Today in History - May 7: Prisoner refused to accept parole after 62 years behind bars
A US prisoner was set free on May 7, 1980, after 68 years behind bars for a murder committed when he was a teenager.
Paul Geidel Jr was sentenced to 20 years to life after he robbed and murdered a wealthy broker in the Iroquois Hotel in New York in 1911.
At the time his victim was staying in the hotel, and Geidel was a bellhop.
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Sing Sing remains a notorious prison in New York. Supplied
Geidel was sent to Sing Sing prison where by the early 1920s he was facing the prospect of an early release.
Instead, he was found legally insane and transferred to Dannemora State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
His first bid for parole was rejected in 1929 after he had spent 18 years behind bars.
Then in 1972 Geidel was moved again to the Fishkill Correctional Facility.
He was granted parole in 1974 but he rejected it.
The now 80-year-old had no family outside of prison and was terrified of the outside world.
"I can't make it out there," he told the New York Times.
"They treat me well here. Sing Sing was a bad place when I got in there. But I deserved it."
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Paul Geidel Jr spent much of his time behind bars at Dannemora State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Supplied
At the time Geidel believed he would be dead soon, though he had told a doctor the same thing in 1918.
Geidel remained behind bars for six more years, though prison staff would occasionally take him to a baseball game.
Then at the age of 86, he was finally set free.
He lived the rest of his life in a nursing home before his death seven years later at the age of 93.
At the time of his release, he was the longest-serving prisoner in world history.
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