Ian Punnett welcomed author Peter Levenda, who discussed how his research suggests that Adolf Hitler faked his death and escaped to Indonesia using an underground network of Nazi sympathizers. He detailed a myriad of inconsistencies surrounding the official story that Hitler died in his bunker in April of 1945, including how the German witnesses who claimed to have seen Hitler's dead body in the aftermath of his suicide all had drastically different tales. Additionally, he noted discrepancies surrounding the verification of the body using dental records as well as the incongruous handling of it once it was declared to be Hitler. "The whole scenario is unreal," Levenda said, "Forensically, medically, no matter how you look at it, it could not have happened that way."

Based on his investigation, Levenda put forward the theory that Hitler and Eva Braun actually fled from Germany via an elaborate escape plan that saw Nazi war criminals spirited out of the country by hiding them at monasteries and giving them forged travel documents. He theorized that the couple first went to Argentina, where many other high ranking Nazis had also gone, but that it was too dangerous for Hitler to stay there due to his notoriety. Therefore, Levenda said, the duo then decamped to the Indonesian city of Surabaya, where Nazi sympathy was high, but Hitler was not as well known at the time. Levenda suggested that Hitler and Braun assumed the identities of Austrians Georg Anton and Hella Poch, who had fled to Indonesia as the war was ending.

The Pochs' escape, Levenda observed, was particularly suspicious because they were not wanted by the Allies and Hella abandoned a highly successful career as an anthropologist for a life of anonymity in Indonesia. Having investigated what is known about the Pochs in Indonesia, Levenda was struck by the fact that 'Hella Poch' left the country to go back to Europe the same year that Eva Braun's father became sick and died. Additionally, Levenda shared the story of his trip to Indonesia to visit the grave of Georg Anton Poch, who died in 1970. Despite not sharing the true reason for his visit to the graveyard, Levenda revealed that the man who brought him to the tombstone whispered "Hitler" to him when they arrived at the grave. For related information check out this video of Levenda's visit to Surabaya and this article on the disguises American intelligence agencies thought Hitler may have used if he had escaped.

Titanic Update

In the first hour, author Charles Pellegrino provided an update to his 4/8/12 discussion on the Titanic. Reflecting on the downing of the infamous ship, he explained that the Titanic ran into an "ice field" and that passengers on the sinking vessel, as well as the lifeboats, saw additional icebergs as the crisis unfolded. On how the ship's crew would have handled a death aboard the Titanic, had it not sunk, Pellegrino said the two doctors on the ship would have overseen keeping the body cold during the trans-Atlantic journey, since there was no coffin nor any caskets on the vessel.

Battling Bigfoot

Also in the first hour, actor/comedian Judah Friedlander talked about how to beat up Bigfoot, the plight of ninjas during the economic downturn, and sports scandals of the future. Friedlander, who claimed to have once defeated Bigfoot in battle, contended that the creature can be bested by squeezing its brain, since that "cuts off the powers of the legs," which is critical because "the feet are Bigfoot's most dangerous weapons." That said, he stressed that his methods are only to be used in the rare event that one is attacked by an aggressive Bigfoot.