The Airman and the Carpenter: The Lindbergh Kidnapping and the Framing of Richard Hauptmann

Rating:
Summary: Well researched and wonderfully written!
Review: An extremely well written book covering the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. I actually felt like I was right there witnessing the whole thing unfold.

Rating:
Summary: Well researched and wonderfully written!
Review: An extremely well written book covering the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. I actually felt like I was right there witnessing the whole thing unfold.

Rating:
Summary: Grammatically wonderful, historically poor
Review: Ludovic Kennedy demonstrates that he posseses significant writing skills. He keeps the reader interested throughout. Of all the books putting forth a theory of Hauptmann's innocence, his is the best written.

However, from a historical perspective, it is actually quite disappointing. For example, Kennedy insists that Hauptmann was working on 3/1/32, the day of the crime. However, Hauptmann testified at trial that he was not working that day. There are also several bold statements offered without any source or footnote which are contradicted by original source materials from the New Jersey State Police Museum and Archives.

In summary, Sir Ludovic is an excellent writer with great literary skills, but his conclusions and research leave much to be desired.

Rating:
Summary: This book illustrates how the media can convict the innocent
Review: This book deserves a wider audience and with the recent film version on HBO (CRIME OF THE CENTURY) perhaps it will get it. In this, the golden era of conspiracy theories, it is fashionable to pooh-pooh historians who question standard accounts of famous events, but Kennedy's work is so well documented and the lies told by prosecutors in the Lindbergh case so baldfaced and egregious that it is hard not to be saddened, outraged and flabbergasted at this exceedingly dark spot on the American judicial system. Almost Kafkaesque in its portrayal of a world gone mad in its desire to want so badly to believe Richard Hauptman was guilty, the actions portrayed would be funny if their consequences weren't so dire and if Kennedy didn't solidly ground them in the appropriate moral anger at those who knowingly lied in order to secure Hauptman's conviction and execution

Rating:
Summary: well documented and thought provoking book
Review: This book deserves a wider audience and with the recent film version on HBO (CRIME OF THE CENTURY) perhaps it will get it. In this, the golden era of conspiracy theories, it is fashionable to pooh-pooh historians who question standard accounts of famous events, but Kennedy's work is so well documented and the lies told by prosecutors in the Lindbergh case so baldfaced and egregious that it is hard not to be saddened, outraged and flabbergasted at this exceedingly dark spot on the American judicial system. Almost Kafkaesque in its portrayal of a world gone mad in its desire to want so badly to believe Richard Hauptman was guilty, the actions portrayed would be funny if their consequences weren't so dire and if Kennedy didn't solidly ground them in the appropriate moral anger at those who knowingly lied in order to secure Hauptman's conviction and execution

Rating:
Summary: This book illustrates how the media can convict the innocent
Review: This historically accurate recount of the Lindberg baby kidnapping is OUTSTANDING! There are multiple examples of newspapers publishing bogus evidence, which in time persuaded jury members. Readers will be amazed at how an obviously innocent man was convited of a crime, then acquited after his execution. This is a TRUE CRIME book.