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Convict May Not Be Alive To See His Novel Published
San Quentin, Calif—(U.P.)—"Death is a tightening of the belly . . . a creepy numbness," convict Caryl Whittier Chessman wrote in a "brilliant" prison novel.
Chessman should know.
Chessman should know.
He is condemned to die in the California gas chamber for the rape-abduction of two Los Angeles women during the time he ran wild as the "Lover's jane bandit."
Unless he gets an unexpected stay of execution from the U. S. Supreme court he may be executed before the novel, "Cell 2466, Death Row," is published next July.
"Chessman writes exceedingly well. He has keen observation, an iel wit. and a fine sardonic humor."
Monroe Stears, an executive of the publishing firm, said Chessman's work is an "amazing human document and brilliant contribution to the literature of criminology.
Chessman, described as a "genius" with an intelligence quotient of 178, sold the promising book to the Prentice-Hall publishers of New York, it was learned yesterday.
Stearns said Chessman, who has been given a $1,000 advance on publication rights and stands to clear a possible $100,000 on the novel, portrayed a "commanding personality and great heroism" in recounting his life of crime.
"This is an unusually good first book," he said. "It is clear and learned."
The convict-author, who once started a novel about the "Madness in Hollywood During the War Years" but never had it published, said he did not expect his latest work to help with his plea for clemency.
"It wasn't written for that," he said. "It isn't pious moralizing. I can't expect anyone to save my life simply because I've written a book."
Chessman, black-haired "Lover's Lane" or "Red Light" bandit who was sentenced to death May 21, 1948, under California's "little Lindbergh" kidnap law, started writing his book about $2\frac{1}{2}$ years ago.
"We encourage that sort of thing here," Warden Harley O. Teets said. Writing is a good wholesome occupation, and it keeps them out of trouble.
Teets said before Chessman started working on the novel, sometimes 16 hours a day, "We had considerable trouble with him. He was always getting in fights with other inmates and he ended up in solitary several times."
University Daily Kansan
Chessman set down his innermost thoughts on the prospect of dying in the book, which movie producer
"Death is a tough proposition," the convict wrote. "Death is a funny feeling. Death is a tightening of the belly. It is a creepy numbness. Death is something too big to understand. Nobody wins."
Walter Wanger is reading for possible movie use.
The question of whether Chessman would still be alive when his book is published July 26 was indefinite. Teets said the date of execution would not be set until the Supreme court, which already has turned down Chessman's appeal twice, makes its final decision.
Chessman, whose only close relative is his father, has made a provision that all royalties from the book should be used for the education of three unidentified children.
His trail to death began after he was released from San Quentin in December, 1947, where he had served time for robbery and burglary. Within 20 days after his release he committed 17 robberies, three kidnappings, and the two rapes. The third kidnapping involved a Los Angeles man whom Chessman robbed at gunpoint.
Chessman's conviction said he was one of the "Red Light" bandits who terrorized Lovers' lane parties using a light resembling those on police cars.
Panmunjom, Korea — (U.P.)—The United Nations command charged today that the Communists have smuggled warplanes from Manchuria to nine airfields in North Korea in violation of the armistice agreement.
Reds Violating Armistice Pact, Gen. Lacey Says
American Maj. Gen. J. K. Lacey, a member of the joint military armistice commission, also accused the Reds of shipping unidentified "combat material" into North Korea over rail and road routes that by-pass neutral inspection team checkpoints.
He called for an immediate investigation by the Neutral Nations Supervisory commission, composed of Swiss, Swedish, Polish, and Czech officers.
In a letter to the NNSC, Gen. Lacey did not specify the types or number of Communist warplanes alleged to have been brought into North Korea, nor did he reveal the source of his information.
He said the Communists had "reinforced the level of combat aircraft at the North Korean airfields at Pyong-Ni, Taechon, Pyongyang, Uiju, Sinuiju, Wonsan, Sanchan, and Sunnan."
For Extra Cash, sell those items with a Kansan Classified.
Monday, Feb. 8, 1954
As Pope Is Confined His 'Shadow'Does Work
Rome—U(R)R—A tall, suave priest who guides Vatican affairs in times of crisis is known to Roman Catholic churchmen as "The Shadow of the Pope."
BULLETIN
Vatican City—(U.P.)—The Vatican announced a slight improvement in the condition of Pope Pius XII again today and high sources said there was hope-the acute stage of his illness was over.
He is Msgr. Giovanni Battista Montini, one of the Vatican's two pro-secretaries of state.
The priest often is seen rushing down the drafty corridors from the Secretariat of State to the pupal bed, where he is instructed in training urgent church documents.
Montini, too, has kept the Pope informed on Vatican affairs during this 'ateful time of confinement.
Even though Montini is "out-ranked" by many other Vatican officials, he actually is "Foreign Minister" of this tiny independent state within a nation.
During the current illness of Pope Pius XII, the slim, bald Monsignor has been the busiest man in the Vatican as the link between the pontiff's sickbed and the outside world.
When the Pope became stricken with bronchitis 13 months ago, Monini and the other pro-Secretary of State—Msgr. Dominico Tardini—took full charge of the Vatican's operations.
Montini, who comes from a family of politicians, lives in a small room
Hunt for 'First American' Continues
Folsom-type projectile points have been found in northwestern Alaska, as have Stone Age carving tools, called burins, not found farther south. Similar spearheads were discovered in the desolate Brooks Range fronting the Arctic Ocean.
These earliest peoples, pioneers of America's Paleo-Indians, came long before the first Eskimo tribes. Little has been found to bridge the gap of thousands of years. Yet the oldest Eskimo settlements so far dug up have shown a relatively advanced culture.
central Alaska. At the valley of the Mackenzie river they could have turned south along an ice-free corridor down the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains into today's Great Plains.
Otter evidence and explorations of recent years offer further hints
Washington—New clues are pushing back the calendar of ages in science's long search for the earliest Americans.
If Sandia man killed that mammoth, he long preceded Folsom Man, whose crudely-chipped spear points and tools once were considered the oldest relics of American habitation, the National Geographic society says.
Until recently, definite proof of human life on this continent went back 10,000 years at most. Now this span appears to have been doubled by the dating of a 20,000-year-old mammoth's tusk found amid evidence of man in New Mexico's ancient Sandia cave-dwelling.
There are hints that these first migrants would have followed the Arctic seacoast rather than brave the glacier-locked mountains of
near the Pope's apartment. He works about 15 hours a day, beginning with a recitation of mass shortly after dawn.
that man was in North America immediately after the last ice Age, an era that waned some 25,000 years ago. There has even been speculation, based on findings in a California gravel pit, that he was here while it was still in progress, more than 100,000 years ago.
Archeologists agree that the first wandering peoples must have come from Asia. With ocean levels slightly lower, Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska would be dry land. Along an Arctic grassland belt in the thawing Ice Age could have come Asiatic game animals and then, perhaps, predatory hunting tribes.
The Pope's right hand man never smokes, touches coffee, or drinks wine, not even at official Vatican banquets. But he is a skillful diplomat.
When Montini entered the dining room, he noticed that the British minister unfortunately had been placed almost elbow to elbow with the German ambassador.
After the beginning of World War II, diplomats of belligerent countries who had been forced to remain in Vatican City gave a party for Montenegro.
Montini calmly walked over and sat between the two.
In 1944 Pacelli, who is now Pope Pius XII, named Montini as assistant Secretary of State for ordinary affairs following the death of Luigi Cardinal Maglione, the Pope's Secretary of State.
The Monsignor, who was born 57 years ago in the northern Italian city of Brescia, was the son of a deputy in the Italian Popular party which Benito Mussolini dissolved in the early days of fascism. The party was revived after World War II as the Christian Democratic party, for which Montini's brother, Ludovico, is a deputy.
The Pope elevated Montini to the rank of pro-Secretary of State on the very day in which he called his second consistency in 1953.
It was reported that at that time the Pope had offered Montini one of the 24 red hats of a Cardinal. Montini thanked the pontiff but begged him for relief from any responsibility that would interfere with his job as "the shadow of the Pope."
Monmu was only 40 years old when Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, then Secretary of State, recognized his ability and made him an aide.