A jury in Flemington, New Jersey finds Bruno Hauptmann guilty of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, the son of Charles Lindbergh.
On March 1, 1932, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., 20-month-old son of aviators Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was abducted from the crib in the upper floor of the Lindberghs' home, Highfields, in East Amwell, New Jersey, United States. On May 12, the child's corpse was discovered by a truck driver by the side of a nearby road.In September 1934, a German immigrant carpenter named Bruno Richard Hauptmann was arrested for the crime. After a trial that lasted from January 2 to February 13, 1935, he was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Despite his conviction, he continued to profess his innocence, but all appeals failed and he was executed in the electric chair at the New Jersey State Prison on April 3, 1936. Newspaper writer H. L. Mencken called the kidnapping and trial "the biggest story since the Resurrection." Legal scholars have referred to the trial as one of the "trials of the century." The crime spurred Congress to pass the Federal Kidnapping Act, commonly called the "Little Lindbergh Law" which made transporting a kidnapping victim across state lines a federal crime.
Flemington is a borough in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. It is the county seat of Hunterdon County. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 4,581, reflecting an increase of 381 (+9.1%) from the 4,200 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 153 (+3.8%) from the 4,047 counted in the 1990 Census. Most of the borough is located in the Amwell Valley (a low-lying area of the Newark Basin) and the Raritan Valley (the South Branch of the Raritan River flows through the center of the borough). Northwestern portions of the borough sit on the Hunterdon Plateau.
Flemington is an independent municipality completely surrounded by Raritan Township and is located near the geographic center of the township.