THE LINDBERGHS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 75, 10 January 1936, Page 6

THE LINDBERGHS.

DEPARTURE FROM AMERICA. GREAT STIR CREATED. NEW YORK, January 2. In an astounding manner the sudden departure of Colonel and Mrs Charles Lindbergh for England and the question whether Bruno Hauptmann will ever be executed for the murder of their child have become national issues. It has come as an almost unbelievable shock to millions of Americans that Colonel Lindbergh was persecuted to breaking-point, and that extortion and death threats had reached him in such an avalanche during recent months as to leave him almost a mental wreck.

Running parallel with active blackmailers were “sob-sisters” capitalising thejr sympathy for Hauptmann, and the whole question is becoming involved in the coming political campaign. These women started with a story that full disclosures had not been made in the frightful killing of the Lindbergh baby, throwing doubt upon the identification by Colonel Lindbergh himself. Revulsion of Public Feeling. Then Hauptmann’s friends offered on his behalf to make a clean breast of everything. It was said that if Dr. J. F. Condon, who paid over the blackmail money, would also make a full confession, and if Colonel Lindbergh would relate all lie knew, it would result in cancelling the death sentence against Hauptmann. Then newspaper broadsides announced that the Governor of New Jersey, Mr Harold Hoffman, was holding secret conferences with Hauptmann in his prison cell ; evidently hoping for weiid disclosures’ which would in some manner afford an excuse lor .super-detective work, heroic interference by a lastminute commutation and a new investigation which would synchronise with the election campaign.

The Lindberghs’ startling departure for England, however, seems to have brought many people back to their sober senses and caused a terrific revulsion of public feeling. Hearst Press Indignant. Mr Hoffman announced that he had reconsidered the matter and did not contemplate granting a reprieve if the State Board of Pardons refused Hauptmann’s plea for mercy. A charge made by the Heaist newspapers is typical of thousands of editorial demands published in American newspapers. The Hearst press declares : “All the criminals, all the vile and violent disturbers and undesirables who have been driven out of other lands, have collected here to murder and plunder at their will, and our Government has not the strength, or the patriotism, or the honestly, to do its duty to citizenship and clean its house, making America a lit place for decent men to live in safety with thei i wives and children. It may be the proper destiny of our country to be the melting pot of the world, but the scum should bo skimmed off the pot and dumped into the ocean.” Members of Congress are demanding an inquiry into delays in the deportation of 2500 alleged criminal aliens who are said to. have entered America illegally.

Mr Justice Thomas W. Trenchard on December 13, fixed the week beginning January 13 for the execution oi Bruno Richard Hauptmann, convicted kidnapper and murderer of the Lindbergh baby. In New Jersey it is customary to execute condemned prisoners on Tuesdays. If that custom is followed Hauptmann will die on January 14, if the Court of Pardons does not intercede. This Court, consisting of the Governor, Mr Harold G. Hoffman, the State chancellor and six lay justices, 'is Hauptmann’s only chance of beating .the electric chair.