Recently I have been going through photo files saved on my computer. This one of the Whiting family in St. Johns brought back memories, although we had not moved to St. Johns when the following photo was taken.
We appreciate the happy times shared with members from two of the prominent families in St. Johns: the Whitings and the Pattersons.
While living in St. Johns we had heard about a mystery involving a death, a trial, and the Whitings and Pattersons. I was reminded about that when reading a May 15, 2022, article in the Deseret News, "St. Johns Has a Secret." (See more about this later in this blog entry.)
Quote from a May 15, 2022 : “The versions of what happened on that ill-fated hunting trip were as numerous as those who chose to talk about it.” — A History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake
Sons: Farr & Virgil (right - back row). Sons-in-law: Sherwood Udall (in front of Farr and holding a daughter; married to Melba Udall (sitting between "Sherdie" and matriarch Ethel) and Darwin Grant (not in photo) married to Erma Whiting (left, 3rd row sitting in front of Mabel Whiting Shumway (left - back row). The sons of Darwin and Erma are at the left in the 1st and 2nd rows wearing tan suits; we taught these boys (Merwin and Howard Grant).
Erma and Darwin were part of our social group. They were the Stake dance directors who taught Sam and me the various dance routines that we then taught the youth and danced with them in Salt Lake at the General Church dance recital held on the football field at the University of Utah.
The Whitings were a prominent family in St. Johns and had prosperous businesses in the region.
E.I. Whiting was the patriarch of the family. Their large home was across the street from the church building where our family attended each Sunday.
The tragic accident I'm mentioning now in this paragraph is not part of the mystery mentioned above in the Deseret News article. I remember vividly when news came to the community that the plane was missing that Farr and Virgil Whiting were flying to Phoenix. I helped in the sheriff's office listen for messages being transported on the shortwave radio by the search parties. Our whole community fasted and prayed that they would be found. Sadly, they did not survive the crash.
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The St. Johns mystery retold in the 2022 Deseret News article.
Mabel Whiting's first husband was killed in a hunting accident, which has remained somewhat of a mystery in St. Johns. He was shot by John Chiono, a son-in-law of a Patterson, another prominent family in St. Johns.
The prosecution failed to present a convincing case. Four hours after being released to deliberate, the jury returned with its verdict: involuntary manslaughter. A year after the trial, John Chiono was pardoned by the governor. But unanswered questions from the trip lingered in the town. Lee's corpse was found with a broken shoulder. How did the injury happen? Other salacious rumors spread, including that John Chiono, married to a Whiting, was having an affair.
The Pattersons claim John Chiono was an honorable man. Our personal long time friend, Diane Patterson, is quoted in this Deseret News article saying "He was so nice." She and others in the Patterson family presume John Chiono suffered some illness - "a brain tumor," they said, that caused him to later die by suicide.
Rex Lee, Jr., the former president of BYU, never knew his father. He was born 3 1/2 months after his dad was killed. When his mother, Mabel, remarried, she took on the surname "Shumway," though Rex always kept the name of his biological father, " Rex Lee."
Senator Mike Lee is quoted in the 2022 Deseret News article: "My dad was raised entirely without knowledge of what had happened to his biological father," only knowing his dad was killed in a hunting accident - (until being told after Chiono's suicide).
As Chiono's daughter, Sandra, neared her 18th birthday, Diane Patterson shared that Chiono began to act peculiar. Sometime near Sandra's high school graduation, John Chiono went missing. A search party found him dead on the Patterson family farm lifeless with a rifle on the ground. He left no note.
"But the lingering question for those who believed Lee was murdered was Chiono’s motive. Do the rumors — that he had an affair, and Lee knew about it — have any substance? Could it really be an outgrowth of a business dispute? Were there hard feelings between the two? Was it just a tragic accident?"
While living in St. Johns, we had learned about this sad part of St. Johns history, but both families have moved on and work and live side by side. We have long time friendships with Whitings and with Pattersons.
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It was President Wilford Shumway who called Sam to be a bishop in St. Johns. Wilford became Rex Lee's father when he married Rex's mother, Mabel Whiting. Mabel did not feel right changing Rex's last name from Lee to Shumway and trusted that it would be worked out eternally.
