Death Row All Stars Read online

  Gramm’s reputation had suffered because of Governor Carey’s allegations of malfeasance, and he was becoming more determined to bring about the governor’s, as well as Warden Alston’s, downfall. Johnson, however, had proved unwilling to give any specifics about who was betting on the All Stars and how much money was changing hands. Governor Carey had previously countered rumors of gambling by issuing a statement noting that “all officials are charged to enforce the anti-­gaming laws without fear or favor.”18 Bookmakers were indifferent to the admonition and admitted to reporters at the Wyoming State Journal that “the crop of tame suckers was very short this year.”19 Trouble at the penitentiary involving convicts who were threatening to escape and Lorenzo Paseo and his cohorts railing against Joseph Seng offered Gramm a modest amount of consolation.20

  In spite of the promise offered by the reforms he had instituted, Warden Alston was so overwhelmed with tackling the difficulties inside the penitentiary that he didn’t have much time to revel in his baseball team’s wins against the Juniors. An inmate at the state prison admitted in writing that there was a plot to assassinate the warden in the summer of 1911.21 The warden was able to isolate the instigators of the plan and had them placed in a separate lockup from the rest of the general population.22

  The warden made sure the guards accounted for every inmate every day at roll call. Those who did not appear and were suspected of hiding somewhere in the prison were subject to punishment. Diminutive prisoners known as “human ferrets” were often sent to locate inmates hiding on the grounds. According to the Annals of Wyoming, a “human ferret was a short, small prisoner who was used to search under buildings and through heating tunnels for the miscreant.”23

  Warden Alston hoped the strict rule for roll call attendance would persuade Seng’s enemies to keep their distance from his star player. He was also genuinely working on bettering general conditions and hoped the installation of screens on the windows throughout the prison and improvements to the restroom would ease the tension between the inmates and administration. His efforts didn’t pay off.24A pair of inmates escaped custody and broke out of the prison on August 9, 1911. According to the August 10, 1911, edition of the Rawlins Republican, “Two prisoners, Frank Frunirp and W. L. Peterson, who were employed at the road camp west of the city, got tired of their jobs and on Thursday night of last week started out to look for something different.” The article went on: “Warden Felix Alston was notified at once and a wire was sent out along the rail line to locate the escapees. The Union Pacific Railroad police located them on Monday and notified Sheriff McCourt of Green River and the officer followed them to the hills about twenty miles north of the Green River and captured them.

  “Sheriff McCourt and Warden Alston returned with the prisoners on Tuesday evening. Both men only had a few more months to serve and one of them would have been released in October. They will both lose the good time that was in the credit and it is not probable that they will get their old position on the road gang.”

  In the meantime the public was clamoring for a chance to see Alston’s “fast team” take the field. On August 4, 1911, the Carbon County Journal announced that the Death Row All Stars might play outside the prison walls. “Warden Alston of the penitentiary has informed us that to comply with a general demand to see his fast team of convict ball players play he has a plan in mind wherein he can take the team down to the fairgrounds for a game with the Wyoming Supply Company Jrs. team,” the article began.

  The warden asks that all who attend this game go to the grandstand and not to go out on the diamond while the teams are playing, and all who attend will observe this rule or it may be the only opportunity of ever seeing the team play ball. Another game will be held in the penitentiary yard in the near future for the benefit of the prisoners, before the downtown game, but the public is excluded from this one.

  The prisoners have developed some strong teamwork and will put up a first class game with any team in the state. In a game played at the Pen a short time ago they defeated the Juniors 11 to 1, and everyone knows the Juniors are playing a good article of ball, but they attribute their defeat to nervousness and think they can defeat the convicts in the other games to be played. Be on the lookout for the date of the downtown game and take it in; you will be assured to see one of the best games of the season.

  The Wyoming Supply Company team was organized by Daniel C. Kinnaman, the owner of the company and a trustee of the city of Rawlins. The building plumbing and supply business was one of the most respected companies in Carbon County. It provided services to the penitentiary, specifically to the broom factory. The team was made up of young men in their late teens and early twenties. They were an exceptional ball club and were considered one of the best bush league teams in the country. Kinnaman proposed a handful of games with Alston’s All Stars to help them with their training and improve their abilities. Until the Juniors experienced their first loss at the hands of the penitentiary team, friendly wagers were placed on them to beat the All Stars at every meeting.25

  Even in the midst of success on the field, problems were rife at the penitentiary. Another setback for Warden Alston’s administration occurred on August 15, 1911, when guard W. F. Carrick was shot and killed by an unknown assailant.26 “Carrick had turned in his clock, as is the watchman’s duty every hour, and had returned to the rear of the building to look around and saw that the other guards in the office and cell house were on duty,” an article in the August 17, 1911, edition of the Rawlins Republican read. “He then returned to the office . . . and was returning to the rear of the building again and just as he opened the gate he was shot in the head with a bullet from a Winchester. It is thought that someone on the outside had gone to the penitentiary with the intentions of liberating a friend. A rope ladder and several steel hacksaws were found on the prison fence. Carrick had just recently come from Texas and had only worked at the penitentiary three nights.”

  The convicts’ attempted escape and the death of the guard worried Rawlins’s citizens and called into question the wisdom of allowing inmates to be involved in any activities outside the prison walls. Games the Death Row All Stars were scheduled to play were now in jeopardy of being cancelled. The future of the team was in limbo.27

  Chapter Seven

  Nothing but the Game

  Photographer M. F. Jukes squeezed the rubber bulb attached to the camera standing next to him, and a bright white flash lit up a section of the penitentiary dining hall. When the flash faded Alston’s All Stars became visible. Dressed in dark uniforms and corresponding caps with the initials WSP stitched across the front and carrying well-­worn baseball gloves, team members held their proud pose until Jukes gave them permission to relax. The men talked among themselves as the prominent Rawlins photographer adjusted the shutters around the lens in preparation for the next shot. A sign among his camera equipment on a nearby table read, “Pictures in black and white or Sepia finish, on stiff cards, folders or flexible mountings. Various prices, one of which will suit your pocket. Come in at any time, or if more desirable, phone for an appointment. Settings done upon request. Most locations acceptable.”1

  At the appropriate time each player resumed his position for another picture to be taken. The first time the prisoners had gathered together for a photograph, they had been dressed in the clothing issued to them by the penitentiary officials as part of their incarceration. The inmate numbers they had been assigned were scrawled over the left breast pocket of their shirts, and the baseball equipment they held consisted of castoffs from players who had abandoned the game some time ago. In this photo, taken after their first wins, the convicts were different in dress and style. Their coordinating outfits gave them an air of professionalism. Some reverently cradled in their arms the gloves and baseballs they would use in upcoming games; others wore their mitts on their hands to show how ready they were to play.2

  Joseph Seng stood on the left end of the bac
k row with his hand on his hip. His mustache was neatly trimmed, and his cap was pulled down low on his forehead. His serious expression conveyed that he was a fierce opponent to other teams. Convicted rapist Eugene Rowan stood on Seng’s right, and beside him was George Saban. Saban’s shoulders were pulled back as though he were at attention. The top button of his shirt was undone, his neck being too thick to allow him to fasten it. Swindler Earl Stone, gambler and attempted rapist James Powell, and larcenist H. A. Pendergraft were on Saban’s right. Four-­year-­old Felix Vern Alston Jr. sat on a stool just below Saban wearing a dark blue uniform, stockings, and dark blue cap. On either side of him were murderer Joseph Guzzardo and thief Frank Fitzgerald; condemned rapist Thomas Cameron and burglar John Crottie bookended the bottom row.3

  The photograph was proudly displayed in the warden’s office. Felix Jr., whom Alston had made the team mascot, is in the middle of the criminal offenders, wearing the team’s uniform and smiling at the camera. Nothing in the team photo would have led anyone to imagine that the players had run afoul of the law.

  Warden Alston’s son poses with members of the Wyoming State Penitentiary All Stars. Joseph Seng is in the back row, far left. Wyoming State Archives, Dept. of State Parks & Cultural Resources

  In mid-­August 1911 Saban was still a frequent guest at the Klondike Bar, which was attracting business due to the straight betting on the convict baseball game that patrons could indulge in there. According to historian Rans Baker, the establishment enjoyed a fair amount of activity, but it was rarely crowded. It was a favorite stop for miners, railroad employees, and local businessmen, and Saban and guard D. O. Johnson were always treated courteously there. According to historian Duane Shillinger, the Klondike Bar wasn’t doing anything other taverns weren’t doing. Under-­the-­table gambling was an expected accompaniment to the Old Pepper Whisky and Old McBrayer Bourbon they served. “At the time,” Shillinger noted, “every baseball game played in Rawlins, prisoner or otherwise, was bet on at the gambling dens.”4

  Among the characters that kept company with Saban at the different saloons in town was Ora Allen. Allen held a variety of jobs in Wyoming and Colorado. He was a prospector with a copper claim and had invested heavily in a mining development company; he was a farmer with a family ranch that he worked with his brother; he was a land speculator, he was a father, and he was a gambler. Allen also owned and operated a hack line, a stable of horses used for trail rides. The business was called Huskin and Allen, and he not only used the horses to take groups out in a long line trail ride, but also employed the animals when he traveled to his out-­of-­the-­way mining claims.5 He also may have used the horse business as a cover for the money he collected for Saban. He reasoned that suspicious authorities would be less likely to catch him on horseback as he rode into the mountains to his claims.6

  Allen and Saban made a good team.7 Allen carried Saban’s message about Warden Alston’s influence over the team’s players to saloons in Cheyenne and Thermopolis, repeating Saban’s assertions that the warden had promised to lessen the inmate ballplayers’ prison time and stay executions if the team continued winning. When necessary to drive up the number of wagers, Allen also relayed the threat to death row inmates about ending their lives if they lost a game.8

  On August 13, 1911, the Wyoming State Penitentiary All Stars were dutifully led onto the baseball field at the prison by a handful of guards. The Wyoming Supply Company Juniors were waiting for them, and the spectators in attendance erupted in applause for the teams and cheered in anticipation of the game about to be played. The August 17, 1911, edition of the Rawlins Republican included a succinct article about the game entitled “Prisoners Win Again.” It began, “Another game of baseball was played Sunday morning at the penitentiary between Warden Alston’s All Stars and the Wyoming Supply Company Jrs. Rich Magor was in the box for the Juniors and pitched a fine game considering that his arm was hurt in the game against Junction City. Thomas Cameron was in the box for the pen boys and plainly showed that he was ‘there and over’ in the pitcher’s class.”

  The outcome of the matchup was covered in more detail by the August 18, 1911, edition of the Carbon County Journal. Entitled “Ball at Pen,” the column explained how the Juniors were “outclassed.”

  The Juniors were the first up to bat and Brady, the Juniors’ third baseman, fanned out. The Juniors could not get a hit and failed to reach first. Magor, the Juniors’ pitcher, let the first convict walk, but he was thrown out at second. They got men on second and third but were retired before they made a run.

  The Juniors did better in the second getting one run home. Joseph Seng was put out going to first, and then Frank Fitzgerald knocked a three base hit that scored a run. The next inning was a shutout for the Juniors, Magor getting as far as third base before the side was retired. The same thing happened to the convicts, no runs being made on either side in this inning.

  Wallace of the Juniors made a run after two men were out in the fourth inning and the convicts got two runs. O’Melia, the Juniors’ shortstop, made the star hit for the Juniors, getting a home run in the fifth inning, but the bases were empty and the best he could do was to tie the score. The convicts didn’t want it tied and put two men over the home plate before they were retired.

  The sixth inning was another shutout for the Juniors while the cons got one more man across the plate. Magor’s arm seemed to go to pieces and the convicts all hit the ball for a base or two.

  The seventh was another one-­two-­three-­you’re out inning for the Juniors while the cons got in three scores. One run was made by the Juniors in the eighth and they played hard to get another run, but were retired before they could get another man home and the convicts got two more runs before their side was out.

  The ninth inning was a big zero for both sides and the game ended by the score of 11 to 4 in favor of the convicts. The following is the box score of the game.

  Convicts

  AB

  R

  H

  PO

  A

  E

  Guzzardo, SS

  4

  0

  1

  1

  2

  1

  Potter, CF

  5

  1

  2

  0

  0

  1

  Crottie, 3B

  5

  1

  1

  2

  0

  0

  Carman, LF

  5

  1

  3

  0

  0

  1

  Rowan, 1B

  5

  2

  2

  4

  1

  0

  Seng, RF

  5

  2

  2

  0

  0

  0

  Powell, C

  4

  2

  2


  15

  4

  0

  Fitzgerald, 2B

  4

  2

  3

  5

  1

  0

  Cameron, P

  4

  0

  1

  0

  2

  0

  Totals

  36

  11

  17

  27

  10

  3

  Juniors

  Brady, 3B

  4

  1

  1

  1

  0

  0

  Smith, 1B

  4

  0

  0

  6