Living History (re: Daniel and Hans Borg)

On 14 Dec 2009 I posted a newspaper article that was written 29 Apr 1916 and appeared in The Richfield Reaper. This local paper continues to be in print to this day. The following post is an article written by Ardis E. Parshall, Utah Historian, and appeared in The Salt Lake Tribune on 02 Jan 2010


Living History: Crime of passion in 1916 led to violence, prison
History » In the dead of night in Richfield, a 'quiet, inoffensive' man opened fire.
By Ardis E. Parshall

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 01/03/2010 09:13:57 AM MST


It was April 27, 1916, and a crime was being committed in Richfield. City Marshal Dan Borg had been apprised of the development and he deputized his brother, Hans Borg, to assist him in detecting the act and arresting the perpetrators.

The two sworn officers, together with W.A. Cheel and a man named Anderson, assembled at dusk and proceeded cautiously toward a cabin owned by Cheel and rented to Clara McCabe, lately arrived from the mining camp at Marysvale. At 9:30 p.m. they positioned themselves under the window sills and listened for an opportune moment to enter. Two hours passed as the posse members bided their time, listening to the inside conversation and occasionally taking furtive peeks through the windows.

Finally, at 11:30 p.m., sounds from within assured the lawmen that criminal activity was in progress. With a single kick, Dan Borg broke open the flimsy cabin door and burst inside, followed closely by Hans Borg. Dan struck a match, illuminating the darkened room and its occupants for a brief moment, then the flicker of his match light was answered by two revolver shots.

Hans screamed in pain, his left wrist shattered and his abdomen pierced by bullets. The brothers fled from the cabin. Its door was slammed shut and barricaded from inside as the posse retreated down the narrow dirt lane.

The three men laid Hans on the ground, where he writhed in pain. Dan stayed with his brother while Cheel and Anderson went for a doctor
and the county sheriff, the situation having become too much for the marshal to handle alone. Hans Borg was carried to his home for emergency treatment, then rushed to Salina for surgery. Despite the severity of his abdominal wound, he would recover.

Dan Borg, with Sheriff C.A. Leavitt, returned to the cabin, again dark and silent. Leavitt identified himself in a loud voice and demanded that those inside surrender. After speaking back and forth through the closed door, those within became convinced of the lawman's identity, then opened the door and were peacefully arrested.

They were Clara McCabe, wife of M.J. McCabe, of Marysvale, and Albert Williams, a "quiet, inoffensive man" according to the Richfield press. Williams was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to commit murder. The couple also received a charge for the crime that had brought the posse to eavesdrop through windows and wait in the chilly darkness for hours: adultery.

The record does not indicate the outcome of the adultery case (although the couple had been fined a month earlier for committing the same act in Marysvale -- a surprising occurrence, perhaps, since the number of saloons and saloon girls in Marysvale at that date far surpassed the number of churches and churchgoers).

Williams was convicted of the assault charge, despite his defense that the lawmen had not identified themselves when breaking violently into the cabin in the dead of night; he contended the arrest was therefore illegal, and that he had fired in self-defense. He appealed to the Utah Supreme Court, which upheld his conviction. Because Williams was knowingly engaged in a crime, the court reasoned, he should have anticipated the arrival of the law and submitted.

Williams was sentenced to an indeterminate term in the state penitentiary.

Two years later he sought a pardon, maintaining that his was a crime of circumstance that would not be repeated. He promised to leave Utah to live with his mother in California. His petition was supported by letters from many who had known him in Marysvale, from the Mormon bishop to the roasters at the alunite mines. One mine supervisor offered him a job. The Marysvale town marshal vouched for his good character. Ordinary citizens complained that he had been treated unfairly.

Williams was released, and, like Clara McCabe, disappeared into the backdrop of a changing American society.

Ardis E. Parshall (AEParshall@aol.com) is a Utah historian who welcomes feedback from readers.

*Hans E Borg, 1885-1957
*Daniel E Borg, 1888-1969