In the 1940s and 50s, Philippe Halsman (1906–1979) established himself as one of America’s leading photographers, known for his fashion shoots as well as for his portraits of Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Winston Churchill, Salvador Dali, and numerous other public figures. But in 1928, while vacationing in the Alps with his parents and younger sister, he and his father took a fateful hike in the Austrian region of Tyrol. His father fell to his death; Philippe ran to get help and soon found himself accused of murder. Karen Haber describes the incident:

In 1928, the Tyrol region of Austria was fertile ground for Nazi ideology, and anti-Semitism was rampant. Although the number of Jews in the region had been minuscule since the Middle Ages, hair-raising tales of Jewish blood rituals were part of the local folklore.

On his way [back to the nearest city, after sending a local shepherd to get help], Philippe encountered a rescue team and returned with them to the scene, not knowing the doctor leading the team was a known anti-Semite. When they arrived there, the owner of the nearby inn, who also reached the location, immediately theorized that the son had murdered the father, and despite Philippe’s insistent denials, the doctor believed the story. They then decided to escort Philippe to a nearby town. A German police officer who was nearby volunteered to search the young man; his clothes contained no blood stains, there were no signs of a struggle, and no money was found on his person.

The local media were quick to plant the idea of the murder in the minds of the locals, and even before the trial began, the press had concluded that the son murdered his father in cold blood with repeated blows to his head. The police themselves only began to question witnesses two weeks after the murder, after all the locals were already convinced Philippe was guilty.

The fact that Philippe was aided by one of the best lawyers in Vienna, Richard Pressburger, only worked against him. The locals didn’t care for the liberal atmosphere of the Austrian capital, and the defense attorney’s Jewishness didn’t help, either.

While Halsman’s lawyers were able to obtain a retrial, the case became national news and, in Haber’s words, “a battleground between liberal Vienna, which increasingly supported the defendant, and the conservative periphery.” Halsman was eventually convicted, but his release was secured a year later.

Yesterday, the Iranian foreign minister flew to Geneva to meet with European diplomats. President Trump, meanwhile, indicated that cease-fire negotiations might soon begin with Iran, which would presumably involve Tehran agreeing to make concessions regarding its nuclear program, while Washington pressures Israel to halt its military activities. According to Israeli media, Iran already began putting out feelers to the U.S. earlier this week. Aviram Bellaishe considers the purpose of these overtures:

The regime’s request to return to negotiations stems from the principle of deception and delay that has guided it for decades. Iran wants to extricate itself from a situation of total destruction of its nuclear facilities. It understands that to save the nuclear program, it must stop at a point that would allow it to return to it in the shortest possible time. So long as the negotiation process leads to halting strikes on its military capabilities and preventing the destruction of the nuclear program, and enables the transfer of enriched uranium to a safe location, it can simultaneously create the two tracks in which it specializes—a false facade of negotiations alongside a hidden nuclear race.