23 Facts About Caryl Chessman

Caryl Whittier Chessman was a convicted robber, kidnapper and serial rapist who was sentenced to death for a series of crimes committed in January 1948 in the Los Angeles area.

Caryl Chessman's case attracted worldwide attention, and helped propel the movement to end the use of capital punishment in the state of California.

Caryl Chessman was executed in California's gas chamber in 1960.

Caryl Chessman's father became despondent after failing at each of a series of jobs, and attempted suicide twice.

In 1929, Caryl Chessman's mother was paralyzed in a car accident.

The family was hit hard by the Depression, and Caryl Chessman later recalled that he stole food and other items as an adolescent to help his parents.

In July 1937, Caryl Chessman was caught stealing a car and sent to Preston School of Industry, a reform school in Northern California.

Caryl Chessman was released in April 1938, only to return a month later after stealing another car.

In October 1939, Caryl Chessman was sent to the Los Angeles County Road Camp after yet another car theft.

Caryl Chessman escaped in October 1943 but was arrested a month later.

Caryl Chessman was released in December 1947 and returned to Glendale.

Part of the controversy surrounding the Caryl Chessman case stemmed from the state's unusual application of the death penalty.

Caryl Chessman asserted his innocence from the outset, arguing throughout the trial and the appeals process that he was alternately the victim of mistaken identity, or of a conspiracy to frame him; he claimed to know the identity of the real perpetrator, but refused to reveal it.

Caryl Chessman further alleged that the confession he signed during his initial police interrogation was coerced through force and intimidation.

Caryl Chessman took his case to the public through letters, essays and books.

Caryl Chessman sold the rights to Cell 2455, Death Row to Columbia Pictures, which made a 1955 film of the same name, directed by Fred F Sears, with William Campbell as Chessman.

The Caryl Chessman affair put Brown, an opponent of the death penalty, in a difficult position.

Caryl Chessman issued the stay, he said, out of concern that the execution could threaten the safety of President Dwight D Eisenhower during an official visit to South America, where the Chessman case had inflamed anti-American sentiment.

Caryl Chessman's body was cremated, as per his wishes, at the Mount Tamalpais Mortuary and Cemetery in San Rafael, California.

Caryl Chessman's execution is referenced in Lucio Fulci's 1969 giallo One on Top of the Other, in which the character of George Dumurrier is prepared to be executed in San Quentin's gas chamber.

Not only were these sequences shot on location in San Quentin, but several of the prison personnel who were responsible for Caryl Chessman's death acted in them; a fact that was especially highlighted in the film's trailer.

In 1977, Alan Alda starred in an NBC television movie about Caryl Chessman's life, Kill Me If You Can.

Caryl Chessman is believed by the fictional serial killer Thomas Bishop to be his biological father in the 1979 novel, By Reason of Insanity by Shane Stevens.