The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-12-17
TRAGIC STORY Of
MURDER IS TOLD
Convict Botha Relates History
of Crime to Board of
D. PardOns.
INSANE DEED OF
JEALOUS HUSBAND
Strange Story of Witness Kell-
er Assails Moral Character
of the Dead.


December session at the penitentiary
Saturday to consider applications for
pardon, parole and commutation of SEN
tencc. Eight applications in all were
made and considered by the board, also
one application for reargument and two
for restoration of good time credits.
The interest of the meeting of the
board centered in the application for
parole for Charles Botha, who was tried
and convicted of murder in the first
degree, in the Seventh District court,
San Juan county, at the November term
of court in 1902, and sentenced TO death
by the presiding Judge, the Hon. Jacob
Johnson, on the l7th day of November,
1902,
This sentence was subsequently, COM
muted by the State Board of Pardons
to imprisonment in the State penlten-
tiary for life, and 1t is TO obtain for
the convicted murderer n parole which
means in effect a pardon, that the ap-
plication is now made.
History OF Crime.
In the fall of 1902 Charles Botha was
arrested charged with the murder OF his
girl wife and William Tibbits, a we'll
TODD rancher and near neighbor of the
Bothas. When arrested he admitted
that he shot Tibbits, but denied that he
killed or attempted to kill his wife, and
insisted that she was shot by accident.
About six weeks after the commission
of the double tragedy, Rotha was tried
on an information charging him with
the murder of William Tibbits. For the
killing of his wife he has never been
tried. and it is not certain that an in
formation charging him with the MUIR
der has ever been made.
Conviction Followed.
The trial resulted in his conviction
for the murder of Tibbits and new
trial having been denied, he was duly
sentenced TO be shot. An appeal was
taken 20 the Supreme court, and the nc-
ton of the District court was affirmed
by that tribunal, but before the time
for enforcing the second sentence had
expired, his death sentence was com
mutcd to imprisonment for life
The defense set up at the trial by
Boths was justification. He accused the
victim of his frenzied jealousy of Grim
inal intimacy for several months prior
to his murder. This jealousy was fed
by the ever ready whisperings of mis-
chief makers, until the every move of
the child wife and of her benefactor,
as some aver, was regarded by him as
proof positive that a criminal intimacy
existed between them, and that he was
being made cuckold of; and when op-
portunity presented itself. in a fit of
insane jealousy, he shot them both TO
death
Unintentional Murder
The killing of his wife, he alleges.
was an accident There was no eve
witness to the tragedy. and his is the
only version OF her death that will ever
ho known In fbo tr,a1 Of he
there was no proof introduced of Grim
inal intimacy between the parties. On
the contrary, some of the neiehbors as-
serted that Botha treated his child wife
in cruel and most inhuman manner;
that he did not provide for her. and
that many times he left her alone in
the little sparsely furnished cabin, with
little or nothing to eat. That Tibbits,
who was an elderly man. was a pros
perous stockman and rancher of the
neighborhood, knew the poverty and
liscomforts which surrounded the Young
wife, gave her washing and other work
hv which she earned some money with
which she was enabled TO purchase the
necessaries Of life. No illicit intercourse
or criminal intimacy between the par
ties was testified to in the trial court
bv any one. Some people had suspi
cions founded upon actions which they
did not understand. II was for the
TftSOU IndI the NP1P0SP set up WAS not
established bv proof. that the Judge
refused TO grant new trial.
Keller's Strange Story
When the application for parole of
Charles Boths was called up by the
Board of Pardons, Saturday. William
Keller Of Moab, in Grand county, who
appeared before the board in obedience
70 a subpoena issued by the Supreme
Court, as witness in behalf Of Botha.
stated that the only reason he could
give for not appearing at the time Of
the trial and testifying was that be
did not know that his testimony was
material. He said that he knew vii.
liam Tibbits and that he (Tibbits) told
witness a short time before he was
killed by Botha that it had taken him
two weeks to become intimate with Mrs
Botha. This, witness said. was about
all he knew material 10 the case Keller
did not appear 10 be the brightest man
in the world, but il was evident that
he had n hard time 10 explain or give
cogent reason for not telling about
what he knew of the case 10 some one
during the last four years,
Botha Tells Story.
Charles Botha was permitted 10 re
late in his own way the story of the
tragedy and the causes which led up