Killing Patton
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| Author | Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard |
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| Subject | Death of General George Patton |
| Publisher | Henry Holt and Co. |
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Publication date
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September 23, 2014 |
| Media type | Hardcover |
| Pages | 368 |
| ISBN | |
Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General is a book written by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard about the final year of World War II and the death of General George Patton, specifically whether it was an accident or an assassination. The book is the followup to Killing Kennedy, Killing Lincoln, and Killing Jesus and was published in September 2014 through Henry Holt and Company.
O’Reilly suggests that Patton was poisoned while recovering from the automobile accident he endured on December 8, 1945, on the orders of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, ostensibly to prevent him from warning the United States about the imminent danger of the Soviet Union. “I think Stalin killed him,” O’Reilly told George Stephanopoulos on the ABC news program This Week. However, many historians have pointed out that O'Reilly and Dugard presented no hard evidence that foul play was involved. They have also speculated that the assassination idea was inspired by the fictional 1978 movie Brass Target.
Media Matters for America reported that several historians found O’Reilly’s theory highly implausible. Rick Atkinson, a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, told the progressive news organization that Patton died of complications following “a fender bender." “You've got to look at what Patton's situation was,” said Carlo D’Este, the author of Patton: A Genius for War. “He was a quadriplegic, he was going to die anyway, he was totally immobilized, he couldn't move. What is the point of assassinating him and where did Stalin come from anyway? Sure, somebody could have snuck in the hospital, but why would you bother? You need to verify facts. That certainly raises a red flag with me.”
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Wikipedia