AVIATOR AMELIA EARHART was back in the news this week as the US State Department said it was to launch a new hunt for the plane in which she disappeared 75 years ago.

On a slight tangent, we came across this photograph of George Putnam, who had been Earhart’s husband at the time she went missing on her flight across the Pacific in 1937. This pic of him is taken two years later. It’s not as bad as it looks – Putnam (in the light suit) is reenacting his version of his kidnapping at pistol point that May. He said his arms were bound behind him, and he was forced into his own car and driven to a building in Bakersfield, California. There he struggled free from the ropes and escaped.

This pic has two reporters posing as his kidnappers for the reconstruction of the crime. We especially appreciate the effort the guy on the left has gone to -  check out the gangsta wingtip shoes and wiseguy pinstripe… (Image: AP Photo archive)