed policeman was standing nearby—I think that’s about the gist of it.
This is the reason I began the thread “Did Lindbergh’s arrival alter the kidnapping?” I have to wonder if, after Lindbergh arrived, the kidnappers switched modes, like bank robbers who have just seen a cop car pulling up outside the bank. Did they panic at that moment, hurry the plan, or in some other way alter it? Do the footprints of stocking feet perhaps represent, not leisure, but instead haste—a man who is in such a hurry that he doesn’t stop to put his shoes back on? Yet as Michael has noted, these seem to be the prints of man who is walking, not running.
2-This is MUCH less significant, a minor point at best, but Lindbergh was an outdoorsman. He spent much of his youth hunting and exploring. He loved to sleep outside, even in subfreezing temperatures, which is one reason he didn’t mind the sleet pelting him in his cockpit as he crossed the Atlantic.
I only mention this because on the night of the kidnapping, Lindbergh helped the police track the footprints. I don’t mean that he was an “expert tracker,” but I expect that his experience from all that hunting probably made his tracking skills pretty good, and I think it fair to say he had excellent visual perception. Therefore it may add a little credence to the reports of footprints which Lindbergh tracked with the police (specifically the ones leading to the abandoned house/chicken coop).