Guilty
Hauptmann Guilty, Sentenced to Death for the Murder of the Lindbergh Baby
February 14, 1935 By RUSSELL B. PORTER
Flemington, N.J., Feb. 13.--Bruno Richard Hauptmann was convicted of murder in the first degree at 10:45 o'clock tonight for the killing of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. at Hopewell on the night of March 1, 1932. He was sentenced to die in the electric chair at the State prison in Trenton some time during the week of March 18. The jury of eight men and four women returned its verdict after having been out for eleven hours and twenty-four minutes since it retired from the court room at 11:21 o'clock this morning to deliberate in the jury room. Handcuffed to two guards, Hauptmann stood between them silent and motionless, his face ashen white and terror in his deep-set eyes, while he heard the jury state its verdict and the judge pronounce sentence. A few minutes later he was led away to his cell in the county jail. He did not even cast a glance of recognition toward his wife, who sat a few feet away. She looked at him with red-rimmed eyes, but did not weep. Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh, who attended every session of the thirty-two court days of the trial from its beginning on Jan. 2, six weeks ago, and who heard Supreme Court Justice Thomas W. Trenchard deliver his charge to the jury this morning, was not in court when the verdict was returned. He had returned to his home in Englewood in the afternoon.
by the Spirit of St. Louis 2 Project
® Copyright 1998-2007 CharlesLindbergh.com®, All rights reserved.
February 14, 1935 By RUSSELL B. PORTER
Flemington, N.J., Feb. 13.--Bruno Richard Hauptmann was convicted of murder in the first degree at 10:45 o'clock tonight for the killing of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. at Hopewell on the night of March 1, 1932. He was sentenced to die in the electric chair at the State prison in Trenton some time during the week of March 18. The jury of eight men and four women returned its verdict after having been out for eleven hours and twenty-four minutes since it retired from the court room at 11:21 o'clock this morning to deliberate in the jury room. Handcuffed to two guards, Hauptmann stood between them silent and motionless, his face ashen white and terror in his deep-set eyes, while he heard the jury state its verdict and the judge pronounce sentence. A few minutes later he was led away to his cell in the county jail. He did not even cast a glance of recognition toward his wife, who sat a few feet away. She looked at him with red-rimmed eyes, but did not weep. Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh, who attended every session of the thirty-two court days of the trial from its beginning on Jan. 2, six weeks ago, and who heard Supreme Court Justice Thomas W. Trenchard deliver his charge to the jury this morning, was not in court when the verdict was returned. He had returned to his home in Englewood in the afternoon.
by the Spirit of St. Louis 2 Project
® Copyright 1998-2007 CharlesLindbergh.com®, All rights reserved.
Hauptmann's Jury
Woman Juror Near Tears
Mrs. Verna Snyder, juror No. 3, was biting her lips to keep from crying and her eyes were wet with tears as she left the jury box. According to well-founded report, she and Mrs. Rosie Pill, juror No. 7, had held out to the last ballot for a verdict of guilty with a recommendation providing imprisonment at hard labor for life.
by the Spirit of St. Louis 2 Project
® Copyright 1998-2007 CharlesLindbergh.com®, All rights reserved.
Mrs. Verna Snyder, juror No. 3, was biting her lips to keep from crying and her eyes were wet with tears as she left the jury box. According to well-founded report, she and Mrs. Rosie Pill, juror No. 7, had held out to the last ballot for a verdict of guilty with a recommendation providing imprisonment at hard labor for life.
by the Spirit of St. Louis 2 Project
® Copyright 1998-2007 CharlesLindbergh.com®, All rights reserved.
The Sentence
After twenty-nine court sessions, 162 witnesses, and 381 exhibits, the case was given to the jury at 11:21 a.m., Wednesday, February 13, 1935. Eleven and a half hours later the jurors returned, runanimous vote of guilty.
Judge Trenchard pronounced the sentence of death, to be carried out the week of March 18, 1935. Because of the inevitable appeal, he postponed the execution of the sentence to June.
In his diary entry for February 14, 1935, Harold Nicolson described the Lindberghs' reaction to the verdict and sentence.
"Suddenly Betty [Mrs. Morrow] ... looked very white. 'Hauptmann,' she said, 'has been condemned to death without mercy.' We went into the drawing room. The wireless had been turned on to the scene outside the courthouse. One could hear the almost diabolic yelling of the crowd. 'You have now heard,' broke in the voice of the announcer, 'the verdict in the most famous trial in all history. Bruno Hauptmann now stands guilty of the foulest ...' Then we all went into the pantry. Charles sat there on the kitchen dresser. 'I don't know,' he said to me, ' whether you have followed this case very carefully. There is no doubt at all that Hauptmann did the thing. I am sure about this —quite sure.' And then quite quietly, while we all sat round in the pantry, he went through the case point by point. It seemed to relieve all of them. He did it very quietly, very simply."
by Russell Aiuto
After twenty-nine court sessions, 162 witnesses, and 381 exhibits, the case was given to the jury at 11:21 a.m., Wednesday, February 13, 1935. Eleven and a half hours later the jurors returned, runanimous vote of guilty.
Judge Trenchard pronounced the sentence of death, to be carried out the week of March 18, 1935. Because of the inevitable appeal, he postponed the execution of the sentence to June.
In his diary entry for February 14, 1935, Harold Nicolson described the Lindberghs' reaction to the verdict and sentence.
"Suddenly Betty [Mrs. Morrow] ... looked very white. 'Hauptmann,' she said, 'has been condemned to death without mercy.' We went into the drawing room. The wireless had been turned on to the scene outside the courthouse. One could hear the almost diabolic yelling of the crowd. 'You have now heard,' broke in the voice of the announcer, 'the verdict in the most famous trial in all history. Bruno Hauptmann now stands guilty of the foulest ...' Then we all went into the pantry. Charles sat there on the kitchen dresser. 'I don't know,' he said to me, ' whether you have followed this case very carefully. There is no doubt at all that Hauptmann did the thing. I am sure about this —quite sure.' And then quite quietly, while we all sat round in the pantry, he went through the case point by point. It seemed to relieve all of them. He did it very quietly, very simply."
by Russell Aiuto
