The Lindbergh Kidnapping

The Public Hero.

America has rarely given its heroes the stature it accorded Charles Lindbergh following the completion of his flight across the Atlantic. The image of a fearless pilot, master of one of the world's newest and most promising technologies, acting alone to risk all in his attempt to set a world record was simply irresistible. The "Lone Eagle" was exalted above all other modern-day heroes as a living example of the nation's greatest values. No greater symbol of all that was uniquely great about America could have been created by or for a public so sorely in need of a hero. Whether he enjoyed it or not, the adulation he inspired would achieve an intensity well beyond anything previously experienced by his contemporaries. Not until recent times would a trial be more widely followed, incite more passion, or do more to unite a people in their desire for retribution, than did the trial of Bruno Hauptmann, the nondescript...

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