The answer was succinct: "Guilty as hell.""
A couple of things to look at when considering a source like this. It is a rebuttal to Scaduto. It was in 1977. We cannot investigate its context. And it makes a claim about the trial being "forgotten" that from my own experiences just aren't true. But we should consider it after looking at the myriad of other sources which exist. How does it stack up?
The first step is to see what Fisher actually believed. Right from jump-street he was conceding possible involvement in the extortion, but innocent of murder. There are literally thousands of documents which reside in the NJSP Archives which can be consulted to see what Fisher's beliefs were during this time. Next, Hauptmann was executed on April 3, 1936. So since he believed Hauptmann was "
guilty as hell" then it was over for Fisher right?
No, it wasn't.
He was in constant contact with Gov. Hoffman praising his efforts and assisting in any way possible. Why do that if Hauptmann was as implied above?
Nothing exemplifies this more than after he became Prosecutor of Hunterdon County. What did he do? He approached NJ State Trooper Ray Bastedo and asked him to resign so that he could come work for him as a Detective for the county. After Bastedo was on board Fisher specifically assigned him to investigate all leads about the kidnapping that came in during his tenure there. Why? Hauptmann was "
guilty as hell" right? So why hand pick a trusted cop specifically to come over and investigate the Lindbergh Kidnapping - at
that time? Fisher told Bastedo that he didn't believe Hauptmann was "
innocent" but "
thought others had to have been involved." So what we have here is, in my opinion, at least the same position he took right from the beginning of the case. It could also represent a more advanced belief in his involvement. What we do know is that Fisher was the guy Hauptmann told everything to. If Hauptmann was ever truthful about anything then Fisher would be the guy to know.
After this there are even later sources like George Hawke who interviewed him for his thesis on the crime in 1951. Hawke wrote: "
To this day he believes that Hauptmann could not possibly have stolen the baby without associates." So here again we are seeing a repeated position.
I could go on forever because there are just so many sources to consult. Take Bob Wagner's recollections. He was a good friend of Trooper Hausler and also spoke with Fisher on a number of occasions. Fisher told Wagner that if Hauptmann "
told all he knew" he would have "
saved himself from the electric chair."
Sources & Context go hand in hand. Clearly Fisher believed Hauptmann had involvement, knew more, and that others were involved.
People who "like" the Lone-Wolf theory will ignore all of the facts I wrote about this and simply point to Joe's source as "proof" Fisher believed Hauptmann was a Lone-Wolf and guilty as hell. But we know differently.
(BTW: Wagner also said that according the Hausler, he did not believe Hauptmann had been in the nursery on March 1st. Whatever more was said certainly convinced him that Hauptmann hadn't been the kidnapper and he wrote several letters to the NJSP in 1985 in order to make his recollections concerning what Captain Hausler had told him were known.)