Who was ‘Bullet’ Bob Turley and why is he painted on the side of a metro-east building?

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Diana Turner walks into the old Adams Store building on South Main Street in Troy just about every day to work at the Red Door Cottage, a gift store that specializes in the wares of local artists and crafters.

She doesn’t give the large mural painted on the north end of the historic brick structure much regard, even though it extends from the foot of the block foundation to just under the sills of the second-story windows.

Given the figure’s dress and mural’s background, she knows it depicts a baseball player and the big block letters above his head tells her his name is “Bullet” Bob Turley. And she correctly assumes that Turley is native to Troy, because why else would his likeness occupy half the side of a building?

But that’s about she knows about the man in the painting.

“I honestly don’t know who it is. I guess it’s supposed to represent Troy, since I think he’s a player from Troy,” said Turner, 76. “I walk past it every day so I should know who it is, but once you get to 76 you don’t remember things like you used to.”

“Bullet” Bob Turley did, indeed, begin life in Troy, Illinois, though he grew up mostly in East St. Louis. But it’s the unique notoriety he earned elsewhere in both sports and business that made him a worthy subject of a three-part mural project started in 2013 under former Mayor Allen Adomite.

In a nutshell, Turley enjoyed a 12-year career as a pitcher in Major League Baseball, earning four World Series championship rings and winning the American League’s first Cy Young Award. Then he and a business partner founded an insurance company that grew into the largest in the United States and made him a millionaire many times over.

But that’s just the bones of Turley’s story. Here’s the rest:

Baseball Life

Turley’s family moved from Troy to East St. Louis when he was still very young, and it was at Central High School where he made his mark as an athlete. St. Louis Browns owner Bill DeWitt, the father of the Cardinals’ current owner, scouted Turley himself and signed him for $1,200 in 1948.

Just 17 years old, Turley made his professional baseball debut in Belleville, where the Browns had their Class D minor league affiliate, the Stags.

The hard-throwing right-hander had the kind of debut season that would typify the rest of his career. He won nine of his 12 decisions and struck out almost as many batters as he allowed hits. He also walked about as many.

He made a one-game, seven-inning big league debut in 1951 before becoming a more permanent contributor to the Browns just in time for their last season in St. Louis in 1953. The team moved east to become the Orioles for the 1954 season.

It was Turley, in fact, who notched the first win for a major league team in Baltimore since the 19th century, a 3-1 complete-game triumph over the Chicago White Sox.

But at the end of that season, Turley became a chip in the largest single trade deal between two teams in baseball history. Including all the players to be named later, the Orioles and New York Yankees sent a total of 17 players either coming or going.

The Bronx Bombers scored two key pieces for a decade-long run at American League dominance in Don Larsen and “Bullet” Bob Turley.

Larsen, of course, remains famous for his World Series perfect game, a Game 5 masterpiece against the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956. Turley had the better career, though, with his peak season coming with the world champions in 1958.

He went 21-7 with a 2.97 ERA, 19 complete games and six shutouts in the regular season, then was MVP of the World Series.

The Yankees fell behind Hank Aaron, Eddie Matthews, Warren Spahn and the rest of the Milwaukee Braves three games to one. Turley turned the series around for the Yankees by pitching a complete-game shutout in Game 6, picking up the save in a 4-3 extra-inning win in Game 6, then pitching into the seventh inning for the win in Game 7 on just two days of rest.

The Baseball Writers Association of America began voting on the Cy Young Award for the best pitcher in all of baseball in 1956. The first two recipients were the Dodgers’ Don Newcombe and Spahn, both National League pitchers. So when the writers picked Turley in 1958, he became the first American League pitcher to be so honored. It wasn’t until 1967 that a Cy Young Award was presented in both leagues.

Seven writers also voted for Turley as the American League’s Most Valuable Player, but he finished a close second to Boston’s Jackie Jensen.

All told, Turley enjoyed a 12-year career with a record of 101-85, averaging 213 innings and 157 strikeouts per year along the way. He was an All-Star in 1954, 1955 and 1958; his teams won pennants in ‘55, ‘57, and ‘60; and he contributed to World Series championships in ‘56, ‘58, ‘61, and ‘62.

On top of that, he played the bulk of his career under legendary manager Casey Stengel and was teammates with the likes of Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Billy Martin, Hank Bauer, Elston Howard and Roger Maris.

Second Career

Turley would never come close again to matching his success of 1958 — thanks mostly to recurring bone chips in his elbow — but he had already discovered a “passion” for business by the time he and an Orioles teammate got into the insurance industry in Baltimore.

But, according to an interview he gave to the Society of American Baseball Researchers, he struggled early in his finance career because he believed term life insurance was a better investment for his clients than whole life, which yielded a higher profit for his employers.

He left baseball for good at age 34, though, and worked as a stockbroker and real estate developer in Atlanta and, in 1977, went into business with Art Williams, a former high school football coach who shared Turley’s love of business and competition.

They started A.L. Williams, a multi-level marketing agency that sold insurance and some other financial products. Within 10 years, their company merged with Primerica, had more than 20,000 agents, diversified its product offerings and was the largest business of its kind in the nation.

Turley became a millionaire many times over and had a private jet appropriately named the “Bullet Bob.” And his 13,000-square-foot, 27-room “retirement” home in Naples, Florida, included a 500-pound chandelier and replica scenes from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel painted on the ceiling of a grand entrance foyer.

The Turley’s moved out in 1996, but when the house went up for sale for $16.5 million in March of this year, the online real estate listing made national news.

Turley died of cancer at the age of 82 in 2013. His wife Janet, whom he married twice, joined him in 2020.

The Mural

In 2013, Adomite, then the mayor of Troy, visited Arcola, Illinois and the International Walldog Artist Festival. It was there he conceived the notion that a good way to celebrate Troy’s past and beautify the downtown area would be a series of historical murals.

From thence, the city hired artists Bernie and DL Gietl at about $8,000 apiece to “walldog” three notable buildings with artistic connections to the town’s past.

The first was an ode to Troy’s history as a transportation crossroads and the last stop a westward traveler could water their horses before finishing a journey to St. Louis. The last was a depiction of Corporal Walter E. Gaultney, Company K, 11th Infantry, 5th Division, a Troy native whose likeness appeared in an oil painting commissioned for the sale of war bonds during World War I. It is, appropriately enough, painted on the side of the Troy VFW hall.

In between, second in line of the Adomite administration’s mural project, was “Bullet” Bob Turley, which has decorated the north side of the historic Adams Building since 2015.

Yes, Turley spent only a short time in Troy and grew up mostly in East St. Louis. But Adomite said the mural was an appropriate nod to “Bullet” Bob’s roots and the town’s historic connection to his baseball and business careers.

The mural depicts the flame-throwing right-hander on the mound at old Sportsman’s Park at the corner of Grand and Dodier in St. Louis. He’s wearing the uniform of the St. Louis Browns as he follows through on a delivery to home plate, even though Turley donned those colors for only 11 of the 310 games he played in the big leagues.

The logos of the five teams for which he pitched – the Browns, the Baltimore Orioles, the Yankees, Los Angeles Angels and Boston Red Sox – are included, as is the likeness of the Cy Young Award trophy.

The advertising panels on the outfield wall are not accurate to what was actually displayed at Sportsman’s Park, but instead offer a subliminal nod to the businesses that once occupied the Adam’s Building, Adomite said. Those include Christian Wolf Communion Wafer Company, Klein Shoes and Adams General Store featuring Red Goose Shoes. “Half the fun of having feet!” the panel proclaims”

All of it is headlined with bold block letters that span the entire width of the work: “Bullet Bob Turley,” it says. The baseball tops the “Y” in “Turley,” and is proportioned larger than scale to give the perspective that it is being thrown right off the painting and toward the viewer.

The three murals are coated with a protective sealant and, according to an agreement with the building owners, must remain intact for 25 years. The city covers any necessary maintenance.

Adomite’s mural project lost some steam by the end of his term as mayor, largely because of the pinch COVID put on city revenues, he said. Still, he’s proud of the three that were completed.

“And all it took was an appreciation for history, an eye for potential canvases around downtown and a little tourism money,” he said.

Not to mention a vicious fastball and a keen business sense.