THE LINDBERGH KIDNAPPING HOAX 

DETECTIVE FITZGERALD'S STATEMENT RE:

 DISCOVERY OF THE CHILD'S CORPSE  MAY 12, 1932 

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Governor A. Harry Moore assigned Detective J. F. Fitzgerald to be Lindbergh's live-in bodyguard at the Hopewell house. The following interview was submitted to the  LKH  website by  researcher Susan Campbell and retyped from the original police statement by Ronelle Delmont.  Fitzgerald, interviewed by a Mr. Peacock one month before Hauptmann's trial,  describes the first moments, on May 12, 1932,  after the Police were alerted to the discovery of a child's corpse.  

     December 4, 1934

DETECTIVE JAMES FITZGERALD

Jersey City Police

BY MR. PEACOCK:

Q    Was May 12th your first assignment on this case?

A    No, March 2nd.

Q    Will you please give us your story?

A    I was assigned there by Deputy Chief Walsh and went up there on the night of March 2nd, and accompanied by some  Troopers and Newark Police, we conducted a few investigations that night and after that it was a general line of investigation work, detailed every day, going all over.

    On the afternoon of May 12th about 1:30 PM Captain Lamb called Zapolsky of the State Police and myself and told us he had just received a telephone call from Chief Wolfe of the Hopewell Police Department and instructed us to meet him down at the crossroads at the guard house which was more or less of a dead line established by the State Police.

    Upon our arrival there we met Chief Wolfe and he gave us the information that a body had been found back on the Mt. Rose road by a Colored man and another man whose name I can't recollect at the present time. We proceeded, in company with Chief Wolfe, to this destination.

    Upon arriving there we got out of the car and about ten feet from where our car was parked on the road there was a burlap bag lying.  I told Sgt. Zapolsky to take that burlap bag with him. Going in about sixty feet further, Chief Wolfe pointed out the body of the child covered with leaves, buried face down. I asked Sgt.. Zapolsky to give me a couple of sticks or twigs of trees which he did. Placing it under what I believed was the body of the child, I turned the body over. I then asked Sgt. Zapolsky if he had a picture of the Lindbergh child.

Q    Did you turn the body over before Chief Walsh turned it?

A    Yes, that is right. Sgt. Zapolsky had in his possession a picture of the child. We made a comparison of the picture of the child and the body that was found there and came to our own conclusion that that was the body of the Lindbergh child.

Q    Upon what did you base that opinion?

A    Lying around the skull of the child was a lot of matted blond hair and when the child was found and turned over there was hair on the baby's head.  The nose of the child compared with the picture of the Lindbergh baby. One eye was deteriorated and the other eye was open. The left leg was missing and the right forearm was missing and the second large toe had been overlapped by the large toe. I had a conversation with Zapolsky and as a result of that we left the scene where the body was found.

Q    Dr. Mitchell will testify that the face of the baby being down, that certain minerals of the earth preserved the baby's face. Can you tell after you turned it over whether there was any discoloration as a result of that body being turned over after being preserved from the elements by the minerals of the earth and then being exposed to the atmosphere?

A    The face was partly decomposed, the lower part of the face.

Q    What about the color of the face?

A    The color of the face was more or less of a pink.

Q    And after the air hit it?

A    After the air hit it, it became dark.

        PRODUCE PHOTOGRAPH OF CHILD

Q    What did you do next?

A    We left the body as it was and on our way back to try and locate a telephone, which we did on the Mt. Rose Road, we immediately called the home of Col. Lindbergh, getting in touch with Captain Lamb. We informed him that it was the body of a child who we thought was the Lindbergh baby.  We awaited the arrival of Deputy Chief Walsh for a period of two or three minutes, met him and escorted him to the scene - or where the body was.

    I was immediately sent, in company with Zapolsky, to the home of Wilson in Woodsville, taking him to the home of Lindbergh where a statement was taken.

May 12, 1932, 3:PM

Subject:    Interview of Chief Wolf and Chief Williamson of the Hopewell Police at the gate house in regards to an unidentified baby found at Mt. Rose Hill, Mt. Rose, N.J. by Wm. Allen, negro.

    In company with Sgt. Zapolsky, Chief Williamson and Chief Wolf we immediately proceeded to the spot on Mt. Rose Hill designated by both the above men and there upon stepping out of the car we found a burlap bag along the road. Entering into the woods about 25 yards further we came to the body of an infant in a badly decomposed state. We immediately left there entering a store on the Hopewell-Princeton Road where we got in touch with Captain Lamb at these hdqrs. informing him of the conditions that existed. He told us that Inspector Walsh of the Jersey City Police and Lieut. Keaten of the N. J. State Police were on their way over.  Upon leaving the store we met Lieut. Keaten and Inspector Walsh and proceeded to the place where the baby was found. After the two above mentioned officers viewed the conditions, Inspector Walsh immediately detailed Sgt. Zapolsky and myself in company with Chief Wolf of the Hopewell Police Dept. to round up William Allen of 43 Roosevelt St., Trenton, N.J., Livingston Titus, Orville Wilson and John Craft, who reported the finding of the body to the Chief of Police in Hopewell.  Upon locating these men we brought them all to the Hopewell Station of the State Police where statements were taken and the men were allowed to return to their homes.

Det. James F. Fitzgerald,                                       Sgt. A. Zapolsky

SSP    Jersey City Police,                                   N. J. State Police,

(signed)  James Fitzgerald                              (signed)  A. Zapolsky