Raynor HCA 2013-07
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/18/2013
Lindbergh, Charles (1902-1974) was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist. As a 25-year-old U.S. Air Mail pilot, Lindbergh emerged suddenly from virtual obscurity to instantaneous world fame as the result of his Orteig Prize-winning solo non-stop flight on May 20–21, 1927, made from Roosevelt Field located in Garden City on New York's Long Island to Le Bourget Field in Paris, France, a distance of nearly 3,600 statute miles, in the single-seat, single-engine purpose-built Ryan monoplane Spirit of St. Louis. Lindbergh, a U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve officer, was also awarded the nation's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his historic exploit. The Crime of the Century occurred about 9 p.m. on March 1, 1932. There were footprints in the nursery, a ladder outside the window, a ransom note on the sill, and an empty crib. Charles and Anne Lindbergh were suddenly faced with the reality of every parent's worst nightmare: the abduction of their child. According to the kidnapper's demands, twenty-month-old Charles Jr. would be returned for the sum of $50,000. Police officers and investigators descended on the Lindberghs' farm in Hopewell, New Jersey, along with droves of reporters and photographers. To combat the chaos and confusion, Charles Lindbergh, known worldwide as the courageous "Lone Eagle," gathered his wits about him the next morning and composed this brief plea for privacy: “Due to the fact that our roads are blocked and communication made extremely difficult under present circumstances I am asking that everyone leave our farm. I am requesting your cooperation in this situation as it is of extreme importance to us. - Charles A. Lindbergh." He dispatched the note to United Press International President Karl A. Bickel, in hopes that the media presence might respectfully leave the premises. Bickel's hastily written confirmation of receipt, included here, reads, "Personally given to me early (8 a.m. approx) on morning after kidnapping in order get large body of reporters off farm so that possible communication with kidnappers could be made. Request agreed too. KAB." Sadly, although a two-month search ensued for Charles Jr. (whom newspapers referred to as "The Eaglet"), the child was found dead off the side of a highway near the Lindbergh's home, evidently having been murdered soon after the abduction. Police efforts were redoubled to apprehend the killer-who by then had sent more than a dozen ransom notes-as the nation reeled from the sobering turn of events. Two years later, German-born Bruno Hauptmann was arrested based on a trail of gold certificates from the ransom money as well as on handwriting samples. Hauptmann was convicted and then executed by electric chair on April 3, 1936. The Lindbergh Baby saga lives on today in the work of historians, scholars, authors, and conspiracy theorists, yet it still can be difficult to appreciate the contextual enormity of the crime. Whereas high-profile murder investigations in the modern age often focus on previously unknown victims like Jon-Benet Ramsey or Laci Peterson, the Lindbergh case involved arguably the most famous American at that time, an aerial adventurer whose nickname "Lucky Lindy" epitomized the admiration felt for him by millions of people worldwide. This was no fringe celebrity whose fame was elevated by the unfortunate circumstances of a murder. It is almost impossible to think of an equivalent personage in this day and age, so universally beloved as an American hero. Within this historical framework, the offered handwritten note is not only among the most significant Lindbergh correspondences in public hands, but also one of the more intriguing autographed pieces of the twentieth century. As a point of reference, only three other Lindbergh signed items pertaining to the kidnapping have sold at auction in the past 30 years. A one-line note from March 10, 1932, in which Charles and Anne authorize Dr. John F. Condon to act as a "go-between" with law enforcement and the kidnapper, realized more than $19,000 in Mastro Auctions' May 2002 sale; an April 18, 1932 note that similarly discusses media activities surrounding the abduction reached nearly $3,000 at Sotheby's in 1979 (a time when George Washington letters could be bought for several thousand dollars); and, lastly, another letter to Dr. Condon, this one dated May 15, 1932, sold at Hamilton's in 1977 for $900. This fourth addition to that trio is the closest in timing to the actual crime, being the morning after—indeed, just 12 hours distant—from the infamous kidnapping. Lindbergh's message is darkly and carefully penciled ("10") on a piece of paper measuring 8-1/4" x 6". It is dated at lower left in another hand. The attractive page bears inoffensive surface rippling, several standard fold lines, an evenly toned beige surface, and a thin, untoned perimeter resulting from past framed display.
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