May 04, 2017 - Sale 2446

Sale 2446 - Lot 6

Price Realized: $ 562
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(DIETRICH, MARLENE.) Small archive of items used by Beverly Hills Police Department in 1932 during the investigation into the threatened kidnapping of Dietrich's daughter Maria. The archive, 16 photographs, each showing a letter or envelope sent to Dietrich by the perpetrator(s), each with a Beverly Hills Police ink received stamp. Each 8x7 inches or smaller; some with mirroring in dark areas, few with staples at edges. Beverly Hills, May-July 1932

Additional Details

Most photographs show a note made by clipping phrases out of newspapers or magazines; one reads: "You can decide for yourself / Your girl or death notice / What about it? / Lindbergh Business."
In May of 1932, soon after the widely publicized kidnapping and murder of the infant son of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Dietrich began receiving letters threatening that her daughter would be kidnapped unless a payment of $10,000 (later $20,000) were made. In cooperation with the police, the money was left on the running board of a car as instructed, but no one appeared to claim it. The extortionist(s) were never captured.
Property of the family of Marlene Dietrich.