In Hugh Thomas' book: The Murder of Rudolf Hess, Thomas recalls his medical examination of Rudolf Hess in 1973, whilst Hess was in Spandau Prison. He believed that there was a difference between Hess' medical records from World War I and the torso of the man imprisoned at Spandau. 'The torso cannot lie' wrote Thomas, convinced that the Hess in Spandau was not the real Rudolf Hess.
Thomas was using the theory that Sauerbruck, a German field surgeon, would have carried out an operation on Hess to remove a bullet. This is untrue, because Hess' own correspondence from the period confirms that the bullet had passed cleanly through him. Doctors like Gibson Graham who examined Hess after landing, and Hurevitz a New York surgeon also agreed that there was no major scarring, particularly around the exit wound.Thomas went to suggest that because Adolf Galland (the Luftwaffe Fighter commander) had been ordered by Goering to shoot down the Messerchmitt Bf 110 of Hess as it flew to Scotland, it could have been shot down, and a Doppelganger put in his place.
Galland's men though had no chance of finding Hess because by the time Goering called him, Hess was too far away to be caught. They took off and after some time returned home without finding Hess. Galland's record of this event is clear. Goering was cleverly completing a Hitler inspired order that was nothing more than a pre-cover-up plot, designed to help prove that Hess was a mad traitor should Hess' peace mission fail. These events led to further speculation about Hess' imprisonment in England, and why he was kept away from the public eye.
The fact that Churchill kept Hess hidden from public view strengthened the theory that the Hess that had been replaced by a double. Other writers, such as Peter Allen and Stephen Prior have suggested Hess was killed in Britain (by intention, or in an aircraft accident with the Duke of Kent) and replaced by a German POW who was brainwashed into being Hess. In illegal experiments by the CIA in Canada involving brainwashing by electrical shock and drug treatments it was proved that a personality can be changed with horrific consequences for the victim. This Allen believes would explain Hess' strange behaviour patterns, and thinner appearance after the war, noticeable at the Nuremburg Trials. There is also evidence to show that a tailor was ordered to replicate Hess' uniform, strengthening this rather dubious theory.
However, it is clear that Hess was probably shot in 1917 with a Russian-made rifle, probably a Nagant. It has a very small calibre bullet. Therefore the exit wound, although larger than the entry wound, would be quite small. The eminent doctors were looking for the wrong evidence. Later, Professor Eisenmenger may have found, according to Hess' son, 'two insipid old scars' from an earlier gunshot wound, which completely disproves the case if true. It probably is, because in 1979 Charles Gabel, the Pastor and Prison Chaplain of Spandau, was told by Hess that two English doctors had visited him recently, looking for the scars. They had found them, entry and exit, but they were not very visible.Thomas' theory as with all Doppelganger theories associated with Hess does not stand up to scrutiny. Hess laughed about them with Gabel and discussed the various substitution theories. Thomas tried to suggest that Himmler, the head of the SS, the most feared man of the Third Reich, had Hess shot down and replaced by a Doppelganger to displace Hitler. Himmler though was totally devoted to Hitler, and perhaps the one man other than Hess that Hitler could rely on till near the end. Furthermore, Hess' letters from captivity reveal an intimate knowledge for 40 years. Why would a double keep up such correspondence and maintain such accuracy? It simply does not make sense.
All that had changed was Hess' mental state, brought on by the fact that he had to pretend to be mad, and suicidal to avoid telling the true plans of Adolf Hitler. Hess simply loved Hitler. He could not betray him. He was like a woman who knows that her man is cheating, yet is able to forgive him everything. Hess was in awe of the magical power of Adolf Hitler. Years solitary confinement, interrogation, bad food, all took their toll. The Hess of the Nuremburg Trials was rather like an isolated, slightly starved caged animal. His odd behaviour resembled a tiger kept in a small cage: unpredictable, strange, but still a tiger. Hess showed he was not mad to every psychologist who interviewed him.
The Hess who was the major contributor to the book written by Hitler: Mein Kampf, the man who organised the Kristallnacht against the Jews, the man who helped organise death squads, and Hitler's Deputy Fuhrer, was the same Hess that flew to Britain across a dark sea, was captured in Scotland in 1941 wanting peace with Britain at the expense of Russia, and the same Hess that died in mysterious circumstances in Spandau Prison. There was no Doppelganger.
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