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HOPEWELL: Lindbergh kidnapping anniversary to be marked

BY Ruth Luse, Managing Editor
Eighty years ago today (March 1), 20-month-old Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. was taken from his parents’ home in nearby East Amwell.
Once the news of the kidnapping spread, the town of Hopewell Borough became a beehive of activity as the 80-year-old photo that accompanies this account shows. The kidnapping set off a chain of events that still intrigues people — here and around the world — today.
At 6 p.m. today, the Hopewell Valley Historical Society is holding a program at the New Jersey State Police Museum, River Road (Route 175) between I-95 and West Upper Ferry Road, West Trenton.
Lloyd Gardner, author of “The Case That Never Dies, The Lindbergh Kidnapping,” will discuss the case and some of the questions that continue to puzzle investigators, including the issue of the kidnapping taking place the first time the family had been at their home on a Tuesday night; the difficulty of entering and leaving the nursery on a ladder; the strange role of Dr. John F. Condon, who paid the money to the man called Cemetery John; and the trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann.
To attend, RSVP at [email protected]. There may be some seats left.
THE INN in the accompanying photo — known simply as “Gebhardt’s” — played a major role during the period following the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby in 1932.
When news of the kidnapping spread across the nation, reporters flocked to Hopewell to cover the story. Gebhardt’s quickly became the “media center.”
Reporters wrote their stories at Gebhardt’s and sent them off on hastily installed telegraph lines, which did not exist prior to the kidnapping.
The inn, now the property of Susan and Paul Molnar, has a long history. Previously known as The Hopewell Inn, it was owned and operated by Ms. Molnar’s parents, Rose and Ernest Nemeth, who bought it in 1978 from Rose and Albert Rathousky, who had owned it for 30 or so years.
The Gebhardts had sold the property to the Rathouskys in the 1940s. An early reference to the building dates it to 1887 when it was the Conrad Behre Oyster and Eating Salon.
A story in the Sept. 19, 1900, souvenir edition of the Hopewell Herald (Hopewell Valley News’ predecessor) refers to the property as the Central Hotel, owned by John Corcoran, who had served as sheriff of Hunterdon County for three years.
In her biography of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, author Susan Hertog, referring to “Gebhardt’s,” says, “The hotel lobby was a mass of reporters and curiosity seekers 24 hours a day.”
Michael Rufolo, a former Hopewell Valley resident, told the Hopewell Valley News — for its April 2, 1992, edition that memorialized the tragic event — that he remembered Gebhardt’s.
”That’s where we all hung out . . . We played poker and cards . . . I got to know the farmers and local people . . . There was a one-legged man always there, a sharpie gambler or maybe a government agent, we thought . . . But I wasn’t playing for high stakes. Those reporters were! Some of them bet a dollar, that’s like $15 dollars today.”
Clarence “Chuck” Runyon, who was a teenager at the time of the kidnapping, told the Hopewell Valley News in 1992, that all the reporters were at Gebhardt’s. He said he and his friends would gather up all the newspapers and sell them for 25 cents apiece.
The late Joseph M. Pierson, Hopewell Borough clerk for more than 40 years, often shared stories about the days following the kidnapping. Mr. Pierson died at 91 in November 1999 so he was in his early 20s when Hopewell became famous because of the kidnapping event.
Mr. Pierson said the big-time reporters stayed up all night at the inns (like Gebhardt’s) in town, playing cards and partying. He recalled how local residents, suffering financially because it was Depression time, made out, serving as taxi drivers for the bigwigs who came to town to cover the breaking story and renting out rooms. He recalled how Charles Lindbergh used to come to town to get gas and buy groceries.
Clifford C. Snook, who died at 94 in April 2000, was Hopewell Township’s first police chief and the first officer to respond to the call about the kidnapping of the Lindbergh toddler from Highfields — the name by which the Lindbergh estate was known.
Some of this account comes from a story about the Hopewell Valley Bistro and Inn — written in 2000 by Janet Purcell.