THE RUDOLF REPORT

1. PRELUDEThe method used in American execution gas chambers was introducedin 1924, and has since been improved to technical perfection.The expense to kill just one single person is tremendously high, sinceneither the witnesses, nor the prison personnel or the environment maybe endangered by the poison gas released for such an execution. Reinforced-glasswindows, massive, heavy, hermetically-sealed steeldoors, powerful ventilation systems with a device to burn the evacuatedpoisonous gases, and a chemical treatment of the chamber interiorto neutralize all remaining traces of the poison make this executionmethod the most a cumbersome of all. 8During the last two decades of the 20 th century, the only technicalexpert in the United States able to build and maintain this equipmentwas Frederick A. Leuchter Jr., sometimes referred to in the media as“Mr. Death”, 9 since his profession was the design, construction andmaintenance of various kinds of execution devices. 10A feature article in The Atlantic Monthly (Feb. 1990), for example,factually described Leuchter as“the nation’s only commercial supplier of execution equipment. […]A trained and accomplished engineer, he is versed in all types of executionequipment. He makes lethal-injection machines, gas chambers, andgallows, as well as electrocution systems […]”8910Similarly, a lengthy New York Times article (October 13, 1990),complete with a front-page photo of Leuchter, called him“The nation’s leading adviser on capital punishment.”In his book about “America’s Capital Punishment Industry”, SteselbstassistierteHolocaust-Schwindel”, Vierteljahreshefte für freie Geschichtsforschung, 1(1)(1997), pp. 6ff. (online: www.vho.org/VffG/1997/1/Grieb1.html) (subsequently abbreviated asVffG).Re. the technical proceedings cf.: F. A. Leuchter, The Third Leuchter Report, Samisdat PublishersLtd., Toronto 1989 (online:www.zundelsite.org/english/leuchter/report3/leuchter3.toc.html).Such is the title of a documentary movie directed by Errol Morris about Fred Leuchter, shownat the Sundance Film Festivals in Park City (Utah, USA) in late January 1999: “Mr. Death:The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.” There are actually several versions of this movie,the one offered as a VHS video for retail being massively reworked.The following paragraphs were taken from Mark Weber, “Probing Look at ‘Capital PunishmentIndustry’ Affirms Expertise of Auschwitz Investigator Leuchter”, The Journal of HistoricalReview 17(2) (1998), pp. 34ff. (subsequently abbreviated as JHR); Ger.: “Ein prüfenderBlick in Amerikas ‘Todesstrafen-Industrie’ bestätigt das Leuchter-Gutachten”, VffG, 2(3)(1998), pp. 226ff. (online: www.vho.org/VffG/1998/3/Buecher3.html)13