Editing Jan Masaryk (section)

== Death ==
[[File:Hrob TGM v Lánech - 2.jpg|thumb|Grave of the Masaryk family in [[Lány (Kladno District)|Lány]] cemetery]]
[[Image:Jan Masaryk deska.jpg|thumb|left|Memorial plaque with Masaryk's quote "Pravda vítězí, ale dá to fušku" (The truth prevails, but it's a chore). It is a reference to the [[Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovak]] national motto ''Pravda vítězí'' ([[Truth prevails]]).]]
[[Image:Laurence Steinhardt a Jan Masaryk.jpg|thumb|Jan Masaryk with [[Laurence Steinhardt]], the United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia.]]
On 10 March 1948 Masaryk was found dead, dressed only in his pajamas, in the courtyard of the Foreign Ministry (the [[Černín Palace]] in Prague) below his bathroom window.<ref name="Axelrod, Alan 2009 p. 133">Axelrod, Alan (2009) ''The Real History of the Cold War: A New Look at the Past,'' p. 133 New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.</ref> 

Jan Masaryk's remains were buried next to his parents in a plot at Lány cemetery, where in 1994 also the ashes of his sister [[Alice Masaryková]] were laid to rest.

The Ministry of the Interior claimed that he had committed suicide by jumping out of the window, but at the time, it was  widely assumed that he was murdered at the behest of the nascent Communist government.<ref name="Cook, Bernard A. 2001 p. 251"/><ref name="Axelrod, Alan 2009 p. 133"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.radio.cz/en/article/24973|title=Jan Masaryk died 54 years ago|last=Horáková|first=Pavla|publisher=Radio Prague|date=11 March 2002|access-date=4 April 2009}}</ref> On the other hand, many of his close associates (e.g. his secretary [[Antonín Sum]], his press assistant [[Josef Josten]], his sister Olga or [[Avigdor Dagan|Viktor Fischl]]) have always defended the suicide story.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mitchell |first=Ruth Crawford |title=Alice Garrigue Masaryk, 1879-1966 |publisher=University Center for international Studies, University of Pittsburgh |year=1960 |location=Pittsburgh, USA |pages=207 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Josten |first=Josef |title=Oh, My Country |publisher=Latimer House |year=1949 |edition=1st |location=London |pages=153–177 |language=en}}</ref>

In a second investigation taken in 1968 during the [[Prague Spring]], Masaryk's death was ruled an accident, not excluding a murder<ref>{{cite magazine| url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,942192-1,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104100132/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,942192-1,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=November 4, 2012 | magazine=Time | title=Books: Murder Will Out | date=January 12, 1970 | access-date=May 5, 2010}}</ref> and a third investigation in the early 1990s after the [[Velvet Revolution]] concluded that it had been a murder.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

In his 1980 autobiography ''History and Memory'', US Ambassador [[Charles W. Yost]], a friend of Masaryk who worked with him in Prague in 1947, and also a friend of Masaryk's fiancée Marcia Davenport, wrote, "The Communists used him and, when his usefulness was past, flung him out of a window to his death."<ref>Charles W. Yost, ''History and Memory'', W.W. Norton, 1980, p. 225.</ref>

Discussions about the mysterious circumstances of his death continued for some time.<ref name="Axelrod, Alan 2009 p. 133"/> Those who believe that Masaryk was murdered called it the [[Defenestrations of Prague#Further defenestrations|Third (or Fourth) Defenestration of Prague]], and point to the presence of nail marks on the window sill from which Masaryk fell, as well as smearings of feces and Masaryk's stated intention to leave Prague the next day for London. Members of Masaryk's family—including his former wife, Frances Crane Leatherbee, a former in-law named Sylvia E. Crane, and his sister [[Alice Masaryková]] — stated their belief that he had indeed killed himself, according to a letter written by Sylvia E. Crane to ''The New York Times'', and considered the possibility of murder a "cold war cliché".<ref>Crane, John O. & Sylvia E. (1991) ''Czechoslovakia: Anvil of the Cold War,'' pp. xiv, 321-323 New York: Praeger</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/28/opinion/l-east-europe-could-shed-light-on-trotsky-and-some-americans-masaryk-a-suicide-060390.html?scp=1&sq=%27%27Masaryk%20a%20Suicide%27%27%20%20Sylvia%20E.%20Crane&st=cse | work=The New York Times | title=East Europe Could Shed Light on Trotsky and Some Americans; Masaryk a Suicide | date=January 28, 1990 | access-date=May 5, 2010}}</ref> However, a Prague police report in 2004 concluded after forensic research that Masaryk had indeed been thrown out of the window to his death.<ref>Cameron, Rob, [http://www.radio.cz/en/article/49113 "Police close case on 1948 death of Jan Masaryk - murder, not suicide"], Radio Prague, 06-01-2004.</ref> This report was seemingly corroborated in 2006 when a Russian journalist claimed that his mother knew the Russian intelligence officer who threw Masaryk out of the window of the west bathroom of Masaryk's flat.<ref>{{Cite book |last=August |first=Frantisek |title=Red Star Over Prague |publisher=Sherwood Press |year=1984 |isbn=0-907671-09-8 |edition=1st |location=London |pages=31–33 |language=en}}</ref><ref>Cameron, Rob, [http://www.radio.cz/en/article/86404 "Masaryk murder mystery back in headlines as Russian journalist speaks out"], Radio Prague, 18-12-2006.</ref>

The highest-ranking Soviet Bloc intelligence defector, Lt. Gen. [[Ion Mihai Pacepa]], claimed he had a conversation with [[Nicolae Ceauşescu]], who told him about "ten international leaders the Kremlin killed or tried to kill". Jan Masaryk was one of them.<ref name="Pacepa0">[http://www.nationalreview.com/article/219342/kremlins-killing-ways-ion-mihai-pacepa The Kremlin’s Killing Ways], at ''National Review Online'', by Ion Mihai Pacepa; published November 28, 2006; retrieved October 15, 2015</ref>

Czech historian Václava Jandečková has tentatively suggested in her 2015 monograph "Kauza Jan Masaryk: Nový pohled"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bux.cz/biografie-zivotopisy-osudy/kauza-jan-masaryk-novy-pohled-doznani-k-vrazde-a-tajny-presetrovaci-proces-stb-z-let-1950-1951-1|title=Kauza Jan Masaryk (nový pohled) - Doznání k vraždě a tajný přešetřovací proces StB z let 1950–1951 |website=www.bux.cz|language=cs|access-date=2017-05-17}}</ref> (The Jan Masaryk Case: A New Perspective) that Masaryk might have been murdered by Jan Bydžovský and František Fryč, who believed they were working for the British intelligence service [[Secret Intelligence Service|SIS]], but most probably fell victim to [[NKVD]] agents. Bydžovský confessed to murdering Masaryk when interrogated in prison by the Czech secret police [[StB]] in the 1950s (in an unrelated case); but later denied it. Jandečková argues that this confession cannot be so easily dismissed as has been believed, especially since Bydžovský certainly was not hallucinating or drugged, and the interrogators seem to have been surprised by his confession (at his trial, the Masaryk murder was not "used" or even mentioned, although a separate re-investigation by the StB continued for more than a year).{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

A new investigation that opened in 2019 included a new expert opinion regarding the mechanics of the fall, and an old tape by the policeman who was among the first at the crime scene, testifying the body had been already moved when he arrived. The investigation closed in 2021, with murder, accident or suicide all possible.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.novinky.cz/domaci/clanek/smrt-jana-masaryka-kriminaliste-v-dalsim-vysetrovani-neobjasnili-40353297|title = SMRT Jana Masaryka kriminalisté v dalším vyšetřování neobjasnili - Novinky.cz| date=8 March 2021 }}</ref>

According to Czech press newly released archival documents from Britain, France, and the United States have prompted Czech authorities to reopen the investigation into the 1948 death of Jan Masaryk, Czechoslovakia's former foreign minister. The recent discoveries, of about150 pages of diplomatic dispatches, reports, and analyses, suggest inconsistencies in the original narrative. Notably, one document indicates that on the evening before his death, Masaryk's valet, Bohumil Příhoda, served coffee to three unidentified men, contradicting prior statements that no visitors were present. During this encounter, Masaryk was reportedly heard exclaiming, "I will do everything for you, but I will never sign this—only over my dead body."  These revelations have led the Czech Police's Office for Documentation and Investigation of Crimes of Communism to reopen the case in January 2025, aiming to reassess the circumstances surrounding Masaryk's death.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-03-11 |title=British, French, and US archives help reopen Jan Masaryk’s death investigation |url=https://english.radio.cz/british-french-and-us-archives-help-reopen-jan-masaryks-death-investigation-8845184 |access-date=2025-03-16 |website=Radio Prague International |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-03-10 |title=Police shelve investigation into mysterious death of Jan Masaryk |url=https://english.radio.cz/police-shelve-investigation-mysterious-death-jan-masaryk-8711639 |access-date=2025-03-16 |website=Radio Prague International |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-01-29 |title=Was Jan Masaryk murdered after all? New American, British and French documents reopen investigation |url=https://english.radio.cz/was-jan-masaryk-murdered-after-all-new-american-british-and-french-documents-8841371 |access-date=2025-03-16 |website=Radio Prague International |language=en}}</ref>