The Trial

Set in Flemington, New Jersey, during the Great Depression, the story is told through the eyes of 12-year-old Katie Leigh Flynn, a restless, observant girl who dreams of becoming a journalist. The novel follows Katie as she serves as her uncle's note-taking secretary during the 1935 trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, accused of murdering the infant son of famous aviator Charles Lindbergh.

Katie introduces Flemington as a quiet place where nothing ever happens. Farmers bring chickens and eggs to market, shopkeepers are friendly, and children walk to school. Despite these pleasant routines, Katie feels restless, poring over copies of National Geographic and Time and wishing herself into pictures of glaciers, deserts, and faraway cities. Her mother, Maureen, a former professional dancer who now works as assistant manager at the Union Hotel, attributes Katie's restlessness to her absent father, who left the family long ago. Katie spends much of her free time at the railyard with her best friend, Mike, a quiet boy whose mother died when he was five and whose father has an alcohol addiction. Teachers call Mike "sullen," but Katie knows he is smart and kind, and she defends him against townspeople who assume he will turn out like his father.

Katie recounts the crime at the heart of the story. On March 1, 1932, someone climbed through a second-floor window of Colonel Charles Lindbergh's home in Hopewell, New Jersey, about 10 miles from Flemington, and took his 20-month-old son from his crib. Lindbergh, the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, was an American hero, and the kidnapping shocked the nation. An intermediary delivered $50,000 in traceable gold notes to the kidnapper, but the baby was never returned. Weeks later, a laborer found the child's body in the woods. More than two years pass with no arrest, and Katie keeps a scrapbook of every clipping she can find.

Katie's Uncle Jeff, Maureen's younger brother, works as a reporter for the Hunterdon County Democrat. Its editor, Mr. Griffin, appreciates Katie's sharp eye for spelling errors and calls her "Word Girl." When news breaks that federal agents have traced the ransom money to someone in the Bronx and the trial will be held in Flemington, Katie is thrilled. Uncle Jeff breaks his arm in a basketball game, and he and Katie convince her mother to let Katie miss school for up to six weeks to serve as his secretary at the trial. Mother agrees on the condition that Katie clean her room.

The town transforms as roughly 300 reporters and radio crews descend on Flemington. The trial of Hauptmann, a German immigrant accused of kidnapping and killing the Lindbergh baby, becomes a national spectacle. Katie describes the key figures: Colonel Schwarzkopf, head of the New Jersey State Police; David Wilentz, the prosecuting attorney; and Edward "Death House" Reilly, the defense attorney notorious for losing murder cases and rumored to have an alcohol addiction. Reilly has been hired and paid by publisher William Randolph Hearst so the trial will appear fair. Katie learns Hauptmann's explanation for the $14,000 in gold notes found at his house: He claims his friend Isidor Fisch left them in a shoe box before returning to Germany, where Fisch died.

The courtroom holds nearly 500 people in a space built for half that many. Lindbergh enters tall and quiet, wearing a plain gray suit with a pistol strapped to his shoulder. Hauptmann surprises Katie by looking ordinary. Key prosecution witnesses take the stand. Wood expert Arthur Koehler testifies that the kidnapper's ladder was made from wood traced to a lumberyard near Hauptmann's house, and that one plank probably came from his attic. A broken rail suggests the kidnapper slipped and dropped the baby, who probably died instantly. Anne Lindbergh quietly identifies her son's clothing. Betty Gow, the baby's Scottish nursemaid, describes discovering the empty crib. Handwriting experts testify that the ransom notes match Hauptmann's writing. Lindbergh himself identifies a voice he heard in the cemetery as Hauptmann's, though Katie wonders how anyone can remember two words after three years. A farmer named Millard Whited changes his original story to claim he saw Hauptmann near the Lindbergh property, though Katie learns the prosecution offered Whited money, a new suit, and expenses for his testimony.

Outside the courthouse, the atmosphere is carnival-like. Vendors sell miniature ladders and forged autographs. Radio broadcaster Walter Winchell tells America nightly that Hauptmann is guilty. Anti-German prejudice grows: Mrs. Hoffmeyer, the kind German-born bakery owner, removes any mention of German recipes from her shop sign and hides in the back of the store. Katie's mother explains that Germans are feared because of Hauptmann and Hitler.

The defense falters. Reilly fails to produce credible witnesses, and the few he summons have criminal records. He has visited his client only once, for 30 minutes. Anna Hauptmann, Bruno's loyal wife, testifies that her husband was with her at Fredericksen's Bakery on the night of the kidnapping. When Reilly instructs her to claim she knew about the hidden money, she refuses, saying it would be a lie. Katie reflects on truth itself, observing that every witness has sworn to tell the truth yet their testimonies contradict one another. She compares truth to a lizard that changes color to match whatever rock it sits on.

Katie's personal life shifts alongside the trial. Mr. Griffin begins courting her mother, and Katie feels conflicted about losing Maureen's full attention. Meanwhile, Mike is falsely blamed when Bobby Fenwick, a surgeon's son, breaks an elderly woman's window. Katie overhears Bobby's confession, but Mike refuses to fight the accusation, knowing no one will believe him over a wealthier boy. Mike's aunt arrives from Indiana to take him in while his father enters a hospital for treatment. At the railyard, Katie notices that boxcars now carry homeless families drifting from town to town. At a furniture store, she discovers a chair fitted with leather straps, its tag reading "Electric" with a note scrawled beneath: "SOLD to Bruno Richard Hauptmann," making the defendant's fate suddenly concrete.

Before deliberations, Uncle Jeff asks Katie whether she thinks Hauptmann is guilty. She says he could have been involved but might never have set foot on the Lindbergh property. Police found two sets of footprints, suggesting an accomplice, and Fisch could have acted alone. She concludes there is enough reasonable doubt for acquittal. Uncle Jeff says nothing. Judge Trenchard instructs the jury that under New Jersey law, a death during an attempted burglary constitutes first-degree murder. After 11 hours, the jury returns a guilty verdict. Nearly 7,000 people crowd around the courthouse chanting "Kill Hauptmann!" The judge pronounces the death sentence. Hauptmann looks around in disbelief while his wife sobs silently.

After the trial, Katie sits atop Cemetery Hill trying to make sense of everything. Mr. Griffin proves kinder than expected, and Mother reassures Katie that their family comes first. Katie puts most of her weekly $15 salary into a coffeepot labeled "Katie's Future Fund" but secretly saves extra money for a birthday gift: two train tickets to New York for her mother and Mr. Griffin. She receives a letter from Mike in Indiana. He has his own room and plans to try out for baseball, but there are no trains and no one he can really talk to. Katie reflects that she is no longer sure of things, whether she still wants to be a reporter, how she feels about Mr. Griffin, or what will happen when Mike returns. For now, she returns to the railyard, watching the trains until the last one leaves and all she can see is a thin line of steam, echoing the image from the book's opening.

An epilogue provides the historical aftermath. National debate rages over the verdict, and Governor Harold Hoffman reopens the case. The defense files four appeals, all rejected. Hauptmann never confesses, even refusing $90,000 for a post-execution confession that would secure his family's future. On April 3, 1936, he is executed. His final statement declares his innocence and expresses hope that his death will lead to the abolition of capital punishment based on circumstantial evidence. The Lindberghs flee to England, plagued by press intrusion and death threats. Charles Lindbergh dies in 1974, still convinced of Hauptmann's guilt. Anna Hauptmann moves to the outskirts of Philadelphia, never remarries, and proclaims her husband's innocence until her death at age 95 in 1994.