Vintage Pulp | Jul 10 2009 |
Here’s a beautiful True Detective from November 1965, with an exposé on Guenther Podola. In July of 1959 while living in London, Podola stole a cache of jewelry and the police got on his trail. When they caught up to him in Kensington he fatally shot an officer in the heart. He tried to claim at his trial that he had amnesia about the event because the cops had beaten him, but a jury convicted him of murder after a rather expeditious thirty-eight minutes of deliberation—thirty of which we suspect were spent eating the free lunch. So Podola was sentenced to death and executed at Wandsworth Prison, becoming the last man hanged for murder in England. If you get a sense of déjà vu come Monday morning, that's because you’re reading our new history rewind feature, and you’ll have come upon an item about Ruth Ellis, who on July 13, 1955 became the last woman hanged for murder in England. So today we’ve presented you with the first half of a rather gaudy matched pair. Keep reading the history rewind for the second, and keep your eye out for other additions coming to Pulp Intl.