Former Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry

History & local legend

Alexander Albritton, a pitcher whose career in Black professional baseball included the 1920s, died at Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry in February 1940. Decades later, journalist Ryan Whirty found that the official paperwork left important parts of his story unresolved.

The first death certificate postponed a finding on the cause of death until an inquest and listed Eden Cemetery as the burial place. When Whirty contacted the cemetery during his research in 2014, staff could find no record of Albritton. In May 2025, Whirty reported locating a second certificate. It attributed the death to chest injuries sustained during an encounter with hospital attendant Frank Weinand and recorded the coroner’s finding of homicide.

That finding did not establish a criminal conviction. Contemporary investigations considered Weinand’s claim of self-defense, and Whirty’s later reporting examined the gaps between hospital accounts and the injuries described after Albritton’s death. The second certificate also left the burial information blank. For Whirty, the renewed investigation clarified how the pitcher had died without resolving where he was buried.