Thanks to Trojanusc for highlighting Dr Gardner’s blog about “Pebbles and Mud.”
“It has long been an axiom of mine, Watson, that the closer one examines a problem, the less one sees.”
“Returning from her stroll ….Anne Lindbergh picked up a few pebbles…..and tossed them against the corner windowpane. Betty Gow appeared. Smiling she turned away…came back with the little boy. She pointed to his mother and he smiled in recognition. Anne waved…….Betty raised the baby’s hand and waved it back”
From “Kidnap” by George Waller (1971).
“I attracted the attention of Miss Betty Gow by throwing a pebble up to the window and she then held the baby up to the window to let him see me.”
Anne Lindbergh trial testimony
“My attention was drawn to Mrs Lindbergh out of doors. She was throwing pebbles up to the window and as I recall…”
Interrupted trial testimony of Betty Gow
Pretty consistent huh? Not for Dr Gardner it would seem. He mentions that after the interruption to Betty’s statement (by noise outside the courtroom) there is no further account of the pebble incident or of Betty holding the child up to the window. Why should there be? And he writes: “There is absolutely no confirmation in either woman’s testimony of the scene as Waller described it, with mother and child exchanging smiles.
So they didn’t mention the smiles, not having Waller’s text to hand as it was to be written 35 years later. This really is barrel-scraping.
March 13,1932: Mrs Lindbergh describes her afternoon stroll, not mentioning the pebble incident, but stating that she “found” Betty, Elsie Whatley and Charlie together in the nursery. Dr Gardner finds that “found” is a curious word to use if she had only minutes before stood outside throwing pebbles up to the window.
I don’t find it curious. “Found” indicates a degree of discovery or surprise. Anne's surprise in this case was that whereas the pebble incident involved only herself, Betty, and the child, she now to her mild surprise saw that Elsie Whatley had joined them. If she had said “I found that Mrs Whatley was now helping Betty with the baby” nobody would have found it to be at all “curious.”
So for me Dr Gardner’s doubts about the pebble incident have little solid foundation. There are more important doubts in this case than those pesky pebbles.