Post by Michael on Jun 24, 2009 5:59:24 GMT -5
Sentinel
Author cooks up books about baseball, biographies
William Cook writes stories about American history
William Cook writes stories about American history
BY JENNIFER AMATO Staff Writer
The North Brunswick resident's most recent book is based on the Lindbergh baby kidnapping case and should be published later this year.
Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo trans-Atlantic flight in 1927 and became an instant celebrity. In March of 1932, his son was kidnapped in Hopewell, and Americans followed the case intensely.
Yet many people also considered Lindbergh to be a Nazi supporter based on anti- Semitic comments he had made, although Cook said, "I don't think he was sympathetic to the Nazis; I think he was in awe of their military might."
Cook became interested in the story when in 2007, on his 63rd birthday, he was introduced by his neighbor to Maj. Otto Stockberger of Milltown, who was 100 years old at the time and was the last surviving member of the New Jersey State Police who were involved with the investigation of the kidnapping. Stockberger shared his scrapbooks before passing away about six months later. Cook continued to do research for the next year at the New Jersey State Police Museum, the Princeton University Firestone Library and the New York Public Library.
"It's an interesting project, not only trying to follow the evidence … but to enter into the whole controversy of this case that never seems to be actually adjudicated," Cook said.