I. The Hess Mess
II. Hess the Hermetic
III. Putschin' on the Ritz
IV. A Scottish Excursion
V. A Plea for Peace
VI. The Lore of the Lure
VII. Cooperating Coops
VIII. Capturing a Captain
IX. Conspiracies and Contingencies
X. Prisoner 007
XI. The Forgotten Flight
XII. Deputy Dopplegänger
XIII. To Make a Man
XIV: An Astonishing Assassination
XV: A Secret So Sinister
XVI: An Antarctic Epilogue
The Hess Mess
The choice of the word "mess" to describe this opera is much more than just a clever rhyme. What the Hess Mess represents is undoubtedly akin to the proverbial Rabbit Hole; the Chapel Perilous of Robert Anton Wilson.
The mess is riddled with so many twists, turns and contradictions that what ultimately emerges is the grandest conspiracy at not only the highest levels of the British government, but one that includes multiple superpowers and their various intelligence agencies.
In addition, something about the secret at the heart of the Hess Mess is so significant that it still warrants concealing from the public after more than three quarters of a century.
What could be so unacceptable to Britain, or the Allies, in the early 21st century? What does the Rudolf Hess story conceal that would in some way shock even today's cynical world?
The best place to start the Hess Mess is at the end, and a messy end for Hess it was.
On August 17, 1987, Rudolf Walter Richard Hess, once Adolf Hitler's Deputy Führer, was pronounced dead at a British Military Hospital in Berlin.
Having spent the last 41 years of his life in prison, the 93-year-old inmate had reportedly chosen to end his own life, hanging himself from a window latch with an electrical cord.
Only Hess among all the Nazis incarcerated after World War II was made to serve out his entire life sentence, and this includes other individuals of comparable rank, such as the Reich's Armaments Minister Albert Speer, the two chiefs of the German Kriegsmarine, Grand Admirals Erich Raeder and Karl Dönitz, Reichsbank President Walther Funk, diplomat Konstantin von Neurath, and Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach.
These were some of the men that kept the gigantic war machine of the Third Reich smoothly running and functioning as a military power right up to the end of the war, and in Dönitz's case, had nearly brought Britain to its knees in the unrelenting U-boat warfare.
Indeed, of all the "designated successors" to Hitler, it was Dönitz that finally succeeded Hitler as the legal head of state and government after the latter's problematical "suicide" in the Berlin Führerbunker.
All of these men were released, including Raeder and Funk, even though both had received life sentences. Although their premature release was for "health and humanitarian" reasons, no explanation was ever offered for why Hess remained for another 21 years, despite suffering considerable health problems, which began in earnest after a perforated ulcer in 1969.
To make matters even more strange, an entire prison facility, known as Spandau Prison, was maintained just to house Hess! Built in 1876, Spandau Prison had a single occupant from the years 1966-1987: Rudolf Hess.
It's an absurd picture: the Allied powers--France, Great Britain, the USA, and the Soviet Union--all contributed to the maintenance and upkeep of the entire Spandau Prison, changing their military guards at regular monthly intervals, just to guard this one man.
The guard rotation shifted on a monthly basis, with the French guards during the months of February, June, and October; British guards in January, May, and September; American guards in April, August, and December; and Soviet guards in March, July, and November.
Why did Hess have to be guarded at all costs and have his access to the outside world strictly, and even cruelly, controlled?
Why was it necessary to maintain an entire prison, and the military guards and medical staffs of four world powers, just to keep watch over one individual who, by the end of his life, was a frail old man, and a threat to no one?
What secrets did he know that the Four Powers wanted to prevent others from knowing? Did they themselves even know what those secrets were, or did they only suspect? Or were they trying to break him and learn those secrets?
Or did Hess not know anything at all?
Was the man they were guarding even really Rudolf Hess?
Was "Spandau Hess" someone else, a double, substituted at some point in the drama? Was that the real reason for the Spandau Ballet of elaborate changings of the guard and maintaining an entire prison for just one man, and refusing to let him out, lest the substitution--the real secret--be discovered?
The Lore of the Lure
For Churchill, Hess's sudden arrival was surely unwelcome, as it put the Prime Minister and his government in a very awkward position:
Two contemporary magazine articles written about the event both propagated the so-called "lure" hypothesis, namely that Hess was lured by British intelligence, "the implication being that there was no 'peace party' nor realistic hope that a negotiated peace with the Churchill government was possible."
Although certainly feasible, the lure hypothesis could itself be a "spinning" of the event, a "legend created to reassure America that Britain was not double-dealing and to extricate the Churchill government from the diplomatic difficulty caused by the Hess flight."
In 1942, soon after the USA entered the war, Churchill finally publicly addressed the Hess matter in an oft-overlooked exchange on the floor of the House of Commons:
To some observers, this speech is the "beginning of the conundrum" and clearly states the motivation of the Hess flight was to "gain access to the certain circles that could remove Churchill and his government from power."
In a further blow to the "spontaneous event" explanation for the Hess flight, "by the time of his flight to Scotland, several contacts had already been made between the German and British peace parties." In addition, discussions had already taken place in Sweden, Switzerland and Spain.
The reason Scotland was chosen as the destination was because of the German "peace party" and its connection to the Duke of Hamilton, Scotland's highest ranking peer, who had access to the Royal Family. Hess had been doing his homework as well, even brushing up on the British Constitution itself:
The British sovereign has certain "reserve powers" that can be used in times of constitutional crisis.
In other words, Hess wasn't merely petitioning the Duke of Hamilton, rather he was using the Duke to petition King George VI himself.
Hess's infamous flight is beginning to seem less fanciful after all.
Cooperating Coups
As one plunges deeper into the Hess Mess, a tangled web of covert connections is uncovered. Various correspondence from the time reveals a Haushofer-Hess peace faction in Germany that was carrying on secretive discussions with the British peace faction. In addition, they often attempted to avoid both the official channels of Great Britain and Germany for much of this correspondence. In one of these letters, Albrect Haushofer stated:
In addition, the "only genuine solution to European peace and security was a European federation, and a "fusion" between Germany and Britain, a fusion that the English are now about to conclude with the United States."
However, according to Albrecht Haushofer, there seemed to be very little possibility of a negotiated peace with Hitler.
Which brings us to a key question: What did Hitler know about the flight?
It seems much more likely, given what appear to be the coup plotters' eventual goals, that Hitler was kept in the loop to a certain extent, but not entirely.
Despite these attempts at negotiation, the response from Britain was unwavering: their distrust of Hitler was a "fatal obstacle" to any peace. Notably absent is any reference to peace with Germany. The Germans had similar demands regarding the future of the Churchill government.
To get a better understanding of the scope of collusion involved with such a scheme, it's important to consider the extraordinary details of the flight itself.
Hess's plane itself, a Me 110E-2/N series aircraft, had undergone significant modification, including custom drop tanks and enhancements to his radio system.
Modifications aside, a glaringly inconvenient detail emerges when one considers the oil consumption required for such a lengthy flight. Some researchers have noted that it's unlikely the aircraft would have had made the trip without running out of oil and crashing into the sea.
After considering the possible routes and options, the city of Göttingen becomes a strong possibility.
There is similar evidence of collusion on the British side, as the response has long been acknowledged to have been lackluster, including testimony from a Royal Air Force radar operator that "he was given orders to relay to aircraft that the incoming German airplane was not to be attacked."
Some have even accused the RAF of "pulling its punches" that May evening, stating that "at least some in the Royal Air Force command structure in Scotland were well aware of where Hess intended to land."
According to the "official" narrative, Hess's destination was Dungavel House, but its small airstrip has led some to suggest that a nearby RAF base was Hess's real target.
However, clearly, something went wrong on that fateful night, and Hess was forced to parachute:
According to the standard narrative of the Hess flight that was rather abruptly decided upon by both the British and German authorities, Hess was a madman with mad intentions, and such a notion of a significant "peace faction" in Britain was almost entirely fanciful. But was it?
They advocated for an entente with Germany, and perhaps an eventual alliance, for only Germany could challenge the Soviet Union and offer counter-balancing weight to growing American influence.
This sentiment was far more popular than is often acknowledged by historians:
As already stated, one of Germany's concerns at the time was an alliance, or even fusion, between the US and the UK, which was "always the stated goal of Cecil Rhodes, and his Rhodes scholarships were established as one of the mechanisms to effect this goal."
According to the research of Carroll Quigley, there were in fact "pro Atlanticist-unionists" within the US and the UK who sought an actual union of the two countries.
Clearly, numerous influential people in the British establishment opposed Hitler, but not necessarily Germany.
For example, in 1939, shortly after Germany's invasion of Poland, the future Duke of Hamilton submitted the following to the London Times:
Not only does the letter refer to Hitler's aggression and not to Germany's, but it also recognizes the principle of Lebensraum and mentions the post-WWI injustices suffered by Germany.
Why, then, the reference to colonies? The direct reference to the infamous Kristallnacht may give us a clue:
Hess, while a firm believer in international Jewish-Zionist plots, did offer protection to the Haushofers, as Frau Haushofer was half Jewish.
The future Duke of Hamilton may therefore have been appealing directly to parties in Germany that were uncomfortable with the direction Hitler's Reich was taking.
The same day that the future Duke of Hamilton's "peace message" was published in the Times, the German BBC service broadcast the letter.
This letter may ultimately be one of the most crucial elements of the entire Hess Mess, as it becomes clear that either Hess "undertook his mission with the intention of dissembling to the British, concluding a peace, and keeping Hitler in power; or he undertook his mission with the intention of participating in the overthrow of Hitler's government, in order to procure a peace with Britain."
Despite Hess's loyalty towards Hitler, this possibility is strengthened by the curious actions of Göring on the night of Hess's flight, as well as Göring's own history of conducting peace negotiations with the British. Göring was Hitler's successor in offices of state, while Hess was his designated representative and successor in the party.
An attempt had even been made in 1941 via contacts between the Duke of Hamilton and the Haushofers for the Duke and Hess to meet on neutral territory, specifically Lisbon. Lord Halifax was aware of these plans, and notably did not share them with Churchill, who had been chosen prime minister over Halifax just a few months previously.
Regardless, it was clear that preparations for a meeting continued on the German side, and this fact alone invalidates the nation that Hess decided to undertake such an absurd mission on some "crazy lark."
In addition, at Hess's express bidding, Albrect Haushofer had been negotiations with the British ambassador in Madrid, Sir Samuel Hoare. As a result of these negotiations, it was agreed that peace could not be reached without the removal of both Hitler and Churchill.
It has even been claimed that Haushofer, Hess, Halifax and Hoare had planned a secret meeting somewhere in Portugal or Spain in early 1941. The French press even reported that Hess was in Spain in 1941, compelling the German press to issue a denial of the French story.
It should be noted that three of the men who allegedly met in early 1941, Hess, Haushofer, and Halifax, were all deeply disturbed by the policies of the Nazis toward the Jews. In 1938, Lord Halifax himself had attempted to initiate discussions in the War Cabinet about providing a Jewish homeland in Western Australia or British Guiana.
Could Hess really bring himself to lead a coup d'etat against Hitler himself? An essay from his university days may give us a clue, namely that although Germany needed a "severe and ruthless" leader, notably, once he had succeeded in restoring Germany's standing in the world, "he would have to stand aside and allow a more moderate government to assume power."
To add further credence to this theory, in his initial contacts with the British after his capture, Hess indicated that he was not speaking for Hitler, but for Germany.
Why then did Hess undertake such a flight at great personal risk to Great Britain itself?
When Hess was forced to parachute and land in a Scottish farmer's field, he was therefore "up for grabs" between two potentially opposing factions within the British government/intelligence apparatus. Conflicting narratives in the official account of what occurred after Hess's capture strongly support this scenario.
Capturing a Captain
One version of events has Hess apprehended by a farmer armed with a pitchfork and then held captive in a cottage. At this point Hess insisted he was "Captain Alfred Horn" and that he had come to Scotland to meet the Duke of Hamilton. After getting taken into custody by the Home Guard, he was moved several times until finally ending up in the Maryhill Barracks in Glasgow.
According to the farmer's own account, Hess's first words were "Am I on the estate of the Duke of Hamilton?" Another early account indicated that Hess additionally stated to the police that his original intention had been to land at the small landing strip at the Duke's residence at Dungavel. Since Hess almost certainly would've known the strip would be too small for his plane, it's possible that by claiming this "he was protecting someone, or something, or both."
After he was taken to the cottage, the farmer's wife offered "Captain Horn" some tea, which Hess declined in good English. Strangely enough, two soldiers seem to suddenly "appear" in the cottage by the farmer's own account, with no explanation as to when they arrived...there are just suddenly there.
After the war, McBride gave his own version of events, with the extraordinary claim that "high-ranking Government officials were aware of his coming." To support this assertion, McBride noted that "no air-raid warning were sounded, nor were the anti-aircraft gunnery control rooms plotting the course of Hess's plane alerted."
To make matters even more confusing, McBride claims that it was he and not the farmer who first apprehended Hess. This discrepancy is not the only example of a possible coverup at play. Again according to McBride himself:
This commotion can be explained by possibility of the conflicting "factions" at play here.
To add to the air of intrigue surrounding Hess's capture, after McBride's death, a letter was discovered from his former commander W.B. Howieson that had advised McBride to "drop this Hess business" lest he "stir up a hornets' nest" with respect to the British Official Secrets Act. Perhaps even more remarkably, this letter was dated May 8, 1974.
Regardless of how he was captured, Hess eventually was taken to Giffnock scout hall and he was searched and an inventory was made of his belongings.
Although this inventory has never been disclosed, an unsubstantiated theory claims Hess had brought an ancient Celtic text called the Lebor Fesa Runda which had once been given as a gift from John Dee to the German Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. Allegedly, Hess acquired the text through his connections to the Thule society and was bringing the rare manuscript as a sort of symbolic diplomatic gift.
At Giffnock we encounter another important player in the Hess Mess, one Major Graham Donald, an officer in the Royal Observer Corps. Major Donald claims he was alerted to the crash and ordered to the scene, and he subsequently accompanied Hess and the entourage to Giffnock where he personally questioned Hess.
It should be noted that the official narrative leaves out a curious, and perhaps not so insignificant, detail: Did nobody recognize Hess? Hess was perhaps one of the most recognizable faces in the Nazi regime, and yet none of his British captors had openly acknowledged recognizing him. Perhaps even more curiously, Major Donald claims to have "determined" Hess's identity by almost ridiculous means.
Another "anomaly" in the aftermath of capture was the British authority's lack of effort to search for any other individuals, since Hess's plane was a two-seater!