Caryl Chessman

Nov. 26, 1957
Los Angeles

Here's an update on two stories we have been following....

After 98 witnesses and eight weeks of testimony, the prosecution is about to rest in the murder trial of L. Ewing Scott.

Throughout the trial, the defense raised objections that there was no evidence Evelyn Throsby Scott was dead because no body had been produced. However, the motions were always overruled by Judge Clement D. Nye.*

Meanwhile, Caryl Chessman is getting a new defense attorney and awaiting a decision on whether the manuscript of a proposed book, "The Kid Was a Killer," will be returned to him.  The manuscript was seized in 1954 by Harley O. Teets, the late warden of San Quentin.

Photograph by Dan McCormack / Los Angeles Times
Deputy Atty. Gen. William Bennett, left, watches as San Quentin Warden Fred Dickson displays the manuscript of Caryl Chessman's "The Kid Was a Killer," which was seized on the belief that it was "prison labor." Chessman is flanked by attorneys A.L. Wirin, left, of the American Civil Liberties Union, and Paul N. Posner.  The man in the background leaning on a counter is Dist. Atty. William R. McKesson.

Photograph by Bruce H. Cox / Los Angeles Times Chessman finally received the manuscript, a novel about a boxer, in December 1957, from Lt. L.T. O'Brien of San Quentin.  It was published in 1960.

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*Judge Clement "D. Nye." Only in L.A.