Rudolf Hess, Hitler Crony Who Flew to Scotland Claiming to Make Peace

On August 17, 1987, Rudolf Hess, German Nazi official and Deputy Fuhrer who dramatically escaped to Britain in 1941 and was sentenced to life in prison at Spandau Prison, committed suicide at the age of 93. An excerpt from the article:

"On October 1, 1946, Hess was sentenced to life in prison. Twelve of the other Nazis on trial with him were sentenced to be hanged, and others received sentences of 10 to 20 years. Hess was the only Nazi leader to be sentenced to a life term. He escaped the death penalty mainly because his mental state was questionable and he had spent the bloodiest years of the Nazi terror locked up in England.

Hess served his sentence in Spandau Prison in West Berlin. Other Nazi prisoners died in prison or were released as their terms ended, and from October 1, 1966, onward, Hess was Spandau's only prisoner. His family periodically sought to have him released, but their appeals were always refused. The Soviet Union, which had been a party to the Nuremberg trials, insisted that he serve every day of his life sentence.

In prison, Hess was still mostly a mystery. His peculiar behavior continued, and it wasn't until the 1960s that he agreed to have monthly visits from family members. He was in the news at times when he was taken to a British military hospital in Germany for treatment of various ailments.

Controversy After Death

Hess died in prison on August 17, 1987, at the age of 93. It was revealed that he had strangled himself with an electrical cord. His jailers said he had left a note indicating a desire to kill himself.

Rumors circulated that Hess had been murdered, supposedly because he had become a figure of fascination for neo-Nazis in Europe. The Allied powers released his body to his family, despite fears that his grave would become a shrine for Nazi sympathizers.

At his funeral in a Bavarian graveyard in late August 1987 scuffles broke out. The New York Times reported that about 200 Nazi sympathizers, some dressed in "Third Reich uniforms," scuffled with police.

Hess was buried in a family plot and the site did become a gathering place for Nazis. In the summer of 2011, fed up with visits by Nazis, the cemetery administration exhumed Hess's remains. His body was then cremated and his ashes scattered at sea in an unknown location.

Theories about Hess's flight to Scotland continue to emerge. In the early 1990s, files released from Russia's KGB seemed to indicate that British intelligence officers had lured Hess to leave Germany. The Russian files included reports from the notorious mole Kim Philby.

The official reason for Hess's flight remains as it was in 1941: Hess believed he could, on his own, make peace between Germany and Britain."