Joe
Lt. Colonel
Posts: 2,615
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Post by Joe on Jul 16, 2020 9:02:46 GMT -5
Jumping to a new thread here, I’d have to say Hauptmann did a great job at being a criminal for him to have gotten mixed up in something this criminally challenging, and then to have almost gotten away with it. That is, until he started doing the ether and got too greedy, brazen and stupid enough to get himself caught. He was categorically up to his eyeballs in this thing, yet swore right to the bitter end, even to his lawyer and close friend Lloyd Fisher, that he knew absolutely nothing about it. As a result, he did absolutely nothing to set the record straight, thereby casting his own guilty shadow on a lot of other people. Consider his muteness and infamous last words, “They think that when I die, the case will die. They think it will be like a book I close. But the book, it will never close.” It was all about him alright. This was a pathetic, supremely self-centred human being, who dug himself in so deep that ultimately he knew he had no way out, even if others were intent on throwing him a lifeline at the eleventh hour to spill his guts. He even seemed to enjoy his attention from the public and press along the way. Ultimately, it was only his cast iron will and lack of human decency that allowed him to throw everything back in the face of his accusers, even if it meant losing his life within that cowardly action.
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Post by Michael on Jul 16, 2020 19:43:35 GMT -5
This was a pathetic, supremely self-centred human being, who dug himself in so deep that ultimately he knew he had no way out, even if others were intent on throwing him a lifeline at the eleventh hour to spill his guts. He even seemed to enjoy his attention from the public and press along the way. Ultimately, it was only his cast iron will and lack of human decency that allowed him to throw everything back in the face of his accusers, even if it meant losing his life within that cowardly action. I disagree with your position Joe. Putting oneself in the electric chair is not a "cowardly act" by any stretch. And once the time was drawing near, there was nothing enjoyable about it as I tried to impress upon everyone who read Chapter 6 in V3. Someone all about themselves would have spilled their guts and got a life sentence, which according to Lt. Hicks and certain Jurors - wasn't really "life" meaning he would have gotten out one day. He also would have collected a large sum of money. So he had every reason to talk although it has been suggested that he was protecting his family by keeping his mouth shut. If so, that means he wasn't a "Lone Wolf" as well as not being all about himself - but rather about his family. So again, anyone who could avoid that chair but did not is no "coward" from my perspective.
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Joe
Lt. Colonel
Posts: 2,615
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Post by Joe on Jul 29, 2020 7:54:05 GMT -5
This was a pathetic, supremely self-centred human being, who dug himself in so deep that ultimately he knew he had no way out, even if others were intent on throwing him a lifeline at the eleventh hour to spill his guts. He even seemed to enjoy his attention from the public and press along the way. Ultimately, it was only his cast iron will and lack of human decency that allowed him to throw everything back in the face of his accusers, even if it meant losing his life within that cowardly action. I disagree with your position Joe. Putting oneself in the electric chair is not a "cowardly act" by any stretch. And once the time was drawing near, there was nothing enjoyable about it as I tried to impress upon everyone who read Chapter 6 in V3. Someone all about themselves would have spilled their guts and got a life sentence, which according to Lt. Hicks and certain Jurors - wasn't really "life" meaning he would have gotten out one day. He also would have collected a large sum of money. So he had every reason to talk although it has been suggested that he was protecting his family by keeping his mouth shut. If so, that means he wasn't a "Lone Wolf" as well as not being all about himself - but rather about his family. So again, anyone who could avoid that chair but did not is no "coward" from my perspective. I believe anyone who understands this case knows Hauptmann was deeply involved from the kidnapping’s beginning and all the way through to the ransom money possession and laundering. He was caught dead to rights. He told Fred Hahn, he would never confess to something if he believed they had no evidence, even if they killed him. But they had rock solid evidence against him. And what did he do to set the record straight, in order that so many innocent people dragged into this mess would not suffer from his abject denial and lack of personal accountability? He simply denied it all. Every single bit. The Lone Wolf argument notwithstanding, that makes him not only one extraordinary liar in my books, but a self-centred coward as well. And if you really believe Hauptmann or his family, through an admission of guilt, would have had any kind of life while he was in prison or on the outside after time served assuming the unlikely event of him ever being released, I think you’re fooling yourself.
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Post by Michael on Jul 29, 2020 10:13:17 GMT -5
The Lone Wolf argument notwithstanding, that makes him not only one extraordinary liar in my books, but a self-centred coward as well. And if you really believe Hauptmann or his family, through an admission of guilt, would have had any kind of life while he was in prison or on the outside after time served assuming the unlikely event of him ever being released, I think you’re fooling yourself. As opposed to the life they had otherwise? What difference would it have made in that regard? I mean aside from his life and his family getting a huge sum of money.
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Joe
Lt. Colonel
Posts: 2,615
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Post by Joe on Jul 29, 2020 10:52:07 GMT -5
The Lone Wolf argument notwithstanding, that makes him not only one extraordinary liar in my books, but a self-centred coward as well. And if you really believe Hauptmann or his family, through an admission of guilt, would have had any kind of life while he was in prison or on the outside after time served assuming the unlikely event of him ever being released, I think you’re fooling yourself. As opposed to the life they had otherwise? What difference would it have made in that regard? I mean aside from his life and his family getting a huge sum of money. Both options would not have been enviable ones, which I guess is my point. A deal with the devil or lingering questions through muteness. As I said before, his lack of personal accountability and iron-willed stubbornness which I equate with cowardice, dug a hole so deep for him, he ultimately knew he had no way out. Hypothetically speaking, do you think Anna might have been somehow drawn into Hauptmann's web, even by way of simply knowing of his involvement, if he had opened up and told everything?
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