THE STAND-IN MEN

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22895, 16 December 1939, Page 17

THE STAND-IN MEN

GEORGE Palmer Putnam, American publisher (and husband of the late Amelia Earhart), was recently kidnapped by two Nazi agents because he published an antiNazi • book, “The Man Who Killed Hitler.” The author of the book claimed that Hitler had been killed the night before the Munich Conference, and that since then another man had doubled for the Fuehrer. In recent years there has been a crop of these stories about dictators and their “stand-ins.” Napoleon had one who attended wearisome public functions, and left the Emperor free to plan his wars. Recently medical men have sought to prove that the man who died on St. Helena was not the Emperor, but his stand-in man. The man on the island was taller than Napoleon, doctors have insisted. Moreover his medical historv was mot consistent with that of the Emperor A great deal of material nas been put forward as evidence. A study of it must leave anyone with a very real doubt that Napoleon did die on St. Helena. The modern dictator has to be a showman. His face must be as well known as a film star’s. And he must appear fearless and take risks to show that he believes his people love him too much to take a pot shot at him. The stand-in man is there to take the knocks. Here are some of the stories that are told of modern dictators. Plenty of people have vouched for these stories, but the people who could really verify them aren’t telling. Number One: Hitler. Hitler wouldn’t use a double at first. The people loved him; his Black Guards would protect him. A mysterious “accident” to the train in which he was travelling changed his mind. Twenty-three men were killed, and the men who placed the motorcoach across the line obviously had not loved their Fuehrer. Stand-in Man Number One was a chauffeur called Julius Schreck. In May, 1937, he died, officially from “meningitis after a very short illness.” A month later some of the truth got out of the bag.

(SPECIALLY WHITTEN FOR THE PRESS.) [By JOHN CHILSTONJ

On May 15 Hitler had driven by car from Berlin to Bernau. There were no escorting cars. Approaching a level crossing, the chauffeur slowed up. As he did, a rifle cracked from the side of the road. The man in the back of the car fell forward into the floor of the car. The driver pressed down on the accelerator and drove on furiously for two miles. Then he stopped. The man who got out of the front seat and took off his cap was—Hitler. Mussolini is also reticent about his stand-ins. In six attempts on his life, two men have died because they were his “stooges.” In 1923 his chauffeur was murdered. A few years after that a rumour spread in Rome that Benito Mussolini had been assassinated. Foreign newspaper correspondents got on the trail. At first it was a dead-end, and then they found that an occupant of Mussolini’s car had indeed been killed. The car had been on the route given out as the one II Duce was to take. Later it was given out officially that Mussolini’s “secretary” had been shot by mistake. Japanese Prime Minister Admiral Okada had a double, Denko Matsui. In February, 1937, military officers staged a coup. Soldiers broke into Okada’s house and pounded on an inner door. When it opened, machine-gun bullets riddled a plump; elderly man. “Okada is dead! Okada is dead!” they shouted and for two days Tokyo mourned his passing. But Okada wasn’t dead. He was hiding in a cupboard and when his house was captured from the insurrectionists he came out. But Denko Matsui was dead. Ex-King Zog has no need of stand-in men now. But he did before because he was an unpopular monarch with at least a hundred vendettas sworn against him. One of his offsiders died outside Vienna’s Royal Opera House. He was Major Topalai, of the Albanian Army. At least two others are said to have died the same way. A double has to be a fatalist—or a fanatic who is willing to die for his ruler. While they live they are treated well. So is a goose in a cage.