Lindbergh - A. Scott Berg

In May 1927 Lindbergh became the first solo pilot to cross the Atlantic non-stop. He had spent over 33 hours in the air and was feted as a new American hero. The media attention he received intensified in 1932 when his 20-month-old baby was kidnapped. The infamous "Lindbergh baby" was later found dead and the trial of the assumed kidnapper, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, generated a public hysteria which forced the Lindberghs into exile in Europe. Linbergh's admiration for the Nazi regime in Germany brought him a decoration from Hermann Goering and, upon his return to America in 1939, he became a leading spokesman of the America First facist movement but public opinion began to turn against him. When the United States entered the war, Lindbergh offered to enlist in the Air Force but Roosevelt refused to let him serve although he later flew in many unofficial combat missions in the South Pacific. This biography reveals the many facets of the private Lindbergh.