Crime and Punishment – part II
In March of 1979, just months after Dirk’s death, Dr. Hamer had surgery for testicular cancer and subsequently also developed a severe peritoneal infection with purulent ascites. He was gravely ill and his chance of recovery was very slim. He had been given a 1% chance of surviving his cancer.
While he was still in hospital and seriously ill, Dr. Hamer was visited by someone who represented the crown prince and was warned that if he continued to try to hold the prince responsible for the death of his son he would suffer severe repercussions.
He and his family were threatened with expulsion from Rome where he had a thriving medical practice with his wife. His visitor said that if he persisted, they would ruin his reputation, destroy him financially and if he remained “stubborn” in holding the prince accountable, that he would likely die in a traffic accident.
Everything he was threatened with came to pass including 12 attempts on his life, several of which involved poisoning. When Dr. Hamer and I spoke about these events he said “Ilsedora, I don’t know why I am still alive!”
Not long after Dr. Hamer recovered from his cancer, he realized that he was being followed everywhere he went. As it turned out, Interpol was following him under orders from “higher up” as the result of allegations coming from the prince.
One day when Dr. Hamer’s landlord came to him and said the police were enquiring about him he decided to go to the police station and ask why they were looking for him. He finally spoke with a police officer who, when Dr. Hamer confronted him as to why they were harassing him, admitted that it was because the prince was “offended”!
Everywhere he went, he was addressed by name, by either the police or Interpol, and then questioned as to where he was going, where he would be staying and where he had just been. This harassment from Interpol continued for 8 years.
Dr. Hamer was blocked everywhere he turned. He owned several medical patents on surgical instruments that he invented which were generating an income for the family to the point where he and his wife decided to open a free clinic in Rome. They both saw the need for good medical care for people that were unable to afford it. The licensing for all of his patents was blocked from all directions.
This block also spilled over to the review of his thesis at the University of Tuebingen where the legal representative for the prince, who also became a legal representative for the university, informed Dr. Hamer that his thesis would never be reviewed.
Then there was the revoking of Dr. Hamer’s license to practice medicine, even though there had never been any allegations of malpractice or medical misconduct. All doors to his discovery were closed, and now with the loss of his license, it was used against him.
Everything Dr. Hamer was threatened with came to pass.
However, there seems to be some justice in the world, because the prince and his son were arrested in 2011 and charged with racketeering, money laundering and prostitution. This exposed the prince for the kind of man he really was and while in jail, he was videotaped bragging to his cell mates that he was responsible for the death of German teenager more than 30 years earlier and that he got away with it.
This was big news in Europe and it was suggested to Dr. Hamer that he now had the evidence to sue the prince for the wrongful death of his son. However Dr. Hamer declared that he did not want “blood money” from the prince even though he finally admitted guilt.
Initially the proceedings against the crown prince took place over a period of 13 years. He was found guilty but immediately appealed the decision. The second trial also found him to be guilty and he appealed yet again, but by the third trial, all the necessary evidence to convict him had conveniently disappeared!
For 33 years, the prince maintained his innocence and claimed that he did not fire the bullet that mortally wounded Dirk Hamer. Little did he know he was being videotaped when he finally ended up in jail in 2011.
More recently, when Dr. Hamer died, within a couple of weeks of his passing, the prince tried to have the accusations against him removed from the public record including the internet. Thankfully his request was refused because of his admission of guilt that was caught on tape.
It seems the person responsible for the death of Dirk never actually paid for the crime, however Dr. Hamer paid dearly and was punished because he wanted the prince to be held accountable.
I can only imagine what would have happened in medicine if the University of Tuebingen would have admitted to verifying his work behind closed doors….but then that is a topic for another blog.