Charles Lindbergh was arguably the most celebrated man of his time. From wikipedia: "Within a year of his flight, a quarter of Americans (an estimated thirty

Charles Lindbergh was arguably the most celebrated man of his time. From wikipedia: "Within a year of his flight, a quarter of Americans (an estimated thirty million) personally saw Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis. Over the remainder of 1927 applications for pilot's licenses in the U.S. tripled, the number of licensed aircraft quadrupled, and U.S. Airline passengers grew between 1926 and 1929 by 3,000% from 5,782 to 173,405." The Lindbergh kidnapping made headlines for years because of that celebrity status (and the sensationalism of the story and the trial), not because people back then were more sensitive to death. As other people here have commented, the Lindburgh kidnapping happened 1932. What better argument can be made for that generation's forgetfulness about "mass death" (as you put it) than pointing out that WWII and its tens of millions of deaths happened after tens of millions died in WWI? If anything, we are much more vigilant now.