He was mid-century America’s foremost tough-hooligan intellectual, a high school dropout and autodidact who wrote and published four books while waiting to die. He bragged colorfully about his ...

One reason Californians will be voting, again, about the death penalty, next month, is because of a man named Caryl Chessman. He was called the “Red Light Bandit,” and he was executed in 1960 for ...

Caryl Chessman was a small-fry criminal. But he became an international crime celebrity when he was condemned to die not for murder but for two sexual assaults committed during a Los Angeles crime ...

Behind the bleak concrete walls of California’s San Quentin state prison, a Death Row guard handed a brief note, signed by the warden, to the pale, heavy-browed prisoner in Cell 2455. “Dear Sir,” it ...

ON Jan. 23, 1948, near the intersection of Sixth Street and Vermont Avenue, a 26-year-old career criminal named Caryl Chessman was arrested after a high-speed car chase and subsequently charged as Los ...

(Editor’s Note: A reading of Joe Rodota’s play Chessman, a work in progress, was performed at the B Street Theatre in Sacramento this weekend.) Crime never ceases to intrigue, especially its ...

Caryl Chessman, labeled in the press as "The Red Light Bandit," initially pleaded guilty to multiple counts of robbery, kidnapping, and rape in 1948, confessions he later recanted claiming police ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Authorities remove Caryl Chessman's handcuffs at a post-conviction court hearing. He became a media star during his long battle to ...