Target (53 page)

The Toledano letter is one of many responses I’ve had to my research. But it was the only one of note previously not mentioned
that came
before
the book was published. Many have come since. I had hoped that more people with firsthand knowledge of the plot would contact me. But that hasn’t happened so far. Anyone involved, even if they’d been in their teens, would be over eighty today. Any crucial higher ups would be well over 100. And any plotters would have to deal with the possibility of prosecution or revenge, not to mention facing the implications within their own consciences of what they’d done. Most likely, those actually involved, like Bazata and Skubik—regardless of participation or innocent witness—are now dead.

Nevertheless, I’ve received lots of reaction, some of it tantalizing in terms of possibly shedding more light. For instance, a German interpreter/typist at U.S. military headquarters in Munich when Patton was injured wrote that she and her coworkers and U.S. bosses suspected a cover-up. “Our superiors at that time had appeared equally puzzled as to the murky situation that was sparingly reported by the official press. Powerful agencies directed from on-high must have [had] ways to lose or destroy any firsthand factual reports about the accident near Mannheim. The very strict rules and regulations for military reports could not have been disregarded otherwise. This accident would never have been classified as a trivial fender-bender. It was deliberately misrepresented to deceive the rest of the world of what had actually happened.”

Another reader wrote that he knew Arlis Vanlandingham, probably the mysterious “Vanlandingham” young Horace Woodring, Patton’s driver, said was the only investigating officer he saw at the scene of Patton’s accident. Although not closely acquainted, the reader said he and Arlis, now deceased, had attended the same church twenty-five years ago. “I was never aware that he had served in the military. One day in a conversation I mentioned that
my dad had served in Patton’s Third Army and that he considered old blood & guts to be the best general in the entire army [and that he] thought there was something fishy about Patton’s ‘accidental’ death. At that comment, Arlis looked as if he was about to become ill and quickly left the group. After that, I noticed that he always seemed to avoid me, and we soon lost contact.” Did that indicate guilt? When I contacted the reader, he could provide no more but said, “I realize this evidence is sketchy but... I believe he was.”

The son of an Oregon personal counselor advised, “You might be interested to learn that my deceased mother was a confidante of General Bedell Smith,” Eisenhower’s “bull dog” assistant whom Patton disliked and distrusted. “When the movie ‘Patton’ came out decades ago, [she] mentioned that Patton had been assassinated to prevent a confrontation with the USSR. There is no corroborating evidence that would render what I say as being more than anecdotal. I do however have my mom’s photograph of Bedell Smith which was inscribed to her by him. I could send you a photocopy. . . to . . . verify my mom’s knowing Smith.”

A post-war nationalized Canadian woman who grew up in Mannheim and was there when Patton was injured wrote:

While the official story is that the hospital in which Patton died was not equipped to do an autopsy—and that was why no autopsy was performed—a former orderly there at the time of Patton’s death wrote, along with sending me pictures of the place, that the 130
^th
Station Hospital in Heidelburg “was very capable of performing autopsies.”

So why didn’t it?

These are witnesses who were there at the time or who have personal knowledge bearing on the issue. Reading more of Bazata’s seemingly endless diaries about his clandestine life, I came upon this stream of consciousness which seems appropriate with which to end. To get to the point quickly and succinctly, which Bazata seldom did in his secretive, long-winded, often-coded writings, I’ll paraphrase:

Who knows the full truth? Where there is smoke there is fire. And there is a lot of smoke here.

I wish to thank
my wife, Bego, children, Robert and Amaya, and my cousins Tim Wilcox and Bobby Russell. The idea grew as a family affair. My agent Jim Trupin, JET Literary Associates, placed the proposal with Doug Grad, now an agent himself, and then Anneke Green, both of whom edited the manuscript. Harry Crocker brought it to Regnery.

Once the research commenced, Stephen Skubik’s children, especially Mark Skubik and Harriet Hanley, were helpful, as were former OSS agent Rene Defourneaux, Peter J. K. Hendrikx, Denver Fugate, Christine Sample, Elizabeth Rettig, and Betty McIntosh, also a former OSS agent.

At the National Archives, John Taylor, Lawrence H. McDonald, Will Mahoney, David VanTessel and David J. Mengel aided. Helping with the CIC and military intelligence research were former CIC agent Duval Edwards, Conrad “Mac” McCormick, and Col. John H. Roush, Jr. (Ret.). At the Library of Congress, Historical Specialist Daun van Ee provided documents and at Ft. Knox’s
Patton museum, Director Frank Jardim took photos I needed. Curator Charles Lemons and librarian Candace Fuller also contributed.

Others worthy of special mention were Dr. Ferdie Pacheco, the famous “fight doctor,” novelist Fredrick Nolan, Schluchtern (Germany) resident Christa Krucker, Gloria Pagliaro, Matt Logan, Toni Wolf, and Marie-Pierre Bazata who was always helpful whenever I asked.

In addition, I wish to thank the following (in alphabetical order): Jim Adams, Thomas Allen, Jeff Bagwell, Rich Baker, Sam Baker, Tom H. Black, Nancy Campbell, Susan M. Catlett, Prof. Stephen Cohen, Lev E. Dobriansky, Bill Dial, Jeff Flannery, Jeff Fletcher, Bill Foley, Bonnie Gillis, Catharine Giordano, James Graff, Mitch Hamilburg, John Haynes, Ronald Janeczko, David Keough, Steven Kippax, Prof. Harvey Klehr, Beth Knobel, David Krall, Heidrun Kruce-Krebs, Myron Kuropus, Dr. Gerald Looney, Lt. Col. Tom Lynch, Anita MacFarlane, Edwin R. Motch III, Tom W. O’Connell, Ron Pantello, Clark Perks, Charles M. “Mike” Province, Charles Pinck, Sammy Popat, Pierre Rinfret, Andrei Robotnov, Val Ruffo, Alan F. Rumrill, David Russi, Jonathan Sanders, Duane Schulte, John D. Shank, Richard Sommers, Jenifer Stepp, Taras Szmagala, Gary A. Trogdon, Steve Uanna, Cyd Upson, Eric Voelz, Jules Wallerstein, David Woll, Joseph Robert White, Ernie Wolf, and Jim Zobel.

Sources used but not explicitly cited. For a complete list of sources (including a list of those interviewed), go to
www.targetpatton.com

 

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—————,
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