Item #39744 Autograph postcard sent from Gale Benson in Port of Spain, Trinidad to Oz magazine editor Jim Anderson in London, postmarked November 8, 1971, only a month after her arrival with Hakim Jamal from Guyana and less than two months before she was murdered at Michael X’s commune. Gale BENSON.
Autograph postcard sent from Gale Benson in Port of Spain, Trinidad to Oz magazine editor Jim Anderson in London, postmarked November 8, 1971, only a month after her arrival with Hakim Jamal from Guyana and less than two months before she was murdered at Michael X’s commune.
Autograph postcard sent from Gale Benson in Port of Spain, Trinidad to Oz magazine editor Jim Anderson in London, postmarked November 8, 1971, only a month after her arrival with Hakim Jamal from Guyana and less than two months before she was murdered at Michael X’s commune.
Autograph postcard sent from Gale Benson in Port of Spain, Trinidad to Oz magazine editor Jim Anderson in London, postmarked November 8, 1971, only a month after her arrival with Hakim Jamal from Guyana and less than two months before she was murdered at Michael X’s commune.
Autograph postcard sent from Gale Benson in Port of Spain, Trinidad to Oz magazine editor Jim Anderson in London, postmarked November 8, 1971, only a month after her arrival with Hakim Jamal from Guyana and less than two months before she was murdered at Michael X’s commune.
Autograph postcard sent from Gale Benson in Port of Spain, Trinidad to Oz magazine editor Jim Anderson in London, postmarked November 8, 1971, only a month after her arrival with Hakim Jamal from Guyana and less than two months before she was murdered at Michael X’s commune.
Autograph postcard sent from Gale Benson in Port of Spain, Trinidad to Oz magazine editor Jim Anderson in London, postmarked November 8, 1971, only a month after her arrival with Hakim Jamal from Guyana and less than two months before she was murdered at Michael X’s commune.

58.

Autograph postcard sent from Gale Benson in Port of Spain, Trinidad to Oz magazine editor Jim Anderson in London, postmarked November 8, 1971, only a month after her arrival with Hakim Jamal from Guyana and less than two months before she was murdered at Michael X’s commune.

The first three lines of the address have been inked out for publication in Oz #43 (also included here), where its appearance was described as “The first in a series of famous last postcards”. 9x14cm. 57 words, written entirely in block capitals. Very Good plus.

The card, featuring a colour photo of “Banks Brewery, British Guiana”, reads: “THIS IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE - PEACE - TROPICAL SUNSHINE - COCONUTS AND PINEAPPLES THAT NEED ONLY TO BE PICKED. NO COLD - NO PARKING METERS - TELLY - BINGO - HAKIM JUST FOUNDED FIRST CARIBBEAN PUBLISHING COMPANY MOST EXCITING VENTURE YOU CAN IMAGINE. WE OFTEN REMEMBER AND SMILE - GAIL BENSON” (the spelling of her first name varied). The company she mentions, the non-existent First Caribbean Publishing Company, was Hakim’s ruse to hustle funding from the German publishing heir Herbert Girardet, his counterpart to Michael X’s former benefactor, Nigel Samuel.

Gale Benson was a model, socialite and the daughter of Captain Leonard Plugge, a former Conservative MP, inventor and radio enthusiast (the advertising term “plugging” is said to have derived from his name) who moved in the same social circles as Princess Margaret and whose house at 15 Lowndes Square in Belgravia featured in the film “Performance”. She met Hakim Jamal in 1969 at a party held by the Redgraves (Corin Redgrave had been the best man at her wedding) and the affair between them that began the following day transformed her both physically (within three weeks she had lost about three stone in weight) and psychologically (she fixated on him, changed her name to ‘Halé Kimga’, an anagram of Gale and Hakim, and even reset her birthday to the date they began their affair).

By the time of their arrival in Trinidad in October 1971 the affair was almost over, at least on Hakim’s side, though her postcard shows no hint of this. Two of the men accused of her murder, Stanley Abbott and Edward Chadee, claimed in their defence that the mental strain on Hakim caused by his failing relationship with Benson led to Michael X ordering them to kill her. Michael was never tried for the murder of Gale Benson, but was found guilty of the murder of Joseph Skerritt who, like Benson, was discovered buried at his Christina Gardens commune.

Together with: “Statement written by Michael Abdul Malik, Royal Gaol, Port of Spain, Trinidad, May 1972” (1pp.) in Oz #43 (London: Oz Publications Ink Ltd., July 1972). “The media has had an orgy with the muddled facts surrounding this case, and we hope that this letter which Michael was finally able to get to us via his lawyer, Kenneth Foster, will help shed some light on what is really going down in Trinidad, and get Michael a fair trial and the freedom that will follow” (extract from Dan Richter’s prefatory note) + b/w illustration of Gale Benson postcard. Also: Jim Anderson on the hippie trail in Bali; full-page ad. for "Ziggy Stardust" (reviewed by Nick Kent); Dick Pountain's review of "The Wild Boys"; Oz mail order (+ bound-in subscription form); more. Cover slightly spotted, o/w Very Good.

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