HERO & VILLAIN Lindbergh’s astounding double life
He was, for years, the most revered man in the United States, considered to be a real-life superhero.
Famed for making history with his solo transatlantic flight, Charles Lindbergh became an aviation pioneer who changed the way air travel was regarded around the world.
He later went on to help invent a device that paved the way for saving many lives, and became a wildlife conservationist in the years before most people cared what happened to endangered animals.
When his 20-month-old son was kidnapped and murdered in 1932, it was dubbed ‘The Crime of the Century’, and there was a huge outpouring of sympathy for the beloved hero.
But Charles suffered a heavy fall from grace when he expressed pro-Nazi sympathies and shared his anti-Jewish sentiments. He was unapologetic for being in favour of eugenics – the practice of “improving” the human race by “breeding out” people with disabilities and “defects”.
And then, nearly 30 years after his death, it was revealed that for many years he led a
