****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I'm honestly mystified on how to rate Noel Behn's book, "Lindbergh: The Crime". For most of the book, Behn takes a good look at Charles Lindbergh and the literal circus of journalistic, criminal, and societal madness of the kidnapping of "the Eaglet" - as Charles Lindbergh, Jr is referred to -in 1932. It's the last part of the book - where Behn postulates a theory on who really killed that baby - that the book takes flight into unreality.Noel Behn's book was originally published in 1995. This was after Lindbergh's death in 1974, but before the death of his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh in 2001. I think it was also before the fact of Lindbergh's second, third, and fourth families - all fathered with German women during his marriage to Anne - was known. I don't think this new edition of the book gets into anything that has come out since the original publication. Noel Behn died in 1998. But from what Behn has written. Charles A Lindbergh comes across as a rather strange man, something most other biographers seem to agree with. (For those readers who want to know more about Lindbergh's life, you might want to read A Scott Berg's bio "Lindbergh", which was published in 1999.)The Lindbergh kidnapping took place - according to most historians - on March 1, 1932, at the Lindbergh's isolated new house in New Jersey. The media circus over the disappearance, the ransom notes, the sad discovery of the baby's battered body two months later was only bettered by the hoopla of the arrest, trial, and execution of a German immigrant, Bruno Richard Hauptmann in 1934. But, DID Hauptmann actually kidnap and kill the baby? He was certainly caught spending some of the ransom money? The Lindbergh case was certainly badly handled by the police in New Jersey and by the state's courts system after Hauptmann's arrest. A particular circus with a revolving caste of very odd characters - from media and political figures to crime lords to retired teachers - was involved the payment of the ransom.Noel Behn has an alternate theory on who did the murder...and who covered it up and attempted to distract the police. It is a point that I don't think Behn proved in the book. For one thing, the crime and the coverup seemed to involve more than one person, and when two or more people are involved in a plot - particularly one of this size and historical magnitude - someone was going to talk. Behn simply doesn't make a strong enough case for this alternate theory. He throws the red meat out there...but doesn't follow up.So, I'm giving the Noel Behn reprint four stars. The parts about the characters, the background, the crime, trial, and execution of Bruno Richard Hauptmann - is actually quite good. But the part about who ACTUALLY did the crime was weak sauce.
