Claude Bloodgood

Claude Frizzell Bloodgood III (alias: Klaus Frizzel Bluttgutt III; July 14, 1937 – August 4, 2001) was a controversial American chess player. As a young man, he got into trouble with the law and was arrested several times. He was sentenced to death in 1970 after having been convicted of murdering his mother, although this sentence was later commuted to life in prison. While in prison, he remained a very active chess player, playing a large number of correspondence games and rated games with other inmates. Over time, he achieved a very high ranking in the United States Chess Federation (USCF) by playing in a closed pool, which allowed rating manipulation. He died in prison in 2001.

Bloodgood was born in Norfolk, Virginia, to Claude Frizzell Bloodgood Jr. and Margaret B. Howell.

In 1955, Bloodgood played a number of chess games against actor Humphrey Bogart, who was a good amateur player.^{[better source needed]}

Bloodgood was an active chess organizer in Hampton Roads, Virginia in the late 1950s. He was the rating statistician for the Virginia State Chess Federation, where he rated himself at an Elo rating of 1956.

In the early 1960s, he was twice convicted of burglary and served prison time in Delaware. He was also convicted of forgery of his parents' accounts, and spent more time in jail. In 1969, just nine days after being released from prison, he murdered his mother, Margaret Bloodgood (whom he later claimed to be his stepmother). According to reports, he rolled her body in a carpet and left it in Dismal Swamp, where it was soon found. His death sentence was ultimately commuted to life imprisonment after Furman v. Georgia, the 1972 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the death penalty, as then administered, was unconstitutional.

From prison, Bloodgood played thousands of chess games by mail, as well as thousands with fellow inmates. He also published three books on chess openings, including The Tactical Grob (on 1.g4) ISBN 9784871878661.

In 1974, Bloodgood and fellow inmate Lewis Capleaner received a furlough to play in a chess tournament. They overpowered the single guard assigned to them and escaped, but they were recaptured after a few days.

Bloodgood filed two petitions for habeas corpus with the courts. His contention was that the death sentence, later commuted to life, was based in part on the fact that he was a repeat offender, having been convicted twice of burglary in Delaware. But these convictions had been obtained before the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Gideon v. Wainwright which guaranteed the right to counsel. He argued that since no defense attorney had been assigned to him in the Delaware cases, the two convictions were unconstitutional and thus the Virginia death sentence was unconstitutional as well. The courts rejected his contentions, resulting in decisions of the Virginia Supreme Court in Bloodgood v. Virginia and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Bloodgood v. Garraghty, 783 F.2d 470 (4th Cir. 1986).