Anna Hauptmann spent nearly 60 years of her life trying to clear the name of her husband, Bruno - the man convicted of kidnapping and murdering the Lindbergh baby in 1932.
Two years after her death, the HBO movie "Crime of the Century" does a pretty good job of accomplishing her goal. And, in the process, HBO has produced an engrossing TV movie. ("Crime" debuts Saturday at 9 p.m.)Not that any of the information in "Crime of the Century' is new. It's all been documented before. Particularly in Ludovic Kennedy's book, on which the film was based.
But the movie - nicely written by William Nicholson, deftly directed by Mark Rydell and featuring a great cast, headed by Stephen Rea and Isabelle Rossellini as the Hauptmanns - brings this enormous miscarriage of justice to life.
"It's quite clear that this is a movie that makes a very strong case for the fact that Bruno Hauptmann had nothing to do with this crime and was executed with the knowledge that he had nothing to do with it," Rydell said.
While, obviously, parts of the story have been dramatized, the facts of the case have not been tampered with. Which was not true during Hauptmann's trial.
"You must remember that all the evidence against Hauptmann at the trial and before the trial was rigged," said Kennedy. "There was not a single piece of evidence which convicted him that was not faked and invented."
Official misconduct included:
- The police and prosecution said Hauptmann acted alone. But two sets of footprints were found outside the Lindbergh house and three men were involved in picking up the ransom money.
- One witness (Bert Ramsen) was told by police that he would be investigated as an accessory unless he identified Hauptmann.
- A rural neighbor of Lindbergh's was paid to identify Hauptmann a year after he said he had seen nothing.
- Handwriting experts were coerced and Hauptmann ordered by police to duplicate misspellings in the ransom note.
- The wood in the ladder used to climb up and kidnap the baby was matched to wood in the attic of Hauptmann's house. That evidence was faked by police.
"Crime of the Century" does not make a case that Hauptmann was a great guy. He had a criminal past. He lied at first when questioned about how he came to possess $14,000 in ransom money.
(Hauptman eventually claimed it was in a package left at his house by a man named Fish who swindled him out of $7,000.)
But the people who come off particularly badly in the movie are those involved in prosecuting Hauptmann. Col. Norman Schwarzkopf (J.T. Walsh), the head of the New Jersey State Police (and the father of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf) manufactured evidence and coerced witnesses.
New Jersey Attorney General David Wilentz (David Paymer) didn't care how Hauptmann was convicted - because a conviction would help his political career.
New Jersey Gov. Harold Hoffman (Michael Moriarty) refused to pardon Hauptmann or commute his sentence for political reasons - even though he was convinced Hauptmann was innocent.
Charles Lindbergh testified that he was positive he had heard Hauptmann's voice during the ransom delivery - despite insisting to police that he was unsure.
And the press, which whipped up a frenzy around the case, also bears part of the blame.
Where "Crime of the Century" succeeds as a film, however, is in making this a very personal story of Bruno and Anna Hauptmann - two people caught in the path of an oncoming train and unable to escape. Rea and Rossellini bring these two people to life.
And if "Crime of the Century" succeeds in some small way in clearing Bruno Hauptmann's name, so much the better.