Evening star., 1932-03-02

ported that a few hours before the
kidnapping took place two men in a
dark sedan stopped highway worker
and inquired directions to the Lind
bergh home.
Police watched all main highways
throughout the State for a car answer
ing the vague description of the kid
napers' automobile.
The kidnapping was discovered at
10 pm. The baby's nurse, Betty Cow,
had put him to bed at 7:30. When she
returned to the nursery there was only
heap of disordered blankets in the
crib.
She rushed screaming down stairs to
the dining room and told the colonel
and his wife, eating late dinner, what
had happened.
Col. Lindbergh Immediately tele-
phoned the State police and the news
OF the kidnapping was broadcast to
police in New Jersey, New York and
Pennsylvania.
The first newspaper man to reach the
Lindbergh residence was an Associated
Press reporter, who found the colonel.
bareheaded as usual, nervously pacing
the grounds, while State and local
police and detectives went over the es-
tate with flashlights.
The house, ablaze with lights, was
Silhouetted against the foreboding
background of the wooded Sourland
hills
The steely calm that Col. Lindbergh
displayed in his rocket rise to fame
did not desert him.
Tight-lpped as ever on subjects
touching his private life, his rumpled
hair and grim face were the only indi-
cations of his feelings as he tramped
about his estate. flashlight in hand, in
specting the footprints of the escaped
kidnapers of his son, and searching the
muddy mountain for other clues.
When a reporter asked him for a
statement, he turned to Maj. Schoeffel
all available troopers in the district to
report to the Lindbergh home.
II prefer that you answer all ques-
tions," the worlds most famous airman
said. you know all about it,
Clothes Are Mud Caked.
"If you would excuse me-" he added
to the reporter, II would rather turn
everything over to the State police.
am sure you will understand"
His leather jacket and worn gray
trousers were mudfaked, showing that
his frantic search had been extensive.
The butler, Ollie Wheatley, and Mrs
Wheatley likewise refused to make any
statement.
The search Of the ground Of the
estate yielded a scant handful of clues
to the kidnapers, who had worked with
such quiet and stealthy dispatch that
the five adults in the house were never
aware Of what was happening in the
nursery upstairs.
The nursery, which Is filled with
every device for childish pleasure, Is
situated in the right-hand corner of
the second floor front, ana faces on
the private roadway. The open window
through which the kidnapers entered
is 30 feet from the ground.
A Gordon of police was thrown about
the Lindbergh estate early today, to
keep out the hundreds of private cars
which sped there after hearing of the
kidnapping. Roads for miles around
were snarled in hopeless traffic jam
Col Henry Breckenridge of New
York Lindbergh's attorney, accom-
panied by another man and a woman
arrived at the house early today and
went upstairs Immediately.
Abandoned Car Found.
An abandoned sedan found near
Hillsdale, N. j., last night and answer
ing the description Of the car thought
to have been used by the kidnapers,
was stolen from Brooklyn yesterday.
The car belongs to Samuel Mandel OF
Brooklyn. When it was first found au-
thorities thought they noticed an odor
like chloroform, but Mandel explained
he had spilled a bottle of perfume in
it last week.
Mud-spattered reporters, cold and
tired after a hectic nights work, were
given the flying colonel's garage as a
headquarters.
Col Breckenridge, Lindbergh's at
torney, served coffee to newspaper men
and threw open the garage for those
who were at the scene earliest last