Joe
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Post by Joe on Jan 2, 2007 20:23:32 GMT -5
Sue, yes I do have the Princeton Recollector and it's full of great accounts and anecdotes. Unfortunately, very few of them have a source attached to them and I just can't locate the blasted thing right now. When I find it, I'll add some detail on the Conover account. One other thing I remember from the same page is an account by a Dave Moore in which he claimed to have seen Hauptmann and Anna in Featherbed Lane before the kidnapping. After having read both issues of the PR a while back, my impression was, how can much of what's in here be accepted as truth and what can be further substantiated or just discarded as myth. All in all though, a very entertaining and absorbing read.
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Joe
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Post by Joe on Jan 3, 2007 10:06:50 GMT -5
Here is the Conover account from the Princeton Recollector: "I just saw the headlights. I was going to school at the time and we had homework, as you probably know. And we had a pencil sharpener up on the back windowsill at home. I went out to sharpen my pencil and looked out the window and I saw these lights come out from behind our woods, from the little road that was between us and the Lindberghs. I seen a car come down Featherbed Lane - the road was in bad shape and very muddy and he had quite some trouble getting on down. He came close enough to see our lights, then he turned off his lights. He turned off his lights as soon as he come out from behind our woods so people wouldn't see him. But I seen that car come down that night from the Lindberghs'."
"We knew there was something going on that wasn't right, but we didn't actually know what happened until next morning."
"It woke us up in the night, the sound of strange cars going up and down the road. Of course, this was just a narrow dirt road then, and if you heard more than one car you thought it was something. We had no idea what had happened - we thought there'd been a fire or something up the road. My aunt lives up on the next hill; and she can see right across to the Lindbergh's house. Here we can't see it. Anyway, she got up by the morning about six o'clock, and she called us and said, "Well the lights were on all night at the Lindbergh's, they must be having an open house or something." And it wasn't long before we heard what happened." The article includes a 1977 photo of Featherbed Lane, which carries the description: "The obstacles imposed by March mud make the rutted Featherbed Lane near the Lindbergh estate as treacherous today as when the kidnappers used it forty-five years ago." There is also this account from the Hunterdon Democrat which I believe Sue and others have posted previously: www.nj.com/lindbergh/hunterdon/index.ssf?/lindbergh/stories/neighbr.htmlAnd here's a picture of the entrance to Featherbed Lane from Lindbergh Road I took about 5 years ago:
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 21, 2019 16:50:19 GMT -5
One of the things I have noticed while researching at the archives is how the NJSP were having the handwriting of various suspects checked against the ransom notes looking for a match. As I believe Michael has mentioned on this board in the past, suspects were often eliminated simply because their handwriting did not match the notes. What I have been looking for and so far have not found in the files, is that during the two + years the investigation was going on until the apprehension of Hauptmann, are any reports on the checking of these suspects fingerprints to the latent, unidentified ladder fingerprints that were in the possession of the NJSP. Even though the belief that more than one person was involved with this crime existed, LE seemed not to feel the need to make such a fingerprint check. I suppose they didn't consider that the writer of the notes may not have been the person who made the ladder. Remember, Hauptmann's fingerprints were never found on that ladder either. Interesting, I recently found a report that requested such a fingerprint check be made. Capt. Snook asked for a ladder print check for the prints of suspect, Carmielo Cerardi, aka Enrico Cerardi, aka Joe Jerome who had lived in Charlie Shippell's shack on Old Mount Rose Road the summer of 1931. I am going to post this request here. Please keep in mind that New Jersey had arrested, prosecuted BRH as a lone wolf and finally executed Hauptmann as such in April 1936. So why are they doing this?? imgur.com/MeD1Rp4
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Post by Michael on Jun 22, 2019 7:21:31 GMT -5
Interesting, I recently found a report that requested such a fingerprint check be made. Capt. Snook asked for a ladder print check for the prints of suspect, Carmielo Cerardi, aka Enrico Cerardi, aka Joe Jerome who had lived in Charlie Shippell's shack on Old Mount Rose Road the summer of 1931. I am going to post this request here. Please keep in mind that New Jersey had arrested, prosecuted BRH as a lone wolf and finally executed Hauptmann as such in April 1936. So why are they doing this?? I am addressing Cerardi in V3 but please don't let this fact stifle the post and/or conversation about this angle. The more conversation then more questions can be raised and might be answered by what I've included. Now - this is a great post in more ways than one! Asking "why" is so important. The reason this occurred in 1936 was because Kimberling ordered it. By then he was "in" and Schwarzkopf was "out." So this implies that Schwarzkopf hadn't done it earlier and the lack of documentation (while not 100% proof) seems to indicate this. I believe much of the fingerprint evidence wasn't properly investigated when Schwarzkopf was in charge was because he was withholding the fingerprint evidence from the FBI. They had the largest data base to check against, but if you recall the NJSP was playing a game of "hide-and-seek" with this evidence and (except for the leaks) denied it even existed. It is a perfect example of the competition/jealousy that existed between these various LE agencies. Of course this does not entirely address your point Amy but I think it can be partly applied. Once they grabbed Hauptmann his prints were checked but the last thing the NJ Authorities wanted was for the prints to match up to someone else. Again, this wasn't because they were "framing Hauptmann" or believed he wasn't involved. Their position was that he absolutely had been but they did not want the possibility of muddying the waters concerning their successful "Lone-Wolf" conviction.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2019 14:02:14 GMT -5
I believe much of the fingerprint evidence wasn't properly investigated when Schwarzkopf was in charge was because he was withholding the fingerprint evidence from the FBI. They had the largest data base to check against, but if you recall the NJSP was playing a game of "hide-and-seek" with this evidence and (except for the leaks) denied it even existed. It is a perfect example of the competition/jealousy that existed between these various LE agencies. Did the NJSP have the ability to run their own fingerprint checks without involving the FBI? There were a number of "hot" suspects, yet all I could find were reports for handwriting checks. I am not sure if fingerprints were even taken from these suspects. So what value was being placed on the ladder as serious evidence if LE wasn't checking fingerprints against it? Sorry if this is getting into V3. I understand if you can't elaborate too much.
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Post by Michael on Jun 23, 2019 9:39:02 GMT -5
Did the NJSP have the ability to run their own fingerprint checks without involving the FBI? There were a number of "hot" suspects, yet all I could find were reports for handwriting checks. I am not sure if fingerprints were even taken from these suspects. So what value was being placed on the ladder as serious evidence if LE wasn't checking fingerprints against it? You're are seeing (the lack of fingerprint checks) what I saw too. My only hesitancy is that sometimes I found things related to the footprints and/or fingerprints and they would have a notation "No Report" written on them. Just a few so I don't want to overstate but I wanted to note that as well. They definitely had the ability to check prints if they had them. Sometimes they'd get prints from NY (or where ever) and didn't necessarily take them themselves. Here is a memo from Capt. Snook in 1934 showing the Bureau of Identification comparing the baby's prints: imgur.com/zRG0rJp
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