The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1936-01-23
NANCY RUTH REEVES, Editor
HAUPTMAN'S REPRIEVE

his teeth with his own hands Wnen
he signed a reprieve granting ex-
tended life to the convicted kid
naper and slayer of the Lindbergh
child. A New Jersey jury sat in
session for days and heard evidence
pro and con and turned in verdict
of guilty. The case was carried to
higher courts and again reviewed
with the same verdict of guilty up
held. The case was presented before
the New Jersey Court of Pardons
and again the first verdict was up
held. In spite of all this, the Cover
nor has seen fit to inject his own
opinion into the case and delay life.
He has given no reason other than
that he is not satisfied that Haupt-
man is guilty and if he is guilty
that he must have had help.
To say that any man is guilty
who was not seen actually commit
ting a crime, particularly when that
man denies with every breath that
he did not commit it, always leaves
loopholes for some doubt, but the
smartest and most heinous crimes
of history have been committed
without witnesses and our laws
have had to take that into consider
alton when allowances were made
for the presentation of circumstan-
tial evidence. The minute Haupt-
mann stops declaring that he did
not have anything to do with the
kidnapping, his chances grow even
Simmer so it stews down a point
where he must keep up the inno-
cent front he has adopted in his
desperate attempt to escape sure
death.
He may have had help. He prob
ably did. But no time in the annals
of crime has one innocent man been
so entrapped by compromising cir
cumstances. He was found with
goodly portion of the ransom mon
ey-some hid, some in his pocket;
the telephone number Of the Lind
bergh home and of the intermedi-
ary DR.. Condor was found scrib-
bled on the door of the closet near
his telephone; Hauptmann was a
poor man but he came into wealth
the week after the kidnap money
was paid to a man in the Bronx
and he began to make heavy in
vestments in the stock markets; a
ehisel, such as was found near the
Lindbergh window, fitted into the
carpenter kit owned by Haupt-
mann; the wood in the ladder used
to get into the Lindbergh window
was identified as being the same as
the wood used in the building of
the Hauptmann attic and it was
found that parts of the joists of the
attic were missing-about the cor
rect amount to make the ladder;
veteran handwriting experts identi-
fed Hauptmann's handwriting as
being the same as that on the notes
written Lindbergh demanding fifty
thousand dollars for the son who
was even then dead. This list could
be continued on indefinitely with
many more minor but equally con-
demning facts.
It is never sporting to bring up
a mans past to help ruin his pres
ent, but Hauptmann left his native
country of Germany with con-
vict's record and he was also SOL
der in the Kaiser's army-al of
which would give him the strength
and hard-heartedness to carry out
such a crime and then attempt to
bluff it out as a last resource.
It is our firm belief that no inno-
cent man could be so surrounded
by discriminating evidence just as
it is our knowledge that had he
been entangled in a crime of less
national and international interest,
he would have been electrocuted
long ago. And that is one of the
darkest b1ots on the democracy of
which America boasts. The man
who has no money or friends or
who is unable to raise money in his
hour of need may commit crime
many degrees below one committed
by man whose intelligence is
higher and who can play more on
the sympathy of the public and
nine times out of the ten the poor
man goes to his death with little or
no ado while the taxpayers OF the