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TLS signed “J. E. Hoover,” one page, 8 x 10.5, Division of Investigation (U.S. Department of Justice) letterhead, April 19, 1934. Letter to Lawrence S. Buckley, in full: “The Division has received your letter of April 9, 1934, offering certain conclusions which you have drawn regarding the handwriting in the Lindbergh extortion letters and in the letters in the O'Connell Kidnaping Case. The Division has also received the drawing of a hand showing the conclusions you have drawn regarding the appearance of the hand of the writer of these letters, and the clipping showing the comparison between Strewl's writing and the O'Connell notes by handwriting experts. Your courtesy in forwarding this information is appreciated.” In very good condition, with light soiling and creasing, and splitting to the mailing folds.
Two years earlier, on March 1, 1932, Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., the 20-month-old son of Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was abducted from his crib on the upper floor of the Lindberghs' home in East Amwell, New Jersey. The child’s corpse was discovered two months later, and a lengthy investigation led to the arrest of Richard Hauptmann in September 1934, some five months after this letter was written and signed. The handwriting of the ransom notes figured prominently in the ensuing trial, with experts unanimously agreeing that ‘all the notes were written by the same person and that the writer was of German nationality but had spent some time in America.’
The referenced “O'Connell Kidnaping Case,” relates to the 1933 abduction of young boxer John O’Connell, Jr., the nephew of Albany County Democratic Party patriarch Daniel P. O’Connell. The kidnappers, later revealed to be mobsters, asked for $250,000, but eventually agreed to return O’Connell unharmed for a $40,000 ransom. The mob’s kidnapping mastermind was ultimately arrested, as were eight of his accomplices.
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