Bruno Richard Hauptmann (center) consults with his laywers during pretrial court proceedings on September 20, 1934. Irving Haberman / IH Images / Getty ImagesOn January 2, 1935, Bruno Richard Hauptmann stepped into a courtroom in Flemington, New Jersey, accused of the so-called crime of the century. Prosecutors were tasked with convincing a jury that the defendant had kidnapped and killed the young son of star aviator Charles Lindbergh. The crime and trial fueled a gruesome media circus that drove the Lindberghs to Europeand Hauptmann to the electric chair.Lindbergh and his wife, Anne, lived on a country estate near Hopewell, New Jersey. They aimed to raise their son away from the media attention Lindbergh had attracted as a groundbreaking pilot who, among other accomplishments, made the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927.But on March 1, 1932, disaster struck the wealthy couple. That evening, their nanny discovered their sons nursery empty. Someone had taken 20-month-old Charles Charlie Augustus Lindbergh Jr., leaving a ransom note demanding $50,000 on the windowsill. Newspaper photo of Charles Lindbergh Jr., as well as sites and items linked to his kidnapping The Evening Star via Library of CongressAt the crime scene, police recorded a broken ladder outside the nursery window and mud on the nursery floor. But the evidence indicated no suspects, and the authorities had no leads. Desperate to find their son, the Lindberghs began a long and arduous attempt to get him back themselves.The ransom note on the windowsill turned out to be the first in a series of 13 communications by the self-proclaimed kidnappers. On April 2, John F. Condon, a New Yorker from the Bronx whod offered to act as a go-between for Lindbergh and the kidnappers, delivered $50,000 of Lindberghs gold certificates to a man who told him Charlie was being held on a boat in Marthas Vineyard, Massachusetts.Authorities searched Marthas Vineyard the next day but found no sign of the Lindberghs son. It wasnt until May 12, 1932, that Charlies body was foundpartially buried and decomposedabout four and a half miles from the Lindberghs house. A coroners examination found that the child had been dead for two months, having suffered a blow to the head. Aviator Charles Lindbergh testifies at Bruno Hauptmann's trial. Hauptmann appears in profile, seated at right. Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsAs the Lindberghs daughter Reeveborn 13 years after Charlies deathlater recalled, her father never talked about his firstborn. I can imagine how much this baby must have meant to my father, who had been raised as an only child this Charles, this namesake, she wrote. I know that the loss was immeasurable and unspeakable.After Charlies body was found, the case went cold. But a few years later, one of the ransom payments gold certificates showed up at a bank in New York City. The bill had been deposited by the owner of a gas station, whod received it as payment and noted the license plate number of the customer. Investigators traced the license plate number to Hauptmann, a German immigrant living in the Bronx.In Hauptmanns home, authorities found $14,000 of the ransom money, as well as the go-betweens phone number written on a closet wall. Hauptmann was indicted and pleaded not guilty.1935 trial of Bruno Hauptmann (1935)Watch on During his trial, Condon identified Hauptmann as the man whod told him about Marthas Vineyard. A wood scientist claimed that pieces of the ladder used by the kidnapper matched lumber from Hauptmanns attic. Though Hauptmann testified to his innocence, the jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to death.After numerous failed appeals, on April 3, 1936, Hauptmann was executed in a prison in Trenton, New Jersey. At the time, many were outraged at Hauptmanns execution, and legal scholars today still believe the evidence against him was insufficient.Lindberghs wife, Anne, had given birth to a second son, Jon, shortly after Charlies death. As historian Lynne Olson wrote in Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh and Americas Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941,moved to England in 1935.We Americans are a primitive people, Lindbergh told a friend shortly before leaving the country. We do not have discipline. Our moral standards are low. It shows in the newspapers, the morbid curiosity over crimes and murder trials. Americans seem to have little respect for law, or the rights of others.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.