The Unsolved Murder of the ONLY Little Person Ever To Play In Major League Baseball. With Link

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

Eddie Gaedel. Pro Baseball player.
A native of Chicago.
The only Midget ever to play Major League Baseball.
Found dead in his apartment, June 18, 1961.
Beaten to death.
No records, no solution.
Just silence.
LINK

[running_coach]

Bob Cain, the pitcher who walked him, was the only person from MLB to attend Gaedell’s funeral.

[hajario]

Please don’t use “midget” to describe a person. It’s considered a slur.

[Slithy_Tove]

Bill Veeck deserves remembering as one of the great American eccentrics, along with Wilson Mizner , Bernarr MacFadden, and John Romulus “Goat Gland” Brinkley

[phs3]

I have an alibi: I was one day old.

[kenobi_65]

The writer of this article (which has a bit more detail on the case) suggests that the Chicago Police didn’t bother to do much of an investigation, apparently concluding that Gaedel’s reputation for being a argumentative drinker was why he may have been attacked.

A much less popular subject is the death of Eddie Gaedel nearly ten years later on June 18, 1961 in Chicago. Eddie’s mom found him dead in bed in his apartment on that date. He had a bruise and cuts near his left eye and bruises and cuts on his knees. The coroner’s report concluded that Eddie had died of a heart attack, probably caused by the trauma of physical assault upon his body in physical combat with an unknown other or others. The only fact ascertained by the police in their brief look at the case was that Eddie Gaedel may have gone to a nearby bowling alley the previous evening where he may have had too much to drink and may have either gotten into an argument at the alley or encountered an assailant on his walk home. From what I can tell, there was no real evaluation performed on Eddie’s blood contents in the sketchy post-mortem that followed. Almost everything about his death had been concluded by the Chicago police from Eddie Gaedel’s reputation as a heavy drinker and combative personality.

Since money was missing, the CPD concluded that Eddie Gaedel had been attacked and robbed, but that he was able to make it home before collapsing and dying. The “evidence” of missing money is not spelled out as a missing wallet, nor do the CPD reports jump out and say how they knew how much cash Eddie had on him in the first place.

Because of his “reputation,” the Chicago Police Department declined to investigate the death of Eddie Gaedel any further.

Cold Case: Who Killed Eddie Gaedel?

[LSLGuy]

Ah yes. The 1950s / early 1960s when America was Great.

Great; just great … is more like it. Useless scum-quality policing.

[Atamasama]

@kenobi_65

The writer of this article (which has a bit more detail on the case) suggests that the Chicago Police didn’t bother to do much of an investigation, apparently concluding that Gaedel’s reputation for being a argumentative drinker was why he may have been attacked.

So basically, the outcome of a 10 second investigation was, “He had it coming.”

Law enforcement was probably a lot easier in some ways back then.

[Frilly_Heck]

@Atamasama

So basically, the outcome of a 10 second investigation was, “He had it coming.”

Law enforcement was probably a lot easier in some ways back then.

Let’s be fair – law enforcement is still like that today pretty often.

[kenobi_65]

@Atamasama

So basically, the outcome of a 10 second investigation was, “He had it coming.”

Based on the article I found, the article the OP linked to, and a few other short accounts I found…yeah, pretty much. “Guy with a reputation for drinking and getting into arguments and fights got beaten to death. Wonder how that happened?”

Plus, despite his 10 minutes of fame as a baseball player, he was otherwise just another blue-collar guy with (probably) a drinking problem and a fighting problem. The finding of a heart attack likely made it even easier for CPD to file his case at the bottom of a stack of cold cases.

[Elmer_J.Fudd]

@kenobi_65

The only fact ascertained by the police in their brief look at the case was that Eddie Gaedel may have gone to a nearby bowling alley the previous evening

Uh…

[Atamasama]

@kenobi_65

Based on the article I found, the article the OP linked to, and a few other short accounts I found…yeah, pretty much. “Guy with a reputation for drinking and getting into arguments and fights got beaten to death. Wonder how that happened?”

Reminds me of a similar encounter that happened at my work. Our old Seattle office location was in a really bad area, in the heart of the International District. Homicides were pretty common, even in the middle of the day. Once a guy stabbed another guy to death in the parking lot across the street around lunchtime. Since employees often park there, we had external cameras taping the spot, and our customer service manager (an ex-cop himself) contacted Seattle PD to ask them if they wanted any of the footage from our security system, which would show the incident.

The homicide detective told him, no thanks, and (I quote), “It was just two knuckleheads.” Basically, two homeless guys got into a fight, and one stabbed the other.

This was probably around 7-8 years ago.

[kenobi_65]

@Atamasama

The homicide detective told him, no thanks, and (I quote), “It was just two knuckleheads.” Basically, two homeless guys got into a fight, and one stabbed the other.

Sounds about right. While the links so far don’t say so for certain, it would not surprise me if Eddie Gaedel had been a “repeat customer” of the local CPD precinct, and his reputation with them was based on being a habitual petty offender. That, too, may have fed into the police department’s apparent lack of motivation to dig into the case of his death.

[Q.Q.Switcheroo]

Has a major person ever played in Little League Baseball?

[hajario]

Little League Baseball Star Danny Almonte Is Found to Be Overage | EBSCO

[Dr.Winston_OBoogie]

@Q.Q.Switcheroo

Has a major person ever played in Little League Baseball?

Yes. Little League of America calls their 12u league “Majors”.

[F.U.Shakespeare]

According to a hilarious article in The Fireside Book of Baseball, Veeck had taken out an insurance policy against Gaedel’s sudden growth. He canceled the policy after the stunt occurred to get a partial refund of the premium. The article wryly noted that this is known as “short rate” pricing.

The article also claimed that Veeck told Gaedel that he had a sharpshooter in the stands over concerns that he might blow the stunt by swinging for the fences. Gaedel had asked him how tall Willie Keeler was.