John K. Lattimer (1914–2007), long time Englewood resident, was an American urologist whose career spanned medicine, military service, forensic investigation, and historical research, often courting controversy. During World War II, he served as a U.S. Army physician and was present in Europe at the war’s end, where he gained direct access to defeated Nazi officials and sites. In the postwar period, Lattimer became known not only for his medical career but also for his involvement with materials and figures associated with the Third Reich.

While stationed in Germany, Lattimer examined high-ranking Nazi prisoners, including individuals held at Nuremberg, and later acquired a significant collection of artifacts connected to Nazi leadership, including personal items belonging to Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring. He published medical and forensic analyses related to Nazi figures, most notably arguing that Hitler suffered from serious medical conditions and asserting controversial claims about the dictator’s death. These activities placed Lattimer among a small group of American physicians who engaged directly with the physical and documentary remnants of the Nazi regime.

Professionally, Lattimer was a longtime professor of urology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and a practicing surgeon with a reputation for technical expertise. He later became a public figure through his forensic work on political violence, including his examinations related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. His conclusions, particularly those supporting the official account of the assassination, generated sustained debate and criticism.

Lattimer’s legacy remains complicated. Admirers point to his medical accomplishments and unusual breadth of interests, while critics emphasize his close engagement with Nazi artifacts and prisoners and question the ethical and interpretive boundaries of his historical work. Taken together, his career reflects the uneasy intersection of medicine, power, and twentieth-century political violence.

Hevesi, Dennis. “John K. Lattimer, Urologist of Varied Expertise, Dies at 92.” The New York Times, 13 May 2007.