Renowned Psychiatrist Francis Braceland Dies

Dr. Francis J. Braceland, an internationally known psychiatrist whose testimony at the Nuremberg trials helped spare the life of Nazi leader Rudolph Hess, is dead at age 84.

Braceland, former psychiatrist-in-chief at Hartford’s Institute of Living, died Saturday of heart disease in Sarasota, Fla.

He was a special witness at the Nuremberg trials after World War II, in which Nazi leaders were tried for war crimes. His testimony in 1946 helped to spare the life of Hess, Adolf Hitler’s deputy in the Nazi Party.

Braceland testified that Hess was not faking insanity, and the Nazi leader was later imprisoned for conspiracy to commit crimes and crimes against peace. Hess remains imprisoned in West Berlin at the age of 90.

Examined Roosevelt

Braceland’s career included medical examinations of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt; he was among the physicians in Washington who kept a close watch on Roosevelt’s health. Under Braceland’s leadership, the Hartford institute became the largest private psychiatric hospital in the country.

He was asked to set up the department of psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and brought to the staff Benjamin Spock, the noted expert on child care.

Braceland was president of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in 1952, of the American Psychiatric Assn. in 1956 and 1957 and of the World Psychiatric Assn. from 1961 to 1966.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete. Burial is planned in Arlington National Cemetery.