20. End of the Road for a Triple Traitor
As Allied armies neared Paris in 1944, Harold Cole fled in a Gestapo uniform. In June, 1945, he turned up in southern Germany, claiming to be a British undercover agent, and offered his services to the American occupation forces. Triple crossing, he turned against the Nazis, hunting and flushing them out of hiding, and murdering at least one of them.
The British discovered Cole’s whereabouts and arrested him, but he escaped the prison where he was awaiting court-martial and headed to France. French police received a tip-off that he was hiding in a central Paris apartment, and on January 8th, 1946, they crept up a staircase to seize him. Their heavy tread gave them away. however, and he met them at the doorway, pistol in hand. In the ensuing shootout, Cole was struck multiple time, and bled to death.