How did Hauptmann or the kidnapper know the baby
was there
that night?
The Lindberghs had never stayed over an extra night
before. The decision was made last minute. Did someone inside the
house call a friend?
How did Hauptmann know where the
nursery was or that that was the only shutter that couldn't be
locked?
There had to be an inside person.
Why did no one else see the ransom note on the
windowsill
in the nursery?
Lindbergh discovered it later, even though he
had looked out the window when he first went into the nursery at the
nurse’s request.
Why were there no fingerprints on the
ladder or in the nursery?
When the nurse went in to check on the
baby she must have touched something as did Lindbergh when he went in
and looked out the window. What happened to the fingerprints from
before the baby was kidnapped? Did someone wipe the place clean when
the baby was put to bed?
Why did the police come back and fingerprint
Hauptmann at
least three times including prints of the side of his hands and palms
if there were no fingerprints?
Maybe there were no fingerprints
because none of them matched Hauptmanns.
How was Hauptmann able to get there
so fast when he lived so far away?
Wendel lived only 20 minutes
away in Trenton.
Why was the decomposition of the body found so
accelerated
for the time of year and length of time it was there?
In the
cool spring weather decomposition could not occur as rapidly as it
had.
How did Lindbergh and the nurse
identify the body when the child's physician said he couldn't
identify it for a million dollars?
Given the state of
decomposition shown in the pictures of the body, it was impossible to
identify it as anyone. Could you? Click on them to view them close
up.
Why did Jafsie say he couldn't identify Hauptmann
in a
lineup and later identify him at the trial?
Did his eyesight
suddenly get better or did he figure the police said Hauptmann was
guilty and he wanted the publicity as an identifying hero?
How did Lindbergh recognize
Hauptmann's voice from two words spoken two years ago?
Or did he
too think that since the police said Hauptmann was the one, he would
bring closure for his family by identifying Hauptmann?
What happened to the rest of the ransom money if
Hauptmann
was the only kidnapper?
The prosecution carefully avoided this
question as it would have blown their case.
Why was the signature on the bank
exchange of ransom notes by J .J. Faulkner not compared with
Hauptmann's signature and followed up as a lead toward other
possibilities?
Maybe the authorities wanted to solve it quick
and easy.A master forger with many aliases.
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Why did the police not follow up on J. J.
Faulkner, an
alias of Jacob J. Nosovitsky, a master forger, who fit most of the
descriptions Jafsie gave of "Cemetery John?"
The NY Daily News
shows an expert agrees. There was someone else.
Why didn’t the footprints at
Lindbergh’s house and at the cemetery not match Hauptmann’s
footprints?
Nobody ever explained this one. They took
Hauptmann's shoes to match them up and never brought it into evidence
at the trial. Didn't they match?
Why weren’t Fisch’s letters to Hauptmann from
Germany
admitted into evidence?
The prosecution and defense had them.
Maybe Hauptmann's "Fisch" story would have turned out to be true and
the prosecution's case blown wide open.
What happened to the time sheets from
Hauptmann’s employer that were signed for by the state police?
They showed Hauptmann had worked on the day of the
kidnapping.
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Why didn’t the ladder rail
match exactly with the wood from Hauptmann’s attic?
The expert
said it was because it was planed on the bottom. Then WHY did it
stick out above the wood on the top?
Why would a carpenter build such a makeshift
ladder?
Hauptmann was an accomplished carpenter. He would have
built a sturdy ladder with proper joints, not one that was crude and
falling apart. He laughed when they showed it to him and said it
looked like a musical instrument.
Why would Hauptmann cut a piece of wood from his
attic that
could be easily traced to him when he had many boards in his garage
and a lumberyard was 2 blocks away?
Wilentz said he was a smart
criminal - that's not so smart.
Why didn't the nailholes match properly in the
attic rail and why did the holes in the beam look
newer?
Maybe someone pounded new nails through to make them match.
Why didn't the ladder rail match the attic board
exactly?
Missing pieces???
But the rest of the boards matched all along
their length.
Why did Osborn, the handwriting
expert change his testimony?
When told the police were positive
that Hauptmann was guilty the pressure from the prosecution was to
find matches not dissimilarities.
Why did the handwriting experts only look for
similarities
instead of the many more unsimilar writing features?
Then he
wouldn't have matched.
Why did many of the prosecution’s
witnesses say at first that they could not recognize the face or
voice of the extortionist or passer of ransom money suddenly
recognize him in court?
Money was offered for
witnesses.
Why would Hauptmann write Jafsie’s phone number
in a dark
place in his closet when he didn’t even have a phone?
A reporter
admitted he wrote it there as a prank, but it was still used against
Hauptmann at the trial.Ed. Note: It has been pointed out
to me that there is no proof that a reporter wrote the number and
that Hauptmann confessed to writing it there. See the Ellis Parker
Guestbook page for the comment. I still wonder why it would be
written in a dark closet when there was no phone in the house. Why
not on a piece of paper to be carried to the nearest phone? Why would
Hauptmann confess to such incriminating evidence and not to the crime
itself when offered a commutation of sentence by Governor
Hoffman?
Why did some "witnesses" that said
they hadn't seen anyone or anything suddenly change to say they had
seen Hauptmann?
Maybe they liked the money offered for
testifying.
Why did Hauptmann continue to maintain his
innocence when
Governor Hoffman offered to commute his sentence if he would confess
to the crime?
Maybe he was innocent.
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Why did the prosecution not want
Wendel's confession?
They had built up too much circumstantial
evidence against Hauptmann and would have looked like
fools.
Why was the police
artist's sketch from witnesses' descriptions never compared to
photographs of Fisch, Wendel or others?
Too many of them would have matched it. What do you
think?
How did Wendel know so many of the
unpublicized facts of the kidnapping he confessed to doing? He
might have been the one who did it. Why did he brag to Ellis Parker
that he knew who did it?
He said he could solve it
easily.
Why did all these people identify and manufacture
circumstantial evidence against Hauptmann?
The pressure was
enormous to find the perpetrator of the crime against America's hero.
The investigation had been dead-ended for two years when Hauptmann
was apprehended with the money. It was assumed by the press and
everyone that he had to be guilty. All of the witnesses, police,
lawyers, etc wanted to get in on the publicity of helping to solve
the "Crime Of The Century."
New Book about Ellis published in August 2006
