Chester Himes

(1909 - 1984)

In November 1928 Chester Himes robbed a house in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and took a train to Chicago, where he intended to pawn his stolen jewels. He was arrested by two detectives there. While doing time in Ohio State Penitentiary, Himes witnessed (and later wrote about for Esquire) the Easter Monday fire of 1930, in which 322 inmates died in their cells.