The atmosphere of the autopsy room housing the victims of the Munich Massacre was a somber one. Silent, even, according to those who were present as the doctors did their work, aware that the Israeli victims were to be their top priority. This was because the Israeli government had sent a request to Munich, asking that they be brought home as quickly as possible, hastening the autopsy process.
The official autopsy report, at least as it was shown to the public at the time, revealed that most of the Israeli delegation was killed by gunshot wounds. Moshe Weinberg and Yossef Romano were both shot and killed at the Olympic Village, and eight of the other nine (Zeev Friedman, Yakov Springer, Eliezer Halfin, Yossef Gutfreund, Kehat Shorr, Mark Slavin, Andrew Spitzer, and Amitzur Shapira) died of gunshot wounds sustained while trapped in the helicopters that took them to the airfield. The last hostage, American-born David Berger, also suffered gunshot wounds but died of smoke inhalation — a result of a grenade thrown into one of the helicopters by the terrorists.
However, the full autopsy was considerably more detailed than the official publically released version. The report noted that Friedman’s watch was still working at the time of the autopsy, and Halfin had died with tins of mints stashed in both of his pant pockets. Their clothes were even noted down, with mentions of Gutfreund’s jacket being the kind used by Olympic judges.
