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Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 2, Episode 6 - Full Episodes

May 21, 2019 / 45:09

This episode covers the mysteries surrounding Rudolf Hess, Patricia Meehan, and Veronica Jefferson. It features discussions on Hess's flight to Britain, his imprisonment, and theories of his death, as well as the disappearance of Meehan after a car crash and the murder of Jefferson.

The segment on Rudolf Hess details his 1941 flight to Scotland, where he sought peace with Britain. Experts, including Hugh Thomas, suggest that Hess may have been replaced by a double, raising questions about his identity and the circumstances of his death in 1987.

The case of Patricia Meehan focuses on her mysterious disappearance following a car accident in Montana. Eyewitness accounts suggest she may be suffering from amnesia, as she has been spotted multiple times across the United States since her disappearance.

The episode also examines the murder of Veronica Jefferson, a young woman found dead in Arlington, Virginia. Investigators discuss the evidence surrounding her death, including sightings of her with a man before her murder and the challenges in identifying the suspect.

Throughout the episode, the themes of conspiracy, identity, and unresolved mysteries are prevalent, inviting viewers to consider their role in potentially solving these cases.

TL;DR

The episode investigates Rudolf Hess's mysterious flight and death, Patricia Meehan's disappearance, and Veronica Jefferson's murder.

Episode

45:09
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this program is about
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unsolved mysteries whenever possible the
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actual family members and police
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officials
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have participated in recreating the
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events what you're about to see is not a
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news broadcast
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[Music]
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tonight's cases feature ordinary people
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thrust into a vortex of mystery
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heartbreak and intrigue
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each one is searching for that vital
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clue to end a story that so far has
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no ending perhaps you can help
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join me you may be able to help solve a
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[Music]
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mystery
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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tonight a special report on one of the
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most fascinating mysteries of this
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century
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the case of rudolph hess adolf hitler's
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second in command
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has shocked the world in 1941 by flying
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to britain on a secret peace mission
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this special segment takes us to
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scotland and germany where experts claim
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that it was not hess who made that
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momentous flight
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but a double impersonating him also two
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other
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intriguing mysteries needing but one
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final clue to solve them
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someone watching tonight may know the
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[Music]
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truth
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[Music]
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1933 adolf hitler sees his total power
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in germany
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by his side deputy reichsfielder rudolph
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hess his closest content
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pess would come to figure in one of the
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most remarkable mysteries of world war
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ii east hitler hitler our history
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hess is in britain in a messerschmitt he
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flew from bavaria street to scotland
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landing by parachute near glasgow 1941.
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the world is astounded to learn that
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rudolph hess has been captured in
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scotland while attempting to deliver a
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peace proposal to secret contacts in the
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british government
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defendant rudolph hess on the counts of
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the indictment
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on which you have been convicted the
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tribunal sentences you
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to imprisonment for life 1946 nuremberg
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rudolf hess is sentenced to life in west
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berlin's spandau prison
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1987 rudolf hess is found dead in
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spandau's prison garden
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though the cause of death is officially
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declared as suicide
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his family and experts are convinced
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that he was murdered
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i have no sympathy for the nazi past or
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any crimes that
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hess may have committed but he was a
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human being
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and he deserves a dignity at least to
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find out
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if he was murdered who did it
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the story of rudolf hess is a mystery
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that spans almost 50 years
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not only do some experts believe he was
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murdered in prison
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but startling evidence suggested a man
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of spandau was not the real rudolph hess
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what ties these events together is a
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global conspiracy that began at the
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start of world war ii
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it may still be going on today
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[Music]
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rudolph hess was incarcerated in
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berlin's spandau prison from 1947 until
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his death
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he was aloof keeping his distance from
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fellow prisoners
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and his warriors x-rays are fine doctor
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in september 1973 a british surgeon
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named hugh thomas made a detailed
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physical examination of hess
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thomas had earlier studied hess's
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medical records and expected to find
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scars from bullet wounds hess had
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received in the first world war
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[Music]
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there were no skulls no bullet rooms
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nor was there any evidence of an
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operation
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they're not things that you can miss
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at west germany's berlin document center
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thomas uncovered the original world war
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one military records of rudolf hess
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for the first time i became very very
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seriously concerned
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about the identity of the man in spanda
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the record showed that he'd sustained it
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through shot
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through the lung in the first world war
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so i'm left with a situation whereby
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a man has total evidence
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in surgical terms of no wounding
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and total evidence in documentary terms
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of such wounding it can't be the same
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man if the man dr thomas examined its
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panda was not rudolf hess
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then who was he the answer may lie in a
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series of events that took place in may
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of 1941
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on may 10th of that year rudolf has told
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his wife that he planned to fly to
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berlin for an important meeting
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and that he would be home in three days
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they would not see one another again for
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28 years
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the facts are that at 17 45 hours
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the real rudolph test took off from
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augsburg
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in bavaria southern part of germany
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flying north in a messerschmitt 110d
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we know the aircraft had the serial
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number 1545
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and the letters njc11 on the side
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he was tracked by german radar and
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defense
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controllers right across germany and
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across occupied europe
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and just after half past seven that
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evening was lost to german radar going
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north over the north sea
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[Music]
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four and a half hours after rudolph has
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left germany a lone messerschmitt was
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picked up on british radar
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heading towards scotland
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[Music]
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at approximately 11 pm a scottish farmer
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caught sight of an aircraft descending
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rapidly
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great pile hands up
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you chairman you've all i'm hopping
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alfred horn
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pilot gave his name as alfred horn he
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asked for a meeting with a duke of
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hamilton
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a member of the british parliament who
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lived in the area
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hands on the table t-shirt t-shirt
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surprisingly the man calling himself
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alfred horn carried no identification
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but he was wearing the uniform of a
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luftwava officer
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[Music]
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the next morning a meeting was arranged
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with a duke of hamilton who was at the
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time serving as an officer in the royal
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air force
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as you were gentlemen
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[Music]
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so you captain horn and i believe you
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want to see me
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sir i am not captain horn i am
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deputy reich fuhrer rudolph
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i don't recognize you sir i'm here on
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a mission of humanity from the fuhrer
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the fuhrer
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feels that hamilton ultimately was
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convinced that the prisoner was
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rudolf hess but winston churchill
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remained suspicious
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he sent yvonne kirkpatrick a diplomat
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who knew hess personally to meet with a
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prisoner
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kirkpatrick thought the man was indeed
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rudolph hess
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hugh thomas disagrees the mistakes made
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by the man when he arrived were
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incredible he
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claimed that he was born in 1899
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and when he first landed said 1897
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when in actual fact real the real hess's
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age as you know was 1894.
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so there's a discrepancy there
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it is thought that hitler and other
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members of the nazi elite used doubles
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for security reasons
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thomas believes that a double was
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recruited to impersonate hess on the
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flight to scotland
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photographs taken upon hess's departure
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support this theory
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as they appear to show a different plane
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from the one that crash landed in
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scotland
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the plane that took off in germany
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was marked njc 11. now
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the reason we know that is that it was
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photographed taking off
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and also helmut kardon one of the
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airport assistants there at the time
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logged it in his book
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whereby he denoted njc11
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was the plane that took off the plane
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that landed
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in scotland was marked on the side of
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the fuselage
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v j or nj oq
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a totally different plane
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the first people to get to the wreckage
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found an aircraft that was almost intact
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the machine guns in the nose were still
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packed with grease they'd never been
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used
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this was obviously an aircraft that was
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so new it hadn't yet been devoted to
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operational work
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british researchers know that that
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aircraft was based at a fighter airfield
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in northern denmark called alborg
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it was tracked in from that direction
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and there really seems no reason to
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to doubt that it came from denmark
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rather than germany
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there is more evidence that a double had
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replaced the real hess
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hesse was a skilled pilot yet the man
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who flew to scotland made a number of
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elementary mistakes
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the man who approached britain and flew
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over scotland
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was an amateur in every sense of the
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word he did everything wrong
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he approached the british coast at the
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ideal height to be intercepted by radar
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instead of under it
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then he power dived using far too much
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fuel and then he flew at only 50 feet
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across the scottish borders
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now that meant that people on the ground
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could observe the aircraft and track it
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every step of the way
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but the pilot was too low to even pick
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up his landmarks
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so whoever he was he was an amateur
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pilot
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if the man who landed in scotland was a
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double how and why
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was this deception engineered
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the answer may lie with the only man in
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the third reich more fear than adolf
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hitler
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the master of the dreaded ss heinrich
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himmler
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in a moment we will examine a theory
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that himmler may have been at the center
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of a conspiracy that reached from
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hitler's inner circle
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to england's house of parliament
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[Music]
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rudolf hess had been hitler's closest
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confidant but at the beginning of world
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war
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ii his influence began to wane part of
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the reason can be traced to ss
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reichsphere heinrich himmler
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hess had come to power purely by being
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one of the first of hitler's loyal
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supporters
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in such a position he was obviously a
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threat to himmler who aspired to gain
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control of all of them
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and from that point of view he was hated
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so in essence he was part of a power
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struggle
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1941 hitler's inner circle including
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himmler
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were planning for the invasion of the
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soviet union
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argued that peace with england must be
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secured before this attack
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and had secretly attempted to contact
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members of british parliament
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himmler may have sensed an opportunity
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to eliminate his rivals
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and he used this double in conjunction
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with germain
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to actually supplant hess get rid of his
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kill off his
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and put the double into england to
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contain to carry over
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peace proposals to the english hierarchy
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according to this theory if the double's
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initial peace overtures had been
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successful
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himmler would have stepped in finished
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the negotiations and
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claimed the credit hugh thomas believes
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that adolf hitler was unaware that
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himmler was secretly in contact with a
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clique of highly placed nazi
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sympathizers in britain
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according to thomas some were members of
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parliament
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and they plotted to depose churchill and
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make their own separate peace with
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germany
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[Music]
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during the war both franklin roosevelt
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and joseph stalin were suspicious of the
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official british account of the hess
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affair
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stalin was convinced that the british
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were plotting a separate peace with
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germany
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dr thomas believes that he was correct
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the hess affair
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is the key to the understanding of the
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whole plot
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that was hatched by 30 or so
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of the top-ranking british hierarchical
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figures in the country
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designed to unite nazi germany
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and britain against soviet russia
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and stop the war so that expansion
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into russia by germany could exist
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no question that had the hess affair
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gone to fruition had himmler's plan
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gone right the result would have been a
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nazi
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anglo-bloc which would have ruled the
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world
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but the plan didn't work churchill
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refused to meet with hess and his peace
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overture was rejected
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despondent has attempted suicide a few
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days later
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intelligence officers and psychiatrists
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continually interrogated the prisoner
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he claimed amnesia and refused to answer
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the questions
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in 1945 hess was brought home to germany
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for the beginning of the nuremberg trial
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during this trial hess was forced to
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meet with two of his former secretaries
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officials hoped this confrontation would
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jog his memory
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couldn't die crawling kinetic involved
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the prisoner's most significant lack of
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recognition
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is that of his secretaries and these
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women were greatly disturbed and greatly
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upset
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and kept on at the old man to try and
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recognize them
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one of them showed him a picture of his
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son whom he didn't recognize
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that he'd carried a picture of that son
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with him supposedly on his flight to
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england
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so the man was behaving in a very
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bizarre fashion
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he fought them
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the two secretaries left upset but still
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certain that the man they had met
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was rudolf hess
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hess was sentenced to life imprisonment
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in the converted fortress in west berlin
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known as spandau prison
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hesse's new home was to be jointly
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administered by the united states
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britain france and the soviet union
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one by one spanned out six other nazi
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prisoners had died or had been released
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but rudolf hess had his freedom blocked
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by a soviet veto
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in 1966 he was spandau's only prisoner
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at a cost of over one million dollars
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per year
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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rudolf has loved to walk in the garden
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this long
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trail about 267 places around
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to me he lived in a world by himself
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for the first two years in my talking
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with hess i never got beyond
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food health and weather and everything
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was bad
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it took me two years to even talk to him
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about anything political
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he lived in this eggshell time seemed to
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have
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stood still for him since 1941 since his
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flight
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by the late 1960s hesse's health had
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greatly deteriorated
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even so he refused all visits with his
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family
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the reason why he didn't accept visits
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beforehand was simply that the
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surrounding and the circumstances under
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which these visits take place in japan
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were so bad that he said it's better not
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to see each other and to
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write and after having paid these visits
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after 1969 i can only completely agree
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with him
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in december 1969 when hess's health
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became critical
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he finally agreed to meet with his
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family it had been 28 years since
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frauhes had seen her husband
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her son wolff had last seen his father
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at the age of three
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during this reunion the family was not
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allowed to touch one another
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or to discuss anything pertaining to
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hess's past
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despite the fact that she felt his voice
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was lower in pitch
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frau has still felt the man at spandau
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was her husband
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it's very difficult for me in prison
00:20:00
he's depressing here it's
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cold vampire i didn't want you to be
00:20:04
upset
00:20:05
the embassy is bad i didn't i was
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expecting a very
00:20:09
difficult situation with all the borders
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and the directors sitting around
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and they knew that under the
00:20:15
circumstances the possibilities to
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really learn to know him were limited
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so much i can't be helped my son
00:20:25
i have the impression that my father was
00:20:27
keeping some secret which
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he was not able to relieve to anybody
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this is the reason why he was kept so
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long in prison and finally was murdered
00:20:35
in prison
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[Music]
00:20:41
august 17th 1987 at approximately 2 30
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in the afternoon
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93 year old rudolf hess went out for his
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daily walk in his beloved prison garden
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soviet authorities had indicated to
00:20:55
hess's son the general secretary
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gorbachev was on the verge of allowing
00:20:59
his father's release
00:21:04
hess was accompanied by an american
00:21:06
guard and as he continued his stroll a
00:21:08
guard became distracted
00:21:16
several minutes later the guard looked
00:21:18
for his prisoner
00:21:19
[Music]
00:21:28
he soon found him
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rudolph hess was lying on the floor of a
00:21:35
garden shed
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electrical cord wrapped around his neck
00:21:45
the official inquiry declared that
00:21:46
rudolph has had committed suicide
00:21:48
but almost immediately charges surfaced
00:21:50
that hess had been murdered
00:21:57
now there are so many things against him
00:22:00
committing suicide
00:22:02
he could hardly open his hands because
00:22:06
of arthritis that he was suffering under
00:22:09
and he couldn't raise his arms above
00:22:12
shoulder level
00:22:14
now the final report came out it said
00:22:15
that he'd hung himself
00:22:17
from that little lean to in the garden
00:22:20
that he was sitting under where he was
00:22:21
found dead
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well to do that he's going to have to
00:22:25
raise those hands isn't he
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above his head to put that cord
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around something to hang himself he
00:22:33
wasn't capable of doing that
00:22:36
i think he was murdered i don't know who
00:22:39
did it
00:22:40
but that's my true conviction there is
00:22:43
every evidence
00:22:44
that he was murdered but further than
00:22:46
that
00:22:47
disturbingly the cable that was actually
00:22:50
used
00:22:50
to murder him was the first thing to be
00:22:53
destroyed
00:22:54
on the specific orders of the british
00:22:56
military government
00:22:58
and the british military governor also
00:23:00
ordered
00:23:01
the shed burnt down
00:23:04
as well as that they refused all
00:23:08
measures of identification of the
00:23:10
prisoner
00:23:12
hesse's family insisted on conducting
00:23:14
their own autopsy
00:23:15
and secured the services of a dr spahn a
00:23:17
noted german forensic pathologist
00:23:20
his report showed bruises inconsistent
00:23:22
with the official verdict of suicide
00:23:24
deep bruising on the neck and especially
00:23:28
the final autopsy by dr shows quite
00:23:31
clearly
00:23:31
that the man was strangled and the
00:23:34
degree of deep bruising
00:23:36
and fracturing of the bones in the neck
00:23:39
also indicates
00:23:40
that he was strangled very forcibly
00:23:44
dr thomas is convinced that the prisoner
00:23:46
shpanda was murdered before his release
00:23:48
to keep him from revealing the
00:23:50
treasonous conduct of his secret british
00:23:52
contacts during the war
00:23:55
if the prisoner had ever
00:23:58
revealed his part in these negotiations
00:24:03
it would have led to the discovery of
00:24:06
the whole plot it would have led to the
00:24:09
exposure
00:24:11
of 30 extremely powerful personages
00:24:16
whose relatives even if they don't still
00:24:19
exist themselves
00:24:21
are still in control in hierarchical
00:24:24
control
00:24:24
of much of british finance and
00:24:26
government
00:24:28
and that would be
00:24:31
totally and utterly unacceptable to any
00:24:34
british government
00:24:41
if the prisoner spanned out was rudolf
00:24:43
hess as his family in the authorities
00:24:45
claim
00:24:45
then why were there no scars on his
00:24:47
chest from his world war one bullet
00:24:49
wounds
00:24:50
why did his plane take off from germany
00:24:52
with one set of serial numbers
00:24:54
and land in scotland with another
00:24:57
but if the prisoner spanner was an
00:24:59
imposter
00:25:00
why did he remain silent for 46 years
00:25:07
the remains of prisoner number 7 rest in
00:25:09
this small bavarian cemetery
00:25:11
but who really lies in this grave
00:25:14
rudolph hess
00:25:15
or an imposter a willing participant in
00:25:18
a global conspiracy of vast proportions
00:25:22
the only man who could answer these
00:25:23
questions was silas before he could
00:25:25
speak
00:25:26
the inscription on his grave reads
00:25:27
simply it was worth the risk
00:25:30
history may never know what truly lies
00:25:33
behind those words
00:25:38
one final footnote to this story the
00:25:41
official
00:25:42
british file on the hess affair was
00:25:43
scheduled to be made public in 1971
00:25:47
but that year only selected portions
00:25:48
were released the rest remaining
00:25:50
classified as the owner of the british
00:25:52
government
00:25:53
it was further stipulated that this
00:25:55
sensitive material remained locked up
00:25:57
until the year 2016.
00:26:01
next the story of a woman who walked
00:26:03
away from a terrible car crash in rural
00:26:05
montana and has not been
00:26:06
seen since her family believes she may
00:26:08
be suffering from amnesia
00:26:13
[Music]
00:26:20
april 20th 1989 a lonely country road
00:26:23
near circle montana
00:26:27
at approximately 8 15 in the evening
00:26:29
peggy bueller was driving towards nearby
00:26:31
great falls to visit her sister
00:26:33
peggy's mother and father were with her
00:26:38
[Applause]
00:26:40
behind her was another car driven by
00:26:42
carol heitz an off-duty police
00:26:44
dispatcher
00:26:47
carol could see peggy's car clearly then
00:26:49
she saw a car approaching in the wrong
00:26:51
lane
00:26:52
[Applause]
00:26:55
euless car narrowly missed a head-on
00:26:56
collision
00:26:58
carol pulled over the side of the road
00:27:00
but it was too late
00:27:08
peggy's father took the wheel from his
00:27:09
shaken daughter and headed back down the
00:27:11
river
00:27:13
carol had emerged from the wreckage
00:27:15
dazed but not seriously injured
00:27:20
then a woman emerged out of the darkness
00:27:22
it was the driver of the car that had
00:27:24
hit her
00:27:25
[Music]
00:27:27
she just stared never said anything
00:27:31
nothing just stared at me i will never
00:27:34
forget her
00:27:39
then the viewers arrived
00:27:44
peggy's father went to assist the
00:27:45
victims and she began to go for help
00:27:48
but before peggy drove off she too saw
00:27:50
the mysterious woman
00:27:53
as i looked out across the accident
00:27:56
i noticed someone on the other side of
00:27:58
the fence standing there
00:27:59
like a spectator not like that that it
00:28:01
had happened to her
00:28:03
[Music]
00:28:09
the woman vanished into the night
00:28:11
[Music]
00:28:12
but within half an hour police had
00:28:14
traced the car to its owner
00:28:15
thirty-eight-year-old patricia mien they
00:28:17
immediately began to search for her
00:28:21
we didn't know what was out there we
00:28:22
didn't know whether we're looking for a
00:28:24
hurt person sick person or a fugitive
00:28:28
four officers and myself proceeded in
00:28:32
and we proceeded in
00:28:33
behind the dog and approximately three
00:28:36
quarters of a mile from the scene we
00:28:38
picked up some tennis shoe tracks
00:28:40
about a size six that appeared to be
00:28:42
fairly narrow belonging either to a
00:28:44
young
00:28:45
boy or probably a woman at 3am
00:28:48
patricia's tracks disappeared and the
00:28:50
search was suspended until the following
00:28:52
morning
00:28:53
[Music]
00:28:57
for five days this intensive search
00:28:59
continued on land
00:29:00
and from the air
00:29:04
all that was ever found were patricia's
00:29:06
original tracks
00:29:11
two theories were developed to explain
00:29:12
how she eluded her trackers
00:29:15
the first is that she may have stowed
00:29:17
away on a hay truck that was parked
00:29:18
about a half a mile from the accident
00:29:27
the other theory is that patricia simply
00:29:29
hitched a ride out of the area
00:29:32
she was a very caring individual
00:29:36
never wanted to hurt anyone in here she
00:29:38
had a
00:29:39
very traumatic accident where she
00:29:42
may have thought instantly that she hurt
00:29:45
or killed another person
00:29:47
and her mind blocked that out
00:29:51
she had walked away from the scene of
00:29:53
that accident
00:29:54
and has not been found since
00:29:58
[Music]
00:30:00
since her disappearance patricia meehan
00:30:02
has been spotted throughout the united
00:30:04
states but has made no attempt to
00:30:05
contact her family and friends
00:30:08
at first it was thought that her fight
00:30:09
was an attempt to evade prosecution for
00:30:11
leaving the scene of an accident
00:30:13
but eyewitness reports that patricia's
00:30:15
increasingly strange behavior
00:30:17
had given police and psychiatrists good
00:30:19
reason to believe that she is no
00:30:20
fugitive
00:30:21
patricia mean may be suffering from a
00:30:23
rare and dangerous form of amnesia
00:30:28
born in pennsylvania patricia moved to
00:30:30
oklahoma to attend college in
00:30:31
preparation for a career in day care
00:30:34
she worked in that field until 1985 and
00:30:37
then due to her love of animals moved to
00:30:39
montana to work on a ranch
00:30:41
before her disappearance family and
00:30:42
friends noticed that patricia had become
00:30:44
depressed
00:30:45
withdrawn she was i guess
00:30:49
taking all her own life
00:30:52
what had she accomplished i think she
00:30:55
missed having children
00:30:56
because i think now she found out she
00:30:58
really does
00:31:00
love them after patricia disappeared her
00:31:02
family found a role of undeveloped film
00:31:04
still in her camera
00:31:06
in this haunting self-portrait she looks
00:31:08
out at a world
00:31:09
that she may have decided to abandon
00:31:14
it appears that pat
00:31:17
was experiencing a very difficult time
00:31:20
in her life and was involved in a rather
00:31:24
dramatic accident which may have
00:31:27
involved
00:31:28
a head injury the combination of these
00:31:31
factors
00:31:32
may have caused amnesia she does not
00:31:35
know
00:31:35
who she is has lost memories of the past
00:31:39
and is out searching for herself
00:31:43
throughout the country
00:31:46
[Music]
00:31:48
since her accident patricia has been
00:31:49
spotted at least 100 times between
00:31:51
montana and seattle mainly at truck
00:31:53
stops
00:31:54
but patricia has managed to hitchhike
00:31:56
out of the area before authorities and
00:31:58
her family were able to intercept her
00:32:08
i don't know how she's eating i don't
00:32:10
know where she's sleeping
00:32:12
from the sightings uh quite a few of
00:32:15
them
00:32:16
she was seen crying and that really
00:32:19
hurts
00:32:20
when i hear this
00:32:25
any mother would be afraid for her child
00:32:27
i don't care what age she is
00:32:29
and it seems like she needs help more
00:32:31
than ever now
00:32:34
one of the confirmed sightings of
00:32:36
patricia occurred in may of 1989 in
00:32:38
bozeman montana
00:32:39
ironically this was only a few miles
00:32:41
from her home
00:32:42
[Music]
00:32:46
good morning one today can i get in and
00:32:49
down here fast
00:32:50
patty came in the door and wanted to be
00:32:52
sat quickly and served quickly
00:32:55
she asked me um if she would be able to
00:32:57
be out of there in rather a hurry and i
00:32:58
said well we
00:32:59
do breakfast in 10 minutes you'll be out
00:33:01
very quickly and then i made a
00:33:03
commentary that she must have to be back
00:33:04
to work
00:33:04
at nine o'clock since it was almost nine
00:33:06
it was about 8 30 20 till
00:33:08
she said no i'm just going shopping i
00:33:11
couldn't understand what it was so
00:33:12
important for her to be there right at
00:33:13
nine o'clock
00:33:14
go shopping you know she was in such a
00:33:16
huge hurry how are you this morning
00:33:19
waitress brenda clements also noticed
00:33:21
that patricia was acting strangely
00:33:24
what stood out in my mind is that she
00:33:26
seemed really disoriented really spacey
00:33:28
just looking off into space and
00:33:30
and i heard her like talking to herself
00:33:31
but i really didn't hear what she was
00:33:33
saying
00:33:34
because i had other people and other
00:33:36
customers take care of she sat at that
00:33:38
table for an hour and a half or more
00:33:39
easily she was just you know looking out
00:33:42
the window looking people walking by
00:33:44
that's when i walked up to her and i
00:33:45
asked her are you okay
00:33:48
are you are okay sure
00:33:52
i was just wondering if there's anything
00:33:53
i could do you know because she was just
00:33:55
like
00:33:55
lost i felt like she didn't know where
00:33:57
she was or who she was
00:34:01
from all the evidence patricia's
00:34:03
condition is not improving
00:34:05
if she is not treated soon the damage
00:34:07
could be irreparable
00:34:08
for when and if patricia's memories
00:34:11
return
00:34:12
the shock could threaten her sanity
00:34:15
well more than anything else in the
00:34:16
world i want her back with us
00:34:19
when we would then know that she'd be
00:34:23
safe
00:34:24
not knowing who she's going to get a
00:34:26
ride from and
00:34:27
that's my biggest worry i think just
00:34:30
praise on your mind day in and day out
00:34:32
and you pray to god and hope that she's
00:34:36
with some good people
00:34:49
in a moment the story of a woman found
00:34:51
murdered after she was seen with a man
00:34:52
at a local supermarket
00:34:54
was he a friend or an unknown killer
00:35:04
[Music]
00:35:08
arlington virginia may 11 1988 3 am
00:35:13
police arrive at a local schoolyard
00:35:15
where the body of a young woman has been
00:35:16
found
00:35:18
she has been raped and shot once at
00:35:19
point-blank range
00:35:22
homicide detectives bob carrigan gay
00:35:25
mercer set about examining the physical
00:35:27
evidence
00:35:28
i think when you arrive at a crime scene
00:35:30
at three o'clock in the morning
00:35:31
and you find a young woman shot to death
00:35:35
she was sexually assaulted and then
00:35:37
murdered i think you start out with kind
00:35:39
of a sick feeling in your stomach
00:35:41
um kind of a disgust for for crime in
00:35:45
general
00:35:52
the condition of veronica's clothing
00:35:54
indicates that the rape was not a random
00:35:56
act of violence
00:35:58
in most rape cases there's some signs of
00:36:01
force
00:36:02
maybe there are tears in the clothing
00:36:04
which
00:36:05
there were not any on the scene it may
00:36:08
have been more like a date rape
00:36:10
someone that she knew and it went too
00:36:13
far
00:36:15
later that day the victim was identified
00:36:18
as veronica jefferson
00:36:19
a 24 year old government accountant
00:36:21
recently moved to the washington dc area
00:36:24
from oklahoma
00:36:27
veronica had recently become a cpa and
00:36:29
at the time of her death she was working
00:36:31
as a finance officer for the cia
00:36:34
nothing in her background suggested any
00:36:36
motive for her murder the day after the
00:36:40
murder veronica's red camaro with his
00:36:42
distinctive personal place reading ms
00:36:45
vlj was discovered parked at a
00:36:47
supermarket just two blocks from her
00:36:49
apartment
00:36:50
the vehicle was unlocked the keys
00:36:52
missing
00:36:55
the vehicle was examined for
00:36:56
fingerprints using a portable argon
00:36:58
laser
00:37:00
the car appeared to have been wiped
00:37:02
clean
00:37:04
the interior of the vehicle was also
00:37:06
examined john looks like we
00:37:08
have a receipt inside time and date
00:37:11
stamped
00:37:12
this receipt showed that veronica had
00:37:14
left the market at 9
00:37:15
30 p.m purse on a
00:37:18
left rear seat surprisingly veronica's
00:37:21
cash and credit cards were found intact
00:37:23
a box cutter this box cutter and the
00:37:26
location of the car
00:37:27
focused the investigation on workers at
00:37:30
the supermarket
00:37:33
detectives kerrigan mercer began to
00:37:35
question the store's 186 employees
00:37:39
and you agreed to cooperate okay
00:37:43
i'll take you too won't you follow me
00:37:45
how about this gentleman
00:37:47
one good suspect admitted that he had
00:37:49
seen her the day that she was killed
00:37:51
in the supermarket and he was able to
00:37:54
describe her all the way down to her red
00:37:56
shoes
00:37:57
uh did you ever talk to her yeah i
00:37:58
talked to a few times i sort of
00:38:00
had a thing for her but she wasn't
00:38:02
interested in me when we were able to
00:38:03
narrow the field down
00:38:04
from 186 down to six it was my job to
00:38:08
get
00:38:08
a sample of their blood to either
00:38:11
eliminate them
00:38:12
and go on then to other investigative
00:38:15
leads
00:38:16
or possibly to to find the individual
00:38:18
that committed this crime
00:38:21
these tests were important as body fluid
00:38:23
found at the crime scene showed a rare
00:38:25
blood type common to only four percent
00:38:27
of the population
00:38:29
the suspect could definitively be
00:38:31
identified by cross-checking this blood
00:38:33
type with a dna sample
00:38:35
also taken from the body fluid
00:38:38
however in this instance there were no
00:38:40
match-ups all six suspects were cleared
00:38:46
four days after veronica's murder
00:38:48
dramatic new evidence surfaced when an
00:38:50
off-duty police officer claimed he had
00:38:52
seen veronica the night she was killed
00:38:54
and the company of a man who was at the
00:38:56
wheel of her car
00:38:58
that evening i was on my way to work it
00:39:01
was approximately a quarter of 10
00:39:03
in the evening while i was waiting to
00:39:05
make a left
00:39:06
there was a car approaching me from the
00:39:08
opposite direction
00:39:09
i had his bright lights on me that's
00:39:11
what first drew my attention to the car
00:39:14
as this car turned the corner he
00:39:17
ran over the curb and i don't mean just
00:39:19
bumped it but really ran over the curb
00:39:22
as the car turned i noticed a license
00:39:26
plate on the car they were personalized
00:39:27
tags
00:39:28
and they read ms vlj i figured the car
00:39:32
belonged to the girl
00:39:33
in the passenger seat the driver was
00:39:36
apparently very involved in conversation
00:39:38
as he was
00:39:38
driving slow and weaving up up the road
00:39:41
it did not seem like there was any
00:39:43
trouble in the car um it seemed like
00:39:45
they were engaged in a very in-depth
00:39:47
conversation
00:39:49
the woman got out of the car she bent
00:39:51
down and they had
00:39:53
words for 15-20 seconds
00:39:57
she um wasn't in any distress
00:40:00
she wasn't frantic they just seemed to
00:40:01
be friends and he was saying goodbye
00:40:03
i got tired of watching and went around
00:40:06
the car
00:40:07
and on my way the more and more i
00:40:10
thought about it the more i wish that
00:40:12
i could have pulled this person over at
00:40:14
this time
00:40:15
and in some way maybe that would have
00:40:18
prevented
00:40:18
the death of miss jefferson after doug
00:40:22
taylor's account on what he saw and who
00:40:24
was driving
00:40:25
we felt that it had to have been someone
00:40:28
that veronka was familiar with a friend
00:40:30
an old friend someone she really felt
00:40:33
comfortable with
00:40:34
in order to let her let them drive her
00:40:36
car
00:40:37
from veronica's roommates and family
00:40:40
we were able to get a list of
00:40:44
male friends and acquaintances of
00:40:46
veronica's
00:40:47
all her male friends that we know of to
00:40:49
this point
00:40:50
have been interviewed blood has been
00:40:52
taken and all have been eliminated
00:40:54
as suspects after veronica's friends
00:40:57
were cleared the investigation reached a
00:40:59
complete standstill
00:41:02
but in may of 1989 a year after the
00:41:05
murder
00:41:06
two eyewitnesses came forward they
00:41:08
remember seeing veronica in the
00:41:10
supermarket less than two hours before
00:41:12
she was killed
00:41:13
on the night in question my wife and i
00:41:16
both went to the supermarket
00:41:18
to pick up a few items on arriving at
00:41:21
the deli counter i noticed this very
00:41:24
attractive
00:41:25
i would say beautiful girl hello
00:41:29
hi yes a man
00:41:32
approached her and started a
00:41:35
conversation with her
00:41:37
solid right no come on i know it's got
00:41:41
to be sound with you looking that good
00:41:44
i had the distinct impression that he
00:41:46
was trying to pick her up
00:41:48
because i generally had the feeling that
00:41:51
he did not
00:41:52
know her or had not been in any previous
00:41:56
company of hers
00:41:59
a few minutes later mrs flanagan saw
00:42:02
veronica outside the market talking with
00:42:04
the same man
00:42:06
i couldn't hear what they were saying
00:42:10
but i could watch the body language and
00:42:13
i
00:42:14
had the feeling that something was wrong
00:42:16
she continually looked around the
00:42:18
parking lot
00:42:19
she looked as if she was searching for
00:42:21
someone who knew her
00:42:23
or someone to get her out of this
00:42:25
situation
00:42:26
but she did smile at him she did laugh
00:42:30
and i had an uneasy feeling about it
00:42:33
but it wasn't that dramatic enough
00:42:37
that would have made me push ahead
00:42:41
to say do you need help
00:42:45
[Music]
00:42:47
according to the flanigan's testimony
00:42:49
veronica was approached by a stranger
00:42:51
who later may have killed her
00:42:53
but doug taylor saw her with what
00:42:54
appeared to be a friend at the wheel of
00:42:56
her car
00:42:59
there's a possibility that the suspect
00:43:02
was once involved with veronica and no
00:43:05
one else knew that
00:43:06
he feels that his identity will never be
00:43:08
known because of that fact
00:43:12
the man described by the flanagans was a
00:43:14
black male approximately six feet three
00:43:16
inches in height and weighed about 170
00:43:18
pounds
00:43:19
he was described as a clean-cut
00:43:21
bodybuilder type
00:43:25
we continue to investigate unsolved
00:43:28
homicides
00:43:29
until the end they may not be solved but
00:43:32
they're never forgotten
00:43:34
i think it's important that
00:43:37
the killer understand that we will not
00:43:41
stop
00:43:41
looking for him and it's important for
00:43:43
him to know that
00:43:44
so he doesn't think that because a year
00:43:46
has passed
00:43:47
that he's gotten away with this crime
00:43:49
because he has not we are still looking
00:43:51
and we will find him
00:43:54
[Music]
00:44:15
for every mystery there is someone
00:44:17
somewhere
00:44:18
who knows the truth perhaps that someone
00:44:21
is watching
00:44:22
perhaps it's you
00:44:36
[Music]
00:44:43
[Applause]
00:44:47
[Music]
00:45:08
you

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 70
    Most shocking
  • 70
    Most controversial
  • 65
    Most heartbreaking
  • 65
    Most surprising

Episode Highlights

  • The Controversial Death
    Rudolf Hess's death in prison was officially ruled a suicide, but many believe he was murdered.
    “He was a human being and deserves dignity.”
    @ 03m 32s
    May 21, 2019
  • The Mysterious Rudolf Hess
    Rudolf Hess's flight to Britain in 1941 remains one of WWII's most intriguing mysteries.
    “The story of Rudolf Hess is a mystery that spans almost 50 years.”
    @ 03m 40s
    May 21, 2019
  • The Doubles Theory
    Experts suggest that a double may have impersonated Hess during his flight to Scotland.
    “If the man in Spandau was not Rudolf Hess, then who was he?”
    @ 05m 41s
    May 21, 2019
  • The Mysterious Woman
    Carol encounters a woman after a traumatic accident, leaving a lasting impression.
    “I will never forget her.”
    @ 27m 31s
    May 21, 2019
  • Amnesia Theories
    Two theories emerge about Patricia's disappearance, suggesting she may have stowed away or hitched a ride.
    “She may have thought instantly that she hurt or killed another person.”
    @ 29m 36s
    May 21, 2019
  • Patricia's Disappearance
    After a car accident, Patricia Meehan vanishes, sparking a nationwide search.
    “She had walked away from the scene of that accident and has not been found since.”
    @ 29m 54s
    May 21, 2019

Episode Quotes

  • He was a human being and deserves dignity.
    Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 2, Episode 6 - Full Episodes
  • The story of Rudolf Hess is a mystery that spans almost 50 years.
    Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 2, Episode 6 - Full Episodes
  • If the man in Spandau was not Rudolf Hess, then who was he?
    Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 2, Episode 6 - Full Episodes
  • It would have led to the discovery of the whole plot.
    Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 2, Episode 6 - Full Episodes
  • She needs help more than ever now.
    Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 2, Episode 6 - Full Episodes
  • I want her back with us.
    Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 2, Episode 6 - Full Episodes

Key Moments

  • Mystery Introduction00:04
  • Death in Prison03:18
  • Family Reunion19:17
  • Official Inquiry21:45
  • Accident Aftermath27:13
  • Mysterious Woman27:20
  • Final Sightings32:36
  • Investigation Standstill40:59

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

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