And So They Were Married

The reading public, aware of Colonel Charles Augustus Lindbergh's reaction to lurid publicity, may easily have guessed what his mental processes were when he saw advertised in last week's newspapers: "HOW LINDBERGH SMASHED THE CONSTANCE MORROW DEATH PLOT! . . . revealed ... in every true detail [in] True Detective Mysteries."

The revelation, occupying a dozen pages in True Detective Mysteries, was credited to Police Chief James R. Travers of Milton, Mass.,--"as told to Fred H. Thompson, formerly of the Boston Post." In infinite, fanciful detail it elaborates the dark story given out two years ago by newspapers: that Constance, youngest daughter of the Morrows, after receiving a threatening letter at Milton Academy, Mass., was stealthily whisked away and a decoy left in her place to trap the blackmailers (TIME, June 3, 1929). (No blackmailers were trapped.) Colonel Lindbergh flew Anne. Elisabeth. Constance and their mother to the Morrow summer home in Maine for a secluded visit, thence back to their Englewood, N. J. home where the newshawk army, unaware of all that had occurred, laid siege for news of the impending wedding. But the "plot" had by no means been "smashed."

"How," asks Chief Travers, "could Constance be guarded from harm? . . . How easy for a desperate criminal to masquerade as a reporter or photographer and await his chance to mutilate or kill a member of the family. . . . There was one obvious solution, and Colonel Lindbergh and Anne Morrow chose to adopt it. Late on Monday, May 27, 1929. a laconic announcement was issued [that they] had been married and had left on their honeymoon. . . . The siege of the Morrow estate [was] lifted. Detectives now were able to guard Constance Morrow efficiently."

Brother-in-law had foiled blackmailers. But at what cost. Reporter Thompson says he was told by Chief Travers: "Instead of ... an elaborate wedding with all the myriad, entrancing details that are so precious to every young girl in her dreams of the future, there had been a hurried, simple ceremony. ..."

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