Pat and the Miracles: The Trial

What if simple tools like wire and wire cutters held the secrets to a grim series of events that shocked the community? From a blood speck in Ken Botham's Land Cruiser to his mysteriously missing pistol to the unsettlingly casual comments about his wife's tragic demise, listen as  evidence and testimonies are pieced together that paint Botham in an increasingly suspicious light in the murders of his wife, Pat, and their neighbors Linda, Troy, and Chad Miracle.

Giblin, Mary Louise. “Authorities found .22 pistol under Botham house.” The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Col. January 13, 1976. 
Giblin, Mary Louise. “Two witnesses testify at Botham hearing.” The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Col. January 14, 1976. 
Giblin, Mary Louise. “Judge refuses to disqualify himself in trial.” The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Col. March 18, 1976. 
Giblin, Mary Louise. “Judge hears testimony in venue change.” The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Col. May 4, 1976. 
Giblin, Mary Louise. “Judge continues hearing in venue change request.” The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Col. May 5, 1976. 
Giblin, Mary Louise. “Judge denies motion to bar press from Botham hearing.” The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Col. October 6, 1976.
Giblin, Mary Louise. “Fatal slugs never found, DA tells Botham jury.” The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Col. December 1, 1976. 
Giblin, Mary Louise. “‘Last hours’ aired in Murder trial.” The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Col. December 2, 1976.

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Episode Transcript

Julia Goodwin (00:00):
Alo, this is Julia and murder is bad.
We left off with the bodies ofPatricia Botham, linda Miracle,

(00:25):
troy Miracle and Chad Miraclehaving been discovered in
Gunnison River weighted downwith railroad scraps, and the
arrest of Pat's husband, kennethBotham Jr.
Nearing the end of 1975,popular artists were Elton John,
linda Ronstadt and Natalie Cole.

(00:48):
New movies were One Flew Overthe Cuckoo's Nest.
For young millennials andzoomers, that's like the prequel
to Girl Interrupted, also DogDay Afternoon, which is based on
a real bank robbery in Mahogany, where at one point Diana Ross
says "I'm the one who turnedyour trumpet into a horn of

(01:11):
plenty.
This is also around the timethat bombcom survivor Carol
Derange picks Ted Bundy out of alineup.
On November 18, mesa CountyDistrict Attorney Terry Farina
releases an 18-page affidavitdetailing the evidence in

(01:32):
support of Boffam's arrest.
Side note if you're into kindof like a Roger Sterling, mad
men, daddy, you should take alook at DA Farina.
I'll a picture on Instagram .
He's just like fly.
That's all I'll say.

(01:53):
The two big things highlightedby the Daily Sentinel are a.22
caliber pistol and wire used totie the railroad scraps to the
bodies to weigh them down.
It's announced that the twomiracle boys had been shot with
a.22 caliber weapon.
Neighbors and friends have seenBotham with a.22 caliber

(02:17):
western- style pistol, but whenhe turns his weapons over to
police there is no such gun.
They find out that he told aco-worker that it had been
stolen out of his car and he hadreported it stolen.
But the police have no recordof any gun having been reported
by Kenneth Boffam.

(02:38):
As for the wire, authoritiesclaim they were very careful not
to release the details of howthe railroad parts had been tied
onto the victims.
This makes it suspicious whenBotham comments about his wife
having been bound in wire.
Police had asked Botham if hehad any wire around, to which he

(02:59):
replied yes, but when policesearched for it they couldn't
find it.
Police also seized wire cuttersfrom Botham's car and they had
traced amounts of blood on them.
Not a good look.
Another evidence found was aspot of blood on a mat inside
Botham's Land Cruiser.

(03:19):
Back then they could onlydetermine blood type, and the
blood type on the mat matchedthat of Troy Miracle.
In December public defendersBob Emerson and Lee Foreman
stepped in to represent KenBotham Jr and the case was
continued until January.
But before we get out of 1975,there's a Christmas Day

(03:44):
discovery.
The Boffams had been rentingtheir house at 1914 Ouray Avenue
.
After Boffam is arrested, itgoes back into possession of the
owner, john Brant.
John decides to sell it to hisbrother, steve Brant.
Steve started to do work on thehouse in early December and

(04:05):
there was a leaky faucet, soSteve went into the crawl space
to turn off the water.
The crawl space is in a closetin the living room and you have
to peel up the carpet andpadding in order to access it.
And that's what he does.
On Christmas Day.
Steve has to go back down intothe crawl space for similar
purposes, I imagine.

(04:25):
But when he turns around toleave, his flashlight reflects
upon something.
He approaches it and sees aWestern-style.22 caliber pistol
in a leather holster.
He immediately called thepolice without touching anything

(04:45):
.
Good job, steve.
The police said they hadsearched the property three
times and with a metal detector.
They do admit they focusedmostly on the outside with the
metal detector, because studsand nails make it pretty hard to
use them inside.
They also said that theynoticed vents to what looked

(05:05):
like a crawl space but couldn'tfind a way in.
And what I find to just be afunny reason, they said they
looked in that closet but therewere boxes on the floor.
So just like, oh, there wereboxes.
So obviously there was no wayfor us to search the closet

(05:28):
because of the boxes.
Anyways, point is they have thegun.
They don't have the bulletsfrom the murders, but they have
Botham's.22 caliber weapon.
In January they released thecause of death for Pat and Linda
, which is asphyxiatedobstruction of the respiratory
airway.
Forensic pathologist Dr ThomasCanfield said he could not be

(05:51):
any more specific, and twowitness statements are also
released.
Cora Hiner, the Botham's nextdoor neighbor, said that in the
early morning hours of August23rd she heard the Botham's
Saint Bernard bark eight or ninetimes and I've tried to find
out this Saint Bernard's nameand have not, but maybe in the

(06:14):
next episode, uh yeah, there'sgonna be another part.
So 25 to 30 minutes later afterthe Saint Bernard barks, she
heard what sounded like twoshots from across the street
from the direction of themiracle home.
Then she heard a car.
She had been in bed this wholetime just listening, but when

(06:36):
lights shined onto her drivewayshe got up to see if it was her
son coming home.
When she looked out the windowshe saw the headlights coming
from a car in the miracle'sdriveway.
She saw a man walking out ofthe house with a bulky bundle in
his arms, a rug or robe-likematerial.
Cora laid back down but thoughtshe heard it drive west toward

(07:00):
18th Street.
Margie McConnell, whose frontwindow stared down Ourayz Avenue
like if Ure is the long part ofthe T she was right at the top
of that.
She also saw a car around thesame time.
Margie, like Cora, had beenwaiting up for her son to get
home.
She said she saw a quotesquare-built vehicle which a

(07:24):
Land Cruiser is, but so were alot of callers back then in
front of the miracle home and aman carrying a blanket or
something like that.
But she said the car with theheadlights off drove east toward
19th Street.
Her son came home around thattime so she stopped looking out

(07:45):
the window.
At the beginning of February thedefense motions for a change of
venue.
The reasons are the widespreadand massive press by newspapers,
radios and television stations.
There were interviews withBotham prior to his arrest being
printed in the newspapers andhighly prejudiced.
Repress and the other homicidesin Mesa County.

(08:08):
Making the public frightenedand inflamed did not help either
.
That motion is denied.
They also motion to close thetrial to the public and the
press, but that motion is deniedas well.
Then in March the PublicDefender's Office requests that
Judge William Ela disqualifyhimself because they feel he's

(08:29):
prejudged the case.
Affidavits from Judge RichardGreen of Arapaho County and
state public defender Rolie RRogers, whose initials are
Rrrrrrrrr, said that Judge Elahad made prejudicial statements
in a meeting of the ColoradoCorrections Association on
October 21st in Dillon, colorado.

(08:51):
Botham was a suspect but hadnot been arrested.
Ela supposedly said I know whatI would do.
I would put the guy in jail,choke a confession out of him
and charge him with the firstdegree murders.
Our friend Rollie jokinglyresponded that's probably the
thing to do.
Then some defense lawyer orpublic defender could come in

(09:14):
and have the confessionsuppressed.
You sav it, Rollie.
Guess who gets to decidewhether the judge should be
disqualified?
That's right, the judge.
I remember seeing an episode ofLaw and Order SVU where a judge
is asked to recuse himself andhe's just like no, denied.
And that's exactly what JudgeEla does too.

(09:36):
The decision is taken to theColorado Supreme Court and Chief
Justice Edward Pringle won'tyou pop the phone, don't stop is
absent that week.
So associate judge Donald Kellyissues an official no comment
or no opinion.
So Judge Ela continues topreside Defense, then motions to

(09:56):
change the venue again.
They had tried to get all theseaffidavits showing that grand
junction was too biased, but atthe same time stories are coming
out that it will cost taxpayerdollars to transfer the case.
503 of the affidavits werethrown out on the basis of being
too speculative.
At this point it honestly justfeels like the judge and the

(10:20):
prosecution are the cool kidsand the defense is not allowed
at their lunch table.
Here are some of the witnesseswho testified at the motion
hearing.
Glenn C Dawes says he was inthe Fruita State Bank when a
sheriff's deputy comes in to getaffidavits for people who don't
feel prejudice against Botham.
This deputy talked to a dozenpeople and that the quote

(10:43):
feeling was strong against thedefendant and that they used
foul language.
But they were told it wouldcost $100,000 to transfer the
case, so they signed theaffidavit.
A newsman, larry Milhouse,testified that the people he
talked to made it clear thatthey thought Botham was guilty.
He also talked about how peoplecan go back and read the

(11:06):
newspaper stories and draw theirown conclusions at any time.
Daily Sentinel circulationdirector Thomas Thokke testified
to their coverage of theBotham- Miracle Murders, and the
editorial page editor W.
H.
Hams talked about how thecommunity seems to have a strong
conviction about his guilt.

(11:27):
Both sides bring severalwitnesses, but even the
prosecution's witnessesmentioned how most people
wouldn't be able to separate thefacts from the coverage they've
consumed.
The defense attorney, leeForeman, said "'I have the
impression of a community "'thathas not suspended judgment'

(11:48):
"'But, as is customary in thiscase, "'judg ela denies the
change of venue motion'".
The defense seeks a reversal ofthis opinion from the Colorado
Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Pringle poppedhis decision and the fund didn't
stop for the prosecution.
The reversal was denied and thetrial was set for November 8th,

(12:09):
exactly one year after Botham'sarrest.
Very narratively satisfying,I'm sure, but life isn't
narratively satisfying.
The trial will end up beingdelayed again.
The defense motions for thedeath penalty to be thrown out,
for a jury to be chosen fromoutside Mesa County, for the
dismissal of four first degreemurder counts in lieu of second

(12:31):
degree murder charges and thesuppression of some of the
evidence.
And wouldn't you know it?
All the defense motions aredenied.
Who would have guessed?
Even though four other courtsin Colorado found the death
penalty unconstitutional, thatsummer, judgela was inclined to
find it constitutional.

(12:52):
In this trial In September, thedefense requests access to the
polygraph results from Botham'stest and former deputy Sheriff
Truman Haley's test.
We haven't heard that namebefore, but it will become
important later.
Ken Botham Jr submits a plea ofinnocent on all charges In

(13:14):
October.
There are some pre-trialhearings on the admissibility of
certain evidence, particularlyinterviews that had been
conducted before Botham's arrest.
Apparently he had been inquestioning for nine hours
straight.
At one point it was said thathe requested a lawyer and they
brought the phone out, but heended up not calling one.
All of that is deemedadmissible, though, because

(13:38):
Botham had signed a statementbeforehand that said he
understood his rights.
During the interview he said hedidn't feel like he could leave
anytime he wanted, though.
So On another occasion Bothamwas questioned for three hours
in what Deputy Gerald Teschcalled a rap session and what

(13:58):
the defense called psychologicalcoercion All admissible.
In November the trial getsdelayed a week because
electronic listening deviceswere discovered in Botham's cell
and in an examination room.
Public defender ed lipton inmotions for an immediate
dismissal.
Sheriff L.

(14:19):
R.
Williams tells the court thatthe devices were put into the
walls when the building wasbuilt in 1963, but were too loud
to use, so they never were.
The defense motion gets say itwith me denied Defense motions
to sequester the jury pool andto question each potential juror
privately, and those motionsare denied.

(14:42):
Daddy Farina said the defenseattorney seems to be asking for
virgin jurors, people who don'tknow anything, and that's hard
to find.
Jury selection ends up takingover two weeks, which is a long
time for jury selection.
During jury selection, formerdeputy sheriff Truman Haley's

(15:03):
name was leaked as a prosecutionwitness to the Denver Post.
I told you it would be comingback.
It referenced an alleged affairwith one of the victims as well
as Sheriff Haley destroying thediary of said victim.
But guess what?
The trial still isn't dismissed.
The trial finally starts onDecember 1st with the

(15:26):
prosecution presenting theirevidence.
DA Farina tells the jurors thatthe two miracle boys were
trigger warning shot with a.22caliber weapon in their heads
and while the slugs have neverbeen found, botham knowingly hid
his .
22 caliber weapon from thepolice.

(15:47):
Sheriff's investigator MikeSmith of the Smiths testifies
about the bodies of Pat, linda,troy and Chad being found
wrapped with wire around theirpelvises, attached to railroad
angle bars from a nearby scrappile that had been found in a
faded red nightgown.

(16:08):
Linda was found in a lightcolored dress, troy was found in
a white turtleneck and whiteundershorts and Chad was in a
red tank top and blue playshorts.
DA Farina showed slides of thebodies and where they had been
found.
These are part of what thedefense tried to get excluded

(16:28):
from the trial.
On the second day of the trial,a man named Norm Wilhelm
testified he had been at Linda'son the night of August 22nd
from 7 to 1130.
He stopped at a 7-eleven on hisway back home and was still up
when his roommate, jimCunningham, arrived around 2am.
Norm also testified that Lindahad had an abortion two or three

(16:52):
days prior to her disappearance.
He felt it was his so he paidfor it.
Dr Canfield testified that thewomen had died by asphyxiation
by any means and had marks ontheir chests from struggling
with their attacker.
He was asked about the stomachcontents of all four victims but

(17:13):
responded that there are a lotof variables in digestion and
it's an incomplete science todetermine time of death based on
just the contents of someone'sstomach.
An agent from the ColoradoBureau of Investigation, or CBI,
Nelson Jenet, testified thathairs on the Bridgeport Bridge
belonged to Linda and ChadMiracle.

(17:35):
Another sheriff's investigator,milo Vig, took the stand to talk
about his interactions withBotham.
Investigator Vig had toldBotham about Pat's body being
identified on October 1st 1975.
Botham responded that he hadsuspected her to be dead and
then inquired how decomposed herbody had been.

(17:55):
Quote he stated the water wasawful, alkali and had salt-like
sea water and would decompose abody rapidly.
Investigator Vig also talkedabout a conversation they had on
October 22nd.
Botham had told him how he lefton August 22nd between 6.30 and

(18:16):
7pm and arrived at Polly'sMotel in Ure the city, not the
street between 9 and 10pm.
Botham detailed how he unpacked,had a shave and then talked to
the proprietor about thebathroom not having a hook to
hang his razor strap.
I don't really know what thatis.
I'm guessing you have razors toshave with.
They're in a strap and you wantto hang them sometimes.

(18:38):
Botham said he stopped by hisroom around 11pm before jogging
into town about a quarter mileto see if any photography shops
were open At 11pm.
Maybe photo shop used to beopen light.
He returned shortly after andwent to bed.
Botham woke up on the morning ofAugust 23rd around 5.30 and saw

(19:01):
it was still cloudy and wet sohe fell about to sleep until 6.
Botham then told InvestigatorVig that he had stopped in
Imaging for fuel and thenarrived back in Grand Junction
around 2pm, he said he then wentby Reverend OJ Holler's place
before going home.
Mr and Mrs Robert Griggers fromPolly's Motel in Campground

(19:24):
testified they had rememberedseeing Botham that weekend and
also a week later Botham hadcome by and asked if law
officials had been checking hiswhereabouts.
They described him asnonchalant.
The next day Ken Botham'sfriend, timothy Tyree, is called
to testify about Botham's 22caliber pistol, as well as

(19:47):
Botham himself.
Timothy tells the jury of ariver trip he had taken with
Botham in August of 1975.
Botham talked about the deepholes in the river where objects
might stay hidden.
On another occasion Bothamtalked to Timothy about Linda
Miracle.
He had called her a dumb,stupid, ignorant broad.

(20:08):
Timothy said that Botham wasnice on rare occasions to his
wife and degrading just aboutevery time he was there.
Another friend from Botham'schurch choir, dwain Jackson,
then told the jury about a timein 1971 when Botham said that
the Bridgeport Bridge would be agood place to dispose of some

(20:30):
bodies.
Dwain replied that they wouldhave to be tied down with wire
so that it doesn't decompose.
This is either very creepy orDwain was just a murdering like
us.
Let's go with the latter fornow.
We then hear another name forthe first time Marie Griffin.
Her neighbor, georgia Lemaar,testified that Botham's car was

(20:53):
at Marie's house once a weekduring the summer of 1975 and
the previous winter.
And on August 24, the day afterthe disappearances were
reported, georgia saw Bothamhosing down his Land Cruiser for
about 35 to 45 minutes around11 am.
However, reverend Holler thentestified that Botham had spent

(21:18):
that Sunday with him.
He said he saw him at FaithBaptist Church between 9.15 am,
then invited Botham and his kidsover for lunch at his house
where they stayed until 3 pm.
The Reverend then sees himagain at 6 pm for the evening
church service.
On the other hand, reverendHoller does recall a trip he had
taken with Botham on August 30,where Botham asked if he knew

(21:42):
the time limitation beforeremarriage in a disappearance
case.
Not a good look.
And speaking of remarriage andMarie Griffin, another man is
called to the stand.
Police officer turned accountant, jim Fromm, told the jury of
the discovery of 8 to 12 smallpictures and 6 to 8 larger ones

(22:05):
found in Botham's bedroom.
I immediately thought of thosesheets of small pictures you get
from school picture days, butthese were definitely not that.
Some of these contained nudity,but most were of a bikini clad,
marie Griffin.
Only one nude picture and onebikini picture were submitted as
evidence.

(22:26):
Jim detailed how, on August 24,officers arrived at the
Botham's to a note on the doorfor police that said they could
go in and take whatever theyneeded.
When Botham was told about thephotos, he indicated that he had
been having an affair.
Mrs Floyd Larson could not findthis woman's name, so Mrs Floyd

(22:48):
Larson of 1993 Ure A Avenuetestifies that Ken Botham had
come to their front door around4.30 pm on August 23 to ask if
they had seen his wife Pat.
She said to check with Linda,to which he replied I thought
you folks were more reliablethan Linda.
They were eventually able toconvince him to check at Linda's

(23:12):
, which was also empty, beforehe called police.
Margie McConnell, the neighborfrom Down the Street, testified
to what she had seen that night,adding that at some point she
heard a man say something thatsounded like oh no and described
the man carrying things out tohis car from Linda's as taller
than six feet with a slightbuild and short hair Officer

(23:35):
Douglas Rushing also testifiedthat while under surveillance on
September 8, botham took hiscar through a car wash before
going to Marie's house.
I don't know if he got his carwashed regularly or not, but a
lot of people are talking aboutI saw him spray it down.
He went to the car wash.
I don't know, but take it forwhat it is.

(23:56):
Another neighbor, jean Crawford, testified about the night
Linda had been attacked aboutsix weeks before her murder.
Jean said she heard a bloodcurdling scream Quote.
I was sound asleep, I justjumped right up when I heard it.
She then said she saw Bothamcarrying Linda to his house and

(24:18):
yelling for his wife who letthem in.
Then Officer Tom Montgomerytestified how Pat talked to him
in late July, which led to aquantity of handguns being taken
from the home.
A week later Pat supposedlycalled Officer Montgomery crying
about how she was scared, buthe had no legal right to keep

(24:42):
the guns, so they were returned.
This testimony leads to thedefense objecting and motioning
for a mistrial on the basis ofprejudicial hearsay.
But that old tune that we allremember starts playing.
The motion was denied the nextday.
Pat's doctor testifies.
Dr William Doelle said he hadseen Pat from January 26, 1970

(25:10):
to July 29, 1975, and about 38times between 1973 to 1975.
Quote I kind of treated Patlike a little sister.
She had access to the back doorwhen she needed counseling.
Periodically I'd see black andblue marks.

(25:31):
I'd ask her what happened.
Dr Doelle said this happenedsix to eight times.
When Pat came in with a blackeye in 1974, he said I thought
she was fighting a losing battle.
He admits to suggesting divorcein 1975 when she came in with a

(25:53):
bruised chin.
And that's where we're going topause our coverage of the trial
right here and we'll pick it upnext Tuesday.
Thank you again for listening.
If you want to see picturesassociated with this case, go
over to the Instagram at murderis bad podcast and if you're

(26:13):
feeling more generous than that,then you should subscribe to
the podcast wherever you'relistening and maybe rate review.
That could be fun, a funafternoon, but take care of each
other and remember murder isbad.