On this day in US history, two months after the kidnapping of the famed aviation hero Charles Lindbergh’s 20-month-old son from the family’s Hopewell, New Jersey, mansion on May 12, 1932, Charles Lindbergh III was found dead less than a mile away. They found muddy footprints, a ladder, and a ransom note demanding $50,000 in barely legible English. The severity of the crime captured the attention of the nation, and the murderer wouldn’t be found until two years later. Kidnapping was made a federal crime after the conclusion of this high-profile case.


