Book says 7 are children of Lindbergh

Three siblings who claim they are Charles Lindbergh’s out-of-wedlock children are releasing a book this week that alleges the famous flier had seven illegitimate children in all from relationships with their mother, her sister and his German private secretary.

“The Double Life of Charles A. Lindbergh” alleges that Lindbergh had three children with Munich hat maker Brigitte Hesshaimer, two children with her sister Marietta, and another two with his secretary, the publishing company Heyne Verlag said.

Brigitte Hesshaimer’s children, Dyrk and David Hesshaimer and Astrid Bouteuil, said in 2003 a DNA test proved they were the U.S. aviator’s children, adding that they had met their American half-siblings in the United States. They also offered as evidence a bundle of 112 letters they said Lindbergh wrote to their mother.

The book, written by the Munich author Rudolf Schroeck with the three, contains no new evidence of Lindbergh’s paternity.

Kelley Welf, spokeswoman for the Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation in Minnesota, said that she could not comment on the allegations.

A spokeswoman for the publisher had no information on whether an English release of the book was planned.