The courtroom drama unfolding during Ken's trial is dissected, from Judge Wolvington's unique jury guidelines, to the prosecution's strategic evidence presentation and the cross-examination of crucial witnesses.
Giblin, Mary Louise. “Botham jury selection begins.” The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Colo. January 5, 1982.
Giblin, Mary Louise. “Botham retrial gets under way.” The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Colo. January 11, 1982.
Giblin, Mary Louise. “Police actions challenged at Botham trial.” The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Colo. January 12, 1982.
Moss, Michael. “Botham’s lawyer probes recall of crime investigation.” The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Colo. January 13, 1982.
Moss, Michael. “Witness retells Botham’s idea of ‘perfect crime’.” The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Colo. January 14, 1982.
Young, Jessica. “These 7 Famous Homicides In Alabama Will Never Be Forgotten.” onlyinyourstate.com. 2022 December 18.
For images related to the cases, check out the Instagram.
The courtroom drama unfolding during Ken's trial is dissected, from Judge Wolvington's unique jury guidelines, to the prosecution's strategic evidence presentation and the cross-examination of crucial witnesses.
Giblin, Mary Louise. “Botham jury selection begins.” The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Colo. January 5, 1982.
Giblin, Mary Louise. “Botham retrial gets under way.” The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Colo. January 11, 1982.
Giblin, Mary Louise. “Police actions challenged at Botham trial.” The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Colo. January 12, 1982.
Moss, Michael. “Botham’s lawyer probes recall of crime investigation.” The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Colo. January 13, 1982.
Moss, Michael. “Witness retells Botham’s idea of ‘perfect crime’.” The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Colo. January 14, 1982.
Young, Jessica. “These 7 Famous Homicides In Alabama Will Never Be Forgotten.” onlyinyourstate.com. 2022 December 18.
For images related to the cases, check out the Instagram.
Hello everyone. This is Julia, and murder is bad in the morning. You know I usually record in the evening hours when my children are taking a bath Not that they're not supervised, when my partner is, you know, bathing them elsewhere. Anyways, this is the first time recording in the morning, so hopefully that won't just be purely vocal fry. Last we heard in the Botham Miracle Murders Ken Botham Jr had been convicted of the murders of Pat Botham and Linda Chad in Troy Miracle and sentenced to death. More sentencing. Ken Botham attempted suicide but this did not affect his transferal to death row.
Speaker 1:So in 1977, which is when this is all taking place, the top hit swore son by Barbara Streisand, rita Coolidge and Abba the animated hobbit came out. You remember that? I mean not then, but do you remember watching it? That on television there was Laverne and Shirley, happy days and Threes Company? You know, I know Threes Company is problematic in 2023. Been problematic for quite some time, but I'm just remembering that I used to like fall asleep watching, like all those shows on Nick and Knight. John Ritter was actually a big part of my sexual awakening Him and Spike, anyways, this is also the time when the Vysalia Ray and Sacker graduated to the East Area Rapist who we now know as Joseph James DeAngelo. But for Ken Botham, however, the year 1977 meant waiting.
Speaker 1:Right after his conviction and sentencing, public defenders Lee Foreman and Ed Lipton got to work on Botham's appeal. The team submitted 87 errors to the Court of Appeals, while Botham was scheduled to die by gas chamber on May 1st. Everyone was pretty positive that it would be delayed indefinitely for these appeals. After submitting the appeal to the Court of Appeals, the defense had to wait for the trial transcripts to be typed up in preparation for a possible Supreme Court hearing. During the wait, officials debated whether to sell Botham's personal items in order to pay for the quote unquote exorbitant court costs. Spoiler. They decided to do that. You know it mentioned a lot that Grand Junction wasn't used to all these crimes and 1975 all these murders happened and all that stuff. So I'm just wondering if they weren't used to spending that money and they paid their jurors. Do jurors still get paid? I know later on in the same story jurors are not getting paid, but yes, they were shocked how much the costs were. But in April Botham got a stay of execution while his appeal was being prepared. In May the Court of Appeals upheld the conviction and sentencing, the public defender's office moved full steam toward the Supreme Court hearing In June.
Speaker 1:Botham got transferred back to Grand Junction from death row shortly to testify in his children's guardianship hearing. So after Pat Botham had been murdered and Ken Botham Jr had been arrested, tried and convicted for that murder, their two children, thayer and Thad, went to live with Ken Botham's parents. They lived relatively close to their house and also had a child close to a there's age. But Pat's parents, who lived in Greenville, north Carolina, tried to gain custody of the children. The children are eventually placed with Ken Boetham's parents. A year after that court reporter Bill Price completes the transcript. He had submitted a partial transcript earlier but didn't finish until July 1978. Since Boetham's incarceration the first Test 2 baby was born, the first Garfield comic came out and the people's temple.
Speaker 1:Mass suicide and murders happened at Jonestown. Then on October 23rd 1978, colorado struck down the death penalty. Everyone on death row, including Boetham, gets transferred to the general population in Colorado prisons. Boetham tells his mom that he preferred to stay on death row because of the dangers of being in Gen Pop and about a rumor that there's a $50,000 hit on him. Boetham lives through the transfer and a year later the public defender, carol Gerstle, submits his appeal to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court would not render a decision until nearly two years later.
Speaker 1:In a newspaper article that came out at the beginning of 1980, they review the top stories in Colorado from the past 10 years. Sure enough, the Boetham miracle murders appear, represented by a picture of Ken Boetham Jr during his trial. Who else appears? Well, I'll tell you. Above Boetham was former ninth judicial district attorney Frank Turner, who had resigned in June 1978 after being convicted of two counts of embezzlement. Cady, cornered from Boetham, was Claudine Longet, a popular singer, dancer and actor from the 1960s and 70s, who had been charged with the murder of her Olympic skier boyfriend, vladimir Spider Sabik, in March of 1976, and the person who was right next to Boetham, who needs really no description Ted Bundy.
Speaker 1:Ted Bundy, notorious aero killer, was suspected of several murders in Colorado Before the decade would end. He would confess to three. One was 23 year old Karen Campbell, a nurse from Michigan, on vacation in Snowmass Village in January 1975, when Bundy attacked and murdered her. Then there was 26 year old Julie Cunningham, a ski instructor in Vale, who went missing in March of 1975. Her body's never been found. And then there's Denise Oliverson. If you remember, way back in the first episode of this series, denise was another disappearance in Grand Junction. That occurred in April 1975. She went on a bike ride and never returned home. Her bike was later found under the Fifth Street Bridge. A few days before Bundy's execution in 1989, bundy told investigators how he disposed of a body five miles west of Grand Junction.
Speaker 1:Colorado also has the distinction of having Bundy escape their hold twice. The whole reason I bring this up is I've never heard of Kenneth Botham Jr before getting into this case, and yet he has been woven into a lot of events that I have heard of. So back to Botham. On June 8th 1981, the Supreme Court issued a 7-0 decision to grant Ken Botham a new trial under the reasoning that the trial judge improperly denied a motion for the seating of a substitute judge and also improperly refused to grant a motion for a change of venue, as well as some testimony that should not have been allowed in. District Attorney Terry Farina told the Daily Sentinel that he was disgusted, and then the Daily Sentinel agrees with the disgust in a letter from the editor. Judge William Ella also is a little, but heard about it. Soon after this announcement, it's reported that testimony that was disallowed was from one of Linda Miracle's sisters-in-law, patsy Murphy. According to her, linda had planned to see two men on the night of August 22nd Norm Wilhelm, who left around 11.30pm that night, and another man who was supposed to stop by after that. Another trial is scheduled for November 2nd and it's going to be held in Golden, colorado, and presided over by Judge Winston Wolvington. And if I had a name like that, I would be a judge during the day and a vampire hunter during the night in a noir-inspired adventure to only be told in pulp publications. I digress. In August the trial was delayed until January, while Botham was held without bail.
Speaker 1:On January 5th 1982, attorneys started picking the jury for Botham's second trial. Mesa County DA Terry Farina rejoins his prosecutor and Botham is represented by public defenders Lee Forman and Norman Mueller. But I don't think this guy got a Pulitzer Prize for writing awesome novels. But I could be mistaken. I don't know his life. Jury selection this time moves so whiffed Lee, with most candidates never having heard about the case, just like me. It only took two days compared to the two and a half weeks it took during the first trial, and maybe I'm the ignorant one, but during both trials the daily Sentinel prints the names of the jurors before the trial begins. Is that usual, someone tell me? Just seems like a liability. I could be dramatic like oh, on TV. If somebody knows who the jury members are, they can extort them. Okay, I definitely am being dramatic, but still that just seems weird.
Speaker 1:Testimony began on January 11th 1982. In DA Farina's opening statement he said Kenneth H Botherm Jr succeeded in one goal he killed his wife and three other people, but he failed to avoid detection. The bodies came up. He was referring to how the bodies of Pat and the miracles had been found after being weighed down in Gunnison River. He went on to say how evidence will show that Botherm was familiar with the area around Bridgeport on the Gunnison River. Da Farina told the jury how Pat Botherm and Linda Miracle were asphyxiated, while Troy and Chad Miracle had both been shot in the head. The slugs had never been recovered but forensic showed that the wounds were created by a 22-caliber weapon, and that a 22-caliber western-style pistol. That could not be proven, as the murder weapon was found in a crawlspace underneath the bottom house six weeks after Ken Botham was arrested. Da Farina then said that hairs and blood matching those of the victims had been found on the bridge over Gunnison River in Bridgeport and that my new quantities of Type A blood, which matched three of the victims, were found in Botham's Land Cruiser. He told the jury about striations from a wire cutter found in Botham's possession that was positively identified as the same wire cutters used to cut the wire found tied around the victims. He finished by saying that there was no evidence to prove that Botham was in Ure after two or ten thirty pm and contended that he had time to drive to Grand Junction and kill the victims after one am. Defense Attorney Mueller said in his opening statement it is impossible for Ken to have committed these crimes. Evidence will establish they disappeared before midnight and died before midnight. He was in Ure. He couldn't have done it.
Speaker 1:In a daily Sentinel article by Mary Louise Giblin, she talks about the jury having to be sequestered throughout the trials but will be allowed to talk on the phone to their loved ones on personal matters. They will also be allowed to watch television, accepting newscasts of course. Judge Wolvington allowed them to attend a movie on Sundays when the trial wouldn't be held and allowed them to buy up to two drinks before dinner but disallowed drinking during deliberations. So the thing with the name Wolvington is that it rekindles something. In my adolescence my friends and I would always add ink tin to people we watched in malls or cartoons we created during a Sunday service. There's Von Marrington. She's a real juicy couture ink tin. Here's a drawing of Mr Stabbington. You know good, wholesome fun.
Speaker 1:After opening arguments, the prosecution begins their case. They called Sheriff's Investigator Mike Smith to testify about the physical evidence attained by the Sheriff's Office. That included woodchips from the Bridgeport Bridge with what appear to be bloodstains, hair samples found at the scene, clothing worn by the victims and the quack sole cable used to bind the bodies to railroad scraps. Upon cross-examination, defense attorney Foreman went after investigator Smith on the timelines of evidence and testing. The woodchips had been sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigations or Kibbe on November 20th, six weeks after they were found. Sweepings collected from Botham's car weren't sent for hair and fiber analysis until November 13th. The word sweepings reminds me of a case I researched out of the UK when they vacuum a trunk of another suspicious husband and they called them hooverings, just a fun fact. Defense attorney Foreman also questioned investigator Smith why half-eaten plates of spaghetti were left out for a month in the miracle home without collecting them as evidence or running any tests on them like DNA or fingerprints. Also why no fingerprints or physical evidence was collected until the bodies of the victims were found. Investigator Smith said he saw no relevance in the plates of spaghetti and just admitted to there being no evidence collected. If you remember from the first episode of the series, chief Robert Burnett told the press that he saw no need to collect evidence because the ladies probably just ran off to start new lives, probably separately, and probably just didn't want to be found. Chief Burnett later resigned over the case and was pretty salty about it.
Speaker 1:Halfway through the morning and afternoon hearings, ken Botham's mother Elspeth, along with Lila Miracle, one of Troy and Chad's aunts, and their grandmother Ayala Miracle, slipped into the courtroom. Other members of the Miracle family waited outside as they had been subpoenaed to testify. Reporter Mary Louise Giblin also highlights the attendance of Bob Wackner and his daughter. Bob's wife, ruth, was part of a prison fellowship group and had written to Botham when he was on death row. Bob and Ruth visited Botham two or three times a month while he was incarcerated in the Golden Jail awaiting trial. Bob said. From all we've read and heard, I feel he's innocent.
Speaker 1:The next day at trial, several witnesses testified about the physical evidence. Montrose forensic pathologist Dr Thomas Canfield testified to the causes of death, and hair fiber expert Nielsen Jemmet testified about hair samples that had been taken where the bodies were found. Lee Foreman said that the physical evidence linking Botham to the homicides will prove to be key in the case Quote. This time, though, we have our own scientific evidence to counter theirs. The last witness of the day was Mesa County Sheriff's Department Investigator Milo Vig. He was called to recount the timeline of Ken Botham's journey to Ure and back, between 9 pm on August 22nd 1975 to around 3 pm on August 23rd. No witnesses have come forward to say that they saw Botham during that time. Here's an excerpt from one of Michael Moss's articles that I enjoyed.
Speaker 1:Vig, balding, with silver-rimmed glasses, rocked nervously in the witness stand as Foreman pressed him for details. Yes, vig recalled Botham was driving a 1972 Toyota Land Cruiser on what was a repeated trip for him to photograph the Western Slope. But no, he couldn't say whether Botham's visit the next day with the minister at Mesa Baptist Church in Grand Junction was at 4 or 4.30. There was small discretion. Defense Attorney Foreman's purpose was more to point out the investigators' lack of total recollection of the 6-year-old case. He also emphasized that Botham had spent an hour with Reverend OJ Haller that day as a routine meeting as the choir director of the church.
Speaker 1:Judge Wolvington ran a strict court schedule, with proceedings being cut off promptly at 5. He repeated a warning to the jurors about not talking about the case. He then took the prosecution to task for having some of their teams stay at the same holiday in as the jurors. I would just say, yes, sir, you can be my mommy and my daddy, but apparently some of the jurors wanted to go for a swim but found one of the prosecuting lawyers paddling around. Adorable, I hope they had their floaties on.
Speaker 1:Investigator Mike Smith started the next day of the trial by talking about how he retraced Botham's trip to Ure and how it took two hours to travel the 102 miles. Norm Wilhelm then took the stantest testify about his date with Linda Miracle on the night of August 22nd. Quote I wasn't drunk or anything. She wasn't drunk, she was high, I was high. We just had a good time. They shared dinner and some pink shabby before Norm left around 11.30. According to him he left because he was unusually tired. But he also said he stayed up listening to the stereo in his apartment until 2 am, which I mean I've done that like, oh, I'm so tired, and then I end up staying up later. But the defense attorney foreman highlighted that that was an inconsistency and apparently went after Norm pretty hard about the abortion Linda had days before her murder. Norm had said he figured it was his so he paid for it. A daily Sentinel writer approached Norm after he testified but all he would say was I just know he's guilty. That's all.
Speaker 1:The neighbors then testified to what they saw and heard that night. The testimonies of Marge McConnell, mike Larson and Cora Heiner were fraught with inconsistencies. Cora, now 89 years old, could not be certain if the vehicle that pulled up to Linda Miracle's home was a station wagon or a van. Marge wasn't sure how much of the man she saw down the street and obscured by the parked car, and Mike was reminded by the defense that the scream he heard could have come from a boy. But now Mike was certain it was a woman. Independent prosecutor Jerry Jorgensen combated the cross examination by saying we now have several witnesses saying these people were killed about 1.30 am by a tall, slender guy with a square built vehicle. While questioning Marge McConnell, the first of three middle school classes entered the court. Apparently, arvada Junior High School had a very thorough government studies program. Has anyone seen Junior High School? By the way, it's like high school musical, but Junior High and in the 70s, and instead of Zac Efron we get like a pretty young Paula Abdul. It's pretty great.
Speaker 1:Detectives James Fromm and Douglas Rushing testify and are questioned on the efficiency of their investigation into the Botham Miracle Murders. Detective Rushing admitted feeling inexperienced at the time and probably faltered by talking to too many people too fast. Quote you often don't know what to look for or what to remember in a person's statement until later Detective Rushing's notes had it down as Folly's motel instead of Polly's, the owner as Bill instead of Bob and said that a car that was parked on the street when in actuality it was close to the house. He explained that you have to paraphrase people and you don't always get the wording right. What people really told you, you get what you can. And in a truly troubling statement, da Farina said when people are interviewed as many times as they have been in this case, by the investigators and by us. Of course they won't relate the same thing twice. In fact, if someone does repeat something verbatim over and over, they become suspect. So if somebody has the same story, they become suspect. You better have inconsistencies or else the murder will be pinned on you.
Speaker 1:Just so you know, the prosecution's big witness for the day was Botham's former friend, dwayne Jackson. Prosecutor Jorgensen predicted this would be what would stick with the jury. He said that's one of the things you do Give the jurors one big thing to think about overnight. Dwayne talked about a conversation he had with Botham in 1971 during a lull in their Monday night Barbershop Quartet practice at the Veterans Administration Hospital in which they were both baritones. The topic was the perfect murder Discuss. Botham talked about the abandoned bridge over Gunnison near Bridgeport Quote Kenneth remarked that it would be a good place to dispose of bodies and I added that if you did, it would be a good idea to weigh them down.
Speaker 1:Kenneth then asked me what I'd tie them down with and I said wire and weights. Yes, specifically wire and weights. If memory serves, dwayne's testimony from the first trial definitely sounded more like an equal back and forth because he was like oh for the perfect murder. I would definitely use wire so it didn't decay In this version. It seems like he's just simply responding, so it's no wonder why defense attorney Foreman strongly protested this testimony. He said this witness had put my client's entire character in question, opening Pandora's box of speculation with statements that are highly prejudicial and just unfair. Judge Wolvington denied the objection but said prosecution couldn't question Dwayne further than his recollection of the conversation.
Speaker 1:Dwayne said the technique came from an article Botham had read in Time magazine about a murder in Alabama. I believe he's referring to the Hawes family murders in Birmingham, alabama, during the winter of 1888. Richard and Emma Hawes were having marital difficulties. He worked long hours at Georgia Pacific and Emma was an alcoholic who spent most of the day drinking. Their oldest daughter, may Hawes, was forced to care for her younger siblings, irene and Willie.
Speaker 1:Then, on December 4th, may's body was found in East Lake. Richard Hawes was the only suspect, though he continued to claim his innocence in jail. Authorities then found Emma's bruised and beaten body at Lakeview Park. It had been weighed down with iron. After draining that lake they found the body of Irene Hawes. Richard Hawes went on to get the death penalty but while being held he admitted he had paid a man named John Wiley to commit the murders, though Hawes was the one to actually get his daughter May intoxicated and then drown her because he was worried she would tell about the murders. John Wiley was brought to trial, but it ended up being dismissed due to lack of evidence and nobody really knows what happened to Willie Hawes. I suspect murder, but it's interesting to think about the comparison of these two cases. Richard Dawes wanted his wife dead and he killed his oldest daughter and two small children in the process. Both cases have four lives lost. Richard ended up hanging. Both of them has escaped one death penalty already, but what will happen in this new trial We'll find out as we continue to delve into the Both of Miracle Murders.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to. Murder is Bad. If you're interested in pictures related to the case, head over to the Instagram at murderisbadpodcast, and if you're feeling generous, you could go over to the little app you're on right now and subscribe so you don't miss out on the next installment. That was my phone falling, so that's what you expect to get Just genuine authenticity. You're hearing noises. You're hearing me sip tea. Doesn't that sound exciting? Why don't you just go ahead and click the five stars and leave a kind word or two or say, hey, you suck. That's fine too. You know what? Just tell me, help me, help you. All right guys, take care of each other and remember murder is bad.