On Feb. 13, 1935, a jury in Flemington, N.J., found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder in the kidnap-death of the infant son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. Hauptmann was later executed.

It was an egregious case of prejudice against a person of a particular heritage (in this case German) running wild, convicted in the press and then in the courtroom (tried by a Supreme Court Justice) on the flimsiest of evidence (a broken ladder nearby and a misspelled word in a journal). Spiked with more than a bit of voyeurism.

The FBI report (of course you trust the FBI, don't you?) lists evidence: handwriting, tool marks on ladder, similar appearance. The conspiracy theorists aver that Hauptmann was given the gold ransom certificates to spend so that he would seem guilty. I wonder what the truth of the matter was.

Nowadays it seems odd that there would be such a wave of distrust and dislike for Hauptmann based on his immigrant German background, but if you step back 70 years or so in time, you learn that anti-Catholic, anti-German, anti-laborer sentiments were common.

Not much has changed except the labels of the victims.