William G. Wilson (October 28, 1867 – May 9, 1924) was a professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player. He played all or part of three seasons in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

, primarily as a

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catc ...

. He played for the 1890

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and 1897–98

Louisville Colonels The Louisville Colonels were a Major League Baseball team that played in the American Association (AA) throughout that league's ten-year existence from 1882 until 1891. They were known as the Louisville Eclipse from 1882 to 1884, and as th ...

Personal life

After retiring from baseball, Wilson became involved in petty crime, eventually being charged in 1909 with forging postal

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s. On May 9, 1924, Wilson's bloodied body was found in a

St Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, ...

ice-cream parlour by police after an anonymous phone call. He had been stabbed ten times. Police believed that Wilson had been murdered over a dispute regarding the distribution of illegal moneys from a crime.

References

Sources

1867 births 1924 deaths Major League Baseball catchers Pittsburgh Alleghenys (NL) players Louisville Colonels players St. Paul Saints (Western League) players Kansas City Blue Stockings players Peoria Distillers players Galesburg Hornets players Baseball players from Missouri 19th-century baseball players 19th-century American sportsmen Sportspeople from Hannibal, Missouri American murder victims People murdered in Minnesota Deaths by stabbing in the United States American sportspeople convicted of crimes People convicted of forgery {{US-baseball-catcher-1860s-stub