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[Charles Lindbergh] J. Edgar Hoover Typed Letter Signed...
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J. Edgar Hoover writes of the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, "The case has been miserably handled and I certainly don't want any community to think we are investigating it"
[Charles Lindbergh] J. Edgar Hoover Typed Letter Signed "J. E. H." Two pages, 8" x 10.5", Washington, March 16, 1932, on letterhead reading, "U.S. Department of Justice Bureaus of Investigation . . . John Edgar Hoover Director." The letter is written to John J. Edwards and reads in part:"I have been somewhat behind in acknowledging and catching up with my personal correspondence due, as you can well appreciate, to the Lindbergh case. Really if they don't find the Lindbergh baby shortly I am going to try to arrange to be kidnapped myself. Should you hear that any such thing has happened to me don't make any efforts to locate me until after ten days have elapsed for I want that period of time to rest up in. . . . We are receiving hundreds, if not thousands, of suggestions, telephone calls, etc., of the most absurd and fantastic character, and they all indicate that they are written by persons not yet incarcerated in institutions for the insane. . . . The tragedy of the whole picture is that the Lindberghs are the victims of not only hopeless police inefficiency but also they are being victimized by small-time investigators who can sell themselves as being master minds. The situation is really quite serious. . . . The Bureau of Investigation is not directing the investigation in the Lindbergh case and the more the public understands it the better it is going to be for the ultimate good and reputation of this bureau. The case has been miserably handled and I certainly don't want any community to think we are investigating it."
Charles and Anne Lindbergh's eighteen-month-old baby was abducted fifteen days before this letter was written. The baby was found dead on May 12, 1932. Three years later, Bruno Richard Hauptmann was found guilty and was executed in the electric chair in 1936. Throughout the investigation, the police were criticized for making blunders. J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972) began his service as the sixth director of the Bureau of Investigation in May 1924. Three years after writing this letter, he became the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a post he held until 1972. John J. Edwards served as a special agent, then an inspector, and finally as the assistant director of the bureau. This letter is toned with folds.
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