The Lindbergh Kidnapping and the Origin of the Viral Conspiracy Theory: How The Crime of The Century Set the Mold For Conspiratorial Thinking And Why We Continue to Believe Hauptmann Was Innocent
By Dr. John D. Van Dyke
It was called the crime of the century. The toddler son of America’s gallant and glamorous pilot, Charles Lindbergh, was kidnapped from his home on the family’s almost 400-acre estate in New Jersey. “Lucky Lindy” became America’s foremost hero in 1927 when he made the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris. The family paid the ransom, but the child had been killed. The kidnapping and the trial of the man accused, Bruno Hauptmann, were front page news stories for months.
Historian Dr. John D. Van Dyke delves deep into the history to reveal the controversy about Hauptmann’s conviction and the theories that still circulate about the case, the first viral conspiracy theory. He debunks those myths and shows how they led to the skepticism of documented facts and prevalence of conspiracy theories that, with the help of the internet and podcasts, continue to spread disinformation and undermine legitimate sources.
Alexander Reiman, Skeptic magazine
I’ve watched Dave engage with the leading voices on the Lindbergh case, and his command of the evidence surpasses that of any other expert. Drawing from original research, court transcripts, and crime scene photos, this is investigative work at its finest. No hearsay, no motivated reasoning, no agenda—just the facts, examined with rigor and precision. It’s the most reliable account we have of one of the most notorious child kidnappings in American history.
Robert Zorn, author of Cemetery John: The Undiscovered Mastermind of the Lindbergh Kidnapping
Van Dyke hits the nail on the head: Charles Lindbergh had nothing to do with orchestrating the kidnapping or in any way causing the death of his toddler son, Charlie. The child’s murder was, in fact, the great tragedy of Lindbergh’s life—a tragedy I’m convinced he never got over, and one that changed the course of his life. Facts and evidence are the enemy of the conspiracy theorists, who speculate wildly that Lindbergh was behind the crime. Confirmation bias is their friend. Personally, I prefer scholarship.
I became interested in the Crime of The Century as a child. My grandmother spoke of how famous Charles Lindbergh was, and how the country mourned the death of his first child. In high school, I picked up one ofthe numerous conspiratorial books about the case, and became firmly convinced the state of New Jersey had executed an innocent man, Bruno Richard Hauptmann. It was only after a reasoned examination of the evidence that I realized I was wrong. Bruno Richard Hauptmann helped kidnap Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr.
Many years later, in the spring of 2024, I published an article titled Framed?: How Sensationalism Keeps New York City’s Most Controversial Defendants Innocent in the Eyes of the Public in Skeptic Magazine. My article examined the claims of innocence of two of New York City’s most controversial cases: Hauptmann and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The thesis of my article was that significant evidence implicates each of the defendants in the crime for which they were charged.What I did not suspect at the time was the amount of feedback I would receive from the public. Emails forwarded from my editor at Skeptic flooded my inbox, most claiming to exonerate Bruno Richard Hauptmann. Having published numerous pieces for the magazine ranging from the fallacy of ranking Presidents to decriminalizing marijuana without any reader response whatsoever, I was startled by the passionate tone of these responses.
- Dr. John D. Van Dyke