Visiting Our Past: Asheville's Nazi sympathizer tripped up on securities charges The year 1935 began in Asheville not with news of Depression-era woes and remedies, but with fears of immigrants. Headlines sensationalized the trial and execution of Bruno Hauptmann, a German immigrant (and former criminal) convicted of kidnapping the Lindbergh baby. U.S. Sen. Bob Reynolds, of Asheville, was pushing for immigration controls because of the threat posed by what he called alien criminals. Even positive movements, like the establishment of a Folk Music Institute at Western Carolina Teachers' College in Cullowhee, had a defensive component. Richard Chase, the director of...