namesake baby son from the supposed safety of his own crib. Abduction for ransom had become a moneymaking crime; since 1929, more than two thousand people had been kidnapped in America, resulting in the handing over of millions of dollars in ransom money. “The Lindbergh kidnapping was symbolically perfect for the Depression,” argues Goldsmith, “for it demonstrated that an individual—no matter who he was—could not control his own destiny.”