“Before we had railroads, the automobile, telephones, and telegraphs, each State could properly take care of it’s crime situation. Why? Because crime was localized and escape was slow. It was impossible in the old days to escape local detection...but with the telephone, the radio, the automobile, and the airplane...crime takes advantage of all available modes of transportation.”
-Representative Fiorello H. LaGuardia, 1932
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"Four years ago I introduced in the House a bill which was directed at kidnapping. That bill was... to make it a felony to use the mails to demand ransom where a person had been kidnapped...this bill was introduced in the House... long before the Lindbergh kidnapping took place. It was introduced to meet a situation...where the police are powerless, when the criminals cross the State lines."
-Representative Cochran from Missouri, 1932
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In 1931, Senator Patterson and Congressman Cochran from Missouri, one of many states plagued by kidnappings, introduced a bill that called for imprisonment or death of kidnappers when victims cross state lines.
This bill gained little attention. |
"There is fear throughout the country...and a great deal of that fear is in the hearts of the mothers...and has been brought by the Lindbergh case. It is the duty of Congress to stamp out that fear...to let every mother of this country know that her child, no matter how humble her station in life may be, or her husband, is going to receive from the United States government the same assistance that was given in the Lindbergh case."
-Representative Cochran of Missouri, 1932
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“The Nation still mourns with the Lindbergh family in the loss of their son. Out of this tragedy, however, has come a demand for more drastic legislation with which to meet the heartless advance of those who would kidnap and kill. That demand finds response here today in this bill."
-Representative Fred S. Purnell, 1932
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"The intervention of Lindbergh certainly hampered the case at all times. He insisted that he be informed at every step and even told the police whats to do at all times."
-Mark Falzini, New Jersey Police Archivist;
Personal interview, Dec. 17, 2018 |
"He could not accept that people close to him would betray him, or that he had hired unsavory people. Today, these would be the first people investigated."
-Mark Falzini, New Jersey Police Archivist; Personal interview,
Dec. 17, 2018 |