Claude Bloodgood (1937-2001)

 

On July 14, 1937, Claude Frizzell Bloodgood III (born Klaus Frizzell Bluttgutt III) was born in Norfolk, Virginia.  His parents were Klaus Frizzell Bluttgutt, Jr. (1909-1968) and Margaret Belma Howell (1910-1969), married in 1932.  Bloodgood later claimed that he was born on July 24, 1924 (Bastille Day) in La Paz, Mexico. [source: Hellman, The Chess Artist, 2003, p. 280]

Bloodgood had a sister, Lois Elizabeth Bloodgood Carlton (1942-2005).  She became a lawyer.

Bloodgood learned chess at the age of 5, taught by his father.

As a young man, he was arrested several times for burglary.

In 1952, at the age of 15, Bloodgood robbed a convenience store using his father's German Luger pistol.  He was tried as an adult and released in 1954.

In 1954, Bloodgood joined the marines.  He was sent to Okinawa where he was trained as a sharpshooter.  [source: Hoffman, King's Gambit, 2007, p. 175]  He served in the U.S. Marines until October 1957.

In 1955, Bloodgood claimed that he played chess with Humphrey Bogart when Bogart visited the U.S. Hospital at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California where Bloodgood was hospitalized for a foot injury.  He claimed he later played at Bogart's house in Santa Monica.  All of this was denied by his sister.

In the late 1950s, Bloodgood was an active chess player, chess organizer and rating statistician for the Virginia State Chess Federation.  He was active at a chess club in Hampton Roads, Virginia.  He was editor of the Virginia News Roundup.

In March 1958, Bloodgood's rating was 1650.

In 1958, he started the All Service Postal Chess Club (ASPCC) for military service members.  Its magazine was called King's Korner.  Bloodgood taught chess at the Norfolk USO.

In 1958, the first ASPCC championship was held.  It was directed by Bloodgood.  Eugene Leininger (1924-2020) and Bob Karch (1930-2010) tied for 1st place in the event.

In 1958, he won the Norfolk Open.  He also won it in 1959, 1960, and 1961.

In 1959, Bloodgood was investigated by the FBI for a correspondence chess game with a Soviet chess player named Vladimir Kostikov.  At the time, Bloodgood was a guard at the Norfolk naval arms depot. [source: The Guardian, March 29, 1999]

In 1959, Bloodgood's rating was 1825.

In 1959, Bloodgood scored 5-0 in the Norfolk USO Rapid Transit tournament.

In 1960, Bloodgood was a chess columnist writing about Armed Forces chess for Chess Life magazine.

In 1961, Bloodgood's USCF postal rating was 1012.

In 1962, he was convicted of breaking end entry in Delaware and served his prison time in Delaware from 1962 till 1964.

In May 1966, Bloodgood was arrested in Tijuana and deported back to the United States.  FBI records show that he may have married singer and actress Kathryn Grayson (1922-2010) at this time.   The marriage was later annulled.  The California Divorce Index has Claude Bloodgood divorcing Kathryn Grayson in September 1966 in Sonoma, California.

On December 29, 1968, Bloodgood's father died. His father had bequeathed him only $100.  His mother blamed Claude for her husband's premature death and decided to press charges against Claude for forging checks.  It was that point that Claude threatened to kill his mother when he got out of jail.

In early 1969, Claude Bloodgood was convicted of forgery of his parents' IRS accounts and served time in prison.

On November 19, 1969, nine days after he was released from prison, Bloodgood allegedly killed his mother, aged 58.   He strangled and stabbed her in the stomach over a dispute about an inheritance and bad check charges while living in Norfolk Virginia.  He rolled her body in a porch rug and dumped the body 70 miles away in the woods near Dismal Swamp in southeastern Virginia.  A bloody pillow was under her head. Bloodgood was arrested in Portsmouth, Virginia, on January 29, 1970 for the murder of his mother.  [sources: Kingston Daily Freeman (NY), Feb 2, 1970, p. 1 and Davis, "The Convict Who Would be King," The Virginian-Pilot, Oct 29, 2001]  Bloodgood maintained that another man, Michael Quarick, broke into his mother's place and killed her.

When Bloodgood was caught (he said he turned himself in) 1,988 blank postal money orders he had stolen was fond in his car.  At the time of his arrest, he confessed to the murder of his mother.  But at the trial, he recanted and claimed that he confessed only under duress.

Bloodgood's court appointed attorney, Berry D. Willis, argued that Bloodgood was insane at the time of the slaying.  However, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that Bloodgood should die by electrocution.  His trial in front of a jury only lasted two days.  The jury only took 45 minutes to sentence him to death. He was sentenced to death on June 19, 1970.  [source: The Bee (Danville, VA), Oct 12, 1971, p. 3]  Willis later stated that his client was a pathological liar.  Bloodgood tried to fire Willis almost daily and even spit in his lawyer's face.  [source: Hellman, The Chess Artist, 2003, p. 278]

Bloodgood (inmate #99432) was sentenced to die in Virginia for the murder of his mother in 1970.  Bloodgood started out as #8 on Virginia's death row.  He was scheduled for execution 6 times, but received a reprieve each time.  The sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972 after a Supreme Court ruling that the death penalty was unconstitutional.

While in prison at the Powhatan Corrections Center in Powhatan, Virginia, he played chess almost every day.  He played thousands of correspondence games (free postage for those on Death Row) and thousands of games with his fellow inmates.   While on death row, he had over 2,000 postal games going at the same time.  

In 1972, Bloodgood established the Virginia Penitentiary Chess Program (VAPEN).  It had over 100 USCF members out of a total prison population of 449.  It was disbanded in 1974 when Bloodgood escaped from prison.

In 1973, he played in the Virginia State Championship wearing shackles.  The shackles were unlocked before every game and an armed guard would always be sitting next to him when he played.  

On January 5, 1974, Bloodgood and a fellow chess player and murderer inmate, Lewis William Capleaner (convicted of stabbing a woman to death 17 times),  received a furlough (approved by the governor of Virginia) to play in a chess tournament outside the prison.  The two were to give a simultaneous chess exhibition in downtown Richmond as part of a promotional for a chess tournament in February at a Howard Johnson Motor Inn.  They overpowered their guard, Sgt. George Winslow, at the guard's apartment and escaped, but Bloodgood was captured on January 29, 1974, n Richmond, Virginia.  That ended furloughs for chess players.   Bloodgood's escape also led to the resignation of Virginia's director of prisons.  Winslow was the prison supervisor of the chess club.

Bloodgood was tracked by authorities from his use of Ann Atkins's credit card while he traveled after his escape.

Lewis Capleaner was captured and arrested in Gulf County, Florida on March 7, 1974.  Eva Sullivan and Anne Atkins of Richmond Virginia were also arrested and charged with aiding the escape of Bloodgood and Capleaner.  Sullivan gave information to the FBI that resulted in Capleaner's arrest. Atkins said that Winslow brought Bloodgood and Capleaner to her apartment on Jan 5, and left them unattended for an hour and a half.  Later, Atkins and Sullivan picked up Bloodgood and Capleaner at Winslow's apartment. [sources: The Danville (Virginia) Register, Mar 10, 1974, p. 3 and The Bee (Danville VA), April 11, 1974, p. 10]

Police later found Winslow strapped in a bed at his apartment and said the inmates overpowered him and escaped.  Bloodgood and Capleaner used Atkins's credit card and food stamps while on the run.

Bloodgood was interviewed in the Richmond City Jail and said he had not planned to escape.  The original plan was to rob a casino.  Capleaner got Winslow's gun, and at gunpoint, Winslow handcuffed himself to the bed.  Bloodgood, Capleaner, Sullivan, and Atkins then went on a road trip that took them to 9 states in 24 days.  While in North Carolina, Bloodgood toyed with the idea of playing in the Hickory chess tournament.  He changed his mind when he recognized one of the chess players and feared that the chess player might turn him in.  [source: The Bee, Jan 30, 1974, p. 12]

The lawyer for Bloodgood and Capleaner claimed that Winslow let the two inmates go.  There was no evidence that the inmates forced Winslow to let them escape  The guard  was also not authorized to take Capleaner out of the prison that day.  Winslow was fined $250 after being convicted of negligently allowing the two inmates to escape. After the incident, Winslow enlisted in the U.S. Army and was not called as a witness in the trial.  [source: The Bee (Danville VA), April 11, 1974, p. 10]

Bloodgood and Capleaner was sentenced to 5 more years of their life sentence for their escape.  Prison superintendent E. Paderick voiced doubts that Bloodgood would be able to survive if returned to the prison he escaped from because the escape created ill feeling among the other prisoners whose activities were curtailed as a result.  But Bloodgood said he did not fear for his life behind bars.  [source: The Bee, Mar 6, 1974. p. 14]  Bloodgood was sent to a special ward for 3 years. 

In 1976, he wrote The Tactical Grob.

In 1992, Bloodgood started playing chess in prison again.  Each time a new prisoner came into the prison, Bloodgood would arrange for all his other rated prisoners to lose to the new prisoner.  The new prisoner would now have a high established rating.  Bloodgood would then play a rated game against the new, high-rated prisoner and win.  In this way, Bloodgood gained more and more rating points in this closed pool until he was #2 in the nation.

In 1995, Bloodgood was USCF-rated 2655 and ranked #9 in the United States.

In 1996, his USCF chess rating rose to 2702.   He was also the 3rd most active chess player in the nation, with over 1,700 games to his credit.  His rating was due to the closed pool ratings inflation, as he won almost every rated game he played against other prisoners.   

The January 1997 USCF rating list had Gata Kamsky (2789) ranked #1, followed by Bloodgood (2712),  Yermolinksy (2711), and  Seirawan (2689).

On the June 1997 USCF rating list, Bloodgood was rated 2722,  The USCF later changed its lratings system rules to prevent "closed pool" ratings inflation.  

In 1997, he wrote Nimozivich Attack: The Norfolk Gambits.  It was supposed to be his first book in the Chess for Hustlers series.

In December 1977, Bloodgood's rating was 2639.

In 1998, he wrote The Blckburne-Hartlaub Gambit: 1.d4 e5 2.dxe5 d6.

From 1993 to 1999, he played 3,174 rated games in prison, winning over 91% of his games.  He wrote three chess books while in prison.  

In 1999, he was diagnosed with lung cancer, was confined to a wheelchair, and was told he had less than a year to live,  He made it past a year and had that Uncle Fester look.

In 2000, Bloodgood participated in the 15th U.S. Correspondence Chess Championship.  He scored 3 wins and 9 losses.  He died before he finished his last correspondence chess game.

He died of lung cancer on August 4, 2001, at the age of 64. He passed away in the hospital of the Powhatan Correctional Center near Richmond, Virginia. 

Don Wedding of Ohio was Bloodgood's executor.  9 boxes of Bloodgood's chess effects were sent to the Cleveland Public Library.

Bloodgood once claimed that he was a Nazi spy during World War II.

Bloodgood played postal chess with John Walker, a town councilor in England and Methodist preacher, for 28 years.  [source: The Guardian, March 29, 1999]

In 2015, the Powhatan Prison closed.

[other sources: Surber, “The Curious Case of Claude Bloodgood,” campfirechess.com, Oct 16, 2017 and “Claude Frizzel Bloodgood,” murderpedia.org]