Scammed by Stormin Norman: Caissa?s Conman

by Tartajubow
(Ohio)

Stormin Norman: Caissa?s Conman. That?s how Arnold Denker described the infamous Norman T. Whitaker in his book, The Bobby Fischer I Knew.

Norman Tweed Whitaker (April 9, 1890? May 20, 1975) was an International Master who finally received his title in 1965 when he was 75 years old based on his play 30 or 40 years earlier. Whitaker was, in his heyday, a very strong player but his career in chess was often placed on hold. He was a disbarred lawyer who made his living as a conman. That and the fact that he was often incarcerated kept him from becoming more successful in his chess career. His biggest claim to fame was his involvement in the famous Lindbergh baby kidnapping case back 1932.

Whitaker came from a prominent Philadelphia family and was well-educated but ended up spending a lot of his life at Leavenworth, Alcatraz and a few other federal and state penitentiaries. His rap sheet consisted of arrests for auto theft, selling narcotics, blackmail and child molestation. He often gave his home as "Shady Side" Maryland. He did not really live in Shady Side but liked to use that name so that everybody would know that he was a shady character. He was actually proud of his criminal accomplishments.

I met him in either late 1966 or early 1967. I was stationed at the US Marine Corps base in North Carolina and played in a small tournament in Raleigh, NC, shortly before I was discharged. Sunday morning before the start of the round I arrived at the tournament room to find an elderly, bespectacled man dressed in an old suit and who walked with crutches holding court. He was adjudicating one of the adjourned games. During the process he was also dispensing helpful advice to the group which included a couple of Experts (2000+ players).

After his adjudication he got to the real reason for his being at such an insignificant event. He had several boxes of books titled 365 Selected Chess Endings. It was book he had co-authored with a Washington, DC Expert named Glen Hartleb.

Hartleb had been killed and Whitaker seriously injured in a car accident shortly after publication. They were returning by car from a tournament in the US Southwest and while Whitaker slept, Hartleb allowed their travelling companion, a 16-year old without a license to drive. The result was a fatal accident that instantly killed Hartleb and left Whitaker on crutches. The driver was not hurt.

The book was one of endgames. Some were played over-the-board and others were compositions, mostly by major composers, and was in both English and German. Whitaker held a copy of the book in his hand and set up several positions then explained the beauty of the solution and carefully explained the motif that made the solution work. Fascinating stuff! Then came the hook. A conman always has a hook?something that will hook his prey. In this case Whitaker?s hook that got us to buy the book was his solemn promise that if we learned everything in it we would be a Master. Well, who wouldn?t want to be a master so several of us bought one. I spent five dollars for it and Whitaker autographed it for me. Five dollars doesn?t sound like a lot of money, but in those days on a corporal?s pay it represented a considerable investment. When I got back from the tournament I took a good look at it and realized there was nothing, absolutely nothing, in it that would improve my play. It was just a collection of positions with the solutions in the back of the book. I had been conned into buying a useless book. I kept it in my chess library for several years and finally realized that I because I had never read, nor was I going to ever read it, it could be safely thrown away.

The book has been reprinted since and is of some minor interest to people who are into problems but ordinary players wouldn?t be the least interested in it. What upsets me more than getting conned out of my five dollars was that a couple years ago I saw somebody on the Internet offering $200 for an original edition! I had one signed by the author but threw it away! If I hadn?t done that I am positive I could have gotten even more. I know the fact that I threw his book in the trash was not his fault, but I still feel like he conned me a second time 40 years after his death.