Bruno Richard Hauptmann (November 26, 1899 - April 3, 1936) was a German carpenter and criminal, sentenced to death and executed for the Lindbergh kidnapping, the abduction and murder of Charles Augustus Lindbergh III, the 20-month old son of famous pilot Charles Lindbergh.

Hauptmann was a machine gunner with the German army in WWI. After the war, as a carpenter he was unable to find a job and turned to crime. He burglarized three homes and robbed two women at gunpoint. He was caught and sentenced to five years, of which he served four. Not very soon after he was released, he was charged with another crime, but escaped prison.

He illegally tried to enter the US but was returned two times. At his third attempt in November 1923 he used a disguise and a stolen identification card and managed to enter the country. In 1925 he married Anna Schoeffler, a German immigrant he had met in the US. The two lived in a house in the Bronx; Hauptmann worked as a carpenter.

The kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh III occurred on March 1, 1932; after ransom money had been paid, the boy was found dead on May 12, 1932. In September 1935, a $10 USD gold certificate from the ransom money was discovered; it had Hauptmann's license plate number written on it. Other items related to the case were found in his home.

Hauptmann, who maintained his innocence, was arrested, tried and convicted of the crime, and sentenced to death.

New Jersey Governor Harold G. Hoffman secretly visited Hauptmann in his death row cell on the evening of October 16, 1935 with Anna Bading, a stenographer and fluent speaker of German. Hoffman urged the other members of the New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals (now eliminated by the 1947 state constitution) to visit Hauptmann.

Despite Governor Hoffman's doubt regarding Hauptmann's guilt, Hoffman was unable to convince the other members of the Court of Errors to re-examine the case, and Hauptmann was executed on April 3, 1936.

Anthony Hopkins played Hauptmann in a 1976 made for TV movie about the trial called The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case.

See Lindbergh kidnapping for the details of the case.

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