Lucky Lindy, The Kidnapping and The Secret Spy Mission!

Known primarily for his flying hero status in the 1920's and 1930's, Charles Lindbergh was an A-list celebrity of the times. While most people today remember his exploits with the Spirit of St. Louis, many do not know of the kidnapping of his child or his coup of intelligence information that he picked up on his whirlwind tours of the German aircraft industry in the pre-World War II years.

The Hero!

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More than anything else, the Spirit of St. Louis has come to symbolize the roaring of the American nation on the world stage of the 1920's. The first to fly non-stop from New York to Paris, Lindberg sealed his destiny in aviation forever as well as winning $25,000! Coming from this flight were major advances in aeronautics, including:

"...Lindbergh is recognized in aviation for demonstrating and charting polar air-routes, high altitude flying techniques, and increasing aircraft flying range by decreasing fuel consumption. These innovations are the basis of modern intercontinental air travel...." (2)


Disaster Strikes!

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After his famous flight, Lindbergh married and had children, still continuing his flying career. However, in 1932 disaster struck, as one of his children, Charles Augustus Lindbergh was kidnapped. The nation was stunned with the event soon turning into a media circus with theories, supposed details and shady characters. As an interesting note, one of the principles in the story was none other than Wild Bill Donovan, future head of the OSS in World War II. Al Capone offered help as well. In the end, results were futile as the body of his son was found and indentified, however, the criminal, Bruno Hauptmann was convicted of the crime.

Lucky Lindy, Secret Agent?

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While it was a known fact that Germany was building up the armed forces in the 1930's, the extent to which that was happening was not concrete. American officials as well as the British, however, scored a coup when Lindbergh was invited to Germany by top Nazi officials, including Goering. While there, he learned much about the top line aircraft in the German inventory, with the information soon flowing back to the appropriate intelligence services. . In the pages above, located in NARA, we see Truman Smith's information on the tours taken by Lindbergh.


I've only just described the tip of the iceberg with the data and images available for these topics. Take a few minutes and hit the links below for more in depth information.

Have a great day, see you tomorrow!



Links:

FBI Files-Lindbergh Kidnapping Case
FBI Files II-Lindbergh Kidnapping Case
Wikipedia-Lindbergh Kidnapping
CIA-Information on Military Attaches-Truman Smith
Wikipedia: Main entry for Lindbergh
LOC-Search for Lindbergh

Sources:
(1)LOC-Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
(2)Wikipedia-TransAtlantic Flight
(3)FBI-Ransom Note
(4)NARA
(5)NARA

The Jungle, "Packingtown" and the great TR!

With all the uproar about product safety these days, it's interesting to note that in the early part of the 1900's, similar conditions existed here in the United States. In his book, The Jungle, Upton Sinclair was a primary force in pointing this out and arguing for changes in the industry--helping to spawn many of the food safety programs now used today. The National Archives, in their section, America's Historical Documents, posted out a copy of the letter from Sinclair to the then President, Theodore Roosevelt. Here's the letter outlining some of the conditions:

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and

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While it's important to know that The Jungle is a work of fiction, Upton Sinclair did quite a bit of research for the book. Here's a quote from the novel that caused quite an uproar:

"...For they had set him to cleaning out the traps; and the family

sat round and listened in wonder while he told them what that meant. It
seemed that he was working in the room where the men prepared the beef for canning, and the beef had lain in vats full of chemicals, and men with great forks speared it out and dumped it into trucks, to be taken
to the cooking room. When they had speared out all they could reach, they emptied the vat on the floor, and then with shovels scraped up the balance and dumped it into the truck. This floor was filthy, yet
they set Antanas with his mop slopping the "pickle" into a hole that connected with a sink, where it was caught and used over again forever; and if that were not enough, there was a trap in the pipe, where all the
scraps of meat and odds and ends of refuse were caught, and every few days it was the old man's task to clean these out, and shovel their contents into one of the trucks with the rest of the meat!..." (3)

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The public was outraged! There were massive calls for changes in the industry. Says Wikipedia:

"..The morbidity of the working conditions as well as the exploitation of children and women alike that Sinclair exposed, showed the corruption taking place inside the meat packing factories. Foreign sales of American meat fell by one-half. In order to calm public outrage and demonstrate the cleanliness of their meat, the major meat packers lobbied the Federal government to pass legislation paying for additional inspection and certification of meat packaged in the United States. [2] Their efforts, coupled with the public outcry, led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which established the Food and Drug Administration...."

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Check the links below for more details and images. Just make sure you are not getting ready to eat lunch!


Have a great day, see you tomorrow!!!

Links:

The Jungle (Wikipedia)
The Jungle (Project Gutenberg-whole book)
America's Historical Documents
Library of Congress (keyword search will get the most results)


Sources:

(1)NARA
(2)NARA
(3)The Jungle-Project Gutenberg
(4)Prints & Photographs Online Catalog

(5)Wikipedia-The Jungle