THE TRIPLE MURDER

Author

Matthew Garringer
December 01, 2023

Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The daily newsletter that loves baseball as much as Joey D loved hitting streaks.

Let's dive in.

Today’s story is about a ballplayer whose mental illness drove him to commit a horrific crime.

Marty Bergen is a name that’s faded deep into the baseball history books over the last 100+ years.

He got his start playing for the Salem Witches, a minor league team, back in 1892.

That same season he assaulted a teammate for the first time after the man apparently insulted him.

NBD, just a couple of guys being dudes.

Later that year, Bergen met Hattie Gaines and fell in love.

Over the next few years, they got married, bought a farm, and had a few kids.

Baseball wise, Bergen was doing okay.

He was a solid defender behind the dish, but an average hitter at best, until ‘94 when his bat suddenly got hot.

In '94 and '95, he had great seasons; hitting .321 with Lewiston, and .372 with the KC Cowboys respectively.

Big league teams started becoming interested in him, but Bergen had developed a reputation for being paranoid.

He constantly thought his teammates were talking about him, and he even abruptly walked away from the Cowboys for a week during the middle of the season.

Regardless, Marty was raking, so the Boston Beaneaters took a flier on him and signed him for the ‘96 season.

Team owner, Arthur Soden, had to make a personal visit to Bergen's home to assure him that he'd be valued and treated well in the Boston organization.

At the beginning, he crushed in Boston.

One Sporting News article described him as “the greatest throwing catcher that the game ever produced.”

The legendary Connie Mack said Bergen was the only catcher he’d seen gun down a base runner at second from the knees.

The Beaneaters won first place in the NL 3 out of the 4 seasons Marty played there.

Despite his success, he was still a problem in the clubhouse, constantly moody and paranoid, most of his teammates just avoided him completely.

Near the end of the '98 season, Bergen threatened his teammates after an altercation on the bench, declaring that he would “club them to death” at the end of the season.

In January of '99, he had a hip surgery, which required being under anesthesia for four hours.

The doctor's said he never fully recovered mentally.

Then to add insult to injury, Bergen’s five-year-old son died in April while he was on the road with the Beaneaters.

Things started going downhill fast.

Bergen became increasingly paranoid, and he began suspecting that others were attempting to poison him.

As a precaution, he refused to take any medication unless he personally blended it first.

When he rode on trains to road games, he sat with his feet in the aisle so he could be ready just in case assassins approached him from either side.

Then he left the Beaneaters in the middle of a pennant race, because he believed that his teammates were plotting to kill him.

Many people also believe that Bergen suffered a broken hip at the end of the ‘99 season, which caused him to go into a deeper depression.

Ultimately, all of this led to the terrible tragedy that happened on January 19, 1900.

It started like any other day, Bergen got up and started doing his morning chores around the house.

Then, for some unknown reason, he completely snapped.

Marty grabbed an axe, went upstairs, and bludgeoned his wife in cold blood while she was sleeping.

Then he killed his son and his daughter, before killing himself.

Bergen took a razor blade and forcefully slit his own throat, almost beheading himself.

Marty's father discovered the bodies the next day.

After the fact, many professionals have diagnosed Bergen with schizophrenia.

HAMMERIN’ HANK

Henry Aaron is indisputably one of the greatest players to ever pick up a baseball bat.

He’s one of two guys in MLB history to rack up over 3,000 hits and 700+ home runs.

So naturally, our friend Brad Davis was inspired to make this bad ass piece of art as an homage to the king of swing.

This print, along with a bunch of others, are live on our website right now!

Here’s a few quick links:

BASEBALL TRIVIA

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:

Glasscock had over 7,500 plate appearances during his 17-season career.

One thing about Jack, the man hated getting bad hops.

He played during baseball’s barehanded era, and was one of the best shortstops of the 1880’s.

He earned the name “Pebbly Jack” for his habit of surveying the infield for small stones, and typically pocketing them if he came across any.

Glasscock won a batting title in 1890, but the main reason he’s remembered today is because of his glorious last name.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

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