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| In Search of |
| the American Sherlock Holmes: |
| Tracking down Ellis Parker and the Second Lindbergh Kidnapping. |
| A literary true adventure by John Reisinger |
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| Chapter 10- Deja Vu All Over Again |
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| Progress has come to the sleepy county seat of Hunterdon County. No one would mistake Flemington for Mt. Holly. An almost impenetrable belt of highways and shopping centers surrounds Flemington, relieved only by the occasional used car lot. Apparently the Hauptmann trial is something of a cottage industry in Flemington, because banners advertising the reenactment were strung across several of the main roads. |
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| I didn`t really expect to learn a lot that was new from seeing the trial reenactment, but thought it would be good to see the actual courthouse and maybe get some of the flavor of the events. Reading dusty old records was one thing; seeing them come to life was another. |
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| After carefully following directions and getting lost once or twice, we came to the center of the old town and saw the famous courthouse. After all the miles of suburbia, the town center seemed unchanged from the images I was familiar with from old newsreels and documentaries. The courthouse looked the same, as did the old gray Union Hotel across the street where the jury and many of the reporters stayed. Possibly because of competition from more modern motels, or possibly because of modern fire codes, the Union Hotel no longer puts up guests overnight. It functions as a combination restaurant and historic relic. Something else was different from the February trial; it was blazing hot. If you weren`t too particular about sanitation, you could have stir-fried on the sidewalks. |
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| The Flemington Courthouse |
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| There was a festival going on along the main drag in Flemington, and sweltering throngs milled around under a white hot ball of sun hanging in a cloudless sky. A 1930s vintage auto was parked in front of the courthouse to advertise the trial reenactment and the streets were lined with modern vendors of everything from snowballs to artwork. To add even more period confusion, a group of Civil War reenactors was encamped behind the courthouse, their faces shiny with sweat above the collars of their wool uniforms. |
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| The reenactment/play is produced by Famous Trials, Inc., an outfit that specializes in recreating famous trials in their original courtrooms. They had done the Sacco and Vanzetti trial in Dedham, Mass, and several others, but the Bruno Hauptmann Trial was clearly the most successful. It runs several times a week in September only and is usually sold out in advance. |
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| Since we were jury members, we were ushered into the jury room to await the trial. The jury room, like the courtroom itself is actually on the second floor of the courthouse, a fact that isn`t evident from photos. The jury was a mixed group, but most seemed to be serious Lindbergh buffs. One man of a group of six clutched a copy of Waller`s Kidnap. The group referred to it several times as we waited, no doubt checking the show`s veracity. |
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| The bailiff came in and instructed us how to act, assuring us we were part of the show. I looked around at the shorts and sneaker-clad jury members with cameras around their necks and doubted the rest of the audience would be fooled. |
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| We were told when to gasp (when the picture of the Lindbergh baby was shown), when to murmur among ourselves (after a particularly sensational bit of testimony), and how to march in and out properly. There was other practical advice as well. |
| "Now, when the verdict is read, Mrs. Hauptmann will scream loudly and then collapse, so try not to jump." |
| We all nodded gravely, aware of our heavy responsibility to both history and show biz. |
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| While we had been getting our instructions, the rest of the audience had been filling the seats in the courtroom. Finally, it was showtime. I`m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille. |
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| We filed in solemnly as we had been instructed, and sat in the jury box. After seeing the newspaper pictures of the trial, we looked around the room and found everything strangely familiar. In the second row, a member of the group with the book was checking his seat to find the name of the jury member who had sat there during the trial. Then it was on with the show. |
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| Lady and gentleman of the jury |
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| Using several reporters as a sort of narrative Greek chorus to set the scene, the trial got under way. The actors portraying the principals looked a lot like the originals, except for prosecutor David Wilentz. Unlike the diminutive original, this Wilentz looked like a linebacker, but he was sharp and intense in his questioning, and we soon were swept up in the drama. The script is mostly an extremely abbreviated version of the actual trial testimony and was very well done. We gasped in the appropriate place and eagerly awaited the testimony of Hauptmann himself. |
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| A key point in Wilentz`s cross examination of Hauptmann came after Hauptmann denied making the crude looking ladder by saying "I am a carpenter." |
| Encouraged by the resulting laughter, he smiled and added that the ladder looked like a musical instrument. He was rewarded with more laughter and smiled again. |
| In his cross-examination, Wilentz accused him of being too confident, of smiling and laughing. Hauptmann`s famous reply was "Should I cry?" |
| Exactly how Hauptmann said this in the real trial is not known for sure. He may have said it sarcastically, or in a tone of innocent bewilderment. The actor Hauptmann, however, said the line in a tone dripping with such sneering contempt that I wanted to hang him myself. |
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| The jury retired to a large room near the judge`s chambers, ostensibly to deliberate, but really just to build up tension before the verdict was read. We each cast our ballot for what the verdict would be, but no one collected them. The actors also gathered there in the room. We talked to "Hauptmann", who slipped out of character now that he had no more lines. His thick accent had mysteriously disappeared and we learned was actually married to the woman who played his wife. He watched us filling out our ballots encouragingly. |
| "I`m guilty," he assured us, "but I was hoping no one would notice." |
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| "David Wilentz" told us he`d been playing the role for years. I asked him if anyone in the audience ever got carried away with the trial. |
| "Oh, yes," he laughed. "People sometimes get downright hostile towards me after my cross examination, especially people who think Hauptmann was innocent. Jury members tend to be the most involved. We ask jury members to vote, even though the verdict is always guilty, and the arguments can get heated. One husband and wife almost had a divorce over it. She voted guilty and he insisted on voting not guilty." |
| "And how would you vote?" I asked. |
| "Guilty as hell," he smiled. |
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| The jury filed in, the guilty verdict was read, and Mrs. Hauptmann screamed and collapsed on cue. A good time was had by all. Afterwards we had a bite to eat on the long porch of the Union Hotel and watched the crowds milling in front of the courthouse across the street. The hotel had old photos and memorabilia of its one moment in the glare of publicity so long ago. At another table, the jury party of six was also eating and rehashing the trial. It had cooled off a little by now. The crowds were thinning and some of the vendors were closing up shop. We took one last look at the courthouse then headed for home. |
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| What`s next for our intrepid researchers? |
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| Will everything fit together? |
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| Will they finally be able to stay home for once? |
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| Don`t miss Chapter 11- |
| Relatives Old and New. |
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