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| "Ponderosa Pines," a painting by Marsha Hamby Savage |
For example, was it the legion of police
officers on the case who were effective in solving the 1932 kidnapping of the
Lindbergh baby? Was it the millions of interested citizens armed with their
“common sense?”
No. It was an expert on wood.
Arthur Koehler, the head of the
Forest Service Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, dismantled the
homemade ladder used in the kidnapping — the ladder from which the baby fell
and died on the night of the crime, a fact that remained unknown to everyone
but the kidnappers for months.
Koehler identified the markings of
the pine, birch and fir that made up the ladder, spotting a piece of wood that
contained four nail holes unrelated to the fabrication of the ladder, a fact
that indicated prior usage. Koehler thought the unweathered low-grade sapwood
must have been nailed down indoors and used for rough construction, perhaps to
finish a garage or attic.
The soft Ponderosa pine rungs of
the ladder showed no wear, meaning that the ladder had been specifically built
for the kidnapping job. The marks made by planer that dressed the wood showed
an unusual combination of cutter heads. Koehler mailed a form letter querying
1,600 lumber mills on the East Coast, and 25 of them reported planer markings
that matched.
Koehler requested samples, and identified
Dorn Lumber Mill in McCormick, SC, as the source of the wood. A total of 25
lumberyards had received shipments of Dorn’s pine since 1929. Through further
scientific investigation, Koehler was able to specify that the kidnappers
bought the wood at the National Lumber and Millwork Company in the Bronx, which
had received a shipment in December 1931, three months before the kidnapping.
Finally, Koehler was able to prove
that the ladder came from wood removed from Bruno Hauptmann’s attic.
There’s really no substitute for critical thinking — for knowing what you’re doing.
Source:
‘Lindbergh’ by A. Scott Berg
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