Anchorage Daily News

Betty Jeane Evans died at Patrick County Hospital in Stuart, Va., on June 5, 2008, of natural causes. She was 82.

Evans -- then Betty Mahaffey -- became the center of a sensational murder trial 50 years ago, in which she was charged with killing her husband in Kodiak.

Robert Mahaffey, a Fish and Wildlife agent, was handsome, charismatic, well-known and well-liked in the Alaska law enforcement community. He was a Mason, former Army Ranger, son of a Washington state legislator and rumored to have political aspirations of his own. Jay Hammond worked with him in the Dillingham area and sometimes baby-sat the three Mahaffey children. Hammond credited the Mahaffeys with introducing him to his wife, Bella, and wrote, "Bob was a remarkably personable fellow of enormous energy and dedication to doing things by the book."

Given the victim's popularity, prospects didn't look good for Betty when she turned herself in after shooting him with his own service revolver in their bedroom on Jan. 1, 1958. "I just had to kill him," she told police, showing no remorse.

She was brought to Anchorage to stand trial for second-degree murder.

At the trial, however, she took the stand in her own defense. She described the New Year's party that preceded the killing and the explosive argument that followed. Robert Mahaffey told her he was going to divorce her to marry a woman from Seattle, Nancy Scott, and would take the children with him, she said. He belittled her and threatened her. Love letters from Scott were produced as evidence, adding to her credibility.

Betty Mahaffey was represented by two future legislators, Clifford Groh and John Rader. Proceedings made local headlines for the first two weeks of May 1958, and newspapers in Washington followed the case. Anchorage's sole federal courtroom was packed with spectators.

Public sympathy shifted to the defendant. The jury deliberated for 20 hours straight, some members arguing for outright acquittal or justifiable homicide. Eventually they found her guilty of manslaughter. The foreman fought back tears as he read the verdict. Even the federal prosecuting attorney, William Plummer, asked the judge to show "extreme leniency."

She was sentenced to two years in prison and was later pardoned by Gov. Bill Egan.

Evans was born Betty Young, Aug. 15, 1925, in San Francisco. Her family moved to Seattle while she was a girl. There she met Robert Mahaffey. They married and came to Alaska in the late 1940s, living in Ketchikan, Anchorage, Dillingham, Seward and Kodiak, where she shot him.

After her release, she again married -- and soon divorced -- commercial pilot Chuck Evans. She worked as a secretary for the state Department of Transportation and as a U.S. census taker in rural Alaska among other jobs and business enterprises.

For many years, she lived in Anchorage near Campbell Creek on Lake Otis Parkway, later moving to the lower Hillside. Because of declining health, she relocated to Stuart, Va., last year, to be cared for by her son and daughter-in-law, David and Lora Mahaffey.

She is survived by her brother, John Young of Arizona; daughter, Susan Wilson of Ohio; and sons, Timothy Mahaffey of Anchorage and David Mahaffey of Anchorage and Stuart, Va.

No services are planned. Cards may be sent to David and Lora Mahaffey at 101 Mountain View Summit, Stuart, VA 24171.

Find Mike Dunham online at adn.com/contact/mdunham or call 257-4332.

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