Lindbergh

The first hoax perpetrated on Col. and Mrs. Lindbergh was the general assumption that only organized crime could be responsible for such a slick kidnapping. The late 1920s and the early 1930s had become an era of gangland kidnappings. Because of this, a small-time bootlegger by the name of Mickey Rosner offered his services to hunt for the baby, claiming that his connections would result in the return of the child within a week. Lindbergh and Breckinridge, over the objections of Schwarzkopf and Keaton, accepted Rosner's offer. He asked for, and received, $2,500 for expenses and delegated two of his associates, also small-time hoodlums, Salvatore Spitale and Irving Bitz, to serve as his field contacts with various units of the Mob. Over several months, Rosner was able to claim that success was just around the corner. Reinforcing Rosner's claim that negotiating with the Mob was the way to retrieve the baby, Al Capone, recently imprisoned for tax invasion, maintained that he could find the gang that kidnapped the Eaglet, if he were free for two weeks. Although Lindbergh said that he never intended to ask for Capone's release, he contacted the IRS agent who had built the case to put Capone away, Elmer Irey, head of the IRS Law Enforcement Division. Irey convinced Lindbergh that it was unlikely that any member of any mob could be trusted. Even though Capone's offer was rejected, Rosner maintained his status in the Lindbergh household until it appeared that contact had been made with the real kidnappers.

Hoax Two: Gaston B. Means