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Show THE CASE OF BOTHA. H It was probably well enough to commute the M sentence of Charles Botha, because life sentences M when properly carried out, are, we think, prefer- M able to judicial killings, but if there was ever a M case of double, cold-blooded murder, it was when M that brute Botha killed a man and his own girl- H wife The facts were so plain that the Supreme H Court had no hesitancy in affirming the judg- H ment of the lower court, and no new evidence S was produced to establish any new facts or even H mitigating circumstances. H ! Briefly, the facts were that Botha married a simple, hard-working honest child of fifteen years of age, took her to a half-dugout for a homo, a I desolate spot down on 'tlredesert and on the 1 verge of the extreme frontier. It was six miles from any human habitation, in a spot where the j poor child had no company and no comforts; where her bed was a miner's bunk, where all the furniture would not have properly equipped a pig- pen, and there the brute would leave this child ! alone for days and nights at a time. She could ' see mountain lions by day and their howl and the B, yr , howl of wolves were her only lullaby at night. H f It is a wonder that she did not go daft Botha H jfi j, was in the habit of working a few days at a B-T' tfl time amon5 thQ few dWQllers there, from six to H; " fifteen miles distant from his den. He took his H , wife to the house of Tibbltts (the man he killed), H v where, while he was at work on the place his B tM. wife did the cooking. So desperate at last was m f H her situation that she went to the house of a m jiJ' man named Pitts and besought his help to get m yj to her sister in Colorado. While there Botha B , fjg'j came and promised if she would return home he B 1 1 would do better by her and she finally consented, ftB i Jr but there was no Improvement. He went away H JHJI on one of his periodical tramps and the girl wife, iB I ' then sixteen, went to the house of one Patterson Bm h vi J and besought him to go with her to her home, B ' get her few effects and take her out where she B v could board the stage that would carry her to B the railrqad. Patterson had consented to go I" t with her, when Tibbltts, who was connected with M' the stage company, came by, riding one and lead- jsl ing another horse, and when told what the 'if woman wanted, gave her the extra horse, went tjj i with her, got her few trinkets and took her to jLs,, his own house, where she was to take tht stage ItlSm i next morning. BB '' mmL ' Tnoro was not he slightest proof of any sus- BB-l il i picion of intimacy between Tibbltts and the HB $ rTT?rvevcvcwccv woman. True, Botha swore that he once saw Tibbitts and his wife sitting on a lounge, that Tibbltts had his arm around his wife, but this he recanted later A man named Rose who lived with Tibbitts testified that he never saw the slightest act of impropriety between the two. It was shown that Tibbitts once gave the oman a pair of shoes, but so desperate was her condition condi-tion that a petition was circulated among the few dwellers there to obtain for a few of the absolute necessaries of life ' and means to get away. There was not a breath of suspicion against her charactelr, no feeling save of infinite pity. On the da;y she abandoned her wretched home, the worthless brute Botha returned from one of his tramps, found that his wife had gone and had carried away her few little traps. He then went to Patterson and tried to borrow a gun, and when refused went to another house, borowed a 44-calibre 44-calibre Winchester, returned to Patterson's, borrowed bor-rowed a gunwiper, cleaned and loaded the gun and started for Tibbitts'. Arriving there he cocked his gun, pushed open the kitchen door, found Tibbitts, and asked him why he had stolen his wife. Just then the 16-year-old wife entered the kitchen from an opposite door. Botha swung his gun around anfd shot her through the body, a fatal wound On his trial Botha said he pushed her away with the gun, when in some way it exploded ex-ploded There was not a powder mark on the poor woman's clothes. Tibbltts sprang! into a closet, and Botha shot through the door fatally wounding him. The dying woman asked to be placed on a bed, and Botha helped Rose lift and carry her to one. Then he ordered Rose to open her clothing that he might see where the bullet had struck her. Looking at the wound he exclaimed, ex-claimed, "That is a good job; she will die." Then he made Rose open Tibbitts' clothes and he made I a like remark. B BE Tibbitts asked Rose to take him out on the I porch, but Rose was so nervous and shocked that I he was well nigh helpless, whereupon .Botha said: B "I will take him out," and seized and dragged him to the porch. Then he got one of TibbitU' I horses, returnjed to the house, shook Tibbltts hand and told him he was sorry, but he "had to I do it," that he was going to borrow his horse, and I so rode away. At the time Tibbits was dying I and the woman, too, was in extremis. B Then Botha rode to Patterson's and asked I for coffee and said to Patterson that he had I "fixed them up there," motioning toward Tibbitts' I house. H Patterson said: "You have not killed your I wife," and he answered, "yes, she was the first one to get it," and added, "they can go to heaven I together. I could do it all over again." B That is the case as it was shown in court There was no proof offered of any wrong on the part of Tibbitts or the poor woman. All the testimony showed that the poor child was merely trying to get away from the Intolerable Intoler-able horror and terror of her surroundings (he had told her of the man he had killed), that she appealed first to Patterson, then to Tibbits; that she was to take the stage next day to go to friends in another State There was no reproach against the girl-wife's character, rather her pitiable piti-able condition had awakened the sympathy of all who knew it. The conclusion was that Botha, coming home, finding that his wife had gone, knowing how he had abused her and lied to her, and feeling that she was lost to him, irrevocably determined to follow and kill her; that he would have killed Patterson just as cheerfully as he did g Tibbltts, and that he is as heartless a brute as ever felt a halter draw. That he was impelled H by any sense of wounded honor Is scouted by every one of the neighbors who know him; that he has any sense of honor or justice is inconceivable. incon-ceivable. The jesult will probably be that the next coldblooded cold-blooded murderer arrested in the La Salle country will be disposed of without any appeal to the courts or pardoning boards. |