More Precious than Gold

It has been a few weeks since I promised the update on the hit series "Murder in Zion". It's coming along fine (if you happen to be worried) but I have been slowed somewhat by life. Take heart, those of you that wait patiently, my batteries are charging and the final touches are coming together in a way that will startle you. You can't rush creativity, but I sense something being posted this weekend.

I have a truly wonderful wife. She balances me in so many ways and I can't say enough good things about her. And talk about patience! We celebrated our 30 year anniversary last week and I love her more now than ever before. I can't wait until we celebrate our 60th!! (well...yes I can). She surprised me by buying me a plane ticket to Utah for a bit of R and R doing whatever I want. That was a notable act of unselfishness! I spent most of the time with my brother Patrick working on scanning slides and researching. He teaches me many things from simple keyboard shortcuts to patience with life. He also helped provide me (somewhat unwittingly) with material for my Stake Conference talk the following week. I can't wait for him to visit us in Chico someday.

The highlight of the trip was finding a journal of my Great grandfather Nephi Anderson. I have only seen 2 or three pictures of him in my life, so to actually see his handwriting and read his notes was an indescribable feeling. There are forty or so pages of notes, chronicling facts, figures, dates, and other stuff that a man of his situation would record. Nothing that I can see about his particular views, opinions, or (heaven forbid) feelings. But it is his record and I am delighted to have something from his hand.

The journal came to me through a new found "relative", Bruce Cowley of Orem, Utah. Bruce is married to my mother's cousin Karen (daughter of William "K" Anderson) and they have been great to provide information and insight that was completely new to me. Thank you Bruce and Karen.

Here is a picture of the six sons of Nephi and Violet Anderson. My grandfather is Floyd in the upper left hand corner. I was puzzled about why I knew so little about the other five families until I realized the social dynamic that was at work. These are men of Scandinavian descent who were raised on a farm and learned early how to work hard. Do any of these guys look like social butterflies?? My guess is that were all similar to my own grandfather who was restrained in his comments and social "chit chat" was an unknown trait. Yep, nope, and "recon' so", were vocab mainstays. When they reached adulthood they each went their ways and lived their lives. This picture was taken on one of the few occasions they got together for a family event. Probably if they had been blessed with a few sisters in the group it may have helped bind the generations with more closeness. I want to better connect with these families and fill some gaps in history with pictures and stories that the record may be more complete. Any help from anyone would be most appreciated.

But do not think that there was not an abundance of love. Here is some proof:

Does Uncle Tim love his nephew? Without a doubt! But why is he carrying all that rope and why is Grandma Leda watching him so very closely???

Additional information: When my father was stationed in Okinawa during the post Korean war era, my mother went to live with her parents in Richfield. It was there that I was born and lived for 9 or 10 months until Dad returned to the states and was discharged. It was also a great time to became pals with my Uncle Tim, who was thirteen and no doubt delighted to have a young toddler invade his turf!

Faster than a speeding bullet!

Saturday was the big race day for Nathan at the Utah State University track meet at Logan. He was running unattached (because he is red-shirting) but was bristling to compete, thus we were in the City of Logan to turn him loose on an unsuspecting 5K race of about a dozen harriers.

Schools from USU, UofU, Idaho State, and others were there for the Aggies only home meet of the season. It was a might cool and the wind was a beast, but the Irish Peanut blazed ahead and never looked back. Kristen was there to coach and advise, Patrick was the photographer, and I came along to keep the lot of them out of trouble. All in all a great day. Nate's time was 15:31... so we rewarded him with a Wendys chicken sandwich and hustled back to SLC for dinner with family.

The was the Sevier County Courthouse as it appeared in 1909. It was January when the Heaton trial began, but justice can be had in any season, even the dead of a Utah winter. Note the hitching poles in front of the fence. Also you can see the several chimneys along the side, very important since the only form of heat were the fireplaces in the building. The courthouse was located on Main street near the corner where US 89 comes into town and connects with Main street. The City park is just to the north. The presnt day ultra modern courthouse stands where this old beaut once was.

Editorial Over-ride

We interrupt our tale with an important announcement.

My editor and I sat down with a few bananas and talked about how best to handle the explosive disclosures that will come in the next two installments. I say just tell it like it happened and let the pieces fall where they may. He has a very contrary opinion and jumped around and screeched for a good quarter hour before I gave in. Basically he acted like a real baboon about it all, and as always, got his own way, and the rest of the bananas as well.

So here's the way it will play out. Part two of this story won't be found on this same blog. We will set something up on some other site. Then anyone interested in following the story will just send us an email and we will respond to them with a site address and perhaps a password. That way only folks who are really interested get drawn in and the others can keep working on their income taxes or whatever. Also the story won't get ruined for those who may log on later and accidentally read the conclusion before the introduction. He insists we want to keep our reader base happy. When I pointed out that a generous count of our "reader base" showed five people at the most, he went ape again. It was then I finally realized that simians have no numerical concepts. Which explains my haphazard paycheck and all the random deductions.

So send us a note, tell us how you like the story, and we will share with you the next site. Just like a treasure hunt, huh?

b2.bradford@gmail.com

Murder in Zion

This is a true story about a brutal, premeditated, murder committed in a peaceful Southern Utah community a century ago. The story is told through archival links to various newspaper reports throughout the area. It is a story that I have pieced together over the last few weeks and it will take another two entries to fully tell the tale.  Be patient. Just click on each hyperlink (red text) and read the original newspaper account. If the text that opens is too large, adjust the text size control down to 100% or less. Have a great time... but save some energy for next weeks followup.

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The tale begins.....

April 20, 2008 will mark the 100^th anniversary of tragic death in the peaceful farmlands of southern Utah. It was just outside of Orderville Utah on that day in 1908 that a young girl, age 19, was murdered in cold blood and a small Mormon community went into shock. The Washington County News in St. George reported the event as follows:

Breaking News Story!!!

Being a weekly newspaper it was probably hard to keep up with the gossip and the word of mouth rumor mill before a new edition came out. But the following week the News shocks the community with more news:

Quick Arrest!!!!


May 14, 1908

This whole thing is moving along so nicely. Does it seem like its going to be a little too easy??

A Confession!!!

The Ogden Standard Examiner tells the story with sympathies for the poor broken down boy.   Read what they have to say in the lead paragraph of Salt Lake and State News:
Sophisticated News from the North

Wait a minute, you had better read this now before going any further

Retraction

First a confession and then a retraction.    You can sure tell when the defense counsel arrives.   It was probably a “frontier justice”  confession anyway, so let’s get on with the trial.

June 25th brings news that the suspect will be bound over until the District Court convenes it's rotating venue in August.          So until then it’s off to the State Pen for the young suspect.   Just where is the Child Protective Services anyway???

Waiting for Justice

But Kane County proves too hot and biased for the young man to receive a fair trial.        The decision is made to change the venue to Richfield, Utah and start the trial in January. This is a great decision for many reasons; including the fact that Reaper has a much more poetic newsman!

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So a strange character shows up in town to do a little checking on the state of the defendant.


The Alienist comes to Richfield


January 7, 1909

In order to have a fair trial you must also come up with enough jurors to hear the case. And any murder case is going to have some major sifting of potential jurors before the two sides can agree on the 12 they want. In this case the net is thrown wide and 70 are called to report. Among the 70 please note the names of A.M. Anderson of Vermillion, August Kotter of Elsinore, Guy Lewis, W.T. Ogden, Gottlieb Ence, of Richfield.

Cast of Characters

Here is the blow by blow choice of the jurors. It’s interesting that nobody from Richfield wants to be part of it.  And they also read the paper.

The big day arrives

Monday morning the show starts in full force. The courtroom is described as being “crowded to the point of suffocation” and the first item of business is to excuse the jury and do some legal "housekeeping" which mostly includes the important decision of whether to admit as evidence the purported confession.  Read about it here in the January 14th edition:

1.  Heaton Now on Trial
2.  Tribune reports the Courtroom is overflowing

What spices things up is the Church confession issue and the late night “in confidence” visit by the member of the Stake Presidency who was just helping out.   The waters are getting murkier. The prosecution wants the confession admitted but the judge thinks a late night confession to a church leader should probably be sealed as privileged and inadmissible.

The State opens its Case

The State of Utah (the presecution) opens its case and the action gets hotter.  Blood stained shoes and coat and the revealing autopsy report.   Some random thoughts before you read:

Just where is the CSI lab when you really need it?

Chicken blood vs. human blood, could you tell the difference?

“I just wanted a gun for a month to practice with”

What’s a Miranda warning anyway???

Exactly what was it? A six shooter or a five shooter??

With no admissible confession, the state plays its next card; some Kane County jailhouse snitches.  They claim that Heaton told them all about the murder as they rotted together in the county slammer.  Credibility notwithstanding, the jury listens intently.

The Case Continues...

The Prosecution builds their case but the defendant seems totally unconcerned with his fate.     Finally, after all these months, here comes the verdict. The verdict is read by the jury foreman while the packed courtroom waits in suspense. The verdict is read by the foreman and then the judge says something like

What??

The jury is then sent back for a new verdict, while the “gates of the penitentiary yawn wide”. Read about it and weep:   The big wrap-up and Verdict

An addendum to the same paper. Just what did young Heaton say in his confession?

Confession revealed or maybe this is the confession: confession #2

That’s it for today. I rest my case.

(but stay tuned…there are some very interesting postscripts and thoughts coming next week that will turn this upside down!)

The next installment entitled "Prelude to Murder" can be found at here: PART The State opens it's Case