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Caryl Whittier Chessman (May 27, 1921 in St. Joseph, Michigan, –
May 2, 1960 at San Quentin Prison) was a convicted robber and rapist who
gained fame as a death row inmate in California. Chessman's case
attracted world-wide attention, and as a result he became a cause
c=E9l=E8bre for the movement to ban capital punishment.
[edit]
Crime and Conviction
Chessman was a criminal with a long record who had spent most of his
adult life behind bars. He had been paroled a short time from prison in
California when he was arrested near Los Angeles and charged with being
the notorious "Red Light Bandit." The "Bandit" would follow people in
their cars to secluded areas and flash a red light that tricked them
into thinking he was a police officer. When they opened their windows or
exited the vehicle, he would rob and, in the case of several young
women, rape them. In July 1948, Chessman was convicted on 17 counts of
robbery, kidnapping, and rape and condemned to death.
Part of the controversy surrounding the Chessman case stems from how the
death penalty was applied. At the time, under California's version of
the "Little Lindbergh Law", any crime that involved kidnapping with
bodily harm could be considered a capital offense. Two of the counts
against Chessman alleged that he dragged a woman a short distance from
her car before raping her. Despite the short distance the woman was
moved, the court considered it sufficient to qualify as kidnapping, thus
making Chessman eligible for the death penalty.
[edit]
Legal Appeals
Acting as his own attorney, Chessman vigorously asserted his innocence
from the outset, arguing throughout the trial and the appeals process
that he was alternately the victim of mistaken identity, or a much
larger conspiracy seeking to frame him for a crime he did not commit. He
claimed at other times to know who the real culprit was, but refused to
name him. He further alleged that statements he made during his initial
police interrogation implicating him in the Red Light Bandit crimes were
coerced through torture.
Over the course of the 12 years he spent on death row, Chessman filed
dozens of appeals and successfully avoided eight execution deadlines,
often by mere hours. He appealed his conviction primarily on the grounds
that the original trial was improperly conducted and that subsequent
appeals were seriously hampered by incomplete and incorrect transcripts
of the original trial proceedings. The appeals were successful and the
U.S. Supreme Court finally ordered the State of California to either
conduct a full review of the transcripts or release Chessman. The review
concluded that the transcripts were substantially accurate and Chessman
was scheduled to die in February 1960.
The Chessman affair put then-Governor of California Edmund G. "Pat"
Brown, an opponent of the death penalty, in a difficult situation. Brown
initially did not intervene in the case, but then issued a last-minute,
60-day stay of execution on February 19, 1960, just hours before
Chessman's scheduled execution. Brown claimed he issued the stay out of
concern that Chessman's execution could threaten the safety of President
Dwight D. Eisenhower during a planned visit to South America, where the
Chessman case had inflamed anti-American sentiment.
[edit]
Literary Appeals
Chessman argued his case in the court of public opinion through letters,
essays and books. While on death row, he wrote four books. In Cell 2455,
Death Row, he clearly implies he once killed a man, though he was never
prosecuted or convicted for this. Chessman's memoirs became bestsellers
and ignited a world-wide movement to spare his life, while focusing
attention on the politics of the death penalty in the United States at a
time when most Western countries had already abandoned it, or were in
the process of doing so. Brown's offices were flooded with appeals for
clemency from noted authors and intellectuals from around the world,
including Aldous Huxley, Ray Bradbury, Norman Mailer and Robert Frost.
In addition to giving him world-wide notoriety, the books earned
Chessman hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties.
[edit]
Execution
In 1954 or 1955, California repealed the Little Lindbergh Law and
converted the death sentences of those who had been convicted under its
statutes to terms of life in prison. Some of these inmates earned parole
years later; Chessman, however, never had his sentence repealed. His
sentence was upheld, and Brown refused to grant clemency.
Brown's stay of execution, along with Chessman's last appeals, ran out
in April 1960 and Brown subsequently declined to grant Chessman
executive clemency. Exhausting a last-minute attempt to file a writ of
habeas corpus with the California Supreme Court, Chessman finally went
to the gas chamber on May 2, 1960.
During the execution, the emergency telephone rang just as the chamber
was filling with gas. The caller was Judge Goodman's secretary, with a
one-hour stay of execution. She quickly told Assistant Warden Reed
Nelson the purpose of her call; he responded, "It's too late. The
execution has begun." There was no way to stop the fumes, and no way to
open the door and rescue the condemned man without the deadly fumes
killing others. The alleged new evidence uncovered by the Argosy
magazine which prompted the stay appears in very few accounts.
The celebrated author Dominique Lapierre visited Chessman several times
during his incarceration. Lapierre was then a young reporter working for
a French newspaper. His account of Chessman appears in the book A
Thousand Suns.
[edit]
Chessman in popular culture
*While on death row, Chessman sold the rights to his autobiography, Cell
2455, Death Row to Columbia Pictures. The book was made into a film of
the same name, directed by Fred F. Sears in 1955, with William Campbell
as Chessman.
* Before becoming famous as a country music star, Merle Haggard served
time with Chessman in San Quentin.
* Chessman is mentioned on the Genesis album The Lamb Lies Down on
Broadway in the track "Broadway Melody of 1974" - "... the cheerleader
waves her cyanide wand there's a smell of peach blossom and bitter
almond. Caryl Chessman sniffs the air and leads the parade. He knows, in
a scent, you can bottle all you made....
* On the album notes of I Ain't Marching Anymore, Phil Ochs references
Chessman as part of the inspiration for his song Iron Lady.
* The 1977 movie Kill Me If You Can, with Alan Alda, was based on
Chessman's story.
* He's mentioned in the book By Reason of Insanity by Shane Stevens. The
book is fiction, and in it, a serial killer's actions are driven
partially by the belief he is Chessman's son.
* Singer Johnny Mathis performed "Caryl Chessman" for a D Records
single. The song was written by Eddie Hollowell and re-issued by Top
Rank International on the EP Country And Western Express, Vol. 5, and on
the God Less America CD and LP in the US.
* Chessman was referred to in a song called "The Lifer" which was
recorded at Michigan's Marquette Prison in September 1962. It was
written by Al Gliva, prisoner #62055 according to the 45 pic sleeve. It
was sung by Roger Chase, and released on Longhorn Records.
* Caryl Chessman is one of many names mentioned in Neil Diamond's song
"Done Too Soon" on his 1970 album "Tap Root Manuscript."
* In 1960, Marlon Brando tried in vain to convince the producer and
director of their planned adaptation of Mutiny on the Bounty to instead
develop a film about Caryl Chessman.
* A Mexican wrestler in the AAA Mexican wrestling promotion uses the
pseudonym "Chessman" (http://www.luchawiki.org/index.php?title=3DChessman)=
* The mental asylum that plays a pivotal role in the X-Files Episode
'Daemonicus' is named after Chessman.
[edit]
References
"They might even call it kidnapping," I said. "Straight to the gas
chamber, like Chessman. And even if you beat that, they'll send you back
to Nevada for Rape and Consensual Sodomy" (Thompson 116-117). - Hunter
S. Thompson's, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Second Vintage Books
Edition, June 1998 Copyright 1971 Hunter S. Thompson
[edit]
External links
* Caryl Chessman online * An in depth article on Chessman * FBI files on
Caryl Chessman * Chessman on Crime Library * *
Who is Caryl Chessman connected to?
Add a Connection
[edit]
Aldous Huxley
This biography says:
..Brown's offices were flooded with appeals for clemency from noted
authors and intellectuals from around the world, including Aldous
Huxley, Ray Bradbury, Norman Mailer and Robert Frost....
[edit]
Phil Ochs
This biography says:
..* On the album notes of I Ain't Marching Anymore, Phil Ochs
references Chessman as part of the inspiration for his song Iron
Lady....
[edit]
Pat Brown
How is Caryl Chessman connected to Pat Brown? Tell=A0the=A0world.
[edit]
Norman Mailer
This biography says:
..Brown's offices were flooded with appeals for clemency from noted
authors and intellectuals from around the world, including Aldous
Huxley, Ray Bradbury, Norman Mailer and Robert Frost....
[edit]
Stew Albert
That biography says:
..Born in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, NY to a New York City
employee, he had a relatively conventional political life in his youth,
though he was among those who protested the execution of Caryl Chessman.
He graduated from Pace University, where he majored in politics and
philosophy, and worked for a while for the City of New York welfare
department...
[edit]
William Campbell (film actor)
That biography says:
..After several years of similar supporting performances in a variety
of titles, including as a co-pilot in William Wellman's The High and the
Mighty (1954), he snagged his first starring role in Cell 2455 Death Row
(1955), a Columbia Pictures prison cheapie. He played a death row
inmate, based loosely on the true story of Caryl Chessman, who staunchly
proclaimed his innocence and obtained numerous reprieves over many years
until finally being executed...
[edit]
Jake Ehrlich
That biography says:
..Included in his client list were; Alexander Pantages for statutory
rape, Gene Krupa for cannabis, Billie Holiday for heroin, Errol Flynn
and James Mason for divorce, Howard Hughes for the movie The Outlaw and
Gertrude Morris, on trial for murdering her husband in
1952.http://law.jrank.org/pages/3045/Gertrude-Morris-Trial-1952.html. He
also defended rapist Caryl Chessman and stripper Sally Rand....
[edit]
Merle Haggard
This biography says:
..* Before becoming famous as a country music star, Merle Haggard
served time with Chessman in San Quentin....
That biography says:
..Several years later, at another Cash concert, Haggard came up to
Johnny and told him "I certainly enjoyed your show at San Quentin." Cash
said "Merle, I don't remember you bein' in that show." Merle Haggard
said, "Johnny, I wasn't in that show, I was in the audience." While put
in solitary confinement, Haggard encountered author and death row inmate
Caryl Chessman. Haggard had the opportunity to escape with a fellow
inmate nicknamed "Rabbit", but passed on it...
[edit]
France Gall
That biography says:
..Gainsbourg then sang an anti-capital punishment song in tandem with
Gall, Qui se souvient de Caryl Chessman? ("Anyone remember Caryl
Chessman?"), after the death row prisoner, but this song never saw the
light of day...
[edit]
Edward Bunker
That biography says:
..While spending time in solitary – known as "the hole" –
he was situated close to the death row cell of Caryl Chessman, who was
writing on a typewriter. He had already met Chessman earlier, and
Chessman sent him an issue of Argosy magazine, in which the first
chapter of his book Cell 2455 Death Row was published...
wav
Caryl Whittier Chessman (May 27, 1921 in St. Joseph, Michigan, –
May 2, 1960 at San Quentin Prison) was a convicted robber and rapist who
gained fame as a death row inmate in California. Chessman's case
attracted world-wide attention, and as a result he became a cause
c=E9l=E8bre for the movement to ban capital punishment.
[edit]
Crime and Conviction
Chessman was a criminal with a long record who had spent most of his
adult life behind bars. He had been paroled a short time from prison in
California when he was arrested near Los Angeles and charged with being
the notorious "Red Light Bandit." The "Bandit" would follow people in
their cars to secluded areas and flash a red light that tricked them
into thinking he was a police officer. When they opened their windows or
exited the vehicle, he would rob and, in the case of several young
women, rape them. In July 1948, Chessman was convicted on 17 counts of
robbery, kidnapping, and rape and condemned to death.
Part of the controversy surrounding the Chessman case stems from how the
death penalty was applied. At the time, under California's version of
the "Little Lindbergh Law", any crime that involved kidnapping with
bodily harm could be considered a capital offense. Two of the counts
against Chessman alleged that he dragged a woman a short distance from
her car before raping her. Despite the short distance the woman was
moved, the court considered it sufficient to qualify as kidnapping, thus
making Chessman eligible for the death penalty.
[edit]
Legal Appeals
Acting as his own attorney, Chessman vigorously asserted his innocence
from the outset, arguing throughout the trial and the appeals process
that he was alternately the victim of mistaken identity, or a much
larger conspiracy seeking to frame him for a crime he did not commit. He
claimed at other times to know who the real culprit was, but refused to
name him. He further alleged that statements he made during his initial
police interrogation implicating him in the Red Light Bandit crimes were
coerced through torture.
Over the course of the 12 years he spent on death row, Chessman filed
dozens of appeals and successfully avoided eight execution deadlines,
often by mere hours. He appealed his conviction primarily on the grounds
that the original trial was improperly conducted and that subsequent
appeals were seriously hampered by incomplete and incorrect transcripts
of the original trial proceedings. The appeals were successful and the
U.S. Supreme Court finally ordered the State of California to either
conduct a full review of the transcripts or release Chessman. The review
concluded that the transcripts were substantially accurate and Chessman
was scheduled to die in February 1960.
The Chessman affair put then-Governor of California Edmund G. "Pat"
Brown, an opponent of the death penalty, in a difficult situation. Brown
initially did not intervene in the case, but then issued a last-minute,
60-day stay of execution on February 19, 1960, just hours before
Chessman's scheduled execution. Brown claimed he issued the stay out of
concern that Chessman's execution could threaten the safety of President
Dwight D. Eisenhower during a planned visit to South America, where the
Chessman case had inflamed anti-American sentiment.
[edit]
Literary Appeals
Chessman argued his case in the court of public opinion through letters,
essays and books. While on death row, he wrote four books. In Cell 2455,
Death Row, he clearly implies he once killed a man, though he was never
prosecuted or convicted for this. Chessman's memoirs became bestsellers
and ignited a world-wide movement to spare his life, while focusing
attention on the politics of the death penalty in the United States at a
time when most Western countries had already abandoned it, or were in
the process of doing so. Brown's offices were flooded with appeals for
clemency from noted authors and intellectuals from around the world,
including Aldous Huxley, Ray Bradbury, Norman Mailer and Robert Frost.
In addition to giving him world-wide notoriety, the books earned
Chessman hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties.
[edit]
Execution
In 1954 or 1955, California repealed the Little Lindbergh Law and
converted the death sentences of those who had been convicted under its
statutes to terms of life in prison. Some of these inmates earned parole
years later; Chessman, however, never had his sentence repealed. His
sentence was upheld, and Brown refused to grant clemency.
Brown's stay of execution, along with Chessman's last appeals, ran out
in April 1960 and Brown subsequently declined to grant Chessman
executive clemency. Exhausting a last-minute attempt to file a writ of
habeas corpus with the California Supreme Court, Chessman finally went
to the gas chamber on May 2, 1960.
During the execution, the emergency telephone rang just as the chamber
was filling with gas. The caller was Judge Goodman's secretary, with a
one-hour stay of execution. She quickly told Assistant Warden Reed
Nelson the purpose of her call; he responded, "It's too late. The
execution has begun." There was no way to stop the fumes, and no way to
open the door and rescue the condemned man without the deadly fumes
killing others. The alleged new evidence uncovered by the Argosy
magazine which prompted the stay appears in very few accounts.
The celebrated author Dominique Lapierre visited Chessman several times
during his incarceration. Lapierre was then a young reporter working for
a French newspaper. His account of Chessman appears in the book A
Thousand Suns.
[edit]
Chessman in popular culture
*While on death row, Chessman sold the rights to his autobiography, Cell
2455, Death Row to Columbia Pictures. The book was made into a film of
the same name, directed by Fred F. Sears in 1955, with William Campbell
as Chessman.
* Before becoming famous as a country music star, Merle Haggard served
time with Chessman in San Quentin.
* Chessman is mentioned on the Genesis album The Lamb Lies Down on
Broadway in the track "Broadway Melody of 1974" - "... the cheerleader
waves her cyanide wand there's a smell of peach blossom and bitter
almond. Caryl Chessman sniffs the air and leads the parade. He knows, in
a scent, you can bottle all you made....
* On the album notes of I Ain't Marching Anymore, Phil Ochs references
Chessman as part of the inspiration for his song Iron Lady.
* The 1977 movie Kill Me If You Can, with Alan Alda, was based on
Chessman's story.
* He's mentioned in the book By Reason of Insanity by Shane Stevens. The
book is fiction, and in it, a serial killer's actions are driven
partially by the belief he is Chessman's son.
* Singer Johnny Mathis performed "Caryl Chessman" for a D Records
single. The song was written by Eddie Hollowell and re-issued by Top
Rank International on the EP Country And Western Express, Vol. 5, and on
the God Less America CD and LP in the US.
* Chessman was referred to in a song called "The Lifer" which was
recorded at Michigan's Marquette Prison in September 1962. It was
written by Al Gliva, prisoner #62055 according to the 45 pic sleeve. It
was sung by Roger Chase, and released on Longhorn Records.
* Caryl Chessman is one of many names mentioned in Neil Diamond's song
"Done Too Soon" on his 1970 album "Tap Root Manuscript."
* In 1960, Marlon Brando tried in vain to convince the producer and
director of their planned adaptation of Mutiny on the Bounty to instead
develop a film about Caryl Chessman.
* A Mexican wrestler in the AAA Mexican wrestling promotion uses the
pseudonym "Chessman" (http://www.luchawiki.org/index.php?title=3DChessman)=
* The mental asylum that plays a pivotal role in the X-Files Episode
'Daemonicus' is named after Chessman.
[edit]
References
"They might even call it kidnapping," I said. "Straight to the gas
chamber, like Chessman. And even if you beat that, they'll send you back
to Nevada for Rape and Consensual Sodomy" (Thompson 116-117). - Hunter
S. Thompson's, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Second Vintage Books
Edition, June 1998 Copyright 1971 Hunter S. Thompson
[edit]
External links
* Caryl Chessman online * An in depth article on Chessman * FBI files on
Caryl Chessman * Chessman on Crime Library * *
Who is Caryl Chessman connected to?
Add a Connection
[edit]
Aldous Huxley
This biography says:
..Brown's offices were flooded with appeals for clemency from noted
authors and intellectuals from around the world, including Aldous
Huxley, Ray Bradbury, Norman Mailer and Robert Frost....
[edit]
Phil Ochs
This biography says:
..* On the album notes of I Ain't Marching Anymore, Phil Ochs
references Chessman as part of the inspiration for his song Iron
Lady....
[edit]
Pat Brown
How is Caryl Chessman connected to Pat Brown? Tell=A0the=A0world.
[edit]
Norman Mailer
This biography says:
..Brown's offices were flooded with appeals for clemency from noted
authors and intellectuals from around the world, including Aldous
Huxley, Ray Bradbury, Norman Mailer and Robert Frost....
[edit]
Stew Albert
That biography says:
..Born in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, NY to a New York City
employee, he had a relatively conventional political life in his youth,
though he was among those who protested the execution of Caryl Chessman.
He graduated from Pace University, where he majored in politics and
philosophy, and worked for a while for the City of New York welfare
department...
[edit]
William Campbell (film actor)
That biography says:
..After several years of similar supporting performances in a variety
of titles, including as a co-pilot in William Wellman's The High and the
Mighty (1954), he snagged his first starring role in Cell 2455 Death Row
(1955), a Columbia Pictures prison cheapie. He played a death row
inmate, based loosely on the true story of Caryl Chessman, who staunchly
proclaimed his innocence and obtained numerous reprieves over many years
until finally being executed...
[edit]
Jake Ehrlich
That biography says:
..Included in his client list were; Alexander Pantages for statutory
rape, Gene Krupa for cannabis, Billie Holiday for heroin, Errol Flynn
and James Mason for divorce, Howard Hughes for the movie The Outlaw and
Gertrude Morris, on trial for murdering her husband in
1952.http://law.jrank.org/pages/3045/Gertrude-Morris-Trial-1952.html. He
also defended rapist Caryl Chessman and stripper Sally Rand....
[edit]
Merle Haggard
This biography says:
..* Before becoming famous as a country music star, Merle Haggard
served time with Chessman in San Quentin....
That biography says:
..Several years later, at another Cash concert, Haggard came up to
Johnny and told him "I certainly enjoyed your show at San Quentin." Cash
said "Merle, I don't remember you bein' in that show." Merle Haggard
said, "Johnny, I wasn't in that show, I was in the audience." While put
in solitary confinement, Haggard encountered author and death row inmate
Caryl Chessman. Haggard had the opportunity to escape with a fellow
inmate nicknamed "Rabbit", but passed on it...
[edit]
France Gall
That biography says:
..Gainsbourg then sang an anti-capital punishment song in tandem with
Gall, Qui se souvient de Caryl Chessman? ("Anyone remember Caryl
Chessman?"), after the death row prisoner, but this song never saw the
light of day...
[edit]
Edward Bunker
That biography says:
..While spending time in solitary – known as "the hole" –
he was situated close to the death row cell of Caryl Chessman, who was
writing on a typewriter. He had already met Chessman earlier, and
Chessman sent him an issue of Argosy magazine, in which the first
chapter of his book Cell 2455 Death Row was published...