Post by john on Jan 24, 2013 3:52:36 GMT -5
I don't know if the subject of this thread has been discussed in detail but this is something that occurred to me recently, and it's a question I believe relevant to the LKC: how good a carpenter was Bruno Richard Hauptmann? I've read that he was competent but nothing special to somewhat above average.
Are there pictures (a gallery maybe) of Hauptmann's work, things he designed himself, that might give some clue as to his style, his skill? I ask because the kidnap ladder looks so rickety, as if put together by an amateur. Hauptmann himself said on the witness stand that it "looks like a music instrument". It certainly doesn't look like the world of an experienced, professioanl carpenter (leaving aside for the time being the possibility that BRH made it look that way deliberately, so as to make it look like the perp,--or gang member who made the ladder-- wasn't a professional carpenter).
The ransom notes, gold certificates, boards from Hauptmann's attic, fingerprints and footprints have all been examined, but did anyone do a detailed examination of Hauptmann's carpentry work. I would think that just as it's extremelly difficult (for a non-forger) to disguise one's handwriting completely, without leaving some telltale traces of one's actual writing style, so too would it be difficult for a carpenter to make something with his own hands that in no way resembled his usual work. Or maybe Hauptmann had no style, as such. I'm just wondering if the subject has come up and, if so, disucssed in detail, as in "this is a kitchen table and chairs Hauptmann made, and here's a bureau, and there're a bed frame,--can you see any similarities between these objects and the the ladder found on the grounds of the Lindbergh estate on the night of March 1, 1932"?).
Wood experts were brought into the case, but to the best of my knowledge there were no carpentry experts (maybe there weren't any). If there were such experts this could have helped Hauptmann, for while the rails may have matched some of the boards found in Hauptmann's attic, if a carpentry expert had testified that the ladder was so different in style from Hauptmann's usual work as to be highly unlikely to have been the work of Hauptmann's hand, this might have raised questions in the minds of the jurors that in the end could have saved him from the electric chair.
Are there pictures (a gallery maybe) of Hauptmann's work, things he designed himself, that might give some clue as to his style, his skill? I ask because the kidnap ladder looks so rickety, as if put together by an amateur. Hauptmann himself said on the witness stand that it "looks like a music instrument". It certainly doesn't look like the world of an experienced, professioanl carpenter (leaving aside for the time being the possibility that BRH made it look that way deliberately, so as to make it look like the perp,--or gang member who made the ladder-- wasn't a professional carpenter).
The ransom notes, gold certificates, boards from Hauptmann's attic, fingerprints and footprints have all been examined, but did anyone do a detailed examination of Hauptmann's carpentry work. I would think that just as it's extremelly difficult (for a non-forger) to disguise one's handwriting completely, without leaving some telltale traces of one's actual writing style, so too would it be difficult for a carpenter to make something with his own hands that in no way resembled his usual work. Or maybe Hauptmann had no style, as such. I'm just wondering if the subject has come up and, if so, disucssed in detail, as in "this is a kitchen table and chairs Hauptmann made, and here's a bureau, and there're a bed frame,--can you see any similarities between these objects and the the ladder found on the grounds of the Lindbergh estate on the night of March 1, 1932"?).
Wood experts were brought into the case, but to the best of my knowledge there were no carpentry experts (maybe there weren't any). If there were such experts this could have helped Hauptmann, for while the rails may have matched some of the boards found in Hauptmann's attic, if a carpentry expert had testified that the ladder was so different in style from Hauptmann's usual work as to be highly unlikely to have been the work of Hauptmann's hand, this might have raised questions in the minds of the jurors that in the end could have saved him from the electric chair.