He carefully catalogued every photograph and document and made detailed notes when he watched the short films, which he insisted on viewing three times each. Finally, he rested the pen on the table and laboriously fitted the top back into place. You could cut the tension with a knife.

Amanda broke the silence. “Sir Keith, to a layperson like me, these materials feel authentic but we all remember the scandal over the Hitler Diaries. What’s your first impression?”

The famed historian adjusted his pince-nez and took a sip of water before replying. “My dear, I knew as soon as I saw Martin Bormann’s personal case that everything inside would no doubt be genuine. I’ve seen it before in at least three other photographs featuring Bormann, taken between 1942 and 1945. It seems clear to me that historians have been hoodwinked for almost seventy years.”

During the next couple of hours, the meeting of six organically morphed into two smaller groups. Botting and Robinson probed Taylor on the legal validity of his opinion. They required a list of solid facts that would prove, beyond doubt, that the materials were genuine. Carter, Vargas and Hembury discussed the best possible way to break the story to the American people and the wider world. They worked on selecting the key points that proved the direct bloodline between Hitler and John Franklin. As the evening progressed, the two groups merged back into one and they began to discuss timings and strategy. The BBC was one of the oldest and most respected news agencies in the world and, as the managing editor of its World News operation, Botting felt a huge weight of responsibility as he contemplated breaking the biggest story in its long and illustrious history. Although he was racked with doubt, the evidence he had seen was overwhelming, and then there was the personal experience of the two detectives, who had confronted Richard Franklin with their revelations, resulting in his suicide.

Robinson pointed out that, legally, they should stay clear of the multiple murders in Argentina and just focus on the materials that were discovered in Box 1321. In addition, the phone footage with Eva Braun couldn’t be transmitted, as it was obtained without her consent. Also, he wasn’t convinced the video was sufficient proof of her true identity. The story he felt that could legally be told, based on the materials in their possession, had four main strands. Firstly, documented proof that Hitler, Braun and Bormann faked their deaths and escaped Germany at the end of the war to begin a new life in South America. Secondly, clear evidence they created fake identities under the alias of Franklin. Thirdly, a clear paper trail that proved, beyond doubt, that the Franklin Pharmaceutical Corporation was founded by Bormann using illicit Nazi funds. Finally, the extraordinary truth that the man who was the favourite to become the next president of the United States was, in actual fact, Adolf Hitler’s grandson.