On Feb. 13, 1935, a jury in Flemington, N.J., found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder in the kidnapping-death of the infant son of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh and Anne Lindbergh. Hauptmann was sentenced to death and later executed. The Feb. 14 New York Times gave a detailed description of the day's events: "Handcuffed to two guards, Hauptmann stood between them silent and motionless, his face ashen white and terror in his deep-set eyes, while he heard the jury state its verdict and the judge pronounce sentence. ... He did not even cast a glance of recognition toward his wife, who sat a few feet sway. She looked at him with red-rimmed eyes, but did not weep. The Lindbergh baby, named Charles Jr., was kidnapped from a second-floor nursery in the Lindbergh home in Hopewell, N.J. on the night of March 1, 1932. Mr. Lindbergh discovered a ransom note in the baby's room demanding $50,000 in cash. Police investigators found a ladder used to reach the room and muddy footprints, though these footprints could not be measured. Police were unable to find any fingerprints in the baby's room. The Lindbergh kidnapping immediately became a national news story and reporters rushed to the scene the following morning, unwittingly eliminating the possibility of investigators finding additional evidence. State and federal authorities pledged their resources to find the baby. Five days after the kidnapping, the kidnapper sent a letter to the Lindberghs: he had increased the amount of his ransom demand. The Lindberghs conducted their negotiations with the kidnapper through a well-known local personality and retired educator, Dr. John F. Condon, who had written a note in a newspaper volunteering to act as an intermediary. Condon met with a man claiming to be the kidnapper in a Bronx cemetery on the night of March 12. After three weeks of further negotiations, Condon met the same man and handed over the $50,000 ransom. The man told him that the baby was located on a boat called Nellie near Martha's Vineyard, Mass., but a search of Martha's Vineyard found no such boat. On May 12, a truck driver discovered the body of Charles Lindbergh Jr. at the site of a raid near the Lindbergh home. The baby had suffered blows to the head and body, and had been dead for about two months. The police turned the focus of the investigation to the ransom money, releasing the serial numbers of the ransom bills to banks and businesses. This search led them to Hauptmann, a German immigrant living in the Bronx, and a search of his home uncovered $14,000 of the ransom money. Hauptmann claimed that the money belonged to a German friend who had since died, but police did not believe him. Further searches of Hauptmann's home found design plans for a ladder, a piece of wood identical to the kind used to build the kidnapping ladder, and Condon's phone number on a piece of paper. A New York court charged Hauptmann with extortion and a New Jersey court charged him with murder, to which both counts Hauptmann pleaded not guilty. The media flocked to the murder trial, dubbed the "Trial of the Century." The prosecution contended that Hauptmann fell while climbing back down the ladder, likely killing the baby with the fall. In addition to presenting the evidence discovered at the Hauptmann home, the prosecution argued that Hauptmann's handwriting and broken English matched the ransom notes. Condon testified that Hauptmann was the man he had met at the cemetery. The defense brought in a series of witnesses to provide an alibi for Hauptmann, but they gave unreliable testimonies. Despite a lack of physical evidence connecting Hauptmann to the scene of the kidnapping, jurors believed he was guilty and his conviction was upheld in an appellate court and a pardons board review. Hauptmann maintained his innocence until his execution, turning down a large cash offer from a newspaper to confess. Connect to Today: Child abduction cases have always received a lot of media attention and many parents list kidnapping as one of their greatest fears for the children. A Sept. 13, 2009 article in The Times examined the anxiety many parents feel over letting the children walk alone to school. One expert told The Times that fear of child abduction "has become a norm within middle-class parental circles." In the fall of 2011, the disappearance of 5-year-old Jhessye Shockley, a black girl from Glendale, Ariz., prompted critical discussion about whether news outlets give the same national attention to missing children of color as they give to white children who have disappeared. What are your thoughts on child abduction? To what extent do you think the news media sensationalize, or - conversely - fail to adequately cover, some missing children stories? What relationship, if any, do you see between media coverage and parental anxiety? Consider the question the Learning Network posed to students in 2010, How (Over) Protective Are Your Parents? Do you feel your parents are too protective sometimes? Learn more about what happened in history on February 13