Post by Joe on May 22, 2021 9:27:22 GMT -5
I’d encourage everyone to have a read of this well researched and written article by Lona Manning, The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping, which appeared in Crime Magazine in March, 2007. I’m surprised it’s eluded me all these years, having just discovered it yesterday, while looking to expand on my own thoughts that the "forest" in this case is often ignored for the sake of some select trees. It may have been posted in the past but I don’t recall having seen it here before. Like many case-related articles, it does contain some minor errors, although nothing to get worked up about and it’s also a great introductory read into the case. I think it speaks well to the often-overlooked value of this case’s historical narrative and its backbone, which is based on a wide scope of real circumstantial physical evidence that remains as immutable today as it was back then.
www.crimemagazine.com/lindbergh-baby-kidnapping
I find this particular excerpt to be a very relevant commentary when it comes to considering the general merit of alternative theories and the many pitfalls they can pose.
"The Microscope Effect
In his analysis of the O.J. Simpson trial, Patrick Frey, a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles County, wrote: "I have a theory. Put anything in life under an intense microscope – anything – and you can find questions. Especially if you want to find them, and you proceed off of incomplete information and jump to conclusions…. people ignore simple theories based on basic evidence in favor of huge, unwieldy conspiracies that could never be kept together in real life. Or they focus on one piece of evidence at a time without looking at the big picture… I call it the "Microscope Effect." The Microscope Effect could equally well apply to the Lindbergh case. The ransom notes, the lumber from the attic, the ransom money in Hauptmann's possession, all tie Hauptmann to the crime. Nevertheless, some researchers pore minutely over the case archives and have built ramshackle theories which obscure the basic facts.
Not that the conspiracy theorists agree with one another. Det. Ellis Parker thought the corpse in the woods wasn't the Lindbergh baby; investigative journalist Ludovic Kennedy calls the suggestion "ludicrous." Kennedy believes Hauptmann's "Fisch" story about the money in the shoebox, others acknowledge that Hauptmann was an extortionist, but argue he wasn't the kidnapper. Virtually everyone connected with the case has been accused, at some time or another, of being complicit in the murder, including Dr. John Condon, the mysterious Isidor Fisch, the nursemaid, the other servants, Lindbergh's sister-in-law, and Lindbergh himself. Other suspects have no known connection to the case – a disbarred lawyer, the Purple Gang of Detroit, Lufthansa Airlines. The investigators, the prosecutor and Arthur Koehler the wood expert have been accused in no uncertain terms of fabricating evidence, committing perjury, and sending an innocent man to the chair."
www.crimemagazine.com/lindbergh-baby-kidnapping
I find this particular excerpt to be a very relevant commentary when it comes to considering the general merit of alternative theories and the many pitfalls they can pose.
"The Microscope Effect
In his analysis of the O.J. Simpson trial, Patrick Frey, a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles County, wrote: "I have a theory. Put anything in life under an intense microscope – anything – and you can find questions. Especially if you want to find them, and you proceed off of incomplete information and jump to conclusions…. people ignore simple theories based on basic evidence in favor of huge, unwieldy conspiracies that could never be kept together in real life. Or they focus on one piece of evidence at a time without looking at the big picture… I call it the "Microscope Effect." The Microscope Effect could equally well apply to the Lindbergh case. The ransom notes, the lumber from the attic, the ransom money in Hauptmann's possession, all tie Hauptmann to the crime. Nevertheless, some researchers pore minutely over the case archives and have built ramshackle theories which obscure the basic facts.
Not that the conspiracy theorists agree with one another. Det. Ellis Parker thought the corpse in the woods wasn't the Lindbergh baby; investigative journalist Ludovic Kennedy calls the suggestion "ludicrous." Kennedy believes Hauptmann's "Fisch" story about the money in the shoebox, others acknowledge that Hauptmann was an extortionist, but argue he wasn't the kidnapper. Virtually everyone connected with the case has been accused, at some time or another, of being complicit in the murder, including Dr. John Condon, the mysterious Isidor Fisch, the nursemaid, the other servants, Lindbergh's sister-in-law, and Lindbergh himself. Other suspects have no known connection to the case – a disbarred lawyer, the Purple Gang of Detroit, Lufthansa Airlines. The investigators, the prosecutor and Arthur Koehler the wood expert have been accused in no uncertain terms of fabricating evidence, committing perjury, and sending an innocent man to the chair."