Guenther Fritz Erwin Podola (8 February 1929 – 5 November 1959, alias Mike Colato) was a German-born petty thief, and the last man to be hanged in the UK for killing a police officer. His trial was notable and controversial because of his defence of

amnesia Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or brain diseases,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be temporarily caused by t ...

and the use of

expert witness An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as ...

es to determine whether his illness was real.

Life

Podola was born in Berlin, Germany. He was a fanatical member of the

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth ( , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth wing of the German Nazi Party. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. From 1936 until 1945, it was th ...

movement. Podola moved to Canada in August 1952. On 1 March 1957 he was sentenced to 10 days' imprisonment following a conviction for

burglary Burglary, also called breaking and entering (B&E) or housebreaking, is a property crime involving the illegal entry into a building or other area without permission, typically with the intention of committing a further criminal offence. Usually ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. Then on 26 March he was sentenced for another 11 counts of theft and burglary and imprisoned for 2 years. On 25 July 1958 Podola was released and deported back to

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

London

Podola moved to London on 21 May 1959. He assumed the alias of ''Mike Colato'' and pretended to be a gangster.Google books - ''Villain's Paradise: A History of Britain's Underworld'', p452
/ref> He broke into the house of an American model,
Verne Schiffmann in Roland Gardens, and stole jewellery and furs worth £2,000. He offered to return her possessions for £500, but she notified the police who attempted to arrest Podola on 12 July 1959 in

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

. Podola shot one of the officers, Detective Sergeant Raymond Purdy, through the heart with a Radom 9mm semi-automatic pistol, after he ran into a house at 105 Onslow Square. He was later apprehended and Podola claimed he was beaten up by the policeRoyal College of Physicians
/ref> and, as a result, lost his memory of events. The police claimed that he was merely hit on the head when they broke down the door to his hotel room.

Trial

The start of the trial was delayed for nine days while a jury heard evidence of whether Podola was medically fit to stand trial. After hours of deliberation, they decided he was. A fresh jury was called to hear the trial itself which commenced on 18 July 1959. When asked for his

plea In law, a plea is a defendant's response to a criminal charge. A defendant may plead guilty or not guilty. Depending on jurisdiction, additional pleas may be available, including '' nolo contendere'' (no contest), no case to answer (in the ...

, he replied: "I do not remember the crime for which I stand accused ... I am unable to answer the charges." He was defended by Frederick Lawton QC.

Neurologist Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the ...

Michael Ashby gave evidence as an expert medical witness at his trial, as did

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

Archibald Leigh, who claimed Podola was feigning his illness. The jury took 38 minutes to find Podola guilty of

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

, and he was sentenced to death by the trial judge, Mr Justice Edmund Davies. He later confessed his guilt. The

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...

Rab Butler Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), also known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials as Rab, was a prominent British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politici ...

, under a little-known and little-used power, referred the case to the Court of Criminal Appeal, which upheld the conviction. The Attorney-General's refusal of leave to appeal to the House of Lords brought the case to a close in a fresh outburst of public controversy. Podola was hanged at

Wandsworth Prison HM Prison Wandsworth is a Prison security categories in the United Kingdom, Category B men's prison at Wandsworth in the London Borough of Wandsworth, South West (London sub region), South West London, England. It is operated by His Majesty's Pri ...

at 9:45 a.m. on 5 November 1959. He was buried in the prison graveyard (grave 59). His execution took place five years before the last execution of any criminal and six years before the suspension and later abolition of the death penalty.

References

External links

Photo of Podola including bruised eye, which he claimed occurred due to excessive police force during his arrestA discussion of the legal ramifications of the case for English law (p. 487-488)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Podola, Guenther 1929 births 1959 deaths 20th-century German murderers People convicted of murder by England and Wales People executed by England and Wales by hanging 20th-century executions by England and Wales Executed people from Berlin Hitler Youth members German people executed for murdering police officers German expatriates in Canada German people executed in the United Kingdom Foreign nationals imprisoned in Canada People convicted of burglary People deported from Canada