In 1941 Rudolph Hess (party number 16) unexpectedly descended into Scotland, having flown the dangerous 1,000-mile flight in a prepared Meserschmidt (110-E 1/n.) It has always been claimed that his mission was to bring proposed peace plans to a weakened British Government, with himself expecting to return home some two or three days later to re-join his family in Munich. Funny enough some months earlier in March of that year I too arrived in Surrey and according to my late mother, I was expected and by all accounts from her, I was the perfect baby when born or so I like to think.

Seventy years later much of Hess' bizarre flight, his internment in England during the War and his subsequent Nuremberg/Spandau prison years, that this period stills remain unclear as to what was going on. The fact that no photos of the captured Hess were printed in the newspapers during the war is very odd. They would after all have been great for propaganda purposes for a country then fighting for its very survival.

But did he indeed obtain Hitler's blessing on his solo flight from Augsberg in Germany to the Glens of Scotland. One reference to Scotland concerning this flight suggested it was no coincidence that Rosslyn Chapel, as well as the Masonic Scottish Rite and the Knight Templers, may have figured in his mind as he planned this extraordinary flight of fancy. (Some commentators have claimed both Himmler and Heydrich were certainly aware of this fateful flight, with perhaps even Reinhard Heydrich escorting Hess over the bleak coast of Northern France, then returning over the channel to send a coded message to Hitler that all was well with Hess and his peace mission.) And the flamboyant Putzi Hanfstaengl, Hitler's personal piano player, even claimed that Hess was on the run for his life, perhaps from the "pink" swastika or Martin Bormann!)

And was it the genuine Rudolph Hess presented to the world in Nuremberg in 1945 by the British after the War. (Allen Dulles, the American Spy master, always claimed that the Hess reclining in a Nuremberg cell was just an impostor and that the real deputy Fuhrer was executed on Churchill's orders.)

Wow heavy stuff I have to suggest and even his boss, the wily old FDR said concerning Hess: "I wonder what is really behind this story." At this ministry we also wonder as well so perhaps we can offer some explanations.) Indeed did the double posing as Hess languish for over forty years in the grim Spandau stockade until his controversial death on August 17th 1987 apparently by suicide? All very strange I suggest.

Incidentally Hess must have been the longest serving prisoner in the world when he died by his own arthritic hand or other younger hands assisting in his demise? Perhaps on orders from those who were kitted out in US army uniforms, who according to a Mossad agent, informed the son of Hess that soon after the death that the planning for this operation was conceived by MI5 under orders from the British Home Office and hadn't the same thing happened in 1942, when Rudolph Hess the flying messenger from Munich, would later be murdered by the same people in the wilds of Scotland nr Loch.

More or so it is skilfully claimed in the 2001 book Double Standards: The Rudolf Hess cover up. Perhaps these paid Government assassins in 1987 were just drawing a final line (or a light flex) over some unfinished government business initiated so long ago by the man the Fuhrer affectionately called "Rudi" once his old cellmate from Landsburg Prison in 1924. All governments have long memories it has been claimed by those who know about such things.

The whole of the on-going Hess saga and his dealings with the British Government in the 1940s and later the four allies who controlled Spandau prison after the war seems almost to have been clouded in subterfuge.

For example the flight that forced Hess or as he called himself after landing, Hauptmann Alfred Horn. (Was this name perhaps a code that would be recognized by German Intelligence back in Berlin? There was a lot of talk back and forth between him and others on that fateful night that came into the picture when he landed about of all things the quality of German Beer! Or was this some code as well.) Even when he had to jettison his plane in Scotland, very near the ancestral home of the Duke of Hamilton was also rather strange because how had he evaded patrolling RAF fighters as he descended into British air space or was he escorted in by some of them to his destination?

Was he expected all along? It does seem so by some accounts. And why did he seek this particular Duke, who he had only had a passing nod to Hess some years before. True the Hamilton estate of Dungavel House had a small runway suitable for a light air craft but certainly not for the dimensions of a messerschmit plane.

And did somehow Hess mistake another landing field or another runway perhaps on the estate of the Duke or was he confused by the strange issue of runaway lights near by being switched on and then of? It seems a welcoming party of politicians and others were also there waiting his expected arrival of someone from the Reich. Were they expecting another "peace envoy" from Hitler and did Churchill know of this coming mission?

There is a strange story related by the son of Hess in his book. (I don't know why but the cover looks to me like a spooky apparition) about two men out for an evening walk south of Glasgow when a plane is heard flying over them very low. One remarks to the other: "That's probably Rudolph Hess. Straight away he broke off in alarm and turning to the other man (his son) and said 'Forget what I just said and talk to no one about it.'" 

What are we to make of this and was there indeed a local Nazi cell active and waiting for the distinguished visitor from Munich to arrive.

Did the Prime Minister have to offer a grudging peace feeler of support by offering it some credence and don't forget England was very much alone in those pre Pearl Harbour days. Churchill's position in and out of Parliament was not that secure although he certainly had the support of the British people I am told. But for a besieged England it would be another six months before America was launched into the war and much to Churchill's relief.

Later Hess would be escorted to London and then confined in the notorious Tower of London. Later spending a year at the sinister named "Camp Z" or Mytchett place near Aldershot under strict military control for twelve months. Here in this elegant building he was confined and appraised by hand picked army doctors and "shrinks" maybe the use of experimental new drugs was involuntary inflicted on him. (Sodium penthol seems to have been a favourite in the truth drugs at that time and maybe LSD later? And was this man just a mere guinea pig after all to the authorities it has to be asked.)

In fact Hess would later serve some 46 years in prison even outliving the six other released jailed Nazis we have highlighted in previous articles.

As regards war torn London of the Blitz I can only speculate that Churchill and Hess never openly met each other face to face (however there was a rumour stated in Lynn Picknetts book that a proposed meeting between the two men might have been considered in the cabinet war rooms with the conversation to be recorded by a BBC technician, however I don't think anything came of this idea.) Churchill does not refer to this incident in his post war memoirs but I do suggest that Churchill would have enjoyed secretly observing the deputy Fuhrer for himself, perhaps in a London town house close to Downing street or maybe even in the 900 year old Tower of London with its hidden spy holes used of old for treachery by Kings and Queens. (It seems about this time two German parachutists were captured soon after landing and swiftly executed but were they dispatched to free Hess and return him to Berlin or perhaps to silence him or was one of them the chosen double for Rudolph Hess' role all part of this bizarre wartime plot.)

The press both local and international at that time were sending out mixed signals to their curious readers. For example the American Daily News headline read: "CHURHILL WILL QUESTION HESS." About what I have to wonder. Of course the Daily News was not under strict British censorship unlike the English Daily Telegraph, which was. Its headline of the time states that "Hess" was expected to go back in two days. Oh really and how and when was this to happen we're never told and after this gaffe we were to hear no more about such a flight. And speaking of the press it was reported in Parliament that one over zealous MP likened Hess to "Crippen, Judas Iscariot and Satan."

Certainly Hess was a willing student of the occult subscribing to second sight and dreams and it was even reported in those early war years that Pope Pius XII performed an exorcism at a distance against Hitler and the Nazis, naturally he failed in this. Even Ernest Bevin who did know what was going on in that secretive war time coalition, when as Minister of Labour, he stated that: "I do not believe that this gentleman came here without Hitler's knowledge." Later this Baptist MP became the British Foreign Secretary from 1945-51.

Did he know more than he was letting on? As a footnote it had been written that "Hess loved Hitler," so the historian Peter Padfield writes in his book on the Deputy Fuhrer.

So would Hess have been able to undertaken his meticulous flight plan and with a peace proposal in his flying jacket if there had been some mental problems as was proclaimed in the German press soon after his fateful arrival.

When Hitler was first informed of the news of the flight to Scotland he sighed: "Hess has flown away from me." Very strange words I might add from one man about another isn't it? And would Hess have attempted this solo mission without the blessing of the man he affectionately called "Tribune." It seems an unlikely gesture on the part of the compliant Hess.

For reasons that are not clear even today there was perhaps an attempt to kidnap Hess from "Camp Z" by assorted Polish partisans as a reprisal for the atrocities committed by the Germans in Poland. So who were these guys and where did they come from or was it just a ruse to move Hess from a less secure location and instead, be driven 200 miles away to Maindiff in Wales in June of 1942, under a much scalded down armed escort, presumably from orders higher up the political chain.

In Wales under high walled gardens this 1870 building was now a psychiatric hospital for wounded Dunkirk soldiers and others. The outer buildings were heavily guarded, reinforced with trenches and wire. Prisoner Hess was to remain here until Oct. 8th when he would be flown to Nuremberg to stand trial with others for war crimes.

His years in this confined space near Abergaveny seemed to have been idyllic for him. He painted in the summer, took long country walks even sometimes being escorted to the local village for perhaps some shopping. (Who paid I wonder.) All the villagers seemed to know the identity of the man up at "the hall." Maybe some cheeky children even asked the tall man with the bushy eyebrows for his autograph. Did he accidentally sign Hess or Horn in their books or just frown at them. Does anyone have an autograph today I wonder kept as a family heirloom somewhere?

Later in the evenings he would happily dine in the officers mess. (Interestingly Hess had always been a vegetarian, tee-total and very fussy about what he would eat.) Now in Aldershot and later Wales it seems he indulged in meat and alcohol consumption, with it is reported, atrocious table manners. This Hess did not play tennis or understand its rules (neither do I.) The other Hess had learned the game, played well at the family home in Alexandria in Egypt.

Maybe the mind games practiced on him by the doctors had this effect and funny enough it seems before the war Hess had the annoying habit of continually whistling through his front teeth; his staff naturally hated it. I would like to know if this continual habit was removed through hypnotism or other means, rather like giving up smoking or would the irritating whistling be ever heard in the corridors of Nuremberg and Spandau Prisons in the long years before his slow demise in 1987.

(He also did a pantomime trick with a wooden chair it seems.) In fact under Spandau Prison, directive number 35, it states that "shouting and whistling are forbidden." Seems the man and his habits were never the same again. However his mental health in Wales seemed to be failing as the war came to a final conclusion, because now he had become paranoid delusional-was this part of the plan you ask? Yet strangely this prisoner (code-named "Jonathan") would not be allowed International Red Cross visits amongst other things to ascertain his well being both mentally and physically whilst in captivity in those secretive three and a half years he was held in Wales. (He did have several visits at Mychett Place from the Swiss Ambassador, monitored of course.) Even Himmler allowed restricted visits to Dachau, Auschwitz and Birkenau.

The Russian communists during and before the war naturally denied all visits to their own gulags and prisons. They had never signed the 1929 Geneva Convention. This is a shocking violation of human rights on the man called "Jonathan" and remember England had willingly signed up to the treaty but for Hess/Horn there would be no visits for him from neutral Switzerland (visitors or doctors.) Again all very strange. One former soldier stationed in Wales recalled that "now and again he would rave and shout and stamp his feet and on one occasion he stabbed himself with a bread knife." Poor man does not the Bible clearly state: "For whosever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Did he even contemplate this wonderful promise to himself a sinner or did he deceive himself into the ways of this fallen world like so many have and will continue to do so in these endtimes.

It has to be suggested that some selected art of "mind meddling" through either advance drugs or sustained hypnotism was practiced on the fake Hess.

And it must have been partially successful because these monsters had nearly four years to perfect their own wicked ways on the damaged mind of Rudolph Hess or on his desperate doppelganger.

In 1945 Hess/Horn was flown to Nuremberg as a defendant of the Trial. I rather suspect he could never have imagined his fate would be decided here of all places. In fact this was where the Nazis had hatched the disgusting racial laws subjected on many Germans and other Nationals.

I suspect the British Government had anticipated the death sentence would be pronounced upon Hess as it was on most of the others in the dock. It didn't happen to Hess, instead a technicality would sentence this pitiful wreck of a man to be incarcerated behind stonewalls for 42 long years. Some might suggest it is a picture of Hell but Hell has no stonewalls. It is a place of total pain and punishment and none have ever returned from its walls or gates to warn or complain.

For the purpose of this article we have to examine the amazing accusations that Hess/Horn/Jonathan/Prisoner number 7/31G-350125 or whoever he might claim to be was never the man who served as Hitler's deputy Fuehrer.

The man supposedly held by the British Government for whatever reason from 1941-1945 differed very much from the personality of Rudolph Hess. Sadly he would later be christened by the media: "The loneliest man in the world," causing his son Rudiger later to exclaim perhaps in sheer frustration with it all: "Who then was this Rudolph Hess."

Today in 2011 we are still trying to find a suitable answer.

Perhaps two informative books suggest different theories concerning the Rudolph Hess conspiracy and might throw some much-needed light on this mystery.

These are The murder of Rudolph Hess by Dr Hugh Thomas. And Double Standards, the Rudolph Hess cover-up by Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince and Robert Brydon. Both very well researched.

In Dr. Thomas' book the good news in that the true Hess was not murdered by the British Secret Service but instead the killing was carried out on personal orders of Himmler. He then was apparently plotting a coup against Hitler. This to me sounds rather far-fetched. Reinhardt Heydrich may also be loosely implicated in the murder of Hess, when as an escort pilot he accompanied Hess alone over the North Sea, later to abandon him to Luftwaffe planes now primed for the attack on the Hess aircraft high over the Channel. Afterwards Heydrich then flew home to report to Himmler of the success of the mission. (This scenario was written after the war by Heydrich's wife so maybe she knew something others didn't about this story.)

Also good old fun loving Hermann Goering would also be involved in the scheme and knew about the lone impostor who journeyed to Scotland to present his peace proposals to the Duke of Hamilton. Strangely enough later at the Trials in Nuremberg in 1945/6 Goering, who always was seated next to Hess in the Dock (and hated it), remarked with a grin on his face, "When are you going to tell us your secret Hess." The former Deputy Fuhrer just looked blankly at the slimmed down Goering and scowled. If President Roosevelt had doubts about the real Hess story scenario, one of the most astute politicians of his day in Europe, was Helmut Kohl. He privately expressed his belief that Rudolph Hess or his double was murdered in Spandau! If true then it was on the personal orders of Mrs Thatcher, perhaps rubber-stamped by her inner cabinet or not!

Then later her successor, John Major declared in the House of Commons on this matter that, "If there been a cover up it has been covered up from me as well." These are dangerous words that seem to cover a raft of lies from the lips of men who hate the truth. Does not Psalm 116:11 proclaim: "All men are liars," especially politicians and perhaps they have too more to loose in this fallen world.

Where Dr. Thomas does score some credible points I suggest was when he later in Spandau Prison had the unique opportunity to examine Prisoner No. 7 in 1973. In fact when during the examination and to his amazement this man he saw before him had no former scars from wounds sustained in his lung during the First World war by the original Rudolph Hess. When Dr. Thomas challenged Hess about this abnormality the old boy was severely shaken by the question and became evasive in answering and soon left the hospital ward in a hurry. By now Dr. Thomas was professionally intrigued and would later come to the conclusion that Prisoner No 7 "is not Hess." So who was this man enquired the doctor?

Was he perhaps a double/doppelganger or an actor? So what's it all about in this Germanic Jigsaw puzzle I have to ask and do you remember the film I was Monty's double? I thought it was a very plausible film and its tactics certainly deceived the Nazis during the war.)

Now these suspicions of Hugh Thomas dovetail nicely into Lynn Picknett's accusations in her book Double Standards, this being that the British government of Prime Minister Churchill was complicit in arranging a murder and up to the highest echelons of British aristocracy.

Her offered scenario to the reader is that the genuine Rudolph Hess flew from Augsburg on May 10th 1941, parachuted into Scotland, was then captured and taken quickly in to custody by assorted military personnel. Another mystery of that day was the unexplained arrival of a Polish German clerk from the consulate then in Glasgow who arrived for translating duties. He then quickly departed the scene. Somehow in the next 13 months, the true Rudolph Hess is protected in assorted castles in Scotland by Royalty and other pro-peace groups, and there are many witness who remember him then in the early days of the war. Somehow the double is then brought to London and whilst drugged in the Tower of London is measured for a full dress German uniform, on the orders of British Intelligence. So was this perhaps the understudy who will perform the role of the Deputy Fuehrer to be named "Jonathan." Later he is then located to "Camp Z."

He is escorted as a low priority person to Wales until 1945. Meanwhile in beautiful Scotland in 1942, the true Hess somehow now under the personal protection of the King's younger brother. The Duke of Kent sits and waits for the arrival of a flying boat, perhaps near Loch More to travel officially to Iceland or perhaps to Sweden with the Duke. Somehow during the flight take off something goes terribly wrong causing the aircraft to crash killing all on board (although one member of the crew amazingly was thrown clear and was not found for several days later-increasing this mystery.) But was it an accident or arson. A hastily called enquiry later revels little about the accident.

I do suggest that the author has raised some important information about the episode of the Sunderland seaplane on the 26th of August 1942, crashing on Eagles Rock. And today near that bleak area stands a granite memorial cross erected by the Duke's grieving wife. Its wording is significant in what it says.

Today much of the Hess files are still closed until 2041. These include the government, Foreign Office and MI5 Files. So will these guarded boxes of puzzles and secretes ever be revealed? It seems not. Yet the Holy Bible is clear: "For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known" (Matthew 10:26.)

I began this research with an open mind but after sifting through many books and articles, the riddle of Hess has become even more difficult to unravel. As I write this article it is the 69th anniversary of that doomed flight at Eagles Rock and last week was the 24th anniversary of the death in Spandau prison of prisoner number 7. So a short ditty:

"The song is ended but the melody lingers on."

The cover-up has ended but the smell of corruption lingers on.

The man calling himself Rudolph Hess died or was murdered in Spandau Prison on 17th August 1987. He was 93 years old and interestingly that on the 26th of August 1942 the real Hess was perhaps murdered by persons unknown as well and who says August is the silly season for the media. Look at the London Riots; the death of Princess Diana; the collapse of Col. Gaddafi's empire in Libya. They all happened in August didn't they as well as an earthquake and tropical storm in America. And for the Hess narrative August seems just as wicked as well.) So was this wartime crime a cover-up or was the cover up a crime? Maybe one day all will be explained. Till then all speculation is sadly just theory.

After the lone death in Spandau of Prisoner number 7 and after much protesting by his son, Wolf Rudigar Hess, (incidentally Hitler had been his Godfather), Herr Hess was eventually allowed to claim the corpse of the man he had always believed was his natural father. Several autopsies later would however leave much to be desired concerning the true cause of death of this man. Strangely Wolf Hess could have allowed if had he wished a DNA test to confirm once and for all the final positive identity of the man he always claimed as his father. But this he declined to do. Who knows perhaps a sliver of tissue removed from that corpse is preserved somewhere, just waiting for a match and wouldn't it be satisfying to put this mystery to bed once and for all.

Wolf died in 2001 and was interned in the family plot at Wunsiedel nr Bayruth with his deceased family and there perhaps the Hess riddle perhaps should have ended....but wait.....as reported in the media on July 22nd 2011 the German Government in a night time exercise exhumed the family plot and removed or desecrated all the Hess family remains, some going back three generations and later all were hastily cremated or so it seems. In conclusion the cover-up continues into the 21st century concerning the pilot who flew for a flying visit and instead stayed for 46 years!

Next time we will be looking at the role of Eva Braun and Geli Raubal (one recent book has Hess implicated in the murder of young Geli!) But what was in it for them, as Hitler's girlfriends, at the murderous court of "Emperor" Adolph.

"As it is appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgment."

PS. A newly classified report fails to explain the death of Hess in the Spandau Garden summerhouse, 25 years ago.

Author Peter Padfied obtained this under the FOI Act. The report from the MOD concerning this fails to confirm how his death happened.

Mr Padfield writes: "The suicide note in German (by Hess) is surely bogus."

So he has his doubts about the published official conclusion.  

Today the death of Rudolph Hess by murder/suicide still remains hazy and unclear.  

Updated, 15th Oct. 2012

In his excellent book Body of Evidence the distinguished professor of forensic medicine, Dr. David Bowen highlights some concerns he discovered about Rudolf Hess' autopsy, held in 1987.

He highlighted the X-ray procedure carried out on the corpse of Hess that was performed, with the body still wearing his prison clothes, this he found very unusual and this explained the professor, "leads to a poor quality and definition of radiographs. In all of the X-rays I've had to have done, I was  always asked to remove any surplus clothing and I doubt they would have carried out the procedure if I had refused."

He also agreed with a second authorised autopsy carried out by another doctor, this he remarked had made "a very significant contribution to the mystery surrounding the death of Rudolph Hess."

He also suggests that the political background (to the Hess death) "did not lend itself to a satisfactory post mortem investigation." And he further finished his report by writing: "Doubts must remain on the reliability of the official statement given, concerning the death of Rudolf Hess."

So I have to suggest that this distinguished doctor only confirms what we have suggested all along, that the strange death/murder of Rudolf Hess will continue until answers are given to this on-going mystery, concerning the deputy Fuhrer that began with his mysterious flight to England in 1941.

Sources

Hess, Peter Padfield

Camp Z, Stephen McGinty

The flight of Hess, Roy Conyers

The Murder of Rudolph Hess, Dr. Hugh Thomas

My Father, Wolf R. Hess

Double standards, Lyn Picknett and others.

(This book offers a lot more background to this article)