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The envelope, yellowed with age, is addressed to “Editor of Missoulian, Missoula, Montana.”

Folded inside is a half-page note and a four-page letter written on ledger paper from the Dayton State Bank of Montana and signed “John F. Condon (Jafsie).”

“If you can use this, you are welcome to it,” Condon wrote in the note. “If not, no harm done.”

Michael Peretti can find no evidence that Condon ever mailed the letter dated Sept. 4, 1937. No stamp. No postmark.

It’s probably just as well. A key figure in the case of America’s Crime of the Century, the kidnapping of baby Charles Lindbergh Jr. in 1932, Condon was complimentary to the Missoulian and to Montanans in general but only raised more perplexing questions about his role in the drama.

Peretti rediscovered the letter while cleaning out a drawer at his home in the South Hills of Missoula a couple of weeks ago. Since it was addressed to the Missoulian editor, he figured he’d see if current editor Sherry Devlin had any use for it.

“I knew I had it, but I guess I’d forgotten about it,” Peretti said. “My grandfather had a small file cabinet and he’d throw in coins and things he thought might be valuable.”