Citation

McCall S, Kreindl G, Kastinger T, Müller E, Zahrer W, Grießner I, Dunkelmann B, Tutsch-Bauer E, Neuhuber F, Pittman PR, Wahl R, Lowry M, Cemper-Kiesslich J. Forensic Sci. Int. Genet. 2019; 40: 18-22.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.fsigen.2019.01.004

PMID

30685710

Abstract

The Deputy Führer of the Third Reich Rudolf Hess was captured after a controversial flight to Scotland in 1941. Hess was sentenced to life imprisonment during the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. He was detained in Berlin's Spandau Prison under the official security designation 'Spandau #7.' Early doubts arose about the true identity of prisoner 'Spandau #7.' This evolved to a frequently espoused conspiracy theory that prisoner 'Spandau #7' was an imposter and not Rudolf Hess. After Hess's reputed 1987 suicide, the family grave became a Neo-Nazi pilgrimage site. In 2011, the grave was abandoned and the family remains cremated. Here we report the forensic DNA analysis of the only known extant DNA sample from prisoner 'Spandau #7' and a match to the Hess male line, thereby refuting the Doppelgänger Theory.

Language: en

Keywords

History, 20th Century; Humans; Male; Germany; Famous Persons; Prisoners; National Socialism; World War II; DNA Fingerprinting; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Microsatellite Repeats; Conspiracy theory; DNA identification; Nuremberg trials; Rudolf Hess; Spandau prison; Third Reich; War crimes; War criminal