Colonel Lindbergh's Ordeal
America has always been in some aspects an incredible country, and the latest turn in the Lindbergh baby case taxes normal powers of credence almost to breaking-point. The discovery of the child's body in a condition which made it clear that the murder had been committed imme- diately after the abduction might have been regarded as closing the episode except for universal expressions of sympathy with the parents under their intolerable strain. Someone had made off with a 50,000 dollar ransom under false pretences. That was disclosed long ago. But it would take an alienist to account adequately for the confession now forthcoming from Mr. T. H. Curtis, a citizen of apparently irreproachable character and holding a responsible position (till he lost his money recently like many other people), who admits that the story of the negotiations he professed to be conducting with the kid- nappers on board a yacht was a fabrication from beginning to end. It was on the strength of the story that all avail- able patrol boats and aeroplanes were mobilized to scour the coast, and Colonel Lindbergh himself was actually at sea when the news of the finding of the baby's body reached him. Money may have had something to do with the affair, for Mr. Curtis was arranging to sell his story to the Press. Another gentleman is already in prison for trying to raise funds in the same way. As for Mr. Curtis, in spite of doubts whether he had put himself in reach of the law, it now appears that he has. Indictable or not, no action more vicious or vile could be imagined on the part of a man in control of his senses.
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