A fortune for the right skull

Press, 22 July 1980, Page 17

A fortune for the right skull

A cardboard box wrapped in plain brown paper was sent to Charles Hamilton, a Manhattan autograph dealer, by Otto Amschler of Ingolstadt, West Germany. Its contents were, declared as a "skull for spiritual session.”

In reality, the skull, of a middle-aged man, mounted on a piece of marble, was purported to be that of Hitler, and the purpose of sending it was strictly material. The sender said he represented a widow in East Germany who wanted to emigrate to the West but had no money, and that the skull was for sale. Hitler is said to have committed suicide by swallowng a cyanide capsule and shooting himself in the head. There was a bullet hole in the skull and there is evidence that the skull was opened for an autopsy. Hamilton estimated that if it really was Hitler’s skull, it would be ' worth at least $lOO,OOO to a collector. Asked why anyone would want it, Hamilton replied: “Hitler is the supreme criminal of all times. He out-Neros Nero, he out-Caligulas Caligula. Therefore he is a most fascinating man.” The ensuing scientific analysis of the skull illustrated how dentistry, anthropology, and pathology have joined forces in contemporary medical examiners’ offices in major cities.

The anthropologist applies his knowledge in effort to determine age, sex, and race, using the body’s more than 200 bones almost like fingerprints to obtain clues to

identifications; the dentist tries to use dental records and the characteristics of teeth to much the same end; and the pathologist is primarily concerned with the cause of death.

Hamilton sought to authenticate the skull by consulting three experts: Clyde Snow, a forensic anthropologist: Lowel Levine, a forensic dentist, and Michael Baden, a forensic pathologist, who is deputy chief medical examiner of New York.

The three experts examined the skull during a break in the recent forensic sciences symposium at New York University. They agreed not only that it was not Hitler’s but that it was not even what the Nazis called “Aryan.” The experts said Jhe

skull appeared to be that of an oriental. Two of them noted that it had certain characteristics that made it look almost female such as flattening of the brow area. They finally agreed, however, that it was the skull of a man.

For the analysis of the “Hitler skull,” Levine, a forensic consultant to both the New York City and Nassau County medical examiners, armed himself with dental records compiled over a 10-year period by Hugo Johannes

Blaschke, a brigader general in the Waffen SS, who was Hitler’s dentist from 1934 until 1945. Blaschke left behind notes and sketches of the inside of Hitler’s mouth indicating that the dictator had a severe periodontal disease and a great many cavities, as did many other high-ranking Nazis. “They were very fond of pastries and whipped cream,” explained Levine. Hitler also had gold bridgework, made .by Blaschke. The bridgework was permanent.

Hitler had dental problems throughout the period when Blaschke knew him. Treatments were very hard to carry out, wrote Blaschke, because Hitler “had very little time” for them.In contrast, the skull sent to Hamilton had very good teeth and no bridgework. Moreover, the front incisors were shovelshaped, suggesting that the skull was mongoloid, not caucasoid. “There isno way these teeth can be Hitler’s,” Levine said. Snow, who for 21 years was chief of physical anthropology for the Federal Aviation Administration and who has been asked

to identify many plane crash victims, noted that the lower portion of the jaw of the. skull was “not typically Caucasoid” and that the person may have been Oriental or of an Oriental-Negro mixture. He said that the brow area was well-enough defined for him to conclude that it was the skull of a man. Baden noted that the bullet hole was in the temple, whereas Hitler was said to have shot himself in the mouth. Baden went over the Soviet autopsy reports, however, and said he was surprised to learn that the Russians had missed the gunshot wound and attributed death only to the cyanide. After Hitler died, an aide was said to have tried to burn the body beyond recognition with gasoline, and the skull was badly charred, which would only have made the bullet hole more difficult to find. Baden could find no evidence of charring in the bogus Hitler skull. He suspects that the skull, which contains some evidence of plaster of paris, was once used as an anatomical specimen for students. Hamilton said there is considerable demand for the relics of famous people of the past. He recently sold a lock of Franz Seubert’s hair for $650. He feels that he could get $250,000 for Shakespeare’s skill, and $3 million for the skull of Julius Caesar, if either were available. He regards interest in such things as “a whole new business.”

New York Times News Service and NZPA feature