Text 30: 'Ma' Barker, d. 1935

'Ma' Barker's gang was mostly composed of her own four sons, and she led them to criminal fame. She was never arrested, but her sons often were. Ma would appear in court and protest their innocence or raise bail. By the time the gang was cleared up by the FBI it had been responsible for the deaths of four policemen, a civilian and one of their own number who talked too much. The Barkers hit the big time when they started kidnapping rich men for ransom, but this increased the pressure by police and the FBI on the gang and its members had to split up. When Arthur Barker was captured, Ma's hideout in Florida was revealed. The FBI's G-men surrounded the house and called on Ma Barker and her son Fred to surrender. "To hell with all of you", she replied and opened fire. The FBI used tear gas, but the gunfight continued until both Ma Barker and her son were dead.

Text 31: Bruno Hauptmann, d. 1936

Kidnapping, which means the taking of a person — sometimes a child — by force and asking the family, friends or even employers of the person for ransom in return for his or her release, has always been regarded as a serious crime. One of the best known kidnappings of modern times took place in America in March 1932, when the nineteen-months old son of American aviator Colonel Charles Lindbergh was taken from his New Jersey home while he was asleep in the nursery. Charles Lindbergh was the first man to fly the Atlantic non-stop single-handed in 1927 and a great American hero. A large sum of money — $50,000 — was demanded by the kidnapper and this was eventually paid over by Lindbergh in April. However, the boy had already been murdered and his body buried under leaves and twigs in a wood only four miles from the Lindbergh home. As a result of the Lindbergh case the crime of kidnapping was made a Federal instead of just a State offence with the passing of the "Lindbergh Act" (Federal Kidnapping Act) in 1933. This allowed the FBI to become involved in the search for kidnappers and their victims, making an arrest so much more likely. The kidnapper of Lindbergh's child, Bruno Hauptmann, a carpenter from New York, was finally arrested in September 1934 after a massive search, and executed in 1936. The publicity which followed the kidnapping was so great that the Lindberghs eventually left America to live in England and continued to do so until 1939.

Text 32: Hans Van Meegeren, 1889—1947

Van Meegeren will go down in history as one of the greatest of all art forgers. His work fooled all the experts. Before the Second World War Van Meegeren was a struggling artist in Holland who gradually became embittered by the fact that his own painting was not appreciated. He therefore painted a number of works in the style of Vermeer, which were accepted as the real thing. The six 'Vermeers' he painted were sold for huge sums of money: five to Dutch museums and the sixth to Hermann Goering, the German Nazi leader, for 165,000 pounds during the war. When the war was over, the sale of the picture to Goering was traced to Van Meegeren, who was accused of collaborating with the Germans. To save himself, Van Meegeren confessed to having forged the painting, but had to paint another 'Vermeer' while the experts watched, before anyone would believe him. He was tried in 1947 on a charge of forgery and sentenced to one year in prison. Six weeks later he died, having finally achieved fame as a painter.