"Fearful of the outcome, King Angus led prayers for deliverance and was rewarded by seeing a cloud formation of a white Saltire - the diagonal cross against which Saint Andrew hadbeenmartyred - against a clear blue sky, " writes Mr Reid.
By the time the kidnapping and murder trial in Flemington, New Jersey, concluded in February 1935 with the conviction of Bruno Hauptmann a German ex-con of thirty-five living in the Bronx with his German wife the boldness of the world's first transatlantic solo pilot hadbeen permeated with a pathos that transformed him into a martyred titan comparable to Lincoln.