A few years ago, when former Chess Director, John Donaldson, handed me the Chess Room Visitor’s Register to place into the archives, he pointed out several notable signatures of Mechanics’ Institute’s Chess Room visitors and players. Among these names was Norman T. Whitaker, whom Donaldson described as a “con man” saying he “had something to do with extorting money and the Lindbergh baby.” With such an irresistible tagline, I was itching to learn more!
Norman Tweed Whitaker (1890-1975) was born in Philadelphia to an upper middle class family. His father, a mathematics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, taught him to play chess at the age of 14. By age 28, Whitaker was reputed to be one of the strongest chess players in the nation. He graduated from UPenn with a Bachelor’s degree in German Literature and went on to earn a law degree at Georgetown University.
While an undergraduate, Whitaker made his first recorded visit to MI on July 29, 1915. He was a member of the 2nd oldest chess club in the United States, the Franklin Mercantile Chess Club in Philadelphia. His chess opponents in exhibition and competitive matches included some of the most famous chess players at the time, such as Emanuel Lasker, Frank Marshall, and Jose Raul Capablanca.
In the early 1920s, Whitaker, a patent attorney in Washington, D.C. and his three siblings were arrested for auto theft and insurance fraud. Whitaker was sentenced to two years in Leavenworth Prison. Shortly after his release he made a second visit to MI in July, 1923, this time to participate in the Western Association Chess Championship. He was eventually disbarred in 1924.
Whitaker is most infamous for his involvement in an attempt to swindle an heiress in 1932 of money purportedly to be used to ransom the kidnapped baby of Charles Lindbergh. He conspired with a former FBI agent, Gaston Means, who had a plan to extort $35,000 from Evalyn McClean with a story that he knew the kidnappers and could arrange for the return of the baby. Whitaker was to act as the bagman and retrieve the ransom money. The scheme was exposed and they were arrested. Means received 15 years in prison where he died. Whitaker served 18 months before being released. He went on to have multiple arrests in his life and served time in several prisons including Alcatraz, where he befriended Al Capone.
His 3rd and final recorded visit to the MI Chess Club occurred on September 24, 1960. By this time Whitaker was driving around the country in his Volkswagen Beetle playing chess full time and campaigning to be awarded the International Master designation by FIDE (which he accomplished in 1965). He wrote an extensive article about his ‘Sixty-Five Years in American Chess’ in the December, 1969 edition of Chess Life magazine which conveniently extolled his chess triumphs and ignored the criminal element of this life. He died at the age of 85 in Phenix City, Alabama, an active chess player till the end.
