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Investigators Search For Lindbergh Ransom Note Author

POSTED: 9:44 am EST March 31, 2003
UPDATED: 5:00 pm EST April 3, 2003

An exclusive Problem Solvers investigation found new possible evidence into one of America's greatest unsolved mysteries.

Video

The Lindbergh kidnapping remains shrouded in mystery 71 years after the crime. However, Lindbergh investigators may be getting closer to an answer, according to the report.

Recently, Problem Solver Mike Holfeld spent a five-day session in New Jersey's Lindbergh archives in search of an author to several ransom notes connected with the case. .

"One of the big mysteries of the Lindbergh kidnapping case is the symbol (on ransom notes)," New Jersey state police archivist Mark Falzini said.

A symbol dramatically placed at the bottom of the first 11 ransom notes has never been explained by investigators. The symbol is a series of circles and arclike lines with three holes punched through each note at the same exact spot.

"The simplest thing to say is that the kidnapper simply wanted to establish something that could not be copied to prove that he was the kidnapper," Rutgers University professor Lloyd Gardner said.

Local 6 News reported that if investigators found the method that was used to punch the holes in each of the ransom notes, then they would be able to come closer to discovering the identity of the true kidnapper or kidnappers.

Holfeld reported Falzini may have discovered an important clue.

Falzini examined police evidence photos of a piece of furniture from the case with a message discovered under a table top. He had a German researcher translate the message found under the table.

The message under the table said "In Hamburg, I wore velvet and silk. I cannnot tell you my name. I was one of the kidnappers of the Lindbergh baby not Bruno Richard Hauptmann."

However, police dismissed the discovery as a hoax.

But, Falzini saw something detectives missed, according to the report. He theorized that the table holes might match the spacing of the holes in the ransom note.

"I can't say definitively that this is the actual thing that was used to make the signature, but it sure looks like it," Falzini said.

Local 6 News and Falzini retested the holes on the piece of furniture with the ransom notes and found they were a perfect match.

"I don't know what the odds could be for that, it's just remarkable," Falzini said. "As an archivist your reaction would be 'oh my God, I don't know what to think. It's incredible,'" Falzini said.

"Even if the table has no connection it raises the question how in the world this signature was made so perfect," Falzini said.

"If imitation copies got out into the world, they still would not match up with his signature on that ransom note and that takes a good deal of calculation and it takes a very intelligent person to think that far ahead," Gardner said. "So that takes us back to the table again. The table provides him with the perfect way to make those holes precisely as they were made."

Holfeld said, "now the question is who wrote the table top message?"

Local 6 News will be working with top forensic handwriting experts to compare samples of various suspects to the message.

"Over the next few weeks, we may know the name of the person who got away with the crime of the century," Holfeld said.


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