This Day in Legal History

By Karen Conti Karen Conti is a litigation partner at Beermann, Pritikin, Mirabelli, Swerdlove LLP. She is a regular legal commentator on the local Fox affiliate, CNN and truTV. She appears every Sunday from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on WGN Radio to discuss current legal events and to answer listeners’ questions.

Posted January 2, 2014 2:45 PM

1935 Bruno Hauptmann went on trial for the kidnapping and murder of 2-month-old Charles Lindbergh Jr., the son of aviator Charles Lindbergh. Hauptmann was alleged to have sought and received $50,000 in ransom money from the Lindberghs. Despite much controversy about his guilt at the time, Hauptmann was convicted and executed in the electric chair. His guilt is still questioned. 1971 A federally imposed ban on television cigarette advertisements went into effect. The Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act banned radio …

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