Mystery of Lindbergh baby continues

>>> before casey anthony and before jonbenet anthony and o.j., the lindbergh baby was a case that haunted the nation.

>> one of the most haunting trims in history. the kidnapping and death of charles lindbergh jr. the precious son of america's then greatest hero.

>> the kidnapping and the death, americans witnessed something truly awful.

>> the son of a famous of a yeat or and ransom notes and clandestine cemetery meetings and boats at martha's vineyard and they are watching. he was caught and tried and 80 years later, more questions than answers. joining us now, the writer, producer and director of who killed lindbergh 's baby. that premiers on pbs. from amelia air hard to db cooper 's millions. the lipd berg baby is an enduring mystery and that intrigued a mystery. why have we been engaged so long?

>> it's the case that never dies. that's probably true in this past year. there two new books about the case. it's hard to realize because it was ache years ago, but this is probably the most significant crimes ever to happen in america. it's after this terrible event that the congress creates a federal police force, the fbi in recognition that there just certain crimes that state and local forces cannot solve. lindbergh was the most famous man in the world. when his son is kidnapped and killed, the out pouring of grief had not been felt since the lincoln a ssz nation.

>> what have you learned?

>> there have been a lot of books britney about the person in the case and whether he was in fact independent when the police arrest him. he projects himself as an innocent man who would never do such a thing. he goes to the chair proclaiming his innocence even though the prosecution offered a deal to save the crime. he thought he had conspirators and he goes to his death and starts a cycle where the people begin to believe he was innocent after all. i think one of the first things we do is very carefully look at was bruno richard actually guilty. bruno richard hoffman really guilty?

>> part of this, too, my understanding of this is lindbergh himself really took such on active role. the ransom notes, this sort of thing. maybe he kind of complicated things and messed things up by trying to deal with the mob and it turned out he was dealing with a tabloid in new york and not telling the police about everything. did he get in the way of solving this crime earlier?

>> absolutely. and in fact, i mention that there were two new books written. one was actually a reissue of a book by a very prominent rutgers historian who essentially claimed that lindbergh engineered the kidnapping of his own child. and one of his justifications for that theory is that lindbergh completely controlled the investigation. in his estimation this was a way to keep the police away. frankly, if you look at the history of kidnapping in that period, what you see is "a" it's significant and "b" you can see a trail of dead children. and lindbergh knew that. and this man who was supremely confident in his own abilities and very controlling also felt that he could probably do a better job than the police. so you've got two sides of that argument. and again, we look at that pretty carefully in the show.

>> we'll look forward to watching it tonight. thank you, larry kline.

>> thank you.

>>> straight ahead, hillary clinton is busy with exit interviews today. steve kornacki says this might be good-bye. speaking of exits, here's how "family guy" explains the disappearance of the lindbergh baby .

>> maybe it's time for stewie to start potty training .

>> isn't he too young for that? you know what happened to the libd berg baby.

>> he's only six months old.

>> will you relax? i think i know how to -- oh, god! oh, god! all right. he was kidnapped. you call the police. i'll write the ransom note .

>> what about amelia, she saw everything.

>> you leave her to me.