DIED. Herbert Kappler, 70, fugitive Nazi war criminal; of intestinal cancer; in Soltau, West Germany. The SS colonel who in 1944 directed the execution of 335 Italian hostages as reprisal for the killing of 33 Nazi occupation police in Rome, Kappler became known as "the Hangman of the Ardeatine Caves." He was sentenced to life imprisonment by an Italian military court in 1948 but was transferred to a Roman hospital in 1976 for cancer treatment. He weighed only 105 Ibs. when his wife smuggled him out of the hospital in a suitcase last August, spiriting him away to West Germany, which...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
