The Caretaker's Bible

Book excerpt: 1972. While vacationing reporter Brian Allen Bennett visits a charming villa in Tuscany, Italy, he receives a gift from the mysterious caretaker-a Bible that contains two cryptic documents: a birth certificate dated April 20, 1889, and a letter from a monk verifying the discovery of a baby on the monastery doorstep that same day. Professional analysis of writing throughout the Bible proves that the handwriting is that of Adolf Hitler. Bennett begins to investigate and learns that the sickly infant abandoned by its father was the twin brother of Adolf Hitler. Even more astoundingly, he grew up to be a monk. Bennett then spends the next six months searching for more clues to Hitler’s brother’s past while being relentlessly pursued by the infamous pro-Nazi group, Friends of the Third Reich. With the caretaker’s help, Bennett eventually uncovers an incredible story of deception and intrigue swirling around the greatest secret of the twentieth century. It all begins with Heinrich Glossen, the man who holds the key to the twins’ past, at Hagenmünster Monastery, Austria, in 1939.