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 ...

Joseph Rodota’s cogent new drama “Chessman” might just as easily be called “Brown,” though it would not evoke nearly as much curiosity. The case attracted worldwide attention at the time (the crimes ...

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 ...

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 ...

Buck Busfield is pondering the finer points of one of the most important phone calls in California political history. It was Feb. 18, 1960, the eve of the long-delayed execution of Caryl Chessman. A ...