Name: Dave's Book Reading
Start: 2026-02-07T11:00:00-06:00
Location: Michigan City Public Library

The public is invited to attend a free multimedia presentation and reading of "The Lindbergh Kidnapping and the Origin of the Viral Conspiracy Theory," a new book by Buchanan resident and author Dr. John D. Van Dyke.

Dr. Van Dyke's book is the result of a year-long investigation into 1932’s Crime of the Century. The Lindbergh Kidnapping and the Origin of the Viral Conspiracy Theory debunks the post-Watergate conspiracies that sought to exonerate Bruno Richard Hauptmann, the man executed for kidnapping and murdering Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr..

Admission is free. Signed copies of The Lindbergh Kidnapping and the Origin of the Viral Conspiracy Theory will be available for purchase following the presentation.
Educator John D. Van Dyke has published a new book that aims to analyze and refute the conspiracy theories that attempt to exonerate Bruno Richard Hauptmann of the kidnapping and murder of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr.
The Lindbergh Kidnapping and the Origin of the Viral Conspiracy Theory unpacks the lives of the two men at the center of the case: Charles Lindbergh, the heralded aviator and victim who later became a pariah for his opposition to US involvement in World War II, and Bruno Richard Hauptmann, the hapless illegal immigrant executed for the Crime of the Century.

The Lindbergh Kidnapping and the Origin of the Viral Conspiracy Theory also explores how conspiratorial thinking infiltrates our international psyche and why so many people believe in it.