Death Row All Stars Page 5

  Shortly after the arrivals of Joseph Seng and Felix Alston at the Wyoming State Penitentiary, plans for the team began to fall into place. Alston’s All Stars practiced on a regulation-­size field in the exercise yard surrounded by a massive stone wall. Armed guards watched the team run the bases from a glass-­enclosed tower. During regular visits to the prison to transfer oversight of the broom-­making process, Otto Gramm watched the team, too.16

  Chapter Five

  Path to Righteousness

  It was evident after practicing with the other men on the team only a short while that Joseph Seng was an exceptional baseball player. News of the talented addition to Alston’s All Stars spread quickly throughout the area. Patrons who frequented the Turf Exchange, the Senate, the Elkhorn, and other watering holes in Rawlins speculated on how well the team would do against more established ball clubs in the region.1 George Saban encouraged such talk whenever he made stops at the saloons as part of his duties transporting items to and from the prison accompanied by prison guard D. O. Johnson in the penitentiary wagon. Security was always lax where Saban was concerned. He came and went from tavern to tavern as he pleased and boasted about the baseball team he helped manage.2

  Betting on baseball was commonplace in 1911, regardless of its legality. Partnering with a drifter named George Streplis, a man who had been arrested in March 1911 in Wyoming and held over for trial on gambling charges, Saban had plans to capitalize on the trend of betting on baseball games by urging patrons at saloons in Rawlins to bet heavily on the Death Row All Stars. Any ideas Saban had about placing bets on the penitentiary ball club were tabled, however, until he knew how long Seng would be at the Rawlins facility. He didn’t want to gamble on the team if Seng wasn’t going to be at the prison long enough to play with the All Stars. An appeal of his sentence had been filed with the governor immediately; on June 15, 1911, Governor Carey responded favorably to the appeal, and on July 18, 1911, the Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court granted a stay of execution in his case.3

  The first picture taken of the Wyoming State Penitentiary All Stars. All the team members are wearing prison-­issued shirts with their intake number over the left pocket. The little boy in the center of the All Stars is Warden Alston’s son, Felix Alston Jr. Wyoming State Archives, Dept. of State Parks & Cultural Resources

  Regardless of the fact that his time as head of the prison lessee program was coming to an end, Otto Gramm believed he had some lingering influence at the facility. He did own all the equipment and material used to manufacture the brooms, and, as long as that was the case, he would insist on being a part of the business, visiting the penitentiary ostensibly to make sure his property was being maintained properly.4 He also would be able to monitor other activities at the prison, such as Warden Alston conferring with murderer George Saban on the baseball field. Gramm would have a firsthand look at the players who enjoyed fame of a sort— their names at one time or another resting on the tongues of men who had seen them operate; their faces known, having been posted in newspapers and on sheriffs’ boards along with the list of crimes they had committed.

  Inmate #1341 Joseph Guzzardo, shortstop. Wyoming State Archives, Dept. of State Parks & Cultural Resources

  On July 18, 1911, under a blue and cloudless sky, the murderers, burglars, rapists, and confidence men that made up the Death Row All Stars emerged quickly from the baselines of the baseball diamond at the penitentiary and spread across the practice field for their first game. Alston, Gramm, and a host of other prison officials, as well as inmates, were on hand to watch.5 Inmates craned their necks to see the action from their barred windows and cheered the players on as they whipped the ball from base to base. Warden Alston had supplied the team with gloves, bats, and uniforms, and the ball club looked and played like professionals. There was no infighting, and players didn’t discuss the specifics of their criminal history with one another. The focus was the game.6

  Inmate #1459 Eugene Rowan, first baseman. Wyoming State Archives, Dept. of State Parks & Cultural Resources

  Inmate #1477 Sidney Potter, center fielder. Wyoming State Archives, Dept. of State Parks & Cultural Resources

  The stories of the men who took to the field were varied. Shortstop Joseph Guzzardo had killed a woman in 1908 while shooting at a man who was threatening his life. Eugene Rowan, the first baseman, had been convicted of breaking and entering and attempted rape in Cheyenne. Right fielder and catcher James Powell had attacked a young woman. Team captain George Saban had pled guilty to three killings. And catcher and fielder Joseph Seng had been sentenced to death for the murder of a man in Uinta County.7

  Every time a player came to bat and slapped a ripping fastball on the nose for a solid hit to left field or someone snatched up a red-­hot grounder and heaved it to the proper base to get an out, the All Stars forgot they were little more than caged creatures. Warden Alston and Saban stood on the baselines conferring on strategies of the game, discussing when a good bunt would beat a strong hit and how best to utilize each player. But the ever-­watchful Gramm believed that their conversation went deeper than that. Prison guard D. O. Johnson had reported to Gramm that Saban was illegally betting on the All Stars’ games using money given to him by Warden Alston.8 Gramm relayed the information to Senator Francis Warren, who suspected the rumor might have a future and that Governor Carey, who had handpicked Warden Alston for the job, was also involved. Senator Warren once said of Governor Carey, “If I hadn’t known Carey from the time he stepped off the train in 1869, a green boy up to the present, and hadn’t figured inside of the inner circles so much with him in political affairs, he might possibly fool me once in a while, for he surely is the most monumental hypocrite, and the most infernal liar—when necessary—that God ever permitted to live whom I have been permitted to meet.”9

  Inmate #1480 Earl Stone, one of two alternate pitchers and fielder. Wyoming State Archives, Dept. of State Parks & Cultural Resources

  Inmate #1481 Frank Fitzgerald, second baseman. Wyoming State Archives, Dept. of State Parks & Cultural Resources

  In spite of the rumors and controversy swirling about, the All Stars won that first official game on July 18, 1911. And the way the team handled their opponent generated a great deal of talk from local business owners and baseball fans about their future. The July 20, 1911, edition of the Carbon County Journal called the Death Row All Stars’ win over the Wyoming Supply Company Juniors “classy.” “Through the kindness of Warden Felix Alston, the Wyoming Supply Company Jrs. went up to the penitentiary Sunday afternoon and played against the Warden’s All Star team and was defeated 11 to 1,” the article read. “After a short practice game was called and up to the fourth inning neither side could get a run, the Juniors failing to get on first, while the prisoners got to third base in two of the innings. When the prisoners came to bat in the fourth, two men were put out, but they ran in three scores before the third out on errors by the Juniors.”

  In the next inning they got four men across the plate while the Juniors failed to score. The next inning looked like a shutout again. In the next inning neither side secured a run, although by bunched hits the Juniors got men on all bases.

  In the eighth inning the Cons got another home run that brought in two men and the Juniors got their only run, Wallace making a hit and going to first when Walt Smyth took his place and got around the bags. The ninth was another shutout for the Juniors while the Cons got one more man across home plate.

  The prisoners were all out in the yard and yelled and rooted for their team as if they were watching one of the big leagues play.

  They made a big barrelful of lemonade and passed it around among the players and spectators alike and put blankets over a clothes rack to make a cool shady place for the Juniors, in fact they did everything to make the visit a most pleasant one and there was no one who realized
at the end of the game that they were locked in and playing ball in the stockade of a penitentiary.

  Some of the ladies were watching the game from one of the guard houses when one got hit under the eye with a foul ball, the only accident of the game, and many were the expressions of sorrow on the part of the prisoners that this happened.

  Joseph Seng, who was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death, played a classy game all the way through. He will petition the governor to commute his sentence to life imprisonment sometime this month.

  Warden Alston has a fast team as our Juniors are classed as one of the best amateur teams in the state and it takes a good team to defeat them, although they were on grounds that were new to them and also that they played one of the oldest games ever played in the state caused them to be a little nervous.

  The battery for Sunday’s game was: Juniors—Hints and Gunning. Prisoners—Cameron and Powell. The lineup was as follows:

  Prisoners

  Position

  Juniors

  Guzzardo

  SS

  O’Melia

  Potter

  CF

  Bailey

  Crottie

  3B

  Freeman

  Stone

  LF

  Schalk

  Rowan

  1B

  Smyth

  Seng

  RF

  Roberts

  Cameron

  P

  Hints

  Powell

  C

  Gunning

  Fitzgerald

  2B

  Wallace

  The Juniors and visitors wish to thank Warden Alston for the many kindnesses shown at the game and also the prisoners for the delicious lemonade.”

  Joseph Seng’s stellar performance as a hitter and fielder was reported by newspapers from Wyoming to Washington, DC. A headline in the July 24, 1911, edition of the Washington Post read Slayer Scores Home Runs. “A man under death sentence helps convicts win first game,” the tagline teased, and the article read, “With a murderer condemned to death as the right fielder, and all other members of the opposing team convicts, the Wyoming Supply Company ball club put up a good game against the Alstons . . .”

  While Gramm fought to acquire information to prove his theory that the penitentiary baseball club was Warden Alston’s version of the lessee program and that the warden was involved in gambling, Seng fought to survive behind bars. Seng’s cell was near that of Lorenzo Paseo, a habitual offender, guilty of a range of crimes from burglary to murder. Paseo was a brash, arrogant man who would battle anyone who defied the authority he thought he had over most inmates. He was not a fan of Warden Alston or of those the warden honored with a spot on the baseball team. According to the book Annals of Wyoming, Paseo, along with a few other prisoners in his circle of friends, frequently snuck hair tonic out of the prison barber shop and used it to get drunk. He began most mornings with a drink of the mixture to give him courage to attempt to bully fellow inmates such as Seng. Seng did his best to ignore Paseo and spent a great deal of his free time poring over letters he received from his spiritual advisor in Allentown, Pennsylvania.10

  Rev. Peter Masson of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Allentown kept Seng abreast of his family’s well-­being. Although they had never met, Joseph somehow found it easier to communicate with Masson than with his own brothers, sister, or parents. Some primary sources indicate that Joseph’s mother and father knew nothing about their son’s situation until March 1912. Joseph was too ashamed to let them know what had happened.11

  At the urging of Joseph’s childhood friends in Pennsylvania, who did finally learn of his dire circumstances, Rev. Masson agreed to have church authorities look into the facts of the case. The result of the church’s investigation confirmed that Joseph did act in self-­defense in the shooting death of William Lloyd.12

  Inmate #1508 Ora Carman, left fielder. Wyoming State Archives, Dept. of State Parks & Cultural Resources

  Inmate #1532 James Powell, catcher. Wyoming State Archives, Dept. of State Parks & Cultural Resources

  Paseo challenged Seng’s claim that he had acted in self-­defense. He threatened to kill Seng and also continued to make threats against the warden’s life. In fact, Paseo’s plans for the warden were well known by the general inmate population. Those he could not solicit help from were warned to keep quiet. Seng had no trouble remaining silent on a matter that didn’t concern him and went out of his way to avoid men like Paseo. Historical records found in Annals of Wyoming note that Seng stayed close to the guards. According to a fellow inmate, “He [Seng] always stood next to the guard’s desk when the prisoners were at the dining table. He stood there with his chest thrown out and leaning back against the railing, as though he might be the commander in chief of the army inspecting troops. He would look each convict up and down as he passed by.”13

  Wyoming State Penitentiary historians note that Seng was a helpful prisoner, and, because of that, he was allowed to mingle with other inmates. The majority of inmates were relegated to one area at a time: mess hall, exercise yard, showers, designated cell blocks, etc. The punishment was harsh for anyone who dared defy the rule. Seng’s congenial attitude and the ease with which he made his way from one cell block to another without interference from the guards irritated one of Paseo’s associates. Seng had favored status, and Paseo’s cohorts felt he flaunted his position. Threats were made about killing him, but Seng ignored them.14

  Inmate #1589 H. A. Pendergraft, fielder. Wyoming State Archives, Dept. of State Parks & Cultural Resources

  Inmate #1569 John Crottie, third baseman. Wyoming State Archives, Dept. of State Parks & Cultural Resources

  Warden Alston was coping with similar covert threats issued toward not only himself but also his staff, and rumors of escape plots continued to permeate the facility. Some inmates complained that the warden was unable to establish firm, evenhanded control. Outside the prison, however, the public was gaining confidence in the warden’s ability on the job, and he was recognized as a leader with massive political potential. Just prior to the first baseball game the All Stars played, Warden Alston was asked to serve as a delegate to the Wyoming Progress Association Conference in Cheyenne. The Wyoming Progress Association helped organizations develop ideas that would stimulate business in the state.15

  A newspaper article applauding the work the warden was doing at the prison and how that work was benefitting the community at large was published in the July 14, 1911, edition of the Big Horn County Rustler. “Road building by convicts started this morning west of Rawlins when Warden Felix Alston placed a body of prisoners at work,” the report read.

  This is the beginning of good roads for Wyoming and the redemption in a great measure of convicts. In selecting prisoners for road work, Warden Alston has adopted the policy of men first making good behind the walls before being eligible to work on the roads, and it is needless to say that the prisoners will make every effort to show by their conduct and close application to their work behind the walls that they are worthy of the Warden’s confidence and that he can train them to take a place on the road force.

  For an overnight of this the first convict gang of road builders, Warden Alston has appointed a man who is serving from
twenty to ninety-­nine years from Laramie County. The inmate is experienced at this work as well as being very popular with his fellow prisoners and no doubt each man will work his very best for him. You just keep your eyes on Warden Felix Alston and his bunch of road builders for they are going to force you to sit up straight and take some notice.

  Warden Alston and L. W. Senville, the man in charge of the broom factory, now under the sole control of the prison and not operated under the lessee agreement, made frequent visits to Cheyenne to update the State Board of Charities and Reform and confer with it on the changes that had been instituted. On August 2, 1911, Warden Alston proudly reported to the board that ten miles of road had been completed since the start of the road-­building program. The update he gave on the prison baseball team was even more glowing.16

  Numerous articles about the baseball team and Joseph Seng in particular appeared in Wyoming newspapers throughout the summer of 1911. Reporters wrote about Seng’s ball playing, the team he was a part of, the crime he had been accused of, and whether a judge would commute his sentence from death to life in prison. According to Alta Lloyd’s descendants, she considered staying in the area after her husband was shot and killed by Seng. Her family claims she was expecting a child and had contemplated living with the Ewers in Evanston while awaiting word about Seng’s case.17 She would have had an opportunity to read the many items printed about him.