FBI FILES: The Weinberger Kidnapping

It was—at least for residents of Long Island, New York—the \”crime of the century\” when one-month-old Peter Weinberger was kidnapped from his suburban home on July 4, 1956. Certainly the fallout from the incident reached national proportions. This child was not from a well-to-do family, like the Lindberghs. This child came from a middle class family in suburbia—where people weren’t afraid of being targeted by extortionists. The Weinberger kidnapping struck fear in the hearts of average Americans. People started locking their doors. Almost overnight, an entire country lost its sense of security.