Of course, you’re right, it depends on the audience. I learned of the “affair of the poisons” recently. I’m 70 and had never heard of it. Supposedly it’s the most famous crime in France.
Sorta. Yes, he admired the new Luftwaffe- even got a medal. Many others did also. As an isolationist, he was in the majority until Dec 7 1941, when Lindberg (as many other isolationists) changed his mand and tried to join the military. He was refused but he still did valuable work for the USA, including helping design the B24,the P38 and showing that the Corsair could take off from an aircraft carrier with a full bomb load, then actually participating in combat activities with the marines in the pacific- strafing runs, and even shooting down a japanese aircraft. So, Lindberg was no nazi, nor a defeatist but yeah, along with most of America he disapproved of FDRs attempts to get the USA involved as an ally of Britain in WW2. Look, even a PM of GB thought Hitler was sane and reasonable- until Hitler invaded Poland.
Americans alive in 1935 are a very different batch than alive in 2025. The former group knew all about the Lindbergh kidnapping & trial. Most of the latter group have never heard of it.
For a current comparison …
How many American Dopers recognize the terms SLA or Symbionese Liberation Army? I’ll bet damn near all of us. How many under-30s do? Damn near none.
There’s a kid in the preschool named Madeleine Murray (spelled that way). I commented to a coworker that it was an unusual choice of first name when your last name is Murray. This coworker is 38 and has a master’s degree, and didn’t recognize the name Madalyn Murray O’Hair.
We’re getting well beyond Amelia Earhart, but this is nonsense. Apart from his accepting a Nazi medal and refusing to return it after Kristallnacht, his record as a bigot and Nazi appeaser is clear.
About Lindbergh’s personal sympathies with the Nazi credo, three words: Des Moines speech.
Yes!!!
IOW, he was MAGA before MAGA was cool.
I think Lindberg’s flight kind of has to be more famous than his child’s kidnapping. After all, the kidnapping both only happened, and was only noteworthy, because he was already famous.
No it really isn’t. It is really hard to overstate how famous and admired Lindbergh was due to his flight.
I admit it seems odd to us now, but it’s true.
And most recently, the one involving that football player and his former wife. That is, it’s the most recent Crime of the 20th Century. There’ve been some serious crimes this century and no doubt some have been labeled Crime of the Century too, but I stopped paying attention to the scandal press so I don’t know which ones.
In fact, IIRC Mickey Mouse even impersonates him in a cartoon of the time (Plane Crazy?). He was a national hero. I knew a lot more about his flight than about the kidnapping, and even 40 or 50 years ago, was most notable because (a) it caused the feds to take jurisdiction over kidnapping and (b) ongoing disputes surface from time to time about whether Hauptman was guilty or railroaded.
I suppose a comparable case to Earhart might be Amy Johnson. A record-breaking female pilot, a "flavour of the month" celebrity after her solo flight to Australia, and sadly lost in somewhat mysterious circumstances in WW2.
Sorry, celebrity + mystery does NOT equal infamy.
And I thought we were talking about Amelia Earhart.
Lindbergh, well … maybe he could be described as “infamous.” But if he was, it was for reasons unrelated to AE.
Sorry, it was a Three Amigos reference. I have nothing to contribute in regards to the thread 
(bolding mine)
I contend it is. The key is the the bolded part. I read a Lindberg biography once and you are correct, he was unimaginably famous for his flight, in his time. Astonishingly so. But a lot of that has faded from current memory.
As I posted above, it probably depends on your audience. Just for S&Gs, I conducted a very informal poll. I asked 23 co-workers and acquaintances to give me one fact about Charles Lindbergh. 13 said his baby was kidnapped. 7 said he soloed crossing the Atlantic. 1 said he invented the blimp. 1 had never heard of him. 1 said he was a pilot.
That doesn’t really mean anything, though, because it doesn’t say how many of the people knew both things. Some folks might have refrained from mentioning his flight as the “one fact” because they thought it was too obvious, for instance.
Obviously not scientific, and I mentioned as much. But our discussion is about which he is most famous for. If the people poled knew both facts and answered with the kidnapping, I think that says something. I’m not arguing that people don’t know he didn’t solo flight the Atlantic or even that people don’t know both facts about him.
Infamous means he’s famous for something bad.
Hey, I got that reference. Assumed everyone else here did too, but apparently not.
Another mediocre flyer, who rolled the dice too many times and eventually lost. Her chief characteristic was being a woman in an age when few women flew at all.