(2 of 4)
Until then, there is certain to be widespread skepticism over the discovery. The sudden uncovering of the bones struck many as either wishful thinking or ingenious misinformation by Mengele's Nazi sympathizers. Especially suspicious were those who had been on the Mengele trail for 40 years. "It's 99% certain that this is not the body of Mengele," said Simon Wiesenthal, the world's foremost Nazi hunter, during a visit to New York City. After learning more about the evidence, however, Wiesenthal professed to be less skeptical. Doubters asked why, if Mengele had really died six years ago, his relatives in Gunzburg, West Germany, had not said so and thus avoided the publicity that has accompanied the recent intense worldwide hunt for the Nazi fugitive. The U.S., German and Israeli governments last month agreed to pool their resources in the hunt for Mengele. This week a five-man Brazilian team will begin comparing the bones and seven teeth exhumed from the grave with medical and dental records of Mengele, dating back to 1938, that have been sent from West Germany. But, as Forensic Expert De Mello admitted, "we will never be able to make an absolutely certain, positive identification."
The latest curious twist in the search for Mengele began two weeks ago, when West German authorities descended upon the idyllic town of Gunzburg, whose biggest employer is the firm of Karl Mengele & Sons, manufacturers of agricultural equipment. There, acting on a tip from an unidentified university professor, for reasons still not clear, they raided a house that is believed to belong to Hans Sedlmeier, a onetime legal clerk for the Mengele firm. Sedlmeier was widely reported to have been a messenger between Mengele and his family when the fugitive was living in Asuncion, Paraguay. Inside a closet in the home, the investigators found seven or eight letters apparently mailed by Mengele from Brazil between 1972 and 1978. They also discovered two more recent letters from Wolfram and Lieselotte Bossert, an Austrian couple who had moved to Brazil in 1952. These letters implied that Mengele was dead.
Alerted by the West German consulate, Sao Paulo Police Chief Tuma posted his men around the Bossert home in the middle-class suburb of Brooklin Novo. After three days of surveillance, the police raided the house and took in for questioning Bossert, 59, an unemployed paper-company technician, and his wife, 57. Inside the modest wood-and-concrete house, they reportedly found several photographs, apparently of Mengele. One picture was of his son Rolf. Also found was a book entitled Evolution of the Organism that included 15 pages of notes in what is believed to be Mengele's handwriting. At the police station, the Bosserts gave two depositions in which they told the story of how they had befriended the death-camp doctor.
They had, they said, first been introduced to Mengele in 1970 through an Austrian engineer, Wolfgang Gerhard. Five years later, Gerhard left Brazil, giving Mengele his Brazilian identity card. Mengele put his own photographs on the document and assumed Gerhard's identity. The real Gerhard died in 1978, according to West German legal authorities.