Two Ballplayers, Two Murder Convictions, and a Fragmentary Record

An archived Baseball History Blog page identifies John “Bud” Taylor as an early ballplayer who was convicted of murder and executed. It places him with the Nebraska Indians in 1899, records his first-degree murder conviction for killing Ruth Nollard, and says he was hanged in Butler, Missouri, in 1903.

Jimmy Slocum is also associated with this subject, but the archived page available for review does not display the Slocum entry needed to verify the detailed claims about his baseball service, conviction, or execution. This article therefore treats the material as a provisional source audit, not as a complete or independently corroborated account of both men.

The short answer: who were Slocum and Taylor?

Taylor can cautiously be described as a former early ballplayer who was later executed for murder. The archived account says he played for the Nebraska Indians in 1899 and an unidentified “eastern team” in 1900. It does not establish his position, statistics, length of service, or the professional status of the unnamed team.¹

The corresponding details about Slocum cannot be confirmed from the visible archived text. In particular, that capture does not substantiate the frequently stated team affiliations, legal dates, execution details, or claimed place in Sing Sing history. Those points should remain unpublished as facts until the missing entry or suitable primary records can be examined.

The available information can be summarized without implying more certainty than the source permits:

Player	Baseball association	Evidentiary status
Jimmy Slocum	Not established by the visible archived entry	Detailed baseball and legal claims require another source
John “Bud” Taylor	Nebraska Indians, 1899; unnamed “eastern team,” 1900	Reported by the archived secondary account1

Player	Victim and conviction	Execution date	Place and method
Jimmy Slocum	Not verifiable from the visible entry	Not verifiable	Not verifiable
John “Bud” Taylor	Ruth Nollard; first-degree murder conviction on October 5, 1901	April 17, 1903	County-jail courtyard, Butler, Missouri; hanging1

Nothing in the reviewed material supports describing either man as a Major League star. For Taylor, the account supplies substantially more narrative detail about the murder case and execution than about his playing career. That difference concerns the amount of information in the account, not the independent reliability of the legal history.

Jimmy Slocum: from the minor leagues to Sing Sing

A responsible biography of Jimmy Slocum cannot be reconstructed from the archived text currently visible. The capture includes Taylor’s entry and then moves to material about another player; it does not display the Slocum article on which the specific claims about him would have to rest.

Consequently, the available page cannot verify that Slocum played for Wilkes-Barre in the Pennsylvania State Association in 1886, appeared for New Haven or other minor-league clubs, was convicted of killing his wife, or was electrocuted at Sing Sing. It likewise cannot support an exact conviction date, execution date, time of death, or the claim that he was the first prisoner executed in Sing Sing’s electric chair.

This does not demonstrate that those statements are false. It means only that they exceed what the accessible source text can prove. A sound account would require the relevant archived entry or corroboration from period baseball registers, contemporary newspapers, court files, New York records, and Sing Sing prison documentation.

The claimed “first” at Sing Sing requires particular care. Historical firsts depend on definitions and institutional chronology: the first person sentenced under a law may not be the first executed at a particular prison, and the first execution involving electricity in a state may not be the first in one institution’s chair. Without an authoritative register identifying the sequence, no such distinction should be stated as settled fact.

Bud Taylor: the Nebraska Indians and a Missouri hanging

The Taylor entry provides a clearer, though still secondary, narrative. It says John “Bud” Taylor played for the Nebraska Indians in 1899 and wore the uniform of an “eastern team” in 1900.¹ Because the team is not named, the account does not establish its location, league, roster, or professional standing.

Taylor was convicted of first-degree murder on October 5, 1901, for fatally shooting Ruth Nollard, according to the same account.¹ It reports that he was hanged on April 17, 1903, in the courtyard of the county jail in Butler, Missouri.¹

Those details answer the central questions about the reported verdict, date, place, and method, but they remain uncorroborated by a court file, execution register, county document, or complete original newspaper page in the material reviewed here. The archived post mentions period newspaper coverage, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, without reproducing all of the underlying articles.

The displayed “New York Times 3/3/1901” caption should not be used by itself to settle the chronology. Its relationship to the accompanying narrative and its date labels is not sufficiently clear without the original newspaper page. A caption added to a later online presentation cannot substitute for checking the publication itself.

Nor should Taylor’s unnamed 1900 club be guessed from geography or a partial roster. Contemporary schedules, box scores, team photographs, city directories, and baseball guides might identify it, but none has been established here as the answer. The defensible baseball claim remains narrow: the archived account associates Taylor with the Nebraska Indians in 1899 and reports, without identifying, another team in 1900.

What the surviving evidence does—and does not—establish

The reviewed material is one archived secondary account. Although it refers to contemporary newspapers, it does not provide the complete articles or the official records needed to confirm the legal and execution details independently. The archived page also bears the same publication name as the current site, and its precise relationship to the present publication has not been established. It should not be treated as independent corroboration.

Reported or visible in the archived account	Still unresolved
Taylor played for the Nebraska Indians in 1899	Taylor’s position, statistics, role, and length of service
Taylor reportedly wore an unnamed “eastern team” uniform in 1900	The team’s identity, league, and professional status
Taylor’s first-degree murder conviction and execution are described with dates and places	Independent confirmation from court, county, prison, or newspaper records
Slocum is associated with the broader subject	Slocum’s clubs, playing record, conviction, execution, and claimed Sing Sing distinction
The post refers to period newspaper reporting	Whether its captions and retelling preserve the original chronology accurately

Definitive verification would require several kinds of records. Period baseball registers, rosters, and box scores could establish playing appearances and positions. Court files could document the charges, verdicts, appeals, and other proceedings. County and prison records could confirm execution dates, locations, and administrative details. Original newspaper scans could test the later account’s names, dates, quotations, and captions.

These two names also cannot establish a broader pattern of criminality among early baseball players. Even if both biographies are ultimately corroborated, they would remain individual cases involving people with limited reported connections to baseball. General conclusions about ballplayers as a group would require a much broader and systematically documented body of evidence.

The plain result is uneven: the archived account identifies Bud Taylor as a Nebraska Indians player who was convicted of murdering Ruth Nollard and hanged in Missouri in 1903. The corresponding account of Jimmy Slocum cannot be verified from the visible archived text and should await the relevant entry or primary documentation. Taylor’s complete playing record, his unidentified 1900 team, and every detailed claim about Slocum remain matters for further record research.