Isidor Fisch - Involvement With Bruno Hauptmann

Involvement With Bruno Hauptmann

Fisch was well known in the German American community of the Bronx as a very strange character. He had approached many of the community to invest in a variety of business schemes, most of which were bogus. He was also involved in some small fencing operations which included the purchasing of "hot" money cheaply to store and re-use later. Fisch and Hauptmann met in 1932, became friends, and agreed to pool the risks and profits of Fisch's trade in furs and Hauptmann's stock investments.

Fisch had applied for a passport on 12 May 1932, which was the same day that the Lindbergh baby was found dead. On 9 December 1933, Fisch set sail on the ocean liner Manhattan for a visit to Germany, shortly after the ransom money was paid by the Lindbergh family. He paid for his ticket with $420 worth of gold certificates purportedly lent by Hauptmann. He had also purchased, with the Hauptmann money, $600 worth of Reichsmarks.

According to Hauptmann, on 5 December 1933, Fisch left various items, including a shoe box in which Hauptmann claimed to have later found $14,000 in gold certificates. One of the certificates was identified in circulation on 18 September 1935, although others reportedly appeared in circulation years after Hauptmann's execution. During this period, gold certificates were rapidly being withdrawn from circulation and it was unusual to see one. One gold certificate used at a Bronx gas station was traced to Hauptmann, and he was subsequently arrested.

During his trial, Hauptmann claimed he had discovered the money while cleaning a closet with a leaky roof and that the leak had made the shoe box fall apart. He took his findings to his garage and began to dry the wet bills. He then hid them behind some wooden boards in the garage. He figured that since he was owed $7,000, it was okay for him to keep the money for his family. This sequence of events, told by Hauptmann throughout the trial, was dubbed by police and reporters as "The Fisch Story."

Throughout his trial, Hauptmann insisted that Fisch had owed him money and he was only spending what he was owed. The defense never convincingly tied Fisch to the crime, and the jury disregarded Hauptmann's claims. However, to this date, a few investigators still believe that Fisch was in fact, responsible for the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr.