Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter Jr. (1999)

Synopsis: The story of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr., a man whose complete belief in himself as an expert in anything he devoted his time to ended up ruining his professional career. Growing up in the American prison system, where his father was an employee, Leuchter literally stumbled into his first position as... The story of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr., a man whose complete belief in himself as an expert in anything he devoted his time to ended up ruining his professional career. Growing up in the American prison system, where his father was an employee, Leuchter literally stumbled into his first position as the individual who perfected the electric chair, making capital punishment run more smoothly for the officials, as well as victims. This improvement convinced other prisons that he could make the same adjustments to their chosen outlets: lethal injections, gas chambers, and gallows. Soon, Leuchter was the country's predominant expert on the maintaining and designing of execution equipment. The trial of one Ernst Zundel would change all of this, however. Charged in Canada with the publishing of historical lies in the form of a pamphlet which firmly refuted the reality of the Holocaust and proposed that the gas chambers at Auschwitz were an invention by Jewish sympathizers, Zundel needed the support of an expert who could prove that this was, in fact, the case. Enter Leuchter, who traveled to Poland (on his honeymoon!) and collected samples from various sites to prove, for himself, whether or not these chambers existed. His results, which appeared to everyone except the revisionists and himself as being utterly ridiculous and inaccurate, ruined his marriage, personal life, and career in the penal system. All of this due to his stubborn belief that everything he did was perfect and unflinching. A truly sad story. [More]