Welcome back to Halloween Week with Wicked and Grim. I am your master of ceremonies, and I will be for the next six days. I am Jacko, and I'll lead you through all the Wicked and Grim details. Last episode, you heard all about the one hundred and seventeen year old world's most haunted doll, Robert.
That all.
However, this time we're gonna steal a little bit away from the paranormal and go a bit more into the scandalous. But those details are for your hosts, of which I should introduce here. It is your hosts of Wicked and Grim, Nicole and Bed.
Thanks Jacko. That was That was another epic introduction. I thank you.
Used to the shit?
Hey yeah, no kidding.
We might have to make accurrence is more than just a Halloween Week.
Maybe maybe we should get some some jack O merch Ooh, I think they'd be dope.
That would be super dope. Is this like our new mascot?
Maybe Kiwi was our mascot. Maybe Kwi is maybe Kiwi is Jacko. I can't see the guy all I can. I can just fucking hear him. I don't know where the fuck he's coming from.
That I would not put it past him.
Kiwi's pretty fucking scary.
Yeah, he's dope.
All right, what do we got lined up? This is day two, Day two.
Day two, which means that there is still five days is left?
Can we math o? Yeah? Five days after this?
After this think I was like, is that right?
I think it's right, makes sense to be right, super cool. Okay, the cases coming down the pipe for you guys are pretty intense. We go to wide variety coming at you.
There is actually a wide variety.
We had Robert the Doll yesterday. So we're moving from paranormal to not so paranormal today, a little more murderous and skevious today, which is good.
Tell me more, tell me more, tell me more. Not does he have a car? No, be careful what you might ruin that song for someone.
Probably just did.
Good to keep it up.
Make a nasty review. Yeah, short story. Someone was yeah, yeah, that's it. That's someone was mean and was like, oh my god, you just ruined that thing.
I can't even remember. It was something that we sang, and apparently we've ruined that song for that.
Yeah, we upset someone, We don't We don't really care. We're not gonna apologize for being ourselves.
That's true, but yourself. Don't apologize for being yourself.
Be yourself and be wicked and grim.
There you go, boom boom.
Okay, you ready to talk about this totally? You got the candy ready?
Yeah, except then I can't really eat it while I'm like, that's fair, you know, podcasting, that's fair. So it's just taunting me. But it'll be there when we're done.
We're gonna eat it all and then buy more, because that's what you do.
I think we've already replaced her halling we can hand me like three times, which is not the best.
We've replaced it twice.
I think we've boughten three batches of.
Yeah, but that's replaced twice. It's not replaced three times.
Okay, whatever, we've boughten three batches three times. Yes, don't feel bad because you know worth it totally.
Okay, you're ready for this, I'm ready. You're sure, So I'm sure. Okay, So I'm not even going to tell you what it is yet. I'm just going to dive in and start with the story.
Oh, the suspense.
Okay, so picture this. It's July eighteenth, nineteen eleven, and my computer just went to sleep. I had to move the mouse. No, butny went to sleep on me because I was not doing things. Okay, so let me do it again. You ready, Yeah, Okay, second time. It's starm It's July eighteenth, nineteen eleven, and a baseball pitcher stands on a pitching mound in the middle of a ball diamond, sweat beating on his forehead, and his nerves build and it gets the best of him, but he shrugs him
off the best he can. He stares down the batter, He winds up the pitch and throws it towards the batter. The ball hurls towards him, but it veers off and hits the batter in the shoulder. He gets a free base. The pain from the hit is nothing compared to the excitement of walking to the first as the crowd cheers and simultaneously boos both teams. Right, that's fair. But possibly that excitement is nothing compared to the disappointment and the anger that the pitcher feels. You see, he didn't just
let a player walk. He may have just lost his life. You see, this baseball game isn't any ordinary game. Each and every player on the field for this team is a convicted felon and found themselves sitting on death row. Now they are playing a deathmatch. Winners could walk away with their lives while the losers lose it all.
Wow, no way, yes.
Way, no way, yes fucking this is a real fucking thing.
Holy shit, because there's not enough pressure when you're playing sports, right that your freaking life is on the line.
Yes, So, oh gosh, let's get into this.
Okay.
Yeah, a Wyoming State Penitentiary all Stars were not a normal baseball team, as you probably gathered. They were a twelve man team comprised of three rapists, a forger, five thieves, and three murderers.
Okay, not really the lineup that I'd want to be like at all, not really what you call all stars.
No, well, this was the state petary country. Okay, so let's backtrack a little bit. In nineteen oh one, Wyoming State Penitentiary was opened up during the times of what we know as the Wild West, and I mean that literally. It was the wild West. There were thieves, bandits, you know, outlaws, the whole wild West scenario. People were being hung at the gallows. Town folks raised pitchforks and protests against those who were breaking the law, like it's the fucking wild West.
And if these outlaws did find themselves in the hands of those pitchfork wielding mobs before going to prison, their sentence was usually much more grim. See what I did there, Yeah, I just wanted to give myself that little self high.
Five, pat on your back.
Ye. Also last episode I did another little word play there too with Robert the Dall, because he inspired the child plays movies chucky yep. I used how the adults just shrugged off and just considered it was child's play. But I didn't. I didn't give myself a public high. I wanted to see if anyone would note that. That's why I wanted to talk about it.
But oh my gosh, well let's see.
Well see, let us know if you if you caught that, so what would happen is some would be caught before the sheriffs could catch them, so be caught by the mobs. Others were broken free from the prisons and taken by the mobs.
Oh my gosh, Yes.
They would do this if the law, if they believe the law wasn't carrying out just as fast enough the likning of the people.
Okay.
Either way, if the outlaws were in the hands of the mobs, they didn't last long. They would be beaten, and they would often be strung up and hung in various places in the town.
Holy shit.
At times, body parts would be taken as tokens as souvenirs by the mobs. Skulls would be used as ashtrays for example, Holy hat, and even in some cases, skin would be used as leather for a variety of morbid keepsakes, such as shoes.
Okay, I already thought this shit was going self. Then that's real.
So that's what you could expect a mob would do to you in the wild fucking.
West, Oh say, I mean, I guess.
Yeah, we're talking the wild West here. It literally fucking wild.
Oh my gosh.
So inside the prison, the outlaws didn't get killed in such ways, but the torment it wasn't much different. In fact, a penitentiary in itself, no matter the conditions, was considered quite progressive.
So okay, So basically I just have to say, if there's any time to be a good guy, I feel like at that time you'd be a good guy.
I think at any time you should.
Be okay, at any time, at any time, totally fair. But that is just like I think I would be an angel, yeah, because that sounds also like scary.
Oh yeah, yeah, definitely. I don't want my skin to be someone's fucking.
Shoes really shit.
Yeah. Okay, So now, the Wyoming State Penitentiary wasn't It was pretty much ran by the man by the name of Otto Graham, who is an extremely wealthy businessman who had a hunger for money and not much of a taste for the well being of the prisoners or inmates. Okay, he had a contract with a prison and the state, and I don't really know how this worked, but somehow he was bringing in over fifty cents per prisoner per day from the state, so he was being paid by
the state per prisoner. I don't know how that worked exactly, Okay.
And she's probably like back then and that would add up real quick.
Oh definitely, definitely. It might have been because he was in charge and he was getting that to take care of the prisoners or something, but he definitely wasn't spending on the prisoners. He's spending it in his own pocket. So not only was he getting this money from the prisoners. In that aspect, he was also operating a broom factory out of the prison. While the prisoners were being put
through long, hard labour's days manufacturing brooms for him. He would clean house with the profece and just again add more money to his pockets.
Okay, that's really interesting.
So yeah, on top of the brutal working conditions the prisoners were going through, they were fed just enough food to keep them from starving. Oh my gosh, and generally it was rancid food at that.
Wow.
So just in case that money that he is getting paid per prisoner per day is supposed to go to their care and well being, like, certainly, yeah, it certainly wasn't actually.
Going to and then he's off his best life pretty much.
So with these things in mind, I can't begin to imagine the living conditions. I don't know what they would have been, like, I don't know what they were.
But probably terrible.
Let your imagination go on that one. So either way, it's a foul place and it only fed the golden idea of trying to escape, and of course if you were caught trying to escape, you were killed. And if you didn't try to escape, there was a good chance you might end up being killed anyways by other inmates inside the prison. Needless to say, it was hell on earth and morale was extremely low.
Yeah, it sounds just awful.
Yeah, not a place you want to go.
No, no, no, definitely so far. It's just like I'm just like, lah, I don't even know what to say. You're just really throwing everything out us here.
Sorry, Dode, you want me to stop?
No, okay, carry on.
Just can you imagine if that was just the end of the episode.
Okay, well, teculator.
Okay, Well we're gonna move forward a little bit to nineteen eleven. So, however, a new political leader came in and got rid of Auto and made a new man by the name of Sheriff Felix Alston, the man in charge. He's the new warden. Felix was definitely more progressive than Auto. He didn't think that making prisoners work endless hours and terrible conditions would turn around their lives very much or make them any much of a different person for that matter. Okay, awesome, Yeah,
definitely is. He wanted to try and reform them, and you know, perhaps maybe like make this prison or even other prisons a better place in that regard, so he definitely tried to do his best where he could.
That's awesome.
He implemented education for the inmates as well as physical training regiments while the men were put to work, though don't get me wrong that they weren't. It was no longer making brooms endlessly for someone else's profit. It was instead generally for the public, like fixing roads in the local area of the states.
Sounds awesome, And you said it wasn't like as long about hours.
And yes, yes, But most importantly, the men were given free time. They got time to roam the prison yard and enjoy the outdoor air and even participate in extracurricular activities. The favor of the prisoners was the most popular sport in the USA at the time, good old fashion baseball.
Okay, yeah, dun dun dum.
I don't know if that's really a dun dun dun.
Well that you're leading us up to something. Oh, definitely to the main event.
So the men would band together and play whenever they had the opportunity, and they took it seriously, but like not like too serious where it's like they get angry or whatever. It was all just for fun after all. But like they they had fun and it was their sport. They played to win the.
Game and stuff right, still probably competitive.
Yeah, but for fun all at the same time, you know what we're talking about. So their skill in the game grew not only as players but as teammates and the new warden Warden Felix began to take notice as the men hit home runs over the prison walls and even began to throw curve balls towards each other. So as this was going on, he thought some of the guys were good, like real good, like good enough to
maybe even go pro. Huh really, So, after talking with some of the higher up connections that he got or has that even got him this job in the first place, they made an official team. They had new uniforms made and all. They called themselves the Wyoming State Penitentiary All Stars. So when news got out of this, the public laughed. They just laughed it off, thinking that it was a whole farce and that they were going to be like laughed out of this playing field as they were about
to play a local team, the Wyoming Supply Company Juniors. However, when it came time for game day, they would realize just how serious these inmates.
Were and how good they were.
Probably Yep, the date was set July eighteenth, nineteen eleven. The scum of the Earth inmates would be playing baseball. But it wasn't going to be a game of sport. Many of the leaders involved in the team, including Warden Felix, put money down in the game the Penitentiary All Stars in fact, Wait what wait? What by that? Sense? Don't make sense? I wrote that, I wrote that too fast. Okay, So Felix Warden put money down in the game they
put down. He put the money down on the Penitentiary All Star All Star team, his own team.
He really believe that, Yes.
He believed in them so much. Yeah, and so the men didn't want to lose. The men didn't want to lose. The Warden didn't want them to lose or anything.
They knew that this bet and stuff was put on them.
Well, they knew because the warden told them if they won, time would be moved from their sentence. No, if they lost, time would be added.
Holy shit.
But most importantly, quote individual errors that cost the team to win would result in death.
Oh my gosh, Okay, I thought that this like I was like enjoying how this was going and this this new person coming in and might great ideas, but this is like this is terrible.
Yeah, gambling kind of wrecked all that.
Holy shit.
So the game was played and was played with grace as gentlemen. These prisoners shocked the public in fact, with how polite and graceful they played the game.
Really, even though they had this massive amount of pressure on them.
Yeah, not only that, but a few small blunders, you know, away from nerves, like yeah, hitting the picture in the or hitting the battery on the shoulder. The Penitentiary State All Start, sorry, the Penitentiary All Stars still managed to win the game, but not just by a bit. They won by a lot. They fucking destroyed the other team really, which is one of the best teams in the area, by the way, not just like some team they threw together. This is already an established team in the area.
They had no idea that was coming.
Yeah, they won eleven to one.
Holy heck.
The star of the game was player Joseph Sang, who hit two home runs, one of them being a grand Slam. Do you know what that is?
Oh, is that when the are loaded the.
Bases are loaded. So you have a player on one base, one, two, and three, and he's up to back, so he hits it, so he gets four players across the plate.
That definitely would reduce his sentence.
Newspapers ate up that story of the whole team and Joseph being a focal point for that matter. His story was now out though, the public was starting to talk about Joseph and what he did to get into the prison. What he did was he murdered his work supervisor out in the street. Holy yeah. However, that work supervisor just so happened to be married to the woman that Joseph loved.
And what happened is it painted a picture of a love struck man who acted out for the feelings towards a woman, not someone who did it out of rage or some drunken state. He killed this man out of love. It made him relatable and even he had some pity given on him by some people.
Oh my gosh, so people are just like obsessed with him.
Now, yeah they're thinking that, you know, maybe he wasn't like a villain, but maybe more just like a love struck man whose bright future ahead of him was taken away or something like that. Hell, he could have been a professional baseball player. Now he's just sitting here in jail for emotions. But for just emotions that got the better of him. Maybe he's not a bad guy. That's kind of the perspective that's.
Being paid to. Okay, that seems interesting. I thought that when you start talking that way, I thought it was going to be going the opposite way, that the town would like turn on them even more, or something like of jealousy that now they're like playing on this all star team and blah blah blah, they're like did something.
Terrible, No, they they began to start liking this team.
Wow. Okay, yeah, I did not see that going that way.
Well Joseph and other players. Wow, I stumbled that sense Joseph and the other players. There we go. I can articulate words sometimes if a tribe, good, thank you, high five, yay a plus. They kept playing more and more games, and they kept winning too. They had a lot at stake, so they always played with their best even when it came time for practice or training. They began to get special treatment at the prison, in fact, which enraged other inmates.
Oh yes, it.
Led some to even try killing other players. Like Joseph who was inches away from having a twenty five pound box of sand dropped on his head from about thirty feet up as he sat in the prison yard. If it hit him, it would have killed him, but he just so happened to lean out of the way at that exactly.
Heck, well, okay, sorry, did you already go over how they like chose the people that were going to play on the baseball team originally? Was it just people that kind of wanted to I.
Don't know how they selected, but considering it's the all star team, they probably would have just like picked the best players, like done tryouts or something like that.
So there could have been some anger and jealousy towards them from the other end.
Makes it very possible, very possible. Actually, that's something I never even thought of. Wow, good for you.
Good thinking, well, that's why they're trying to kill them and stuff.
Well I was just thinking like jealousy after the fact that it.
Was that they're getting special treatment.
Okay, but it could be a combination of both too. I never thought about the you got on the team and I didn't.
Oh, okay, I could. I could totally see that happening too.
Definitely. So more betting kept happening too, More games get being played, all the while Joseph Sang kept being the VIP the game. He kept that status, hitting home runs with ease. Real people are starting to think, surely Joseph was earning his freedom with each game. His execution date, in fact, was coming closer and closer, and with his performance, maybe he would be set free instead. So there is something in here. Though Joseph did actually escape his Gallow
hangings date. He did escape that mostly because he was playing baseball. Okay, so he's supposed to be hung. He never got hung, and he's just still playing baseball.
Well, it's a famous person.
Pretty much. Word began to spread about the betting, though, and soon Otto, the man who previously ran the prison, got wind of it. From the start, he hated the idea of the inmates playing ball first of all, and he wanted the prison back second of all so he
could be making those brooms and the ridiculous profiting. So he had no proof, but he kept trying to see if he could find a way to unveil the betting rinks rounding the baseball team, and he was kept trying to talk about it to those he could and try and prove it. So, regardless of that, over a total of fifteen months, the team played a total of forty five games totally.
That's a lot.
How many do you think they won.
I'm going to say that they won them all.
They didn't win them all.
Oh shucks.
They won thirty nine games out of forty five and they lost six.
Okay, that's pretty good.
Still, that is extremely he could. Yes, an approximate total of one hundred and thirty six thousand dollars had been bet on that team, approximately equivalent to four million dollars today.
Holy so.
Now, unfortunately, the team had been shut down after those fifteen months, through the room of the betting beginning to be spread and how the politicians were using the team to make money. So some of those exact politicians cracked down on gambling to revert those rumors, and the team was eventually replaced with educational programs. Now, what you're wondering about the sentencing, Yes, the players get free.
This is some of the wildest shit I've ever heard. This story correct, fascinating.
I wanted to research this one for like, I've never heard players like Joseph saying did not get to see their freedom again, though Joseph did prolong his sentence due to actively playing the game. Like I said, and even though three hundred and fifty locals petitioned it. On May twenty fourth, nineteen twelve, at two forty five am, in the shining moonlight, he took his last breath as he was hung at the gallows.
Curiously, so he was still executed not.
Even two years after the beginning of the first game, So.
All of that was just like a lie, really, yep.
So the local newspaper the next day after Joseph was hung, it read this, his steps were steady and he went to his death in a manner which stamped him as a brave man.
Wow. I feel like he's just like, I don't know, just this, I can't think of the words, but almost just like, I don't know, just okay when he first went to prison to what he was when he died, like just almost completely new reputation in a sense, I think, So, yeah, it's just kind of kind of cool for him.
Really totally totally, and I can only imagine that it would have changed a lot of the other inmates as well who were involved. But yeah, whoever was involved. I hope it changed them for the better, and I hope they did get to prolong and live a little bit more and enjoy the game. But that is the story. I Wyoming State Penitentiary, all starts.
Surprised that if I, if anyone, I thought that he maybe would have gone to like an early release or not had to go through with the execution.
Not even him.
Hm hm wow. I can just imagine, just like I think I would play worse like all those people out there. They seem like just the way that you present the story and stuff like that, they were doing good and like the pressure was like fine for them. I would be shitting my pants and probably like not even be able to even throw a ball.
They were just that good compared to the other teams they were playing.
But still that pressure, I feel like would almost make you terrible. I don't know, but I'm one of those people that has trouble under pressure. Some people strive with fair enough, right, So a little.
Fun fact though, they did end up playing that same team they played the first first game.
With, Yeah, when they won eleven one, really good team.
The second time they won eleven to one again. Oh, the third time they didn't win as easily. I can't remember the exact score. I didn't have a written down. I think it was fifteen to ten. But they still beat them every time they.
So those teams that did beat them were probably like, probably pretty awesome.
Probably.
Huh, that's so cool, I mean coolest, yeah, cool, all the things that we talk about like they're I don't know, like that's wild and crazy that something like that would even happen. But it's a really interesting story.
It is. It's a crazy one. So I hope you got some epic lined up for the next one.
I don't know. You know, I'm not sharing nothing. Oh okay, I do have all my That makes it sound like I'm not prepared. I do have all of my cases selected. But yeah, I'm gonna make you wait.
Okay, I better do it. You haven't researched shit yet, have you?
I have? Oh? I had research each want a bed? I know, like, oh okay, I can't bit Yeah yeah, but no, I'm not sharing shit.
Okay, gotcha?
Tune in, all right, keep tuning in.
Tune in to the next day, the third day of Halloween Week with Wicked and Graham. Yes you guys, Thank you for being here. We appreciate you all, of course, I appreciate you. Find our socials in the link below. There's what do we have down there.
We have Facebook, we have Instagram, and we have Patreon.
Patreon, you'll find us there. We can find things like us getting drunk, drunk, Wicked and Grim. Yeah that's a thing, a thing, that is.
A thing and the funny side note thing. So we did Drunk, Wicked and Grim and then the next day we got up early to do a sunrise shoot, which actually makes us like All Stars. I think. I think we're the real All Stars.
Probably. Yeah, Well, until the next mysterious episode that you delivered to us. You look forward to seeing you guys and talk to you then and make sure you guys stay wicked.