1910 Win Or Die Wyoming Prison Team

1910 Win Or Die Wyoming Prison Team

“Frontier justice” is a term that often describes punishment for crime in America’s Wild West. In most instances, the guilty were dealt with quickly and often violently without a fair trial by vigilante squads or bounty hunters. In the late 1800s, the hangman’s noose was a common site in the cattle and mining towns past the Mississippi.

Even after many Western states adopted more standardized penal laws and court systems, they usually dealt with prisoners in draconian ways. The state of Wyoming was one such example. Its penitentiary which opened in 1901 was literally hell on earth with no running water or electricity. It’s first warden used the prisoners as slave labor. He installed a broom factory that netted $250,000 in the first 10 years of operation which translates in today’s money as at least $6 million. Prisoners nearly starved and were beaten regularly by guards for minor offenses. It is said that most prisoners were not allowed to go outside into the courtyard for fresh air for years on end.

In 1910, a new warden named Felix Alston came on the scene who seemed much more compassionate and permitted the prisoners to exercise. He even used funds to purchase baseball equipment and the convicts soon formed teams. Alston prided himself on being a good judge of baseball talent and he identified several of the prisoners for a select All-Star team. Coincidentally all of the players on the new team were on death row.

The team was provided with new uniforms and booked to barnstorm across the state with local (non-penal) town teams. Unfortunately, the reason for this was not to encourage rehabilitation but instead to make a personal profit. You see, Warden Alston and his close friend Governor Joseph Carey were ardent gamblers. In the convicts they saw an opportunity to make bets with gamblers who obviously underestimated the prisoner talent.

One of the best convict players was named Joseph Seng who seemed to be incredibly athletic and almost always hit at least one home run per game. He had been convicted for murdering his girlfriend’s husband and was scheduled for execution. George Saban who was the team captain had murdered several cattle competitors in a messy turf war. Alston basically let him roam free outside of the prison walls during the day as long as he returned to his cell by nightfall. To protect his most favored status, Saban was a ruthless manager who screamed at the players when they made an occasional error. After all, his personal freedom was directly connected to the winning record of the team and the betting proceeds it generated.

To keep the players motivated, Saban assured those scheduled for execution that he had talked to Governor Carey and their sentences would be commuted if they continued to play well. Soon thereafter a newspaper reporter uncovered the whole betting scheme which caused the Governor to backtrack. Predictably, he launched a state-wide anti-gambling campaign and ended the traveling baseball team. Soon thereafter, Joseph Seng was executed which ends this very sad story.