15 Messed Up Facts You Didn’t Know About The Lindbergh Kidnapping

3. No Adult Fingerprints Were Found At The Scene

There’s no way to know how the Lindbergh kidnapping would’ve gone in the modern era, considering the countless advances made in the field of forensics over the past several decades. At the time, all police experts could really do was check the scenes for fingerprints, not yet able to look for any other traces of evidence that humans have a tendency to leave behind. This proved particularly unfortunate when Little Lindy was discovered to be missing because more than one team of experts was unable to find a single adult fingerprint at the crime scene. The only prints anyone could find naturally belonged to the infant victim. It’s also worth noting that the ladder found by Lindbergh outside of his child’s room was equally free of any sign a human had actually touched it. Granted, none of this is that big of a mystery since gloves did exist, but it nonetheless sure made things tough for investigators.

4. The Kidnapper Left A Bizarre Ransom Note

With no fingerprints anywhere near the scene, all police and the Lindberghs had to go by when searching for the family’s missing child was a ransom note left on the windowsill of the victim’s bedroom. Whoever wrote the note clearly didn’t have the best understanding of English grammar or spelling, though this wasn’t that shocking in an era when education wasn’t as widespread as it is today. Even so, this provided a helpful hint to investigators, who believed the specifics of the poor grammar implied that a German native had written the letter. That hardly explains the second strange piece of the note, however, in that the kidnapper created a bizarre symbol of holes, lines, and circles, which was adopted as his signature from then on. Weird clues aside, the point of the ransom was clear: the criminal wanted $50,000 in the next 2-4 days, and the Lindberghs had to pay if they wanted to see their child again.