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