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Rating: 
Summary: Great Controversy, but little substance
Review: Anthony Scaduto's book caused great controversy in 1976. It started a major trend toward the position that Bruno Richard Hauptmann was an innocent man, falsely framed for a heinous crime.
When reading this book, one must remember that Mr. Scaduto did not have access to the hundreds of thousands of documents at the New Jersey State Police Museum and Archives. If he had, he would never have made some of the wild accusations contained within this work.
There is very little substance or evidentiary support for this work. It is an excellent example of an author researching a subject with the express intent of reaching a stated cause, i.e. Hauptmann's innocence. It is much preferable to simply look for the truth and accept the evidence found. Instead, Scaduto discards contrary information and offers his own spin. The entire book is based upon the story of a man convicted of aiding Ellis Parker and several others in the kidnapping, assault, and framing of a man they forced to falsely confess to the crime. With a foundation of sand, the book has little or nothing to build upon.
Mr. Scaduto's book and his conclusions should be viewed with a skeptical eye. His stated purpose of clearing Hauptmann has blinded him to any other possible conclusion. His statement that every witness was a liar and every piece of evidence a forgery demonstrates a narrowness of mind which permeates the entire work.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful work of fiction...
Review: Bruno Richard Hauptmann was the kidnapper and murderer of Charles Lindbergh, Jr. No speculative or fictionalized evidence by Anthony Scaduto or anyone else can change that unalterable fact.I would give this book zero stars except that Amazon won't let me. What a waste of paper.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful work of fiction...
Review: Bruno Richard Hauptmann was the kidnapper and murderer of Charles Lindbergh, Jr. No speculative or fictionalized evidence by Anthony Scaduto or anyone else can change that unalterable fact. I would give this book zero stars except that Amazon won't let me. What a waste of paper.
Rating: 
Summary: Justice For a Man Unjustly Executed
Review: Mr. Scaduto's book tends to be all over the place, but the fact is that he has presented a concise, literate and very compelling case for Richard Hauptmann (he abandoned the name Bruno after he left Germany.) Mr. Scaduto presents evidence that shows Mr. Hauptmann was at best, a peripheral accessory to the Lindbergh kidnapping. However, all the evidence taken together is so compelling that you must realize that Mr. Hauptmann was just "in the wrong place at the wrong time."
The police and New Jersey prosecutor's had a high profile kidnapping case and they wanted to solve it fast. The police and prosecutor David Wilentz were not above manufacturing evidence in order to solve this case.
Mr. Scaduto clearly points out that racism (Mr. Hauptmann was a German emigre and Mr. Lindbergh was a staunch conservative) was a factor; Richard Hauptmann was an experienced carpenter; it is not locical that he would have built a ladder that badly; his counsel was a drunken has-been lawyer; there were plenty of other suspects that the police rejected. Lindbergh heard only two words two years earlier from the kidnapper and he was able to identify them as Mr. Hauptmann's? That is what my father would call "a crock of ----."
The evidence that Mr. Scaduto has presented has withstood the test of time and only the most conservative of people really believe that Mr. Hauptmann was guilty. This book was worth my time and I believe it will be worth yours. I also recommend Ludovic Kennedy's book "The Airman and The Carpenter."
Rating:
Summary: good book, more interesting in real life
Review: this was a good book. i'd like to get that out before hand. i think that in real life, the actual event was more mysterious and intriging. while i'm not rating a movie, i think that an event that captured an entire nation's attention and sombody accused of killing "the eaglet" that everybody hated, could have used a better book. i would suggest reading about the "Lindbergh Kidnapping" before you read this book, so you don't get lost.
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