In 1946, Hermann Goering, one of the most powerful figures in Nazi Germany, was sentenced to death by hanging at the Allied court in Nuremberg. Preparations were made for his execution the next day, but in a final act of defiance, Goering cheated the hangman by deciding his own fate. His suicide shocked the Allies. But it also posed a question, how did he manage to get hold of a cyanide capsule in a heavily guarded maximum-security prison? Had he carried it with him the whole time, concealing it from the extensive and thorough checks carried out by the prison guards? Or had he received help from the very people who were supposed to be guarding him?