Death Row All Stars: Win or Die | Flashback Friday

Astonishing Legends Network. It's Flashback Friday, and you know what that means. A classic episode of Scared All the Time's fan-favorite bonus show, New Fear Unlocked, is out of the vault and on the main feed. This episode originally aired on Patreon January 22nd, 2026, but is being played by you right now. Disclaimer. This episode includes the usual amount of adult language and graphic discussions you've come to expect around here. But in the event it becomes an unusual amount, expect another call from me. You can't take a week off not when the people need content so it's time to fill the trough with something halfway decent that only sort of rhyme which is about halfway to decent. So we're doing fine. Hey everybody, welcome back to New Fear Unlocked with your boys Chris and Ed. And we are here today to discuss with you. A fear that, while very specific, I think is worth exploring for the high stakes gamble that it presents. Okay. I don't know, Ed, do you ever think about what it would be like, how scary it would be to end up on death row? Not in a way that I think it's going to happen to me, but in a way that if it does happen to me, I know that not everybody on there. Is supposed to be. And so, yeah, I think the fear of being put on death row for something you didn't do is actually higher than I'd like it to be. So, yeah, I guess. I mean, the fear of being put on death row for something you didn't do is scary and tragic. But I think even if you end up on death row for something you did do, not that I'm saying that you would do something to put yourself on death row, but the idea of sitting and waiting and knowing that you were going to be executed against your will, it's a very frightening thing to me. Now, throughout the history of the justice system, the so-called justice system, the injustice system. These days and throughout all of history, yeah. There have been people who have been on death row and have found different ways of coping with it. You know, every once in a while you hear stories about some guy who, like, adopts a kitten in a jail cell that's, like, found in the yard or whatever or whatever. Um, you know, people sometimes devote their lives to trying to do good things while they're on death row. I'd just be trying to get off death row the whole time. I would spend the whole time talking to lawyers. A lot of people do that. Uh, but these death row inmates that we're going to talk about today were forced to play baseball for their lives. For the lives? For their lives. Oh, okay. That can't, I guess, privatize prisons. Who knows? I don't know what year this was, but. I don't know, maybe there's no rules. This would be extra scary to me as someone who's not good at sports. It sounds like a Stephen King thing, like the long walk or something, where it's like the, you know, you have to... God, some sort of bracket-based tournament for your life that isn't just Battle Royale or whatever is terrible. Well, this is an article that was published in 2014 regarding something that happened way back in 1911 in a town described as Baseball Mad. Rollins, Wyoming. Okay. So 1911, Wyoming. The rules are probably a little looser than they are today. What you can do with the men in your custody. I don't know. Broad spectrum. I've never visited prisons, so I don't know what today or previous is like. I'll take your word for it. This is an article from the New York Post. It will be linked in the show notes. And it begins, on a hot summer day in baseball-mad Rawlins, Wyoming in 1911, a tightly packed crowd watched pitcher Thomas Cameron rear back and hurl a fastball toward home plate. The ball went wild, clipping the opposing player on the left shoulder before bouncing into the stands, allowing him to take first base. Cameron was dying on the mound in more ways than one. Oh, my God. I thought you were going to say that this is the beginning of the story in Rawlins and Wyoming, they're like, you know, hitting someone with an errant pitch, it puts you on death row. No. That was his origin story. No. Once they finally got a pitcher on death row, they're like, we can put a team together. We finally got a pitcher. His origin story, unfortunately, is that Cameron was a convicted rapist. I don't like Cameron. He was pitching for the Wyoming State Penitentiary All-Stars. A team featuring only the hardest of hardened criminals. Okay, I'm feeling a little bit more on board with this running man scenario. Yeah. Many in town, from local bar patrons to team captain George Saban, himself a convicted murderer. Well, yeah, he's the captain. To the prison warden himself, had substantial sums wagered on the All-Stars to win. That is, you should, there's so many things that shouldn't be happening here. The stakes for the convicts were higher than simply the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. Wins, they were told, meant time off on their sentences. Losses, however, came with consequences. Write Howard Kazanjian and Chris Entz in the unbelievable new book, The Death Row All-Stars, a story of baseball, corruption, and murder. Yeah. I mean, like I said, that's a couple different vices all put into one thing here. There's gambling. There's whatever vice that should be using people as human sport. Yeah. And I guess actual crimes of death that people committed. Actual terrible crimes that the- Well, people claimed they committed. They could have been political enemies. We have no idea. We weren't there. But the ballplayers themselves- But also, you can't shorten someone's death sentence. It's only extended. I actually don't know why. I guess you just keep appealing. Is that why people continue to not be murdered? Or else wouldn't they just be like, okay, it's your second day here. It's time to be murdered. Well, I'm a little bit unclear as to whether or not these men all had death sentences or if they just had very, very long sentences. And they decided one way to shorten it is to play on the team. Well, where this is going... is that wins, they were told, meant time off their sentences. Individual errors that cost the team the win would result in death. That is crazy. You can't play with that kind of pressure. I know. It would make them worse. I know. Your hands are shaking at that point. Sweaty. Extra sweaty. The baseball is slip sliding everywhere out of your fingers. I can't even imagine. The penitentiary all-stars were a fleeting sensation. Yeah, because they all died within four errors. A collection of random convicts that just happened to be great at America's favorite sport. Wow. And crime. They happened to be great at baseball. If they were great at crime, they would never have made it on the team. That's true. They had to be bad at crime. Lousy at crime, good at baseball is probably written on the back of their uniforms. Led by their star player, convicted murderer of his lover's husband, Joseph Sangh, The All-Stars were a pawn in an ongoing political power struggle by state officials. There you go. They played just four games, winning all of them, but each one was infused with more drama than a modern World Series. Wow. Do World Series usually have... I know a couple of them recently have been pretty dramatic, but I also feel like... A lot of them you kind of know. Well, no one's killed after, if that's what you mean. No, but they're saying that their games had more drama than a modern world series. Well, I think that's because the stakes were higher is all. Yes. Yeah. And I think the people in the crowd, I'm willing to bet, knew this. Yeah. Well, they were coming. I mean, this is one form, I guess, of it's an evolution of execution in the public square. It's also an evolution of gladiator games. It's 1911 games. Wyoming, whatever year you said this was. 1911, yeah. Might as well have been ancient Rome. Yeah. In terms of what these people, these men were property, you know. Property of the state. Yeah. That the small town of Rollins would allow such miscreants to enjoy the game's pleasures is surprising, as the frontier town had long shown a strict old world approach to conquering crime. Ed, do you want to guess what desperados caught in the act of robbery, rape, or murder in the town had done to them? To the person they caught? Yeah. I guess just hanging in public square, like weirder shit, like fucking quartering people. I don't know. They were not only hanged, but sometimes actually skinned. And then various items were made from the hides of these unfortunate lawbreakers and sold as souvenirs. I think that the whole town should be playing in this game. This is a town... Filled with Ed. Gein's, and they need to be on the team. I am shocked that this book was not optioned by HBO. Dude, by Ryan Murphy. This seems incredible. When the ball being thrown at you is made of the skin of former teammates. Yeah. That's a movie. One such unlucky felon, George Parrott, killed two deputy sheriffs during an attempted train robbery. He would have only done one, but like a parrot, he repeats. Quote, he was lynched for the murders, lynched for the murders by Rollins citizens in 1881- And shoes were made from his skin. Oh, that can't be great. Who got the shoes? Who got to wear the shoes? The warden? It's the same shoes that Andy Dufresne wore out of prison. Yeah. From the warden. Yeah, I don't know, man. I guess it might also be Hippocryphal. Who knows? Apocryphal? Yep. That's what I meant. What would Hippocryphal even be? I mean, what we see every day in the news. Well, that would be hypocrisy, but the portmanteau of hypocrisy and apocryphal would be a story that never actually happened, but is also ironically hypocritical. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think we need to spend this much time on my mistake. The Wyoming Penitentiary opened in 1901, so 20 years after they made shoes from poor old George, they finally opened a prison out here. Okay. And in keeping with the mood of the town, subjected its prisoners to harsh conditions, especially under the command of Otto Graham. Okay, that's the first name of a man who maybe left Germany too early? To enjoy what he's into? Yeah. Graham was a millionaire who established a broom factory in the prison. The state paid him to look after the prisoners. He paid for their well-being. And after they spent their days assembling his brooms... To this day, it's slavery. For real. To this day, prisoners make like $ 1. 68 per week making shit. He sold them for healthy profits. I bet. Which is exactly how you describe a product that you do not pay for the construction of. Wages, yeah. And earned almost $ 250, 000 from 1903 to 1911. That's an insane amount of. Money from back then. Yeah, it's easily. Millions. Millions and millions of dollars today. According to prisoners, the conditions under Graham, which I'll note one vowel off from grim, were merciless and of the dark ages, saying that meals were calculated down to the last bean so that just enough food was served to prevent starvation. What a cheap piece of shit. It's like Getty, not saying comparing Getty in the Getty family to this man, but how he supposedly, I think it's fact, had like a pay phone in his house for people to use. I've heard this, yeah. Yeah. Cheap son of a bitch. According... Oh, no, I'm sorry. According to Ed. In April 1911, this system was banned by the state. So good job, state. Hell yeah. A very unhappy Graham was out, as were his big broom profits. And Bighorn County Sheriff Felix Alston was named the new warden. That's who you named your child after. Yes, this is the namesake of my son. Hell yeah, dude. Bighorn County Sheriff Felix Alston. By most accounts, Alston took a far more compassionate view of prisons, instituting reforms including exercise for the prisoners, a road building program that got them outside during the day, which I guess is one way to describe a road building program. Yeah, yeah. And not just more slavery. More slavery. And an inmate baseball team. It's weird because the first sentence is like, here comes a guy who's not a piece of shit and I'm just counting down the sentences till he's been removed. and replaced with a man who will make some sort of murder ball. And it turns out it's one and the same. He's actually not any better. It is easier to find a more compassionate warden. Than a guy counting beans? A literal bean counter? When the last guy was making furniture out of the men whose lives he oversaw. That's true. The Wyoming State Penitentiary All-Stars played their first game on July 18, 1911, with a 12-man roster that included three rapists, a forger, five thieves, and three killers. Wow. Playing the Wyoming Supply Company Juniors, one of the best teams in the area. So everything's just like prison or company sponsors. Or janitors. Like this isn't a league. Yeah. No, I don't think so. Like they're not playing in any rec. Like... I don't know who organized these or why, other than... Boredom. Boredom, and I guess they wanted to inspire hoots and hollers amongst the townsfolk. I think people are bored and also, yeah, I bet there's a lot of company towns. It was a lot of what we would see, like coal miners in West Virginia, where it's probably that company or employees of that company that maybe make an extra shilling or more like, chits to use at the company store if they play on the team. Right. And so it might be like that. It just sounds like a bunch of businessmen were using human beings as playthings. I think so, yeah. So the Supply Company Juniors were one of the best teams in the area. Sure. And they were the All-Stars opponents for all four of their games. Oh, wow. Now, in their first game, the All-Stars trounced them 11-1, largely thanks to right-fielders saying... who hit two home runs, including a grand slam. I also think largely thanks to the fact that these other guys were probably scared shitless of this team. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Three rapists, a forger, five thieves, and three killers. These guys are writing down all of our license plate numbers. The rest of these guys are selling toilet paper. Yeah, but they're better supplied than these guys. They're not wearing shoes made of skin. Nope, nope. And there's no incentive, like, don't die. Wouldn't you know it, those shoes, great for playing baseball in. Dude, that's how Nike started. Very little drag on that leathery surface. Yep. Interest in the game was so intense that it was covered by newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post. which titled their article, Why Do This? Slayer Scores Home Runs. Slayer Scores Home Runs. Wow. Listen, man, democracy dies in darkness. We need these kinds of stories. This is what people used to buy the newspaper to read. A lack of these stories is why the newspaper business is in such bad shape. But I also think nothing can be less dark than the middle of the summer daytime baseball. So, I mean, it's got to be the hottest fucking week in Wyoming, too, for all this. Leather shoes melting off your feet or skin shoes. The professional manner in which the players conducted themselves drew as much attention as their ability at the game. Oh, the people who can't do anything without asking permission? Yeah, they tend to be polite. The Carbon County Journal, which referred to the team as the cons, printed this about their obvious star. Joseph Sang, who is convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death, played a classy game all the way through. Hell yeah. He will petition the governor to commute his sentence to life imprisonment sometime this month. That's how classy I was, right? You can't kill me. Yeah. I mean, I will say, part of what these guys are doing here is, you know what? They're just trying to win over some fans. I mean, that's what, I mean, I think to this day, right, like, A podcast is made about somebody. All of a sudden, people are going to start writing to the prison being like, let fucking Tiger King go. Yeah, yeah. You know, yeah, get some public sympathy. Some local guy is going to be like, damn, dude, Joseph Sang's got a mean right arm on him, and what are we doing putting him in the clink? I love any version of this, and I doubt it's going to end this way, where it is like the Major League Baseball was formed two years later, and three of them were signed or whatever. Yeah. You know, I mean, like football's already like. Murder ink, right? Or football ink. Yeah. Nobody gives a shit about who's playing. Hey, are you enjoying this old episode of New Fear Unlocked? If so, don't forget that you can stay up to date with brand new commercial-free episodes of it every week the main show's off. Now here's one of those ad breaks you could be avoiding. Local interest in the All-Stars' solid play might have spoken to something deep and primal in baseball that touched spectators' hearts, but it also fed another local interest, gambling. So these criminals are being forced into service to create more crime that's not their fault. Yes, but I think earlier in the article you did say that the players also had money or cigarettes or whatever they were allowed to trade on the game as well. So it sounds like they let them bet. Saban was in prison. So George, hold on George Saban. Let's refresh. I believe his name was George Saban. He was one of your movies. Well, Saban films did. I had no relation. Uh, okay. So he was the team captain and was a convicted murderer. Um, so that's what you were remembering is that we were told that many in town from the local bar patrons to the team captain himself. Yeah. Had substantial sums. So he had some money on the game. Wagered on the all-stars to win some of these games. I'm not against people betting on themselves. I mean, it shouldn't be the case with modern day, but I'm saying if you're like back then, it's not like you're, you're betting to take a dive. Like I'm betting on myself that I can beat you. Right. Do you want to guess what Saban? Well, we know he was in Saban. He's a murderer. He's a murderer. So I guess you don't have to guess, but the murder is pretty wild. He ambushed three sleeping sheepherders and shot them in the face at close range. That's a cowardly move. Killing them instantly. I bet. Yeah. Close range shots while you're asleep? Yeah. The dispute was part of a much larger ongoing battle over territory between sheepherders and cattle ranchers. He's a cattle rancher. And many in the cattle business, including local prison guards and politicians, felt that Saban's actions were justified. Yeah. That's why he gets team captain. So what were the sheep herders up to? Just trying to do their thing. Well, no, but what, I mean, maybe not these particular sheep herders. Oh, you mean what were their antics on the other side of this war that was waiting? Yeah, that this guy killed three of them in their sleep and people were like, hey, you know what? I guess they stopped supplying sheep so these guys could fuck? F-A-F-O, fuck around and find out. No, I don't know, man. I guess it's no good. I mean, I listened to a podcast or read something or a dream I had once about the creation of barbed wire sheep. And not only an interesting story of all the different patents before they like figured out this horrible thing and about how like the Midwest was just open to anyone. And then when people started barbed wiring off their, their claims, their property, it actually like became this huge pain in the ass for all the other farmers around them. Cause they're like, well, I'm used to herding my shit through your land. Sure. But like, it's a straight line. Now I got to go, you own 500 acres. now I gotta go 500 acres this direction, then 400 acres that direction. It ended up being this, like, the economy of ill will towards each other that, like, barbed wiring your property led to all these, like, rural farm areas or whatever ended up making for, like, a lot of huge fights. I'm not saying that's what happened here. I don't think you should wait until they go to sleep and shoot them all. I'm just saying that, like, interesting how, as things change and, like, all that stuff, you know, I don't know. Well, as it happened... Sheriff, then Sheriff Felix Alston, before he was the warden of this prison, was the arresting officer that day. He was also, Alston's grandson told the authors of this book, George Saban's best friend. So the guy who arrested him for shooting the sheep herders in the face was his best friend. Was also the guy who drank with him the night before being like, you should just shoot him. Yeah. Like, I'll get you off. I'm the sheriff. I'll say you weren't there. While Saban was sentenced to more than 20 years for his crimes, he was given special treatment, not just appointed team captain, but also, amazingly, allowed to come and go from the prison as he pleased in his finest civilian clothes. So he got the Jeffrey Epstein treatment. Yeah, I was about to say, he got that Epstein treatment or that other guy that we talked about who ate all those people in Berlin, ate that guy in Berlin who was able. To go out in disguise. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, because he got so famous that he had to be in disguise when he left his house. I wonder, do you think he was also allowed to wear his finest civilian clothes made from prisoners? No. No, this is an outside job. When he did go, often accompanied by D.O. Johnson, a guard at the prison with family in the cattle business. Okay, so the cattle farmers, politically, he's very tied in with all the big money. In the area. He'd hit the local watering holes and take bets on the games, taking a 20% commission from winning bets. So he literally left to find a bookie, left prison, and then put money down and go back to the prison and put back on his striped garb. And then get this. He provided gamblers with inside information on the All-Stars, including updates on Team Star Sang and the status of his appeal. It was greatly to his benefit to convince gamblers that the All-Stars were headed toward victory. I mean, yeah, you know he's at the bar being like, our third baseman killed his wife with a bat. He's very good with a bat. Yeah. It's like, okay. You should see this man swing. Yeah. Um, also if you can come and go to convince the gamblers that you're going to win games, you can probably also come and go to threaten the other teams that you're going to play. A million percent. Also, it sounds like this, this whole town was split in half between sheep herders. And cattle men. Yeah. And so, yeah, I bet you they're out there. Uh, I guess everyone who bet on them to lose were sheep herders. Yeah. Everyone who bet on them to win were cattle men. But yeah, this kind of like, I've never seen Yellowstone, but this sounds better than Yellowstone. This sounds way better than Yellowstone. I'm genuinely going to go look into the availability of this book. Oh, it's out there. I mean, because you found the article. I mean, these people wrote a book. Yeah, but I mean. I mean, Spielberg. But does anyone option this? Yeah, usually people have that shit at the manuscript stage. I mean, call, but you don't know. One non-cattleman displeased with all of this was Otto Graham. Oh, yeah. I mean, he could have had a. Much bigger role in this fucked up circus. Hoping to reinstate his broom business. Again, you'll remember his slave-driven broom business operated from inside the walls of a prison. He's like, what is a broom if not a thin baseball bat? He heard from Guard Johnson, secretly his informant in the prison. He kept a guy inside. Holy shit, no. So D.O. Johnson, who was out running around. Oh, helping out through the betting. Helping with the betting was also Otto Graham's informant. Wow. And he told Graham that Saban was placing illegal bets on the games with Felix Alston's money. Oh my God. So he's saying that the new warden is financing- the captain who's a murderer to place bets on the team without necessarily making it look like the warden is placing bets on his own team. And this is all through and for the benefit, it seems, of cattle ranchers. Yes. One of whom. Their hero who's been locked up. Is not Otto Graham. No, he's never seen a fucking cow. No. Or whatever they ranch. He's just in the broom business. And that's the thing. And I don't watch a lot of baseball, but... I've never seen Yellowstone. I don't watch a lot of baseball. If baseball was like this now, I'd watch a lot more of it. I think it is. I think every commercial is FanDuel. But I think that they brush the, they like broom off the plates. I think the umpire has a little broom. You're right. For like brushing off the plate or whatever. And so I think it does come back to the broom business. Otto Graham, that was your move. You didn't need to go through all this. I guess he only saw one. Because then get this. Holy shit. Otto Graham shares the information about these illegal bets on the games with his friend, Wyoming Senator Francis Warren, who is planning to run for governor against the incumbent Joseph Carey, the man who appointed Felix Alston. Oh, so this is really, I wasn't going to say inside baseball, but it really is like the corruption knows no bounds. No, Warren believed or chose to believe that Joseph Carey the incumbent governor was involved in this gambling ring as well and saw this as information he might be able to use. The ball field wasn't the only place where people were dividing up into teams. Oh my God. This, it writes itself. Sang's execution was set for August 22nd, 1911, but he almost didn't live long enough to see it. Early that month, a particularly vicious inmate decided that Sang had to die. And hmm, The article doesn't say this, but I do wonder if somebody encouraged this inmate. A million percent. There's no way they're not putting hits on the best players. The prisoner, carrying the 10-pound steel ball attached to his leg by a chain, walked up a staircase where at the top of there rested a small box half-filled with sand that was used for garbage. At the top of the stairs, the prisoner lifted the box and dropped it over the railing. The heavy box fell 25 feet directly to the spot, were saying had just been standing until, to his luck, he had bent in another direction just seconds earlier to speak to a guard. He was saved. God saved him. They picked a bad prisoner to encourage. This guy picked the wackiest... Way to kill someone. Yeah, he's trying to drop an acme anvil from the sky on this guy's head. Would have got it, too. I think... I haven't heard of someone killed in prison that way ever, I don't think. Just stab him. Choke him with your ball, James. Yeah, I thought the ball was going to come back. Yeah. Sometime after that near miss, the players were assembled for practice. While the infield generally whipped the ball around with the quickness and efficiency of Major League champions, shortstop Joseph Gazzardo, in for manslaughter, fumbled a hard grounder from Saban and then missed another on the very next hit. Gazzardo was so angry with himself that he stormed off the field, which did not sit well with his murderous team captain. Shit, man. He might be Italian with that name. They run hot. Saban... reamed him out and the rest of the team heard from Saban as well. We learn what he said from one of Joseph Sang's letters. Quote, mistakes on the field would not be tolerated, Sang wrote. He, Saban, told us that prisoners who make errors that cost the team a game would have more time added to their sentence. The team captain came up with that. It wasn't even like, Coming from the warden. Winning would lead to reduced time and stays of execution. Where did he get the power for this? Saban told the players that this had come directly from Felix Alston. Sounds like he made it up. And he also shared this information with the town's gamblers, ensuring them that the All-Stars had every incentive to win and even greater reason... not to lose. He might be the best captain of all time. If all of this was bullshit, he made up to inspire his men. To motivate them. Yeah. That's kind of amazing. But, uh, there's a photo here and it's less horrible. By the way. Yeah. If it didn't like come down from on high that like the official prison policy is you will be killed and it just came from this guy making it up, then that's better. Yeah. Let's take a break to look at some photos. Sure. We've got a team photo here with what appears to be a small child who in the middle. Yeah. I don't know what's going on with that. He must be the mascot. I don't know who he is or why he's there. I hope he's the mascot. He's one of the murderers. Yeah. He's the child, the only remaining child of someone that this whole team beat to death. Yeah. They adopted him as the mascot. They adopted him. Yep. I do think we should also take a moment to look at this other picture here, which is a plaster cast of George Parrott's head and the shoes made from his skin. I don't think those are. Are still on display. That's not what skin looks like. After 100 years. This looks like regular leather shoes. After 100 years, maybe. Have they tanned the skin? I don't know. Well, actually, I guess that's maybe a contemporary photo. I don't know who has these shoes or if they've made it this long, but I also don't know why they made a cast of his head that looks like the Phantom of the Opera. Yeah, because it's not like it's a death mask. It's like a. A bust, a statue. I guess, you know, you get bored in prison. You find other things to do. These people are just like, will you please stop making sculptures of me? Like, I keep repeatedly asking you to stop doing this. So these conditions, however invented by the team captain they were, were surely on the minds of the players on August 4th when they won their second game against the juniors. Again, 11 to 1. Hmm. If the assassination attempt in the game's new stakes bothered Sang, he didn't show it, going four for four with a flawless day in the field as he awaited word on his appeal. He then went just two for five nine days later for winning the team's third game, but the Khans continued their bizarre streak of scoring 11 runs at a shot. Wow. This time winning 11 to four. So three times. Yes. Okay. Well, 11 to one twice and then 11 to four the third time. Alston, Felix Alston, meanwhile, tightened security at the prison, partly to ensure Sang's safety, because remember, Joseph Sang is the team captain, who's really the one who's the breadwinner here for everybody. Yes. But also because there had been a rash of escapes. Prisoners would hide in tight spaces along the grounds, and Alston had to send, quote, diminutive prisoners known as human ferrets. Oh, my God. Aren't ferrets blind? Maybe only a few. Further described in the book as a, quote, short, small prisoner who was used to search under buildings and through heating tunnels to find them. That's the picture of the little kid. I was going to say, is that who this kid is? This little kid, he's a ferret. Ferret. Do you think they called him Ferret? I'm sure that was a good mascot, too. By summer's end, the inmates came to believe that Sang had lost his appeals and was being kept alive solely due to his talent for the sport. Oh, man. Scheduled to be hang on August 22nd, he was still alive on the 23rd, perhaps because the team's next game was scheduled for the 29th. Oh, yeah, you can't kill your best guy. Their fourth victory by a score of 15 to 10 was also their last. In the days that followed, Alston began to speak of replacing baseball with education for the prisoners. Boo! Boo this man! In September, Governor Kerry instituted a statewide crackdown on gambling, perhaps to deflect growing rumors spurred by his opponent Otto Graham, the brewmaker, that state officials had played some role in the gambling on the games, and he wrote to Felix Alston about his concerns for the team. Immediately afterward, Alston announced that the team's time had come and gone. Saban assured local gamblers this would merely be a temporary hold, meant to deflect attention until the gambling whispers died down. But by November, the prison was being praised for its new education initiative, and the Death Row All-Stars faded into memory. Death Row All-Stars is a great name, too. The inmates must have agreed with the praise, as that Christmas they presented Felix Alston with a gold watch as thanks for his changes. And I guess... An honorary degree. To not... pleading him to not be murdered and executed. Oh yeah, nothing will get you not murdered faster than giving him jewelry in a prison. As for saying, the stay, it turned out, had been arranged by his attorneys, but it was short-lived and he was executed on May 24th, 1912. Oh no. The Carbon County Journal, which less than a year prior had noted his classy style of play in which he did not kill anyone. Ha ha ha ha ha! Paid him a different compliment this time, writing that as he approached the hangman's noose, quote, his steps were steady and he went to his death in a manner which stamped him as a brave man. He's Nathaniel Hale all of a sudden. So that's the story of the Death Row All-Stars. That's the fear that we have unlocked for this week. It's being told to play baseball under threat of death. I think it's being told to play baseball is a fear. Yes, in general, yeah. I can't move. I can't run. I can't hit. My God, what a story. It's amazing. I love this tale. If I didn't have to go to the doctor, we could talk for 25 more hours about it. I know. This may be another new Fear Unlocked that sees a part two, or maybe we'll continue on a live show. Well, there's The Longest Yard, which I don't know if it's based on a true story, of all the prison inmates who play football. And then there's the movie Victory, which is based on a true story about, like... the prisoners of war during World War II who have to play soccer against like the German national team or something. And they use it as an escape plan. So we have stories similar. We have stories to tell, but not, not at the, not. Not as this is the craziest. And this one's an amazingly never heard of. Yeah. The other two things I'm talking about are movies already. This is fantastic. This is going to be, this is going to be next year's roof, man. Just the next year's mid tier movie that does. Okay. Yep. Exactly right. Yeah. All right, guys. Well, until next time, I'm the writer of next year's mid-tier movie that does okay. And I can't afford to go see it. This has been New Fear Unlocked. We'll talk to you next time. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. The theme song may say this show has no name, but as you know, it actually has a name. New Fear Unlocked. The thing you guys always say, that's the name. There's nothing more after this. Thanks for coming.