Contrasting Strategies within the War Crimes Trials of Kesselring and Wolff

This article compares the different ways in which, during the post-war decades, the Allied war crimes trials programme responded to the war criminality of two prominent German officials: Field Marshal Albert Kesselring and SS General Karl Wolff. It explores the question of why Wolff, whose complicity was arguably much greater than that of Kesselring, received more favourable treatment, and the role of various political and geo-political factors, including those influencing the interventions of US intelligence officials, as explanations for this apparent legal discrepancy. Dr. Kerstin von Lingen is a researcher at the Centre for Studies on Experiences in War (SFB 437 “Kriegserfahrungen”) at Tubingen University, Germany; Dr. Michael Salter is Professor of Law at The Law School, University of Central Lancashire, United Kingdom.     

The death of Kaspar Hauser (17 Dec 1833)--assassination, suicide or self-inflicted injury?

The death of Kaspar Hauser is described taking present medicolegal and criminological knowledge into account, the main question being whether the injury was self-inflicted, homicidal or suicidal. In spite of a critical retrospective analysis this question cannot be answered with sufficient certainty even from our modern perspective. It seems unlikely that the stab to the chest was inflicted exclusively for the purpose of self-damage, but both a suicidal stab and a homicidal act (assassination) cannot be definitely ruled out.