Death row inmate Caryl Chessman escaped execution eight times

“Red Light Bandit”
Caryl Chessman was sentenced to death, escaped execution eight times — and died by accident

75 years ago, a jury in Los Angeles sentenced Caryl Chessman to death. However, the robber and rapist got his execution stayed eight times, making it one of the most notorious criminal cases in the United States.

On June 25, 1948, 75 years ago, the jury was asked in the trial “The People of the State of California versus Caryl Chessman”. For three weeks, the Los Angeles jury heard witnesses, examined evidence, weighed arguments. Now they are to pass judgment on Caryl Chessman. The jury concludes: Chessman is guilty. And he shall die for his deeds. However, it will be another twelve years before Chessman is actually executed – his execution is delayed eight times.

The then 31-year-old man, originally from Michigan, a notorious criminal, is accused of robbery, kidnapping and rape. He is said to be the “red light bandit” that had kept Los Angeles in suspense a few years earlier: a crook who pretended to be a police officer with a red light on his car and under this disguise committed crimes of various kinds.

Was Caryl Chessman the “Red Light Bandit”?

From a young age, Chessman had been in almost constant trouble with the law, be it through theft, burglary or mugging. He escaped from prison and was caught again shortly afterwards. So Caryl Chessman has what is probably called a criminal career – even before he mutated into a “red light bandit”. As such, he is said to have robbed people and molested women. When he is caught, Chessman is also the first to confess. However, he later claims that the police used force to force his confession.

This leads to a bizarre court hearing: The accused renounces a lawyer and defends himself. Chessman denies being the “red light bandit” and claims to know his identity – but he cannot reveal it, he likes the person very much vicinity. But the women he is said to have raped identify him as the perpetrator, and the police also found a weapon on him that is attributed to the notorious “red light bandit”. Based on this evidence, the jury found him guilty on 17 counts and sentenced him to two deaths by gassing and 15 terms of imprisonment.

Chessman is fighting for his life on death row

An unusually high penalty for the acts Chessman is said to have committed. Prosecutors are citing a law passed by Congress after the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s son in 1932. The boy died during the kidnapping, since then kidnappers can also be sentenced to death if they have physically abused their victim. The prosecution’s argument: Chessman, while not actually a kidnapper, had tricked two victims into going with him and then abused them. The jury follows this logic.

Caryl Chessman is scheduled to be executed on March 28, 1952. But the fight for his freedom – and for his life – only begins with the verdict. As inmate 66565 B in the notorious San Quentin State Penitentiary, he constantly pored over legal literature, drafted motions, and wrote books. He attacks the police’s methods of interrogation, objects to the judicial process, attacks the law under which he was sentenced to death. And his efforts are successful: time and again he manages to get his execution date postponed.

The last respite comes too late

Caryl Chessman wrote his biography in prison, and “Death Row 2455” was published in 1954 and became a bestseller. The book is translated into 18 languages ​​and turns the death row inmate into a media figure. Suddenly well-known personalities take his side. Among others, writers such as Robert Frost and Aldous Huxley, the actor Marlon Brando and the former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt are campaigning for his pardon. There are also protests in numerous other western countries.

In fact, Chessman’s scheduled execution has been delayed time and time again. He was granted a stay a total of eight times – most recently on February 19, 1960, just a few hours before the sentence was to be carried out. He had even eaten his last meal. On May 2, 1960, after 4,319 days on death row, Caryl Chessman was finally executed. In the San Quentin gas chamber, as decreed by the Los Angeles jury twelve years earlier. Shortly after the poisonous gases flowed into the chamber, the judge’s secretary answered the phone and gave another postponement. She dialed the wrong number the first time. A mistake that eventually cost Caryl Chessman his life.

Sources: “Gadfly Online” / “Mirror” / “Mirror” / “Los Angeles Times”