THE JILTED LOVER

July 20, 2023

Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The daily newsletter that always gives you the green light on a 3-0 count.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about a rising star who was killed by a jealous ex-husband.

Odds are, you've probably never heard of Lyman Bostock, but if he hadn't been murdered in the prime of his career, he could've been a legend.

He spent his early childhood in Gary, Indiana, but when he was about eight years old he moved out to LA with his mom.

Bostock had a fantastic high school baseball career, but he chose not to play in college while he pursued student activism.

He was still drafted in '70 by the Cardinals, but decided to start his college career instead.

Lyman earned all-conference honors in both seasons with the Matadors and hit over .300 lifetime; then the Twins drafted him in the 26th round.

By '75 he was in the Big Leagues, and starting to put up some serious numbers.

In '77, he hit .336, which was only 2nd in the league to his teammate, Rod Carew, who went off that year - hitting .388 with a .449 OBP.

Free agency was a relatively new concept in the MLB, and Bostock was one of the first big-money free agents in the early days.

Going into the '78 season, he signed a six-year $2.3 million dollar deal with the Angels.

His first season with the Angels started in the most brutal way possible; Bostock hit .147 in April.

He felt so bad that he offered to pay back some of his salary.

When his request was denied, he committed to donate his April salary to charity.

Honestly, this guy couldn't have been a nicer human being.

By late September, Bostock had turned his season around and was batting .296 - things were looking up.

That's when this whole thing went down.

On September 23, '78, the Angles were in Chicago playing the White Sox and Lyman went 2-4 with a walk and a run scored in a 5-4 loss.

After the game, he made the drive (35 minutes) down to Gary, IN, to visit his Uncle, Thomas Turner.

His uncle had people over for dinner that night.

After the meal, Turner and Bostock drove to Joan Hawkins’ house.

Joan was a woman who Lyman had tutored as a teenager.

Her sister, Barbara Smith, was living with her at the time while she was separated from her husband, Leonard Smith.

After hanging out for a while, Turner agreed to give Hawkins and Smith a ride to their cousins house.

Turner was driving, Hawkins was in the passenger seat, Bostock and Smith were in the back.

Unbeknownst to everyone, Leonard Smith, Barbara’s crazy ex-husband, was waiting and watching.

Leonard thought his wife was cheating, and that was something he couldn’t accept.

When he saw his wife and Lyman Bostock climb into the backseat together, he believed the two were having an affair.

Smith followed their vehicle, and when they both came to a stop light, Leonard jumped out of his car and fired a shotgun into the backseat with the intent to kill Barbara.

Bostock took the majority of the blast at point-blank range and died two hours later.

So obviously Leonard Smith went away for life right?

Not even close.

His first trial resulted in a hung jury.

In the second trial, he was found not guilty, pleading insanity.

This guy spent seven months in a psychiatric care facility, at which point they let him out, and it was deemed he no longer had a mental illness.

Altogether, he spent a total of 21 months in custody.

The people of Indiana were completely outraged.

So much so, that the state actually changed its laws.

Indiana became the 12th state in which a person could be found both guilty and mentally ill.

Had these laws been in place before the shooting, it’s likely Smith would’ve gotten a life sentence, but he walked free and died of natural causes in 2010.

At the end of the day, Lyman Bostock was murdered over a woman he’d known for 20 minutes.

It's one of the most tragic deaths in baseball history.

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STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

Stan Bordagaray aka “Frenchy” played for a handful of teams over his 11-year MLB career.

There’s a lot you can say about Bordagaray, the guy was a total character.

Here’s a few of his career highlights:

  • Left his position to use the bathroom mid game (Manny Ramirez style)

  • Raced a horse in the 100-yard dash

  • Did some acting in the off season

  • Played the washboard in a band while he was with the Cardinals

  • Got suspended 60 games for fighting an umpire

Frenchy was also known for his signature facial hair.

He grew a mustache at a time when ballplayers were expected to be clean shaven.

Charlie Finley was so inspired by Bordagaray that he invited him to host “Mustache Day” when Finley paid his players extra to grow out their facial hair.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

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