Goerings Suicide

I saw a show on the History Channel last night about the last days of WW 2 and, as usual, I learned something new. After the Nuremberg trials, Hermann Goering, sentenced to death, was able to smuggle cyanide into his cell and committed suicide before he could be hanged. He was being watched 24 hours a day and he and his cell were searched every day. The program indicated that Goering was befriended by and enlisted the help of an American officer named Jack Wee-less (a phonetic spelling. I have no idea how his name was really spelled), to help him obtain the cyanide. Does anyone have any further info on this guy? How on Earth could any American officer, so soon after the war and the discovery of the death camps, form an alliance to help a Nazi monster such as Goering escape justice. It boggles my mind. It would seem to me to be nearly treasonous.

This boggles my mind! What on earth is the difference between suicide and 'escaping the justice' - sure death-sentence. The guy died. Remains dead.

Whats the difference?

Vance,

They even made a show about the Nuremberg trials (at least the first set of trials, you may not know it but there were others for the lower level henchmen). There have been 'history' books that said a woman maid befriended him, others say the American Lt. that was to watch him slipped it in, others, as the show suggested, had the American Officer mealy give Goring a box he wanted from his belongings they had stored, and the poison was hidden in it.

What is known is, Goring demanded to be shot by a firing squad, so as to die as an officer, NOT to be hung like a common criminal (he was worse, far worse than a common criminal, I would have burned him at the stake). They said 'no', so he decided to use poison as a way out (still not a nice way to die as cyanide basically smothers you while a rope breaks your neck).

You can find an electronic version of 'Nuremberg, the last battle' at this URL:
http://www.fpp.co.uk/books/Nuremberg/NUREMBERG.pdf

It covers the Göring suicide and how he got the cyanide.

/Per

An Allied 4-Power Commission investigated Goering's suicide at the time - its report has been public for 40 years. The blame for the suicide was placed on the incompetence of the prison authorities - they had searched Goering's cell and Goering himself daily, but never simultaneously. In other words, when his cell was searched, Goering kept the cyanide capsule in his body, and while he was searched he hid it inside his lavatory. The cyanide capsule itself was a standard British SOE issue of the sort widely used within SS and Nazi ranks- Himmler killed himself with an identical one. It is hard to see where a US MP would obtain one.

None of the 28 people known to have had some bodily contact with Goering during the trial were found in any way guilty or having any motive to assist Goering in this way. There was no record in this list of 28 people of any US officer or diplomat other than his usual guards.

How on Earth could any American officer, so soon

I wouldn't really say that committing suicide the day before you are due to be killed is escaping justice. The punishment was death by hanging and he got death by something else. End result was the same.

He'd be on trial, was found guilty and then sentenced to death. Escaping justice would be avoiding trial and living our your years someplace where no one knows the horrors of your trial.

People can often develop strange relationships with killers. There are quite a lot of conficts who marry in jail, or just after they get out, people who they met while they were in jail.

cheers,

On 26 Feb 2002 18:21:10 GMT, 'it'snotme'

Telford Taylor's book 'The Nuremburg Trials' is probably the most notorious source for implicating the Army officer. Lt Col(?) Taylor was an attorney for the prosecution during the