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Anne Morrow Lindbergh: Her Life

Page 53

by Susan Hertog


  48 NYT, 3/6/32, “Lindberghs … Name Two Men to Represent Them.”

  49 NYT, 3/3/32, “Capone Offers Reward.”

  50 Jim Fisher, op. cit., p. 37.

  51 Leonard Frank, Uncle Frank: The Biography of Frank Costello, New York: Drake, 1973, p. 250; Jim Fisher, op. cit., p. 37.

  52 Dr. John F. Condon, Jafsie Tells All!, New York: Jonathan Lee Publishing Corp., 1936; National Archives Sound and Video collection 106.10; and Jim Fisher, op. cit., pp. 40–41.

  53 Dr. John F. Condon, op. cit., and Jim Fisher, op. cit., pp. 40–41.

  54 Outlook, 4/32, “Lindbergh and the Press,” by Silas Bent.

  55 Jim Fisher, op. cit., pp. 45–46.

  56 Ibid., p. 46.

  57 Violet Sharpe, Statement, March 10, 1932, to Sgt. McGrath, Detectives Shaible and Strong; and Violet Sharpe, Statement, April 18, 1932, to Insp. Harry Walsh, NJSPM.

  58 John Lardner, “The Lindbergh Legends,” in The Aspirin Age, 1919–1941, Isabel Leighton, ed., New York: Simon and Schuster, 1949, p. 205.

  59 Dudley Shoenfeld, op. cit.

  60 Jim Fisher, op. cit., pp. 50–51.

  61 NYT, 3/13/32, “11 Days of Failure in Lindbergh Case.”

  62 Ibid, 1/10/35, “Testimony of Dr. Condon Identifying Hauptmann as Receiver of Ransom.”

  63 Ibid.

  64 HGHL, AML letter to ERM, 3/18/32, p. 237.

  65 Jim Fisher, op. cit., p. 64.

  66 Details of ransom negotiations and payment are from NYT, 1/10/35, “Testimony of Dr. Condon Identifying Hauptmann as Receiver of Ransom,” and Jim Fisher, op. cit.

  67 AML, The Unicorn and Other Poems, p. 36.

  68 Jim Fisher, op. cit. p. 77.

  69 NYT, 1/8/35, “Miss Gow, on Stand, Details Her Movements after Tucking Baby in Its Crib.”

  70 The statement had a double meaning. John appeared to be talking about a biological relative, but implicit in his words was that the baby was with God.

  71 Jim Fisher, op. cit., p. 88.

  72 The story first appeared on 4/5/32 in the Bronx Home News; then, on 4/6/32, in the Daily News, and in NYT, 4/10/32, “Lindbergh Paid Ransom of $50,000, But Kidnappers Did Not Return Child.”

  73 Dr. John F. Condon, op. cit.

  74 NYT, 4/7/32, “Curtis Says He Met Kidnappers’ Agent.”

  75 HGHL, AML letter to ELLL, 4/8/32, p. 239.

  76 Ibid., 4/10/32, p. 240.

  77 The newspapers quotations in this paragraph are excerpted in Literary Digest, 4/23/32, “The Nation Outraged by the Lindbergh Fraud.”

  78 Dr. John F. Condon, op. cit.

  79 HGHL, AML letter to ELLL, 4/13/32, p. 241.

  80 NYT, 4/12/32, “Lindbergh Mediator Seeks New Contact; Ransom Bill Is Seen.”

  81 Ibid., 4/13/32, “Condon Deals Anew with Kidnappers and Reassures Them.”

  82 Ibid., 4/15/32, “Flier Asks Secrecy to Deal With Gang.”

  83 Ibid., 4/14/32, “Ransom Bill Found; Trail Lost in Bank.”

  84 HGHL, AML letter to ELLL, 4/18/32, p. 242.

  85 NYT, 4/18/32, “Condon Reaffirms Contact With Gang.”

  86 HGHL, AML letter to Sue Beck, 4/25/32, p. 244.

  87 Elisabeth Reeve Morrow letters to Constance Chilton, 1925–1934.

  88 HGHL, AML letter to ELLL, 4/29/32, p. 244.

  89 HGHL, AML diary, 5/11/32, p. 247.

  90 Ibid., 5/12/32, p. 248.

  13. ASCENT

  1 AML, The Unicorn and Other Poems, p. 66.

  2 HGHL, AML letter to ELLL, 5/12/32, p. 249.

  3 NYT, 5/15/32, “The Worst and the Best.”

  4 HGHL, AML diary, 5/16/32, p. 253.

  5 Ibid., 5/15/32, p. 252.

  6 AML, “Dogwood,” in The Unicorn and Other Poems, p. 38.

  7 Ibid., p. 23.

  8 NYT, 5/16/32, “Five Men and Woman Believed Identified as Slayers of Baby.”

  9 Ibid., “Would Call Army to Rout Lawless” by the Rev. Dr. Henry Howard.

  10 Ibid., “Five Men and Woman Believed Identified as Slayers of Baby.”

  11 HGHL, AML diary, 5/16/32, p. 253.

  12 Ibid., pp. 252–253.

  13 NYT, 5/17/32, “Bronx Jury to Act on Ransom Today.”

  14 HGHL, AML diary, 5/20/32, p. 256.

  15 Ibid.

  16 Ibid., 5/17/32, pp. 253–254.

  17 Ibid., p. 254.

  18 Ibid.

  19 NYT, 5/18/32, “Curtis Admits He Hoaxed Lindbergh in Kidnap Hunt.”

  20 NYT, 5/20/32, “Lindbergh Reenacts Baby’s Kidnapping;” and HGHL, AML diary, 5/19/32, p. 255.

  21 HGHL, AML diary, 5/18/32, p. 255.

  22 NYT, 5/14/32.

  23 HGHL, AML diary, 5/21/32, p. 257.

  24 Ibid., 5/22/32, p. 257.

  25 Amelia Earhart had fought for her life on the open sea in a plane twice as powerful and twice as fast as Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis, but she was unable to complete the flight.

  26 NYT, 5/31/32, “Lull in Lindbergh Hunt.”

  27 HGHL, p. 262n.

  28 HGHL, AML diary, 5/25/32, pp. 260–261.

  29 Ibid., 5/28/32, p. 262.

  30 Ibid., 5/30/32, p. 263.

  31 Ibid., 6/1/32, p. 264.

  32 Violet Sharpe, Interrogation, 5/24/32, #30, NJSPM; and Jim Fisher, op. cit.

  33 Jim Fisher, op. cit., and NJSPM, Violet Sharpe letter to Miss (Fan) Simons of North Wales, 6/7/32: “I only weigh 7 stones.” This letter also revealed the extent of her malaise. She concluded: “Life is getting so sad I really don’t think there is much to live for any more.”

  34 Jim Fisher, op. cit.

  35 Laura Hughes, Statement, 6/10/32, to Insp. Harry Walsh, NJSPM.

  36 NYT, 6/11/32, “Morrow Maid Ends Her Life; Suspected in Kidnapping.”

  37 Interview with Betty Gow.

  38 NYT, 6/11/32, op. cit.

  39 HGHL, AML letter to ELLL, 6/13/32, pp. 274–275.

  40 But there was reason to believe that Anne figured greatly in Violet’s fantasies. She longed to have violet eyes and airy adventures with a romantic prince. Violet copied into a notebook a poem that spoke of her wishes. NJSPM, Violet Sharpe File.

  41 NYT, 6/13/32, “Police Balk at Exonerating Girl;” and 6/16/32, “Miss Sharpe Is Buried; Inquiry Is Pressed.”

  42 HGHL, AML diary, 6/11/32, pp. 272–273.

  43 The grandson of a Jewish immigrant who had earned his fortune in silver-mining, Guggenheim had been trained as a pilot during the war and had an interest in the commercial possibilities of aviation. He had met Dwight Morrow in 1925, when Morrow chaired Calvin Coolidge’s Aviation Board.

  44 HGHL, AML diary, 6/11/32, p. 273.

  45 Harry Guggenheim, as quoted in AML diary, 6/11/32, p. 273.

  46 Ibid., p. 274.

  47 Ibid., 6/9/32, pp. 269–270.

  48 Ibid., 6/17/32, p. 279.

  49 Charles L. Morgan (1894–1958), also drama critic for the London Times.

  50 HGHL, AML diary, 6/21/32, p. 280.

  51 Charles Morgan, The Fountain, New York: A. A. Knopf, 1932, p. 333.

  52 Charles Morgan, as found in HGHL, AML diary, 6/21/32, p. 280.

  53 Anne would later find that the wheel metaphor was derived from a system of mystical Chinese thought set forth by Lao Tzu in the sixth century B.C. The circle is the symbol of life, and its center is the void through which one communicates with God.

  54 HGHL, AML diary, 6/22/32, p. 280.

  55 Hugh A. Fisher and Matthew F. McGuire, “Kidnapping and the So-Called Lindbergh Law,” New York University Law Quarterly Review, vol. 12, June 1935, pp. 646–662; and Horace L. Bomar, Jr., “The Lindbergh Law,” Law and Contemporary Problems, vol. 1, October 1934, pp. 435–444.

  56 HGHL, AML diary, 6/26/32, p. 282.

  57 Ibid., 6/27/32, p. 283.

  58 Ibid., 7/6/32, pp. 286–289.

  59 Ibid., 7/9/32, p. 289.

  60 Ibid., 7/17/32, pp. 292–293.

  61 Ibid., 7/24/32, p. 294.

  62 Ibid., 8/16/32, pp. 299–302.

  6
3 Interview with Betty Gow.

  64 HGHL, AML diary, 8/16/32, p. 302.

  14. DEATH IS THE ANSWER

  1 Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke: Poems, Everyman’s Library, Pocket Poets, New York: Knopf, 1996, p. 49.

  2 HGHL, AML diary, 9/4/32, p. 312.

  3 Ibid., 8/21/32, pp. 305–306.

  4 Ibid., 8/31/32, p. 310.

  5 Ibid., 9/2/32, p. 310.

  6 Interviews with Margot Loines Morrow Wilkie, 8/24/94 and 10/31/94; Reeve Lindbergh, Under a Wing, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998.

  7 Interview with Margot Loines Morrow Wilkie, 8/24/94.

  8 Ibid.

  9 HGHL, AML diary, 9/17/32, p. 316.

  10 Ibid., 9/5/32, p. 312.

  11 Ibid., 10/15/32, p. 320.

  12 Ibid., 8/16/32, p. 303.

  13 HGHL, AML diary, 9/4/32, p. 312.

  14 Ibid., pp. 311–312.

  15 NYT, 8/17/32, “Second Son Is Born to the Lindberghs at the Morrow Home in Englewood.”

  16 HGHL, AML diary, 9/8/32, p. 313.

  17 Ibid., 9/13/32, pp. 313–315.

  18 Ibid., 9/25/32, p. 318.

  19 HGHL, AML letter to ELLL, early October, p. 319.

  20 NYT, 11/4/32, “Held for Threat to Mrs. Morrow.”

  21 Highfields, now Highfields/Albert Elias RGC, East Amwell Township, NJ. See NYT, 6/24/33, “Lindbergh Estate to Be Child Refuge;” 6/25/33, “Lindbergh Project Approved in Jersey;” and 6/26/33 “High Fields.” After 1950, Highfields became a rehabilitation center for teenagers with criminal records.

  22 HGHL, AML letter to ELLL, 12/15/32, p. 321.

  23 Charles Lindbergh, introduction to Alexis Carrel’s The Voyage to Lourdes, trans. from the French by Virgilia Peterson, New York: Harper and Brothers, 1950; and Charles Lindbergh, Autobiography of Values, pp. 16–17.

  24 Interview with Richard Bing.

  25 Interview with AML, 1/24/86.

  26 HGHL, AML diary, 12/28/32, pp. 322–325.

  27 Thirty years later, the wedding and her thoughts would be the subject of her book, Dearly Beloved.

  28 LROD, AML diary, 1/16/33, p. 6.

  29 Ibid., 1/6/32, p. 4.

  30 AML, North to the Orient.

  15. PURGATORY

  1 LROD, AML diary, 1/13/33, p. 6.

  2 Ibid., 1/21/33, p. 8.

  3 Victoria Glendinning, Vita, New York: Knopf, 1983, pp. 254–256.

  4 Ibid.; Nigel Nicolson, ed., Harold Nicolson, Diaries and Letters, 1930–1939, New York: Atheneum, 1966, pp. 131–133; and LROD, pp. 8–12.

  5 LROD, AML diary, 2/27/33, pp. 17–18.

  6 Ibid., 3/17/33, p. 23.

  7 Postmaster General Walter F. Brown decided to aid the transport industry by lobbying Congress to pass the McNary-Watres bill, encouraging the development of larger aircraft for mail, passenger, and freight. [Legacy of Leadership, published privately by Trans World Airlines Flight Operations, 1972, p. 45.]

  8 LROD, AML diary, 4/26/33, p. 27.

  9 Ibid., early May, pp. 32–33.

  10 Ibid., 5/6/33, p. 35.

  11 Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Listen! The Wind, New York: Harcourt Brace, 1938, forward by Charles A. Lindbergh, pp. v–ix.

  12 LROD, AML letter to ELLL, p. 43.

  13 LROD, AML diary, 7/8/33, p. 46.

  14 Anne would later reflect on this moment in her book, North to the Orient. See also LROD, AML diary, 7/11/33, p. 48.

  15 LROD, AML letter to ECM, 7/11/33, p. 48.

  16 LROD, AML diary, 7/24/33, p. 63.

  17 Ibid., 7/31/33, p. 69.

  18 Ibid., 8/19/33, p. 92.

  19 Ibid., 9/4/33, p. 107.

  20 Ibid., 9/16/33, p. 112.

  21 Ibid., 10/5/33, p. 124.

  22 Ibid., 10/14/33, p. 127.

  23 LROD, AML letter to ERM, undated, p. 136.

  24 LROD, AML diary, 11/7/33, p. 141.

  25 LROD, AML letter to ECM, 11/16/33, p. 150.

  26 LROD, AML diary, 11/30/33, p. 163.

  27 Humbert Wolf, as found in LROD, AML diary, 12/5/33, p. 169.

  28 LROD, AML diary, 12/5/33, p. 170.

  29 Ibid., 12/9/33, p. 174–175.

  30 Ibid., 12/16/32, p. 181.

  31 Ibid., 12/19/33, p. 182.

  32 The plane had been named Tingmissartoq, meaning “big bird,” by the Eskimos of Greenland.

  33 LROD, AML letter to ERMM, 12/31/33, p. 183.

  34 Elisabeth Morrow Morgan letter to Del, wife of the caretaker at the Elisabeth Morrow School, 1/30/34, Elisabeth Morrow School Papers.

  35 LROD, AML letter to ELLL, 1/24/34, p. 187.

  36 NYT, 2/1/34, “The Co-Pilot.”

  37 Ibid., 3/1/34, “Elder Lindbergh Forecast the NRA.”

  38 Norman E. Borden, Air Mail Emergency, 1934: An Account of Seventy-Eight Tense Days in the Winter of 1934 When the Army Flew the United States Mail, Freeport, Maine: Bond Wheelwright Co., 1968.

  39 Elisabeth Reeve Morrow to Elizabeth Cutter Morrow, Elisabeth Morrow School papers.

  40 LROD, AML letter to ERMM, 7/11/34, p. 193.

  41 NYT, 8/2/34, “Giant Seaplane Tops All Records; Lindbergh Hails Test of Clipper.”

  42 LROD, p. 187n.

  43 NYT, 8/2/34, “Anne Lindbergh, in a Gay Humor, Writes Secrets of World Flight.”

  44 Ibid., 9/14/34, “Lindberghs Down Again;” and 9/15/34, “Lindberghs Hold ‘Court’ for Throng.”

  45 LROD, AML diary, 9/11/34, p. 200.

  46 NYT, 9/21/34, “Lindbergh Ransom Receiver Seized; $13,750 Found at His East Bronx Home; the Mystery Solved, Police Declare.”

  16. THE ARREST

  1 Examination of Bruno Richard Hauptmann at the district attorney’s office, Bronx, 10/3/34, between 3:30 and 5:15 P.M., reported by James H. Huddleson, M.D., to James M. Fawcett (Hauptmann’s first defense attorney). Other alienists present were S. Philip Goodhart and Richard H. Hoffmann, representing Bronx County, and Doctors Connolly and Spradley, representing the state of New Jersey. Courtesy of Jim Fisher.

  2 Details and dialogue of Hauptmann’s arrest are drawn from Jim Fisher, op. cit., and Ludovic Kennedy, The Airman and the Carpenter, New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985.

  3 Examination of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, reported by James H. Huddleson, M.D., to James M. Fawcett.

  4 NYT, 9/21/34, “Lindbergh Ransom Receiver Seized; $13,750 Found at His East Bronx Home; the Mystery Solved, Police Declare.”

  5 Ludovic Kennedy, op. cit., p. 131, and Sydney B. Whipple, The Trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1937, p. 32.

  6 Sydney B. Whipple, op. cit., p. 30.

  7 Examination of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, reported by James H. Huddleson, M.D., to James M. Fawcett, pp. 2, 8.

  8 Sydney B. Whipple, op. cit., p. 29.

  9 NYT, 9/22/34, “New Jersey Prepares Murder Charge Against Hauptmann in Kidnapping; Linked to Lindbergh Ransom Notes.”

  10 NYT, 9/21/34, p. 1, “Lindbergh Ransom Receiver Seized.”

  11 FBI Summary Report, New York #62–3057 re: Hauptmann’s arrest, NJSPM.

  12 Dudley D. Shoenfeld, op. cit.

  13 NYT, 9/21/34, “Lindberghs’ Tour Halted in West.”

  14 Ibid., 9/22/34, “Lindbergh Boy Returning;” and 9/24/34, “Lindberghs Spend Night in Arizona.”

  15 LROD, AML letter to ELLL, 9/28/34, pp. 202–203.

  16 FBI Summary Report, New York #62–3057, Sept. 23, 1934, by Special Agent John L. Geraghty, pp. 4–6, courtesy of Jim Fisher. The bottle of ether was traced to the Raabe Pharmacy on White Plains Road in the Bronx.

  17 NYT, 9/26/34, “New Clues Found in Hauptmann’s Home;” NYT 9/27/34, “Hauptmann Is Indicted as Lindbergh Testifies; More Ransom Cash Found;” and Stanley R. Keith, metallurgical engineer and expert witness in the Hauptmann trial, “Bruno’s Nails Built the Kidnap Ladder,” 1935, King Features Syndicate, Inc.

 

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