Episode 693: Caryl Chessman: The Red Light Bandit

Morbid

Morbid Network | Wondery

True Crime, Comedy, Exhibit C

4.5 • 95.3K Ratings

🗓️ 28 July 2025

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In early 1948, Los Angeles couples were terrorized by a series of robberies and car thefts committed by a criminal the press dubbed “The Red Light Bandit,” a reference to the red light he used to flag down his victims. Fortunately, the bandit’s crime spree was quickly cut short when police arrested Caryl Chessman, a Los Angeles resident with a criminal history going back to his teen years.

Chessman was charged with multiple counts of robbery, rape, grand theft, and because of an unusual interpretation of events, he was also charged with kidnapping. Due to the attachment of kidnapping, several of the charges were defined as a capital offense and Chessman was convicted and sentenced to death.

In the years following his conviction, Chessman’s death sentence became a source of considerable controversy—an already controversial sentence applied in a non-lethal case due to a bizarre application of the law. For ten years, Chessman fought the sentence all the way to the US Supreme Court, with support from a wide variety of sources, both notable and ordinary.

Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!

References

Chessman, Caryl, and Joseph Longstreth. 1954. Cell 2455, Death Row: A Condemned Man's Own Story. New York, NY: Prentice Hall.

Erikson, Leif. 1960. "Chessman executed with a smile on his lips." Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, May 2: 1.

Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. 1948. "Mother on stretcher testifies for 'genius'." Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, May 10: 1.

—. 1948. "Wild chase nets 'Red Light Bandit' suspects." Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, January 24: 3.

Los Angeles Times. 1941. "Crime victims point to youths." Los Angeles Times, February 14: 2.

—. 1943. "Honor farm escapee says he only lost his memory." Los Angeles Times, September 5: 14.

—. 1948. "Red-Light Bandit receives two death sentences." Los Angeles Times, June 26: 17.

Pasadena Independent. 1948. "Red Light Bandit strikes again." Pasadena Independent, January 20: 8.

People v. Caryl Chessman. 1959. CR. 5006 (Supreme Court of California , July 7).

Press-Telegram. 1941. "Five bandit suspects held in shootings." Press-Telegram (Long Beach, CA), February 2: 1.

Ruth, David E. 2014. "'Our free society is worthy of better': Caryl Chessman, Capital Punishment, and Cold War culture." Law, Crime and History 31-55.

Time Magazine. 1960. "The Chessman affair." Time Magazine, March 21.

Times, Los Angeles. 1948. "Bandit using red spotlight kidnaps girl." Los Angeles Times, January 23: 19.

—. 1948. "Deasth asked in Bandit case." Los Angeles Times, May 19: 32.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey weirdos, it's Ash here, ready to share a little secret. Have you heard of Wondery Plus? With ad-free episodes in one week early access, it's like having an all-access pass to our lighthearted nightmare. So come join us on the dark side and try Wondery Plus today. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or an Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
0:18.2	You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast.
0:24.3	Travis fell in love with the perfect woman.
0:27.6	Beautiful, understanding, available 24-7.
0:31.5	There was just one catch.
0:34.3	She wasn't human.
0:35.9	Binge all episodes of Flesh and Code early and ad-free right now on Wondry Plus.
0:41.5	Hey, weirdos. I'm Alina.
0:44.1	I'm Ash.
0:44.9	And this is morbid. Yay! Yay!
1:03.0	Mordijo.
1:05.0	The first big news is that Ash has finally come over to the side of wanting fall and getting annoyed when
1:14.0	people, now she understands why it's annoying when people go, can you just let me have my son are?
1:18.2	I know. I'll kill them. Yeah, she's there now. I am. I took Dolores out, you know, my dog,
1:25.2	I took Dolores out the other morning and it was so, it was like 8 o'clock in the morning and it was so fucking hot out already. And I said, you know what? To hell with this. Yeah. I just want, I want to wear a sweatshirt comfortably. Yeah. I want to... Cozy fall cooking.
1:45.4	I have so...
1:46.0	Oh, shut your fucking face over there with the cozy fall cooking.
1:50.4	I started ordering new Halloween decorations.
1:53.4	I just want to decorate now.
1:55.5	I want my house.
1:57.7	Fall is just cozy and I want to be cozy.
2:00.6	I'm not cozy. I'm sweaty. Yeah. I'm tired of being sweaty. And she told me this and the first thing I said is now picture someone saying, Just let me have my summer. Summer just started. And how do you feel? I said, I'll kill them. And she literally said, I'll kill them. I'll kill them. I love when that happens.
	...

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