Ernst Roehm was one of Hitler's best friends--they fought side by side in the streets in the early days of the Nazi party. When Hitler became the most powerful man in Germany, he appointed Roehm head of the Brown Shirts, the Nazi storm troopers. But in July 1934, Hitler gave the order to have his best friend killed.
He was shot dead in a small cell in a Munich prison during the infamous "Night of the Long Knives". Was Roehm too powerful? Had his homosexuality become a liability to Hitler's image?