Anna Hauptmann, widow of the man executed for killing aviator Charles Lindbergh's son in 1932, has died at 96. She had spent her last years in a vain effort to clear her husband's name.
Mrs. Hauptmann died Oct. 10 at Lancaster General Hospital. The Lancaster New Era reported her death Tuesday; no announcement had been made previously.Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German immigrant carpenter, was convicted of murder in 1935 for kidnapping the Lindberghs' infant son from his nursery in Hopewell, N.J., three years earlier.
The baby's body was found in a shallow grave several miles from the Lindbergh home two months after the kidnapping. Prosecutors said the boy died when a ladder collapsed as Hauptmann sneaked him out of the house.
The case almost immediately was dubbed "the crime of the century" because of the prominence of Lindbergh, a national idol after his 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic.
Hauptmann maintained his innocence until his electrocution in 1936. His wife said that he was with her the night the baby was taken, but prosecutors said Hauptmann's handwriting was found on ransom notes sent to the Lindberghs and that ransom money was found in Hauptmann's garage.