THE NEW BOOKS

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19639, 27 July 1935, Page 18 (Supplement)

THE NEW BOOKS

TRUE DETECTIVE STORY.

' The Lindbergh Case.

THE LINDBERGH CRIME. By Sidney B. Whipple (Methuen).

This is a most interesting book for two reasons.

It is an interesting and absorbing ■Stbry in Itself, perhaps one should in this ■connection, use the word “enthreliifig,” the favourite contemporary OpithOt used in praisO of detective ■Stories. The «tory carries the reader pn in exactly the same way as a good detective s'tofy. The facts of the ■crime are .presented clearly at the outset. Then gradually, after deposing of a large number of false clues, the criminal is tracked down. This is achieved not indeed toy.any blinding flashes of intuition afflicting the detectives in charge; but by a rigorous application of scientific principles and by a systematic use of expert evidence.

It is now two year’s since Hauptmann paid the .penalty for his crime and for two years almost before his execution the Lindbergh case was front page news in the United States and very little less important elsewhere In the world. But the public memory Is short and it is perhaps permissible to recall the circumstances'.

lOn March 1, 1931, the infant son of Colonel Charles A. .Lindbergh, the distihguished American aviator, was stolon from his 'home in New Jersey. A 'note was left demanding ransom for the child. Through intermediaries the distracted parents sought to negotiate with the kidnappers. In return for information (which proved to 'be false) fifty thousand dollars were paid by Colonel Lindbergh to the criminal. Shortly* afterwards the dead body of thq child was discovered In circumstances suggesting that he had met his death by Violence on the day he was Stolen. - The police irivestigators were embarrassed toy an immense amount of false information supplied toy cranks and" credulous people. When the criminal was found there were people ready enough to come forward and identify him as having been seen in the district at the time of the crime. There were many handwriting experts too who, when Hauptmann was caught, were prepared to swear that tho writing in the kidnappers’ notes was Hauptmann’s. Another avenue of investigation was fruitful In providing evidence against the criminal once lie was caught.. But it was not able to identify him. This was the ladder. The kidnapper had brought his own ladder for the attempt on the Lindbergh’s nursery. But he had not taken it away with’him. It remained the only substantial clue. An expert In woods by Investigation throughout the States was able to trace the timber from which it Was made back fo tlie mill in South Carolina in which it originated. It was later a valuable piece of evidence to show that lumber from that particular mill had reached a timber yard that the criminal was known to frequent. But all this was of very little use until a suspect was found. And it was toy means of'the persistent application of the only other shred of information left that a .suspeot was found. The authorities had in their possession the numbers of the notes in Which the ransom had been paid. By painstakingly tracking down the notes as they came into the banks they narrowed down the area on which they had to work. It was through notifying the numbers to all sellers of petrol that they caught Hauptmann at last. The attendant thought that ho .noticed, something suspicious in the man who tendered the note. So he took the nuniber of the car. The note proved to be one of the fifty thousand. The car proved to be Hauptmann’s.

'One characteristic clearly differentiates Mr Whipple’s narrative from the crime story of fiction. It lacks compactness, roundness, finish. In a thriller we expect that persons who attract false suspicion to themselves will, at the end of the story, explain their eccentric behaviour. In proportion as their explanation lacks plausibility, we condemn the tale. (Continued hr next column.)

GEORGE A. BIRMINGHAM.

Some Witty Tales.

LOVE OR MONEY AND OTHER STORIES, by George A. Birmingham (Methuen).

These are bright little stories. A paragraph or two may give an idea of the style. It seems only the other day since we said good-bye to Devereux, when he went off to be a magistrate, a Judge, a Lord Chief Justice, I imagine, in a tropical is. land. We gave him a send-off dinner The,'Archdeacon was there, I remember, So was old Judge Joly, who knows as much about justice and as little about law (so they say) as any Judge on the bench. There were two or three other men present, and we all gave Devereux excellent advice. The Archdeacon warned him of the danger or whisky in a hot climate, a subject on which the Archdeacon was not well qualified to speak, for toe has neve: been in a hot climate and is a strict teetotaller. I told him not to marry a native, though I knew nothing whatever about the natives Of his particular island, who may make most excellent wives. Old Judge Joly alone among us talked of what he understood. . ■ ... . “ Give your decisions,” he said, “and stick to them. They may possibly be right But never give a reason for any decision The reason is sure to be wrong.” This particular story Is one -of the best. In ihis tropic island Judge t)evereux ha'd to decide a similar case to the one which donijronted Solomon when two women claimed the 'Ownership of a 'baby; The judge gave Solomon’s decision—that the baby should be apportioned between the claimants. But unfortunately, 'contrary to precedent, the decision was received with acclamation by 'the claimants. So the judge (ignoring Joly’s advice-to stick to his decision) handed the baby over to '(he missionaries in the neighbourhood. There is perhaps more wit than substance or character in these tales; but they- are nevertheless very enjoyable. And the volume though new is cheap. '■ ■ —D.B.P.

According to these standards our story fills. Take the extraordinary case of John Hughes iCurtls. Curtis pretended he was negotiating with the kindnappers. He suggested he should act as go-between and offered to bring about a meeting with Colonel Lindbergh. Tie kept Lindbergh running up and down the New Jersey cokst in a yacht for days looking for the criminals' boat “The 'Mary -B. Moss,” which, with its formidable crew (enumerated in detail) had no existence except in Curtis’ imagination. Now Curtis bad no' apparent motive for this curious behaviour.' He was Indeed short of money; but If money was his object, lie went about getting it in a very ineffective way. Moreover, he called in as allies a Dean of the Episcopal Church who Indulged in most outrageous lies about the kidnapping to an extent incredible in a fictitious clergyman. Apparently, the motive of both these curious people was to have the public ear at any cost. But a novelist could never make his public believe that a morbid craving for publicity could lead apparently respectable people into courses so devious. : ’ . ■

Mr Whipple's account of American legal and journalistice methods is very revealing. His own attitude is not indeed ahove reproach.. The wave of hysteria which swept the United States at the time of the kidnapping was not to the eredlt of the nation. “It roused the nation," Mr Whipple writes, “to f a pitch of horror comparable only to the anger which followed the death of Lincoln. The world dropped Its business, that day, to discuss in horrified and angry accents the most revolting crime of the century." This does not come well from a country in which negroes are still tortured by the forces of law,, a country in which slavery has been abolished only in name. —D.B.P.

BOOKS REVIEWED. New Novels.—“ Sweet Peril” (Jennifer Ames), 11 Ray of Doom" (Stanley Sykes), “ The Man in Her Life" (Ruby M. Ayres). First (cheap) editions—ail from Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton.