Death Row All Stars Read online

  “If I’d had a fair and impartial trial, and a lawyer who understood his business I never would have been convicted of murder in the first degree,” Seng assured Reid at the conclusion of their talk.19

  Just before two-­thirty in the morning on May 24, Seng was escorted out of his cell by Warden Alston and the Rev. Father Long. A guard followed behind the trio as they began a slow walk to the gallows. “His steps were steady and he went to his death in a manner which stamped him as a brave man,” the May 24, 1912, edition of the Carbon County Journal noted. “There was nothing of the braggadocio in his manner which was quiet and unassuming.” A few spectators were waiting at the gallows when Joseph arrived. Among them were three doctors from the prison, Drs. Maghee, Adams, and Barber. Sheriffs and deputies from Carbon and Sweetwater Counties were there as well as a handful of Rawlins city officials.20

  Seng stood before the dour-­faced individuals at the event and smiled slightly. He was asked if he had any last words, and he nodded his head yes. After reiterating that he felt he did not have a fair trial, he told the onlookers that no one had ever given him a square deal except the warden and the penitentiary guards. Joseph then kissed Dr. Maghee and said, “Tell my mother good-­bye for me, Doctor.”21

  Guards led Joseph up the stairs of the gallows to the platform ten feet above the ground. Immediately before him was the trapdoor. A black cap was placed over Joseph’s head and a noose, hanging loosely from a beam overhead, was fashioned tightly around his neck. As soon as Joseph stepped on the trapdoor, a valve in a bucket of water hanging balanced with a small bag of sand opened. The running water caused the sandbag to drop, and as it fell it pulled out the bolt that held up the trapdoor Seng was standing on.22

  According to the Carbon County Journal, Seng “fell five feet before he was jerked into eternity at the end of the rope.” The falling of the sandbag, the rattling of the empty water bucket, the pulling of the bolt, and the crash of the doors as they dropped Seng’s body through the trap that opened beneath him were the only sounds.23 The fall did not break his neck, and he was slowly strangled. At 2:54 a.m., nine minutes and forty-­five seconds after the trap was released, Dr. Maghee pronounced his former assistant dead. Seng’s body was cut down, removed from the prison yard, and turned over to the county undertaker. The undertaker kindly agreed to furnish a casket and prepare the body to be shipped to Joseph’s home in Pennsylvania.24

  Julian Gallows, where Joseph Seng was hanged in May 1912. Wyoming State Archives, Dept. of State Parks & Cultural Resources

  Newspapers from Wyoming to Iowa carried the story of Seng’s execution. The Carbon County Journal’s coverage included a letter written by Seng to those who had tried to help him while he was at the penitentiary. Given to Will Reid hours before Joseph was hanged, it read:

  I am taking this means of expressing my gratitude and thanks to the people of Rawlins and vicinity for their kindness shown me in this my time and for the respect shown my mother and family in endeavoring to have my sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

  I hold the greatest respect for those of you who tried. Although our combined efforts have been to no avail I know my mother will always look upon the people of Rawlins as friends and will always remember them in her prayers.

  It is my desire to thank the prison authorities and especially Warden Alston for the favors and the kind consideration shown me during my confinement here, Mr. Reid for his efforts on my behalf through the columns of the Journal, Reverend Father Conrath and Father Long for their kindness and spiritual advice which has been a great comfort to me all through this ordeal, and especially Dr. Griffith Maghee who has shown me nothing but kindness and great cheer and has worked in an undying way to secure some consideration on my behalf. Oh, people you could not understand if I were to explain what a friend Dr. Maghee is to the unfortunate, not to me alone, but to all and everyone.

  Again I thank each and every one of my friends who have tried to help me and also freely forgive my enemies. God bless you all. I am, Joseph Seng.25

  On May 25, 1912, nearly four years after Seng had stepped off the train in Rawlins, he was on his way back to the town from whence he came. His body arrived in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on June 5 and he was buried the following day. Rev. Peter Masson conducted services in the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish, and Joseph was laid to rest in the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. Friends who had played baseball with Joseph when they were all boys served as pallbearers.26

  Chapter Ten

  The Last Inning

  On Friday, May 24, 1912, Wyoming citizens awoke to the news that the execution of Joseph Seng had been carried out and that his body had been shipped to his aged mother. Below an article about the hanging posted on the front page of the Wyoming Tribune was a column announcing the scores of the National and American League baseball teams that had played the day before Joseph was put to death.1 In stories that appeared about Seng’s execution in newspapers as far away as Wellsville, New York, writers included a few sentences about how well the former inmate had played the game of baseball. Alston’s All Stars never played again.

  By the end of 1911, two of the infielders and two other players had served their time and been granted parole. Utility player Ora Carman’s sentence expired on September 15, 1911, as did that of the left fielder Earl Stone.2 Third baseman John Crottie was released in November 1911, and second baseman Frank Fitzgerald was released in December 1911. In 1912 several more players departed the prison. Left fielder H. A. Pendergraft was granted parole in January 1912. Center fielder Sidney Potter’s sentence concluded in June 1912, and so did that of pitcher Thomas Cameron. Cameron moved to Colorado and went to work as a coal miner. Shortstop Joseph Guzzardo was pardoned in July 1912 after helping to extinguish a fire at the penitentiary.

  In early January 1913 team manager George Saban petitioned the State Board of Pardons for a reprieve, but his request was denied. Saban watched as Warden Alston’s first baseman, Eugene Rowan, was granted parole in November 1913 and returned to his home in Rock Springs, Wyoming. On December 17, 1913, Saban escaped from the prison road gang he was working with near Manderson in Big Horn County.3 According to the December 25, 1913, editions of the Thermopolis Record and the Big Horn County Rustler, Saban had help with his getaway. On January 16, 1914, the Carbon County Journal joined them in pointing out that Warden Alston had extended to him “all the privileges that any man serving a penitentiary sentence of twenty years could expect and then some.” The Journal article continued:

  D. O. Johnson, a special prison guard, was assigned to escort Saban back to the prison in Rawlins. Saban asked to be allowed to visit Basin to attend to business at the bank. This was granted, and he and Johnson stopped at a hotel. About 7 o’clock that evening Saban was allowed to go out and see some friends and that was the last seen of him.

  For some reason Johnson did not give the alarm until 11 o’clock the next morning, explaining his action by saying that he thought his man would return and that to report him would be to take away his credits.

  Saban seems to have evaporated. There are plenty of rumors but nothing authentic can be learned of his movements after leaving the hotel. It is said that an auto passed through Greybull [Wyoming] that night, but that might or might not mean anything. It is also said that his plan was to reach the coast and take passage for South America. There is another theory that he is hiding at the home of some friend in Basin.

  All these stories are vague and may mean nothing. One thing is certain and that is that he ought to be easy to get if he is trying to make the getaway. The fact that he is a large man with a pleasant voice and manner, has a habit of smiling and showing a handsome set of teeth when he speaks, and has crippled hands ought to attract the attention of any officer who has his description. He is well-­known through all this part of the country and unless he made a quick dash immediately on gaining his liberty he is pretty apt to run across someone
who will know him.

  It has been found out that Ora Allen, an associate of both D. O. Johnson and George Saban, left for Basin in his car the same night Saban escaped, with a mysterious passenger. They two were headed north. Allen was caught at Bridger, Montana, on the return trip from Laurel, where he had left Saban. We understand he admitted that he took the fugitive on the night flight, but claims that he thought all straight and right. The Journal reported that Montana authorities believed Allen and Johnson were working together to help Saban escape.

  In support of his statement that Saban did not take a train at Laurel, Sheriff Orrick of Billings, Montana, quotes a conversation with an old friend of Saban’s who saw and talked with the murderer at Bridger at the same time and when Allen was arrested the next day it was presumed Saban was in the neighborhood, as his sister and his mother reside on a ranch near Bridger.

  “Wyoming officers after locating Allen apparently made no effort to locate Saban,” said Sheriff Orrick, to all appearance accepting on face value his story to the effect that he left the escaped prisoner at Laurel. Later, according to Sheriff Orrick, Allen gave the lie to his plea of ignorance of the fact that Saban was supposed to be in custody by admitting he had Saban get out of the car and circle Greybull afoot in order that he might not be seen and recognized there where he is well-­known.

  Allen told the Wyoming officers he received $100 to take Saban across the line into Montana and said he believed Saban’s statement that he was free. Johnson, the guard, said nothing of Saban’s escape until the day after he disappeared.

  “Montana officers made an effort to assist the Wyoming authorities to locate Saban until they discovered the Wyoming officers seeming indifference when they ceased their efforts,” Sheriff Orrick declared. “The Wyoming authorities did not even visit the home of Saban’s relatives to see if he had been there,” he said.”4

  Ora Allen was eventually charged with unlawfully and feloniously assisting a convict to escape, and D. O. Johnson received a reprimand for being negligent. George Saban was never heard from again.5

  To Otto Gramm, Johnson’s involvement in Saban’s escape confirmed his suspicions that the penitentiary administration was corrupt from top to bottom. He believed Warden Alston was ultimately responsible for Saban’s getaway. In a letter to Senator Warren dated September 12, 1914, Gramm wrote that he “had no doubt that Felix Alston knew ahead of time that George would run. . . . He let him go when the threat of everyone finding out they were gambling on the inmate baseball team became too real for him.”6

  Epilogue

  Three days after Joseph Seng was hanged, Governor Carey was in Riverton, Wyoming, discussing irrigation systems on the Wind River Reservation with the state land commissioner. Five months later he would travel to Rawlins to meet Felix Alston and local authorities to talk about the trouble at the penitentiary. The convicts were rioting. They had overpowered prison guards, and several prisoners had escaped. On October 14, 1912, Governor Carey sent troops to the area to suppress the battle between mutinous convicts and guards of the prison. “Eight convicts overpowered guards and escaped,” an article in that day’s edition of the Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin, newspaper the Daily Commonwealth reported. “One of those convicts, Lorenzo Paseo, who was serving a life term, was shot down, another, whose name is unknown, was killed by a posse of guards outside the prison. A third was mortally wounded. More than thirty escaped convicts are at large in the mountains around Rawlins, and practically every man in town is either fighting desperados or assisting in guarding the women and children of the city. The county for miles around Rawlins has been the scene of more fighting than at any time since the last Indian massacre.”1

  Although Wyoming citizens benefitted from the work that convicts did on various highways in the state, many were critical about the lack of strict supervision of the inmates. Warden Alston did not demand the level of security the prison population needed, both within the penitentiary and on work details outside the facility. Rawlins residents also felt that the inmates controlled too much of what went on inside the prison and that the warden was too busy to care about the issue and how it might adversely affect the community.2

  A number of the state’s law-­abiding inhabitants believed that George Saban specifically ruled the prison population with Warden Alston’s blessing. A report in the December 29, 1913, edition of the Laramie Republican illustrated that point and emphasized that a thorough investigation of Warden Alston needed to be done. “During the Big Horn County Fair at Basin during the fall, a man from southern Wyoming met George Saban on the street,” the article noted. “What are you doing here, George?” asked the southern Wyoming man. “Just taking in the fair a little,” responded the convict. The article continued:

  “And it was literally the truth. From all accounts, it appears that George Saban, self-­confessed murderer and presumed to have been under punishment for a term of twenty years, never has been treated as a criminal, but has had the best of everything, even personal liberties, to an exceedingly large extent.3

  “He had not been in the penitentiary but a very short time before he was made a trustee. And the fact that he was going to picture shows and other places at Rawlins where convicts were not presumed to go called forth bitter demonstrations from people of Rawlins. When the road work came up Saban was sent out on that work and had had pretty much his way on the road gang. . . . The entire matter demands the closest scrutiny from the state authorities.”

  Less than a month after more than thirty inmates escaped and scattered from the penitentiary, two more broke loose from the dungeons of the building. According to the November 9, 1912, edition of the Rawlins Republican, “both escapees were rated among the meanest at the penitentiary and were always in trouble. . . . The general feeling of discontent at the penitentiary is due to the fact that all the men think they are being discriminated against because they were not chosen for the road gang.”

  The escapees were captured and returned to the Wyoming State Penitentiary, but confidence in the prison officials was shaken. State auditor Robert Forsyth openly expressed his concerns with the management of the penitentiary. In a letter to Governor Carey on the front page of the November 1, 1912, edition of the Wyoming State Journal, Forsyth called Warden Alston and his staff “criminal, incapable, insanely lenient, blind to reason and cautions. . . . I believe that the present condition of affairs at Rawlins to be without parallel in American prison history and that unless complete and sweeping reforms are at once instituted further and perhaps graver outrages, if such can be possible, will be perpetrated.” Forsyth added, “As a citizen of Wyoming I deem it my duty to protest against the existing abuses and to demand a speedy correction of the same. As an official of the state, I will join you in inaugurating the proper reforms in the penitentiary, but unless such reforms are undertaken, you must take the responsibility for the continuation of the failure to properly administer penitentiary affairs.”4

  Alston rebounded from the controversy surrounding his first years as warden and remained in that position until March of 1919. During that time he conducted four more executions. The warden died in 1956 at the age of eighty-­seven.5

  Alta Lloyd moved to Pennsylvania in the summer of 1912. According to her great-­niece, Alta’s child died of pneumonia on October 2, 1912. Alta committed suicide two days later. No one knows exactly where she is buried, but her family suspects she and her baby were laid to rest at the Sacred Heart Cemetery in Allentown. The cemetery plot records show that a body was buried in plot eighty on October 13, 1912, and lists that an infant is buried in plot eighty-­two. Joseph Seng lies between Alta and the child, in plot eighty-­one.6

  Otto Gramm died on December 17, 1927, in Laramie, Wyoming, where he remained the principal owner and manager of the Laramie Coal Company.7

  Governor Carey returned to the business of managing the state. His term ended in 1915. He passed away at his home in Cheyenne on February
5, 1924, at the age of seventy-­nine, following a protracted illness.8

  Senator Francis Warren died of pneumonia on November 24, 1929. Wyoming’s senior senator had been in public office for thirty-­seven years. “All walks of life bowed in humble solemnity as the sad news was heralded throughout the state and nation,” the November 28, 1929, edition of the Big Piney Examiner reported. “His memory will forever stand in the hall of fame as a gallant hero, brilliant statesman, and a devoted citizen.”

  Senator Warren never had a friendly relationship with Governor Carey. They tolerated one another, but the senator remained suspect of Governor Carey and his politics until the day he died.9

  The Julian Gallows, used to hang Joseph Seng, was retired in May 1933. A new form of execution, one the public and prison executives deemed “less barbaric and cumbersome,” took its place. Lethal gas replaced the hangman’s noose. In the summer of 1936, construction began on a gas chamber. It was built in the northwest portion of the prison hospital.10

  In 1981, after serving the state for eighty years, the Wyoming State Penitentiary at Rawlins closed its doors. A new prison south of Rawlins was built, and the old prison became a historic landmark and museum.11

  Notes

  Introduction

  1Indiana Gazette, January 12, 2008; James, Historical Baseball Abstract, 7–9; Wild West, March 31, 2011.

  2Wild West, March 31, 2011; Indiana Gazette, January 12, 2008.

  3Atlantic Evening News, December 12, 1906.

  4McKelvey, A History of Good Intentions, 114–229.