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Record Group:	Department of Institutions and Agencies
Subgroup:	New Jersey State Prison at Trenton
Series:	Inmate File #17400 - Bruno Richard Hauptmann, 1934-1965
Accession #:	1997.042
Series #:	SINTR003
Guide Date:	3/2007 (EC)
Volume:	0.3 c.f. (1 box)

Contents

Content Note

On 19 September 1934, Richard Bruno Hauptmann was arrested in New York for the March 1932 kidnapping and subsequent murder of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. New Jersey Gov. A. Harry Moore issued a requisition to the State of New York on 9 October, requesting Hauptmann be delivered into the custody of New Jersey officials; this was honored on the following day. Hauptmann’s trial took place in the Hunterdon County Court of Oyer and Terminor in Flemington during January - February 1935. He was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death on 13 February. Although the execution was scheduled for the following month, a 15 March 1935 stay of execution and a 16 January 1936 reprieve postponed the execution by electric chair at the State Prison to the evening of 3 April 1936.

Bruno Richard Hauptmann’s inmate file was received by the State Archives from the Department of Corrections in 1997. The file includes extradition papers pre-dating his incarceration in Trenton, as well as several related, but unofficial, items added after his execution. Note that the New Jersey State Police Museum and Learning Center in West Trenton, NJ, holds records and evidence from the Hauptmann trial as part of an extensive archive relating to the Lindbergh kidnapping.

Contents

(click on image below for enlarged view)

No.	Caption	Image
1.	Inventory of inmate file contents, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, #17400, no date.
2.	Requisition of Gov. A. Harry More to the State of New York requesting that Bruno Richard Hauptmann be conveyed to the State of New Jersey, Trenton, NJ, 9 October 1934 [not listed in typescript file inventory].
3.	Warrant certificate of Gov. Herbert H. Lehman of New York honoring requisition of State of New Jersey for surrender of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, Albany, NY, 10 October 1934 [not listed in typescript file inventory].
4.	Warrant for execution of sentence and judgment, The State of New Jersey vs. Bruno Richard Hauptmann on conviction of murder, Hunterdon County Court of Oyer and Terminer, 13 February 1935 [Item #1 on typescript file inventory].
5.	Inmate photograph of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, prisoner #17400, 16 February 1935 [B&W, 3”x5”; appears to be reprint; also blank prisoner information card, to which photograph had been stabled; not listed in typescript file inventory].
6.	Identification Department data sheet, Prisoner No. 17400, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, New Jersey State Prison, Trenton, 16 February 1935 [not listed in typescript file inventory].
7.	Prisoner’s personal property receipt signed by Bruno Richard Hauptmann, 16 February 1935 [not listed in typescript file inventory].
8.	Record of visits, Prisoner No. 17400, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, New Jersey State Prison, Trenton, 18 February 1935 – 3 April 1936 [9 pages; not listed in typescript file inventory].	(9 pages)
9.	Order staying execution, The State vs. Bruno Richard Hauptmann sur indictment for murder, Hunterdon County Court of Oyer and Terminer, 15 March 1935 [2 pages; item #3 in typescript file inventory].
10.	Affidavit, summons and complaint, etc., Henry Matera, Assignee of James M. Fawcett vs. Bruno Richard Hauptmann, New Jersey Supreme Court, Hudson Co. and New York Supreme Court, April 1935 [true copies; 13 pages; not listed in typescript file inventory].	(13 pages)
11.	Action at Law – Order, Henry Matera, Assignee of James M. Fawcett vs. Bruno Richard Hauptmann, New Jersey Supreme Court, Hudson County, 26 April 1935 [true copy; 2 pages; item #4 in typescript file inventory].
12.	Action at Law – Order, Edward J. Reilly vs. Bruno Richard Hauptmann, New Jersey Supreme Court, 29 May 1935 [true copy; 2 pages; item #5 in typescript file inventory].
13.	Classification progress record, 3 June – 12 July 1935 [6 pages, including 4 carbon copies; not listed in typescript file inventory].
14.	Letter from Col. Mark O. Kimberling to Rev. J. Matthiesen advising him that Bruno Richard Hauptmann requested that Matthiesen visit him as spiritual advisor, 22 November 1935 [unsigned carbon copy; not listed in typescript file inventory].
15a.	Warrant for execution of sentence and judgment, The State vs. Bruno Richard Hauptmann on conviction of murder, Hunterdon County Court of Oyer and Terminer, 13 December 1935 [2 pages & jacket cover; item #6 in typescript file inventory].
15b.	Warrant for execution of sentence and judgment, The State vs. Bruno Richard Hauptmann, Hunterdon County Court of Oyer and Terminer, 13 December 1935 [true copy with reproduced signatures, 3 pages; item #6 in typescript file inventory].
16.	Reprieve of Gov. Harold G. Hoffman postponing death sentence of Bruno Richard Hauptmann from week of 12 January to 15 February 1936, [Trenton, NJ], 16 January 1936 [item #7 in typescript file inventory].
17.	Letter from Gov. Harold G. Hoffman to Col. Mark O. Kimberling, Principal Keeper of the State Prison, advising him of the reprieve of Bruno Richard Hauptman postponing the execution to 15 February, [Trenton, NJ],16 January 1936 [not listed in typescript file inventory].
18.	Letter acknowledging receipt of reprieve of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, Col. Mark O. Kimberling to Gov. Harold G. Hoffman, [Trenton, NJ], 17 January 1936 [unsigned carbon copy; not listed in typescript file inventory].
19.	Letter from Col. Mark O. Kimberling to Henry Stalzensberger re: New Jersey statute prohibiting services to be held over the remains following an execution, Office of the Principal Keeper, New Jersey State Prison, 4 April 1936 [unsigned but receipted copy; also forwarding note form F. B. Ryan to Mr. Bleam; item #11 in typescript file inventory].
20.	Warrant for execution of sentence and judgment, The State vs. Bruno Richard Hauptmann on conviction of murder, Hunterdon County Court of Oyer and Terminer, 19 February 1936 [3 pages & jacket cover; item #8 in typescript file inventory].
21.	Letter of Col. Mark O. Kimberling to Mr. I. C. Bleam, Prison Clerk, re: closing out the record of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, New Jersey State Prison, Trenton, 6 April 1936 [item #10 in typescript file inventory].
22.	Typed note re: Hauptmann finances, no date [not listed in typescript file inventory].
23.	Photograph of electric chair, Trenton State Prison, no date [B&W, 2.75”x4.5”; not listed in typescript file inventory].
24.	“Who Said the Lindbergh Case was Solved?” manuscript of Arthur J. W. Jones, Inmate #17966, New Jersey State Prison Farm, September 1956; letters from David J. Goldberg to Jones and Director F. Lovell Bixby to Dr. Lloyd W. McConkle, Principal Keeper, New Jersey State Prison, re: publication of Jones’s manuscript, 26 & 27 September 1956 [9 pages; not listed in typescript file inventory].	(9 pages)

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Created March 2007