In Murder on the Orient Express, the passengers on Hercule Poirot's train are motivated to kill Ratchett as revenge for his past crime—namely the kidnapping and murder of the three-year-old Daisy Armstrong. But Christie's description of the Armstrong kidnapping may in fact be based on a real-life tragedy: the abduction of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr. That real case bears a resemblance to Christie's fictional one on many levels. Both involve the kidnapping and ransom of a young child, born to famous, wealthy parents. Both took place in the New York area, and in both cases, the kidnapped child was found to have been dead long before the conclusion of negotiations. However, in Christie's telling, the fate of the kidnapping's perpetrator is very different.
Charles Lindbergh was an aviator, made famous during the early era of transatlantic flight for his 1927 flight from New York to Paris. Two years later, Lindbergh married Anne Morrow, and even taught her how to fly a plane herself. Later revelations showed that Lindbergh was a more complex figure than the Colonel Armstrong of the novel. Though a uniquely skilled airman, Lindbergh may have harbored Nazi sympathies. Unlike Armstrong, a doting husband, Lindbergh was found out to have had an affair with a German woman. Still, the Lindberghs' reputation was much like that of the wealthy, glamorous Armstrongs. Lindbergh was a beloved figure, nicknamed "Lucky Lindy" by an adoring public. As a result, the tragedy that befell his family resonated throughout the United States, prompting interventions from a huge swath of people, ranging from a gas station attendant to the gangster Al Capone.
On March 1st, 1932, Charles and Anne Lindbergh were at their New Jersey estate—a home they'd chosen in part because it provided respite from constant publicity. They had a 20-month old son, Charles Augustus Jr. That evening, the baby's nurse reported to the Lindberghs that Charles, Jr. was missing from his nursery. A search of the home revealed that the child's kidnappers had used a ladder to access his second-floor nursery. Though they'd left no fingerprints or other identifying information, they had left behind a ransom note demanding $50,000 in return for the child. Soon after, a second ransom note arrived, demanding $70,000. An intricate series of communications followed, in which the child's kidnappers continued to deliver ransom notes via an independent intermediary named John Condon. The public was gripped by the case, with figures including Al Capone offering to step in on the Lindberghs' behalf. On March 16th, the kidnappers produced a garment belonging to the baby as proof that they did indeed know his whereabouts. Eventually, Condon was able to exchange $50,000 for another ransom note, which gave the Lindberghs instructions for finding their child on Martha's Vineyard. However, an extensive search yielded no successes. On May 12th, Charles Lindbergh, Jr.'s body was discovered, partly buried. Investigators determined that he had been killed on the night he was kidnapped.
In September 1934, a gas station attendant reported a German carpenter named Bruno Hauptmann to authorities, alleging that had paid with a $20 gold certificate much like those used to pay ransom to the kidnappers. Investigators, upon searching Hauptmann's home, determined that he was hoarding gold certificates from the Lindbergh kidnapping. He claimed that the certificates were unrelated to the crime, and that he had not been involved. In addition to this evidence, expert witnesses testified that Hauptmann's handwriting matched that on the ransom notes. Evidence in Hauptmann's home also indicated that he may have built the ladder used to kidnap the Lindberghs' child. Condon's phone number was also found written down in his home. Though Hauptmann alleged throughout his trial and afterward that he was innocent of the crime, he was indicted and sentenced to death. While the kidnapper in Murder on the Orient Express faces almost no consequences from the criminal justice system, Hauptmann's appeals were denied—including after a 1935 Supreme Court trial. He was executed in 1936.
While the aftermath of Daisy Armstrong's kidnapping in Murder on the Orient Express is dramatically tragic, resulting in the deaths of her entire immediate family, the Lindberghs' saga ended more quietly. The couple left the United States entirely, moving to Europe. Charles Lindbergh became an advocate for conservationism and against American intervention in World War II. He wrote several books, including the Pulitzer-prize winning The Spirit of St. Louis, and eventually settled in Hawaii with his wife. Despite these differences, though, Christie's readers in the 1930s would likely have made connections between the fictional kidnapping and the real one, simply because the Lindbergh case loomed so large in the popular imagination.
