On this day, May 2, in 1960, the “Red Light Bandit,” a cause celebre for a movement to ban the death penalty, was executed in California’s San Quentin Prison.
Caryl Whittier Chessman got his nickname because he flashed a red light to trick people into thinking he was a police officer. He would then rob or rape them.
On death row, Chessman wrote four best-selling books, attracting the support of public figures and celebrities from former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt to writer Aldous Huxley to evangelist Billy Graham.
During his execution, as gas filled the death chamber, the warden got a call on the emergency phone saying Chessman had been given a one-hour reprieve. But it was too late. Authorities couldn’t open the door without the fumes killing others.
Scott McCabe
