by Enss, Chris
Seng couldn’t see himself doing anything but perfecting his game and trying to stay alive. Not only was there the question of his execution being scheduled, but also there were continued problems with a portion of the prison population that threatened his well-being. Lorenzo Paseo and his followers had never wavered from their desire to want to harm members of the warden’s baseball club, especially Seng.
Chapter Eight
Dead Man at Bat
In November 1911 winter weather had moved in, and the Wyoming State Penitentiary infirmary was filled to near overflowing with violently ill inmates. Patients with no beds to lie on sat on the floor, propped up against the wall. Some were drawn into a fetal position and others were draped facedown across thin pillows scattered around the room. The air was pungent and oven-hot. The sound of sick convicts retching into buckets and tin pans echoed throughout the crowded medical unit.1
Joseph Seng hurried from one patient to another, assisting Dr. Maghee. He mopped the damp sweat off the prisoners’ heads, gave them drinks of water, and fed them chips of ice. Guards escorted more ailing men into the medical unit and dropped them wherever they could find space. The sick inmates moaned in pain and some cried out for relief.2
After several hours of listening to the suffering, collecting the vital signs of each patient, and analyzing the symptoms, the doctor and his assistant determined that the men, including several members of the baseball team, had been poisoned. News of their illness and speculation that the poisoning might have been a deliberate act spread quickly throughout the prison. Several prison guards, including D. O. Johnson, considered the possibility that someone with a grudge against the penitentiary baseball team and its chance to compete in future games might have orchestrated the poisoning.3 There was some chatter between the guards and prisoners that Otto Gramm could be behind the trouble.4
Gramm, naturally, was not unhappy about the news that problems were still plaguing the prison under Warden Alston’s watch. He was rumored to have been offended by a column that had appeared in the November 3, 1911, edition of the Lander, Wyoming, newspaper the Lander Eagle. The headline read Carey Saving Good Money—Better Than Gramm. The article that followed contained a statement of the affairs of the Wyoming State Penitentiary and showed significant improvements on financial and other fronts. “The people are entitled to know and the books of the administration are open to all,” Governor Carey was quoted in the report. “The results of the administration of the penitentiary under the new arrangement can best be summed up by presenting a statement of what the penitentiary [would have] cost the state had Otto Gramm been allowed to remain in his position there,” the article continued.
“It’s shown that the average daily per capita cost to the state was $.61 cents for the year ending September 30, 1910, made up by the $.50 cents per day per prisoner paid to Mr. Otto Gramm, lessee, and the $.11 cents per day per prisoner paid for permanent improvements, discharge money, etc. Had the Gramm contract continued the expense to that would have been more than $25,000.00.”
Luckily, with Seng’s help, Dr. Maghee was able to relieve the prisoners of their misery. The pair mixed a concoction of mustard and Coca-Cola that helped to purge the toxins from the sick convicts. Patients and prison officials praised the doctor and Seng for bringing an end to the outbreak. Within twenty-four hours of the incident occurring, health had been restored and inmates returned to their cells.5According to the November 6, 1911, edition of the Laramie Daily Boomerang, the cause of the poisoning turned out to be contaminated food. “A quantity of kraut had been allowed to remain in a metal pot overnight,” the article read, “and along the edge had absorbed poison and in a few minutes after eating it many prisoners were in intense pain.”
George Saban kept himself clear of any disputes with fellow inmates and aligned himself with more than one guard who had an allegiance to Otto Gramm. Saban had a problem with other prisoners only when they stood in the way of his money-making ventures. News that law enforcement was cracking down on illegal gambling throughout the state was the basis for his frustration that fall, beginning in September 1911.6
Saban had become aware of a novel method of betting on baseball results after reading a regional newspaper and was looking forward to putting it into practice in Rawlins. Those who wanted to place a wager on a game need not root for any special club or league or be interested in the outcome of a particular match. According to the September 22, 1911, edition of the Cheyenne State Leader, all gamblers needed to know was how many runs would be made by a specific player or by the team as a whole. The game, which was being run above a saloon in Chicago, attracted more than eight thousand participants in one week. The minimum bet was fifty cents. “The ticket having the name of the team combination which makes the most runs in the week is the winner of the first prize,” the article explained. Promoters took 10 percent of the pool for their services. “Patrons were flocking to the saloon,” the report continued, “to watch the score to see how their chances were running.”7
As much as Saban wanted to try his luck with the system, he felt as though he needed to rein in his unlawful activities until the focus of the police shifted away from gaming. His instincts proved to be right. Near the northern border of the state, law enforcement made a number of arrests in Cody in a single night’s gambling raid. According to the November 22, 1911, edition of the Cody daily newspaper the Park County Enterprise, proof that gambling was indeed going on came when authorities raided a saloon called Chapman’s. Patrons playing “twenty-one” for drinks were arrested, as was the owner of the establishment. Friends of the saloonkeeper told the Enterprise reporter that he had been made the victim of “discrimination and persecution.” “They insisted that the little game was stopped by the officers the same night there were two big games going on behind locked doors, but these were not molested,” the article read.
The news on the street was that Governor Carey had ordered the raid and would order more in an effort to put a stop to gambling everywhere in Wyoming. Opponents of the governor said he was “selective” about what establishments he decided to raid and challenged him to look within his own sphere of influence if he was sincere about doing away with gambling.8
According to Warden Alston’s grandson, Scott Alston, Governor Carey sent a letter to the prison in early September 1911 expressing his concern about the baseball team. Some citizens were not only critical of the fact that the All Stars were allowed to play ball outside the stockades of the prison but were also opposed to the idea that state officials might be wagering on the team. “This must not be done,” the governor warned regarding the baseball club playing further games outside the penitentiary. “Only disaster can come of it.” Warden Alston assured the governor that he would “resolve the problem.” How the warden planned to take care of the matter, or admit that there was any real issue that need to be resolved at all, was not made clear to the members of the baseball team.9
An article in the September 7, 1911, edition of the Rawlins Republican about the games the Wyoming Supply Company Juniors were set to play left many of the All Stars wondering when they would take the field next. Warden Alston announced the demise of the team at a prison meeting in mid-September 1911 and told his staff that teaching inmates how to read and write had to now be the main focus. Saban assured the ballplayers and the owners of local gambling dens that the decision was only temporary. He told owners of various saloons on Front Street in Rawlins that the emphasis on educating the convicts was only a ploy to draw attention away from the Death Row All Stars. “Once the excitement settles,” Saban added, “the ball club will go back to doing what they do best.”10
Local newspapers reported that offering inmates a primary education was an idea whose time had come. “Within the institution are many persons who were thrown upon their own resources at a very tender age and as a consequence their education is of a limited kind,” an article in the October 19,
1911, edition of the Wyoming Times read. “And in some cases there has been no formal education at all.” Large supplies of textbooks, tablets, and writing utensils were sent to the prison from schools around the state. Many prisoners anxiously looked forward to the chance to learn to read and write.11
Within two months’ time talk of gambling on prison baseball had all but ended and insinuations of corruption on the part of Governor Carey and Warden Alston had been substituted with praise for bringing civility to the prison. The November 7, 1911, edition of the Sheridan Post boasted that by appointing Felix Alston as warden of the state penitentiary, Governor Carey had successfully made good on a primary campaign promise. “He [Governor Carey] told the people of Wyoming that he would uproot the lessee system with all its opportunity for graft,” the article read, “and place the institution in the hands of the state, under competent upright and high-minded authority. The prison was completely renovated, new equipment added and the institution placed upon a business and humane basis.
“A very able man in the person of Felix Alston of Big Horn country was appointed warden to work out the plans of the state board. The present policy of humane treatment, heretofore unknown, and the firm discipline, have enabled the institution to turn out more and better work; and coupled with the substantial and wholesome food now furnished, prisoners are showing marked physical and mental improvements.”12
In gratitude for the changes Warden Alston had made to the prison during his short time in the position, the inmates presented him with a Christmas gift. The gold pocket watch in a wooden case contained an inscription that read, “Presented to Felix Alston, Warden, by the Inmates of Wyoming State Penitentiary for his efforts on our behalf. December 25, 1911.” The presentation was accompanied by a speech written on behalf of the prisoners by Rawlins citizen Charles E. Blydenburgh. “The conduct of such institutions as this has in the past in most of what is called the civilized world, been of such a character as to create and maintain a spirit of antagonism between the inmates and those placed over them, and they have been considered as places to carry into effect the vengeance of the law,” Blydenburgh’s speech began. “You coming as warden,” he continued, “changed the spirit of management and the feeling between the inmates over them.”13
The sentiment described by Blydenburgh was not shared by all the convicts, including members of Alston’s baseball team. Upset that baseball games had been halted before the season had reached its natural conclusion, recalling the incentives given to teammates to win, and consumed with the idea that the warden was as corrupt and duplicitous as all the other administrators before him, one of the Death Row All Star members shared his opinions with the local newspaper. In the April 25, 1912, Laramie Republican, left fielder H. A. Pendergraft noted that “a great mistake had been perpetrated against the inmates of the institution” when Warden Alston was presented with a watch. “The facts of the matter may be summed up in their correct form,” Pendergraft shared in his letter. “First, this collection was started by a few who carry their own currency and sleep in a feather bed compared to the rest of the inmates. Heralded during the campaign of 1910 as belonging to the dark ages of foreign corporations: It is worse today than under the old regime.”14
Accolades heaped on Warden Alston and loyal supporters such as Governor Carey infuriated Otto Gramm. Although he had moved on professionally and politically, becoming director of the Laramie Lumber Company and Republican county committee chairman, he was bothered by the persistent talk that his dealings with the penitentiary had been less than honest. Plans to discredit Warden Alston’s administration were thwarted when the All Stars stopped playing and wagers on the team and the players ceased as well. The fact that Joseph Seng’s execution had been indefinitely postponed prompted Gramm to believe the ball club still had a future.15
Gramm decided to discuss the matter with Senator Warren. Allegations of malfeasance and a continued overall lack of discipline within the walls of the penitentiary were not news to the politician. According to articles in the Carbon County Journal and the Rawlins Republican, the practice of allowing prisoners to roam about the county as they pleased was still going on. Some inmates were now being allowed to take guns outside the prison and hunt for jackrabbits.16
If Senator Warren hoped to be in a position to restore order at the penitentiary, he would have to defeat Governor Carey in the 1912 election. With Gramm’s considerable financial support behind him, Warren planned to challenge the governor’s decision to make Felix Alston the warden and see to it that the death penalty was upheld for men such as Joseph Seng.17
Noted Wyoming attorneys Robert S. Spence and B. Rychman had managed to get a stay of execution for Seng while awaiting an appeal hearing. The case of Joseph Seng versus the State of Wyoming was taken under advisement by the state supreme court in mid-January 1912. In early April any hope Seng had for a reprieve was dashed when the judgment was affirmed. The court determined that “he must hang.” Joseph’s execution was fixed for May 24, 1912.18
On April 18, 1912, an article in the Wyoming Tribune announced that the gallows upon which Tom Horn, a lawman turned bounty hunter found guilty of shooting a teenage boy, was hanged in the Laramie county jail had been shipped to Rawlins to be used to hang Seng. “The state law now requires all executions to be in the state penitentiary,” the article read, “and the gallows will doubtless remain there permanently.”
Robert Spence informed Seng that there was one last option they could seek to save his life and that was Governor Carey. The governor could commute Seng’s sentence to life in prison if he chose. Gramm suspected that to be the most likely scenario and wasn’t shy about continuing to suggest the motivation for such an act would be to assure that the winning penitentiary baseball team remained intact.19
Anthony and Anna Seng asked their daughter Mary, a nun at the Franciscan Convent in Glenriddle, Pennsylvania, to pray for her brother. Several family members agreed to write letters to Governor Carey to ask for mercy. Among those writing letters requesting that Joseph’s life be spared was Alta Lloyd. According to her family, Alta wrote more than one letter to the governor to ask that Seng’s sentence be commuted. Those in her immediate sphere of influence in Wyoming believed nothing good could come from putting a man to death. “It won’t undo what’s been done,” she reportedly told her friends the Ewers.20
According to the May 3, 1912, edition of the Carbon County Journal, numerous appeals to spare Joseph Seng’s life were submitted to the governor, one of which was sent from Rev. J. Conrath of Rawlins. The reverend believed that Joseph shouldn’t be hanged and asked the governor for a commutation of the sentence. “I ask your patience and kind consideration of the few words that I address to you in this letter,” the clergyman began.
The key note of it lies in your proclamation of “Mother’s Day”, which I received lately and which reads very well.
The object of my words to you is to ask you to grant a favor on Mother’s Day to a mother whom I know to be a true mother and worthy of great honor. It is the mother of Joseph Seng, who is sentenced to hang on May 24th. I would feel very guilty in the sight of God if I did not ask this favor of you.
Mrs. Seng is a mother of the true Christian type and a mother of twelve children, of whom her son Joseph proved to be a prodigal. This is no fault of hers and she loves him as a true mother. How many good mothers have not experienced the sadness brought on by a boy or girl that has wandered from their parental roof and been led astray. But who alone suffers? The mother. She is willing however to bear all except on things which must crush the life out of her and that is the thought that her son should meet death by the gallows.
Seng’s good people have often written their sad feelings to me. They are poor and could give no financial assistance. They have been buoyed up by the one hope that the sentence may be commuted to life imprisonment. . . . There is one heart that is bearing it all, and that is the heart of a sad mot
her who pleads to me for mercy for her son. I feel crushed myself at the thought of it. I think to myself what good is a corpse when life imprisonment is really the supreme punishment? Death to Seng would be preferable to life imprisonment; were it not for his poor mother, who will surely die, he says, if he must hang.
Let me plead with you to show your appreciation of a true mother as expressed in your proclamation by using your authority to save Seng from the gallows. What gratitude will come to you from that good mother and family?
Regarding the case itself of Joseph Seng, I wish briefly to state that I have not met a person who is acquainted with the case who is in favor of capital punishment, for the reason that it was not one-sided. Whether Seng is guilty or not of capital punishment is a matter that does not enter into the substance of this letter, as I am asking you this favor in behalf of the good mother who will suffer with her family when Seng shall be a corpse.
I will be very grateful for the kindness you show to this good mother and family, and I trust that my words may meet with your favor.21
Joseph Seng’s mother sent this picture to Governor Carey along with a letter pleading for her son’s life. Wyoming State Archives, Dept. of State Parks & Cultural Resources
Governor Carey responded to the correspondence on May 1, 1912. “I have your letter of April 28 concerning the case of Joseph Seng, who was convicted of murder,” the governor replied. “I have not gone into the Seng case as yet, as it has not been presented to me in a formal way. When it is I shall certainly give it consideration. Your letter shall be presented to the Board of Pardons if the matter comes up for consideration,” the politician concluded.22