Michigan and the Eaglet: The Lindbergh Kidnapping, Purple Gang, and Governor Wilber M. Brucker

The Michigan Historical Review 46:2 (Fall 2020): 93-138©2020 Central Michigan University. ISSN 0890-1686 All Rights Reserved Michigan and the Eaglet: The Lindbergh Kidnapping, Purple Gang, and Governor Wilber M. Brucker By Robert Knapp Charles A. Lindbergh set the Spirit of St. Louis down at Le Bourget Aerodrome in Paris after the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Instantly he became the most famous person in the world. The adoration that followed the flight by “Lucky Lindy,” the “Lone Eagle,” on May 2021 , 1927, catapulted him to a level of fame seldom seen in American history. He soon married Anne Morrow, settled down, and had a son, Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. On the night of March 1, 1932, sometime between seven and ten o’clock, a homemade ladder was set beside the Lindbergh home, Highfields, in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.1 Someone climbed up to the baby’s room, through an opened window, snatched the baby and disappeared into the night. The kidnapping became front page news on March 2. The story transfixed the nation. Lindbergh’s child was quickly dubbed the “Eaglet.” Almost immediately, advice and tips were coming from every direction. A command post had to be set up in the garage of the Lindbergh estate to handle and cull the calls and telegrams. Sightings came from as far away as Iowa. Boy Scouts scoured the woods of Westchester County. The entire country was in an uproar. In attempts to find the kidnapped child, all sorts of strange offers were made to authorities, many by gangsters. As early as March 4, newspapers carried rumors that the Purple Gang was involved. The Purple Gang had become Detroit’s most well-known mobsters. Their origins lie, as with so many American cities, in the neighborhoods 1 The Highfields estate straddled East Amwell Township, Hunterdon County, and Hopewell Township, New Jersey. “Hopewell” commonly appears as the place of the kidnapping and subsequent murder of the baby. This is because the Lindberghs used Hopewell (Mercer County) as their mailing address. Bruno Hauptmann’s subsequent trial for the kidnapping and murder took place in Flemington, Hunterdon County, because that was the county where the Lindbergh house was located. 94 The Michigan Historical Review Charles and Anne Lindbergh Source: Library of Congress crammed with recent immigrants from Europe.2 In what was at the time America’s fourth largest city, Jews who had fled the pogroms of the Russian Empire settled around Hastings Street. This area teemed with life. Young men, whether infants at the time of immigration or born in the United States, struggled with what it meant to be simultaneously part of the culture of the “old country” and Americans in an entirely different 2 See Robert Knapp, Mystery Man. Gangsters, Oil, and Murder in Michigan (Clare, MI: Cliophile Press, 2011). Fundamental evidence cited includes: C.H. Burnham, Lieutenant, Michigan State Police, Department of Public Safety Special Report on case 2499 [the Lindbergh kidnapping] investigation in Calhoun County, Michigan, March 14, 1932March 23, 1932 [hereafter Burnham Special Report], Geo. K. Karkeet, Detective, Michigan State Police, Department of Public Safety Supplementary Report on case 2499 [the Lindbergh kidnapping] investigation, March 31, 1932-April 4, 1932 [hereafter Karkeet wiretaps], and William Watkins and Philip L. Hutson, Lieutenants, Michigan State Police, Department of Public Safety Special Report on case 2499 [the Lindbergh kidnapping] investigation, April 2, 1932 [hereafter Watkins Special Report], Michigan Department of State Police Criminal Justice Information Center, Statistical Records Division, Lansing, Michigan; Morris “Mickey” Rosner, untitled typescript, Hoffman Collection [hereafter Rosner memoir], George Clarke, untitled typescript, Hoffman Collection [hereafter Clarke memoir], and copy of New York District FBI case 162-3057 (see pp. 302-310 on the Purple Gang connection; pp. 141-156 on Mickey Rosner’s) [hereafter FBI 162-3057], New Jersey State Police Museum Archive, West Trenton, NJ. Michigan and the Eaglet 95 New York Daily News (March 2, 1932) milieu. Some took up their fathers’ businesses. Some studied hard, went to college, and began professional lives. But the streets beckoned a different kind of youth. Poor students at school, or simply disregarding school, immune to their parents’ entreaties to “be good boys,” envious of the...