The Bull ‘Big Ed’ Reilly and the Lindbergh Baby Murder Trial

TIMES PAST

The famous American aviator, Charles Lindbergh, made world history when he carried out the first human solo flight across the Atlantic, and again in 1927 for making a non-stop flight from New York to Paris in his monoplane the Spirit of Saint Louis.

But success and adulation does not always bring happiness and there were those who wished to illegally profit from the Lindbergh’s success by getting their criminal hands on his money.

The method they chose to accomplish this task was done in the most heinous way possible: the kidnapping on March 1, 1932, of their 20-month-old, first-born son, Charles Junior. In recent years, half-baked, nonsensical conspiracy theories have mushroomed, some of which claim that the parents may have had a hand in the crime.

Mr and Mrs Lindbergh became front page news following the dreadful crime, which then ended in the little boy’s murder. Globally, people were angered by the news of the kidnapping, since the toddler’s father, Charles Lindbergh, the flying ace, was a hero to millions.

Edward James Reilly, known as ‘Big Ed’ Reilly, was the Brooklyn based criminal lawyer hired to defend Bruno Richard Hauptmann, the man suspected of the kidnapping. Big Ed Reilly was believed to have had family connections to County Cavan. In his heyday, Reilly had more than 2,000 cases and successfully won acquittals for the majority of them. I would like to thank Michael Reilly for suggesting Edward J. Reilly, the topic of this week's column.

In appearance, Big Ed was what you might call a flamboyant, ‘well-fed gossoon’, big and stout, always impeccably dressed in a flashy suit that gave him the look of a ‘Wall Street millionaire’. But, by the age of 52 years, his good time ways and gorging on the finest delicacies had taken a toll leaving him much older in appearance. In his prime, Big Ed’s unbeatable defence style earned him a nickname, the ‘Bull of Brooklyn’, however, his powers of persuasion waned and, by the end of the Lindbergh baby trial, it was apparent that the Bull’s skills were not in full force and Bruno Hauptmann’s hopes of acquittal were short lived when the court sent him to the electric chair.

In June 2005, William H. Manz, writing in the New York Bar Association Journal, gave a fascinating account of Big Ed Reilly and the Lindbergh case, fleshing out the details of Reilly whom he quoted as being a ‘syphilitic alcoholic’ whose ill-prepared defence put ‘his client to the electric chair'.

From Manz we learn that Big Ed started out as an amateur actor who brought the same air of showmanship to the courtroom, which in later years was no substitute for hard evidence. Considered pompous and arrogant, Reilly had a habit of talking down to the jury, which did little to help Hauptmann. Big Ed was given a new name by Hauptmann’s supporters, the less flattering ‘Death House Reilly'. Throughout proceedings, the lawyer tried pinning the crime on another accomplice, Isadore Fisch.

Bruno Hauptmann was found guilty of the first-degree murder of Charles Lindbergh Jnr.

As may be expected in such situations, there was going to be little sympathy for ruthless thugs who instigated the death of a baby. The Hearst newspaper chain desperately wanted a ‘sob story’ to cash in on and set their sights on producing a series of articles about Hauptmann's mother Anna, and no cost was to be spared.

The head of the company, William Randolph Hearst did his darndest to see that Big Ed got hired and paid him a substantial fee, then put him up in an apartment, funded both a supply of booze and visits by prostitutes, sent to appease the lawyer’s predilections. Hearst’s New York Evening Journal would cover the trial.

To accurately capture Anna Hauptmann’s tale, and much to the annoyance of rival media organisations, Hearst’s company had the nerve to illegally install a camera, hidden in a case in the corner of the courtroom to film and record what was being said. Anna Hauptmann was placed in an undisclosed hotel to protect her from the questions posed by rival reporters.

The trial ran from January 2 to February 13, 1935. When the business concluded, Reilly asked Hauptmann’s grieving mother for additional fees, not previously requested. Bruno Hauptmann faced death by electrocution at 8:47pm, on April 3, 1936.

Mental health

Undoubtedly, the defence lawyer's diminishing skills affected the trial; a combination of factors may have affected his mental health too. Marriage difficulties affected Reilly and a Supreme Court Justice ordered that he pay his wife, Mrs Fleurette Reilly, alimony of $30 per week. On April 14, 1936, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on a hearing held at Nyack at which Reilly provided testimony that he was basically financially ruined following a personal loss of $3500 in the Hauptmann trial. He withdrew his separation action against Mrs. Reilly and said he would not oppose a ‘counter separation action for separation brought by her'.

In January 1937, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle broke the news that Big Ed, the chief defence counsel in the Hauptmann trial, was for some months suffering from depression and indifference, and at the request of his mother, Mrs Helen Reilly, he was committed as an emergency case to Brooklyn State Hospital for the insane. Big Ed had been living with his mother at 334 Lafayette Avenue, New York. On December 27, 1946, Edward J. Reilly died at the age of 64 years. He is best remembered as the chief defence council for Richard Hauptmann at the Lindbergh baby rial. Reilly's cause of death was officially certified as cerebral thrombosis.

For further reading, see: ‘Spirit of Saint Louis’, by Charles Lindbergh published in 1953.