A longstanding conspiracy theory centered around the fate of notorious Nazi official Rudolf Hess has been debunked via a DNA test. The high ranking member of the Third Reich, who infamously flew a solo mission to England during World War II in an ill-advised attempt to negotiate a peace treaty, was found guilty of war crimes during the Nuremberg Trials and wound up imprisoned in Germany. He subsequently spent the next four decades behind bars, but not everyone was convinced that the person in prison was really Hess.
Shortly after he arrived in prison, speculation swirled around the possibility that Hess had actually been replaced by a doppelganger. The conspiracy theory was largely fueled by the Nazi's doctor, who raised suspicions over his observation that the prisoner seemed to bear no physical resemblance to Hess as well as the fact that the man refused to speak to any family members for over 20 years. The rumors that Hess may not really be in the Germany prison were apparently considered credible enough that even Franklin D. Roosevelt is said to have believed them.
Fortunately, a new study out of Austria has finally confirmed that justice was indeed served and Hess was not replaced by an imposter. This was reportedly confirmed when scientists compared DNA collected from a 1982 blood sample of the prisoner to that of one of Hess' modern-day male relatives. The results indicated a 99.99% certainty that the prisoner was Hess, leading researchers to declare that the conspiracy theory was "extremely unlikely and therefore disproved."
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