What happened in the Lindbergh kidnapping

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Q.� Was a ransom paid

A.� A ransom note found on the scene of the crime demanded $50,000 in payment for the return of the boy, Charles Jr, It was increased to $70,000 after Lindbergh involved the police against the kidnapper's advice. It was handed over by an intermediary, Dr John Condon, at St Raymond's Cemetery, New Jersey. But the baby was not handed over and his battered body was found a few miles from the Lindbergh home.

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Q.� And a manhunt was launched

A.� Yes. It was a massive operation. The public and press were appalled at the crime and Congress passed a law making kidnapping a federal law punishable by death. The serial number of he ransom notes had been recorded and $14,000 of the ransom money was found in the Bronx apartment of Richard Bruno Hauptmann, a German carpenter, on 19 September, 1934.

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Q.� And what was his defence

A.� Hauptmann maintained his innocence, claiming that a business partner, Isador Fisch, gave him the money before returning to Germany, where he died in March 1934.

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Q.� Did it work

A.� No. On 13 February, 1935, Hauptmann was convicted and, on 3 April, 1936, after a series of appeals, he was sent to the electric chair. Hauptmann's guilt and the criminal investigation have since been questioned.

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Q.� What happened to Lindbergh Sr

A.� I'll start with a biography. Charles Augustus Lindbergh was born in Detroit and grew up on a farm near Little Falls, Minnesota. His father, also Charles, was a lawyer who served as congressman 1907-1917. Young Lindbergh showed exceptional mechanical ability. At 18 years, he went to the University of Wisconsin to study engineering but after two years, he left to become a barnstormer, a pilot who performed daredevil stunts at fairs.

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Q.� And then

A.� In 1924, he enlisted in the army to train as a pilot and graduated as the best pilot in the class. The Robertson Aircraft Corporation of St Louis then hired him to fly the mail between St Louis and Chicago.

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Q.� And the historic flight

A.� In 1919, hotel-owner Raymond Orteig offered $25,000 to the first aviator to fly non-stop from New York to Paris. By 1927, it had still not been won - although pilots had died trying. Lindbergh persuaded nine St Louis businessmen to help him finance the cost of a plane. On 10-11 May, 1927, Lindbergh tested the plane by flying from San Diego to New York City, with an overnight stop in St Louis. It took 20 hours 21 minutes, a record. On 20 May, Lindbergh took off in the Spirit of St Louis from Roosevelt Field, near New York City, at 7.52am. He landed at Le Bourget Field, near

Paris, on 21 May at 10.21pm (Paris time).� He had flown more than 3,600 miles in 33.5 hours.

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Q.� And he was hailed a hero

A.� Yes. President Calvin Coolidge gave Lindbergh the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Flying Cross. Later, Lindbergh flew to Latin-American countries as a symbol of American goodwill. While in Mexico, he met ambassador's daughter Anne Spencer Morrow and they married.

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Q.� Did he take part in the Second World War

A.� Lindbergh was impressed with Germany's advanced aircraft and caused an outcry when he accepted a medal of honour from Hermann Goering in 1938. Back in the States, he campaigned against America's entry into the war and was eventually denounced by President Franklin Roosevelt. Some accused Lindbergh of being a Nazi sympathiser. His views changed the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour on 7 December, 1941, and Lindbergh tried unsuccessfully to re-enlist in the army. In April 1944, he went to the Pacific war area as a civilian adviser to the army and navy and flew about 50 combat missions.

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Q. �Afterwards

A.� After the war, President Dwight Eisenhower appointed him a brigadier general in the Air Force in 1954. He advised Pan American World Airways and helped design the Boeing 747 jet. In 1953, Lindbergh published The Spirit of St Louis, an expanded account of his transatlantic flight. It won a Pulitzer Prize. By the late 1960s, he was campaigning on conservation issues, including saving whales, and opposed supersonic transport planes because he feared their effect on the earth's atmosphere. He died of cancer in his home on the Hawaiian island of Maui on 26 August, 1974.

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By Steve Cunningham