F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that there are no second acts in American lives; our national figures are allotted a single, simple story, and the public will not tolerate any reinvention or redemption. And indeed, it is hard to find many figures who seized the public attention while occupying drastically different roles — but Charles Augustus Lindbergh is one. First he was the darling hero of all America for flying solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. Later, he became a national villain because of coziness with the Nazi regime. But between those two diametric roles, he was a tragic victim in a crime that led to “the trial of the century.”
On a spring night in 1932, Charles and Anne Lindbergh's 20-month-old baby, Charles Jr., disappeared from his crib. The kidnapper left a brief, scribbled note containing myriad misspellings and oddities:
“Dear Sir! Have 50000$ redy 25000$ in 20$ bills 15000$ in 10$ bills and 10000$ in 5$ bills.”
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