New York man who found Hitler's top hat dies at 88

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The New York man whose story of finding Adolf Hitler's top hat at the end of World War II was told in a 2003 documentary film has died. Richard Marowitz was 88.

His son, Larry, tells The Associated Press on Friday that Marowitz died Wednesday at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Albany, New York. The son says his father had battled cancer and dementia.

Marowitz was a 19-year-old Army scout on April 30, 1945, when he found a black silk top hat with the initials "A.H." on the lining while searching Hitler's apartment in Munich.

He told the AP in 2001 that he threw the hat on the floor and stomped it flat.

Marowitz, who was Jewish, kept the hat and brought it along when he gave talks about the war and the Holocaust.