Page 2: It Happened Here (too)

If I never put up another Yankee Stadium article again, it will be far too soon.

The Alexander-Marzutti Executions: Sept. 28, 1929
Notorious murderers William Alexander and Farlanz Marzutti were sentenced to death for killing their mailman. They committed the crime, they said, to prove that people of their intellectual superiority could easily get away with murder. The plan came undone when they couldn’t stop giggling while being questioned by police. They were sentenced to death, and an outraged public demanded the right to “see the eggheads fry.” A public execution was scheduled at Yankee Stadium, with twin electric chairs positioned on a platform in the approximate area of the pitcher’s mound. It was all for naught, however, when an intense thunder and lightning storm settled over the stadium just as the executions were set to take place. “Somebody could get killed out there,” said New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt, before calling off the proceedings. Alexander and Marzutti were later dispatched of indoors, in the more traditional fashion.

The Greater New York Free-For-All: June 17, 1933
In an age when marathon dancing gave desperate couples a chance to earn big money, it should come as no surprise that someone would stage a contest in which 1,000 men were placed on the field at Yankee Stadium and told to fight until only one of them was left standing. That lucky fellow would receive a check for $500, as well as free medical attention. Those who tried to save themselves by not fighting were taken down by a team of enforcers who roamed the field making sure every contestant was giving his all. (For the record, the winner was an unemployed stockbroker named R.K. Vincent.) The “mass melee,” as it was called, drew a decent crowd of 35,000, although the event was marred by much fighting in the stands.

Public Executions? Mass Melees? Last night was so disappointing.