The Missing Cancer Patient

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Arrested by British forces in 1945, Kappler was turned over to Italian authorities in 1947 and the following year was tried by a military court and sentenced to life imprisonment. Last year he was transferred from prison to the hospital in Rome for treatment of terminal intestinal cancer. Since then, his wife, a nurse who had carried on a lengthy correspondence with Kappler before marrying him in a prison wedding in 1972, had become a frequent and familiar visitor. Because of Kappler's deteriorating condition, she had been allowed almost unlimited access to him, often acting as his private nurse.

In the actual escape, she apparently had some help: when the Fiat broke down near Trento, 370 miles north of Rome, two men sought to have it repaired. The Kapplers are believed to have transferred to another vehicle and driven the rest of the way to West Germany. At week's end the couple were in hiding under tight West German security guard.

The Italian government requested Kappler's extradition, but Bonn indicated that it would turn down the request. The West German constitution prohibits turning a German citizen over for foreign prosecution, and the Justice Ministry said that this applied even though Kappler was a war criminal. Nor was there much chance that Germany itself would prosecute Kappler. Despite a vigorous re-examination of the Nazi era in books and film (see following story), German opinion has favored his release because of his illness; the government itself requested clemency last year for the same reason.

Meanwhile, Romans took up a new parlor game ("All right, you get in the suitcase, and let's see how far I can carry you"). But the carabinieri were not amused: four top officers were summarily bumped from their posts, and two guards were arrested for breach of orders.