Former US soldier says he delivered Goering’s poison pill

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050207/ ts_afp/usgermanywwiinazi_050207085229

Former US soldier says he delivered Goering's poison pill

Mon Feb 7, 3:52 AM ET   Top Stories - AFP



LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A former US Army private who was a guard at the Nuremberg trials says he gave convicted Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering the poison capsule that enabled the top Nazi to commit suicide two hours before his scheduled execution, the Los Angeles Times reports.


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Entire books have been written pondering how the heavily guarded Nazi leader managed to evade justice. And while Herbert Lee Stivers's story cannot be proven, several experts on the era have said it rings true.


Stivers, 78, a retired sheet metal worker from southern California, was a 19-year-old army private assigned to an honor guard that escorted Nazi defendants in and out of the courtroom during the post-World War II war crimes trials.


Stivers said he agreed to take "medicine" to a supposedly ailing Goering to impress a flirtatious local girl who approached him one day on the street.


In their first conversation she asked to keep the autograph of one of the prisoners which he showed her to prove he was one of their guards.


Another day, she introduced him to "a friend" who convinced him to take notes to Goering hidden inside a fountain pen on two occasions.


The third time, the man put a capsule in the pen.


"He said it was medication and that if it worked and Goering felt better, they'd send him some more," Stivers told the Times.


He returned the pen to the young woman after delivering the capsule, and never saw her again.


"I guess she used me," Stivers said.


"I would have never knowingly taken something in that I thought was going to be used to help someone cheat the gallows," he said.


Two weeks after the delivery, on October 15, 1946, Goering committed suicide and left a note bragging that he'd had a cyanide pill during his entire 11-month war crimes trial.


An army investigation agreed and concluded the Nazi had hidden the pill on his body and in his cell.


Many historians remained skeptical, as did Stivers.


"I felt very bad after his suicide. I had a funny feeling. I didn't think there was any way he could have hidden it on his body," he said.


He said nothing for 60 years, fearing he could face charges, until his daughter convinced him to go public to ease his conscience and reveal his part in history.


The statute of limitations has long since run out, so he cannot be prosecuted, the Times said.

Originally posted by Jalisco Lancer LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A former US Army private who was a guard at the Nuremberg trials says he gave convicted Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering the poison capsule that enabled the top Nazi to commit suicide two hours before his scheduled execution, the Los Angeles Times reports.

They had probably worked out that they couldn't have built gallows strong enough to hang that fat bastard on.