Cemetery John

I read everything I can get my hands on about the Lindbergh kidnapping. "Cemetery John" by Robert E. Zorn is a new one that has an interesting take on the crime. Zorn's father, Eugene, grew up in the Bronx, and as a child he knew a man named John Knoll, who he believed he saw conspiring with Bruno Richard Hauptmann one day. Eugene passed away, but his son was determined to continue his father's search for the truth. He researched Knoll, and discusses his theory on how he and his brother and Hauptmann worked together to kidnap Charles Lindbergh Jr. In the beginning, everyone thought the crime was the work of a gang, and only after the authorities arrested Hauptmann did they decide it was a one man operation. Zorn makes a lot of good points, like how John Condon (Jafsie) first identified the man who took the ransom money in the cemetery as having an odd growth near his left thumb. Hauptmann had no such mark, but Knoll did. While I'd like to believe Hauptmann was innocent, Zorn makes a strong case for him at least having a part in the crime. I still think the ladder coming from a piece of wood from Hauptmann's attic is ridiculous, though.