Evening star., 1932-05-14
SUSPECT SOURLAND
OF K|DNAP SECRET
CriminoIogiSts Believe New
Developments in Case
Will Be Local.
Special Dispatch to The Star.


HOPEWELL, N. j, May 14.-If fur
ther developments occur in the mystery
that surrounds the kidnapping and sub
seuuent brutal murder of the Lindbergh
baby, they will in all probability lie
within a radius as close to the famous
aviator's isolated home on Sourland
Mountain as the woodland tract in
which the little body was found.
While police authorities of various
cities, States and Of the Nation are to-
day directing unleashed efforts over
wide area, there is now every reason to
believe that the case is a local one and
that if it is ever solved all the findings
will relate to this desOlate SourlanG
region.
This throughout has been the opinion
of some of the most astute criminol-
ogists in this country, Robert Shindler
of New York for one, just as it has been
a theory entertained by certain unOffl-
Cial observers whose business took them
to the vicinity Of Hopewell in connec-
tion with this crime
Amateurs Suspected.
That organized criminals. any gang
stcr element or, in fact. professional
criminals Of whatever sort had anything
to do with the stealing of the baby was
never regarded as a tenab'e theory by
those who have given their lives to a
study of American crime. From the
first basing judgment upon such facts
as were known, they ascribed the KID
naplng as work of impulse commit
ted, deftly though it was accomplished
by person or persons committing their
first major crime
Were this not so it is entirely con-
celvable that underworld influences,
invoked in an effort to get in touch
with the kidnapers, would have been
successful. AS it was. these agents
from the first were as obviously cropping
IN the dark as were the police.
1t is an interesting fact about this
Sourland area in New Jersey that in
many cases the original farmers, earn
ing a precarious existence from this
unproductive soil, either died out or
sold their farms to city dwellers-so
that today in this region you find the
isolated farms and shackS either occu-
pied by transplanted urbanites or else
unnhabited and going to ruin.
Some Under Suspicion.
Some of these city products are solid
citizens and others have been drawn
h1ther by the opportunities of profit
from the manufacture and sale of
applejack. Not every one in this sparsely
settled country is wholly above sus-
plcion and it may well be that signifi-
cance exists IN the statement of Col H. /
Norman SchwarZkopf head OF the Jer-
sey State Police, that he is now in !
position to take action in the direction !
Of certain parties suspected.
As to the local nature of the crime. |
after this writer had spent some time i
trailing the small group of State police |
who were canvaSsing the forest Gov |
cred hills and valleys of the Sourland |
in the days Immediately following the |
kidnapping, the fact became apparent !
that no force the size of the State DO |
lice could by any possibility cover this !
area. And so far as could be seen. no |
attempt was made to dragnet the for |
est land. All that was being done was
TO visit and inspect shacls and other |
buildings upon the various lonely roads |
contiguous to Hopewcll Very easily, it |
seemed, could there be forest shacks,
caves and the like where the kidnapers
could remain irnmured.
Thus impressed the project of call
ing out brigade Of National Guard !
Infantry and having every foot of this !
region mmutely inspected, Just as in
war time maneuver would be con-
Quoted to open up concealed enemy, !
was submitted to Gov. A. Harry Moore |
OF New Jersey. He considered the plan, I
but In the end refused to sanction it, |
on the ground that it might be misin- |
terpreted as political move in the |
direction of the spectacular.
No doubt the Governors reasoning |
was sound and logical; but the fact
remains that had this search been
made, the body of the Lindbergh baby
would have been found at very early |
date
For there now seems no doubt that
the child was killed either Immediately /
after he was taken a safe distance from
the Llndbergh home or only a few days
thereafter, the crime being committed |
not far from the spot where the body /
was found.
Threat Made Good.
In such case the kidnapers made good |
the threat contained in their notes !
found in the baby'S room-that If Col /
Lindbergh invoked police. aid, the baby /
would be killed.
With the entire country aroused. they .
dared not keep the child any length !
OF time. Any one motoring through /
this section Of Jersey or through East /
ern Pennsylvania will appreciate how |
thorough was the supervision of motor
cars, all vehicles in fact, and of pedes- !
trianS.
1t was the opinion of eminent crimi- !
nologists, dating from a week after the ,
crime. that the baby was no longer ,
living; and when 60 days had elapsed !
they were certain of this.
In all the criminal history of this .
country there have been only 25 kid !
naplng cases involving infants under 8 /
years old. About half were eventually |
returned and the other half either .
murdered or never heard from. In NJ
case on record have 50 days elapsed .
and kidnapped child been restored u
its parents arms
tCopyright, 1922