The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-01-08
LOSING OF RECORDS MAY
FREE TWO MURDERERS
continued from PAGE u


have gotten away with comparatively
light time sentences
"A guard. when asked yesterday, now
many men we're in the prison that were
TO be executed, replied:
None They never execute them any
more. They just send them up for a
little while
Five Now Under Sentence
There are now in the state prison five
men sentenced to death, but one of the
guards remarked:
They viii never be executed. Others
have been sent here to be shot. but they
elily-dally around with the courts an I'll
they go scot free or get off With time
sentences.
There are but twenty men in the
! penitentiaTy now serving time for ths
seyenty-Odd murders that have been
Nearly half of these are serving COM
paratively short sentences.
The murderers in prison who are I'M
der sentence of the death penalty are
Peter Mortensen. James Lynch. Robert
l.. King, Charles Botha or Dutch
Charlie. and Nick HawOrth.
The crime for which Peter Mortensen
was sentenced to die is still fresh. il.
the minds of people in this city Nor
Jensen was TO have been executed some
time ago. but he has been granted a
stay of execution pending an effort be-
fore the supreme court to get him a
new trial. Thus his execution is an in
definite matter
Charles Botha was condemned to
death for shooting and killing his wife
and a rancher in the southern part Of
the state some months ago. Botha
and his wife had had some trouble and
she went to the house of the rancher
IL
them dead. He was sentenced to die
on the 18th of last month, but was
granted stay of execution on a writ
sof proba Bile cause for appeal. The stay
of execution was granted for an indef-
mite time.
Nick Haworth is awaiting execution
for killing a nightwatchman in Layton
some years ago. His case mas been
fought and refought in all of the courts
and recently he was granted another
stay of execution pending a renearing
of matters in the supreme court. He
is sentenced to die Jan. 10, but the stay
of execution will save him from the
rifles on that date
There are six men serving life SEN
fences for murder. They are Abe Ma
jors, Phelps, August Nielsen, J. D.
Douglas, Tom Williams and Frank
Connors.
Sentence to Begin With Death.
Connors has been sentenced to serve
life, and ten years besides, for
the crimes he has committed. This
seems preposterOus, but the Utah
courts have decreed that he shall do
it. COnnors killed man by the name
of Strong at Provo and was sentenced
to life. A short time ago the pris-
oner was taken to Provo and tried
on a charge of burglary. He was
convicted and sentenced to serve ten
years in the state prison for the Of
Tense. The sentence read that the ten
year sentence should take effect aft
er the expiration of the sentence he
was already serving, and should com
mence Immediately upon the expira-
ton of the first sentence.
COnnors says he doesn't exactly see
how he is going to serve the ten-year
sentence. unless they confine his ghost
in the cell after he has departed, or
else stow his remains away in the
prison somewhere for ten years.
Phelps is serving life for the murder
of = man by the name of Egan in a
Main street saloon in this city some
years ago He and a man by the name
of Macmillan, il is claimed drugged
Egan, for the purpose of robbing him,
and give him so much of the drug
that he died. His body was dragged
out Of the saloon into an alley back
of the place and was found there by
the officers.
Nielsen is serving life for killing
Provo man. The victim mysteriously
disappeared from the city and was
never found. Later. however, Nielsen
was caught driving the team and rig
that had been driven away by the
murdered man. Nielsen was tried and
convicted of the murder.
One in For Twenty Years
Williams killed a man by the name
of Hutchins at Eureka in 1888 He has
been in prison twenty years and has
done a longer time than any other
murderer in the prison.
Douglas is serving life for the muir
der of his wife in Ogden. His wife was
staying with some friends out of the
city. Douglas bought a shotgun at
one of the hardware stores and made
the remark that he was going to fix
his wife. He then drove into the coun-
try to the place where his wife was
staying and shot her down.
Prominent among the prisoners serv-
ing short terms for taking life is Roy
Kaighn. recently sentenced to five
years in the prison for killing Willard
s. Haynes.
The newest arrival in "murderers'
row is William Brown, the ogden
murderer, who was sentenced to forty
years for killing a Chinaman. Brown,
after making an effort to saw out of
the Ogden jail Monday, again atternp-
ted to make an escape by trying to
take the Oregon boot from his ankle
with a nail. He had ii almost oDen
when the guard discovered him. He
was then put under the care of a spe-
cial guard until he was brought to the
state prison