History Channel - Dead Mens Secrets Set 1 (2002) Part 12 America and the Mob Wartime Friends - Who Set Fire to the Normandie?

Dead men don't tell tales - or do they? Are there forensic clues left in the sands of time? Are there traces of archive film which even today are waiting to unveil their grisly secret? Not all the captivating and fascinating stories of military escapades in the 20th Century have been fully examined and many fascinating insights are still to be revealed and told. These have been known until now as DEADMEN'S SECRETS. What was the true story behind the tragic death of John F Kennedy's older and better looking brother? Was this the man who Joe Kennedy Sr. was really grooming for President? Could his death have been avoided? How was it possible for an American President to order the death in mid-air of the man who executed the raid on Pearl Harbor? Who tampered with the flying controls of General Sikorski's plane? And which secret frogman was first on the scene when the plane crashed into the sea? Why did Hitler murder his right-hand man and why did the bomb plot to kill Hitler fail? How did the Allies execute a daring plot to kill Hitler's chosen successor and who set fire to the 'Normandie' before she could set sail from New York with 6,000 American troops on board? Who really was 'The Man Who Never Was'? This and many other fascinating questions are answered in this new pivotal series entitled DEADMEN'S SECRETS. With newly discovered archive film and new state of the art 3D computer graphics the series sets out to answer some of the most baffling questions and war mysteries of the 20th Century. What was the truth about Rudolf Hess and whatever happened to Raoul Wallenberg? What did the Oslo Report reveal and who wrote it? And how close was Hitler to developing the atomic bomb at the end of World War II? Some of the answers are both frightening and unexpected. With the release of new Government information on both sides of the Atlantic it is now possible to painstakingly reconstruct some of the most famous mysteries of recent military history. DEADMEN'S SECRETS is the first serious attempt this Century to lay some of the last Century's most puzzling ghosts to rest.

Part 12 America and the Mob Wartime Friends - Who Set Fire to the Normandie?

1942. Fire blazed on the Normandie, a magnificent luxury ocean liner anchored in New York Harbour. She had just been renamed USS Lafayette and converted to a troop carrier, ready to take 10,000 American troops to Britain. Nazi sabotage was supected, but the official story was negligence. The government had to take steps to prevent such setbacks in the future. For decades rumours have persisted that one of the precautionary measures they took was to “hire” the Mafia to make sure no additional “accidents” happened. Of course, that looks suspiciously like a famously successful Mafia business model and there are some who believe that the Normandie fire was actually a shakedown. In fact, decades later Mafia chieftain Lucky Luciano claimed his organisation had burnt the Normandie, and in the aftermath had made a deal with the US government to protect the dock from further Nazi sabotage. Could this really be true? Did the government enlist help from the least likely of sources - and under duress - from an underground enemy? With testimony from military scholars, Mafia experts and anonymous eyewitness to the Normandie fire, DEAD MEN'S SECRETS explores one of the most intriguing myths of America during WWII.

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