Herbert Reiner Jr.

Herbert Thomas "Tom" Reiner Jr. (September 21, 1916 – December 28, 1999) was an American career diplomat who, while on a posting in India from 1947 to 1949, played a key role in capturing Mahatma Gandhi's assassin, Nathuram Godse.

Moments after the shooting, while the attending crowd was still in shock, Reiner rushed forward, grasping Godse by the shoulders and firmly holding him until military and police personnel took him away.

[7] The rioting had come in the wake of the partition of the British Indian empire, which had accompanied the creation of the newly independent dominions of India and Pakistan, and involved large, chaotic, transfers of the population between them.

[9] On January 30, 1948, Reiner reached Birla House after work, arriving fifteen minutes before the scheduled start of the prayer meeting at 5 p.m., and finding himself in a relatively small crowd.

[9] Although there were some armed guards present, Reiner felt that the security measures were inadequate, especially in view of an attempted bomb explosion at the same location ten days before.

[9] By the time Gandhi and his small party reached the garden area a few minutes after five, the crowd had swelled to several hundred, which Reiner described as comprising "schoolboys, girls, sweepers, members of the armed services, businessmen, sadhus, holymen, and even vendors displaying pictures of 'Bapu'".

[9] As Gandhi was walking briskly up the steps leading to the lawn, an unidentified man in the crowd spoke up, somewhat insolently in Reiner's recollection, "Gandhiji, you are late".

Only then did the crowd begin to grasp what had happened and a forest of fists belabored the assassin ..."[13] Reiner too had noticed a man in khaki step into the path leading to the dais, but his further view was occluded by a party of associates following Gandhi.

... Moving toward Godse I extended my right arm in an attempt to seize his gun but in doing so grasped his right shoulder in a manner that spun him into the hands of Royal Indian Air Force men, also spectators, who disarmed him.

[16] Reiner left India in June 1949, moving briefly to Hungary, where he served as Assistant Attaché with the American Legation in Budapest, and later the same year to a new diplomatic service appointment in South Korea.