Body Of A Man With Breast Implants

The Tampa Tribune

SECTION: FLORIDA/METRO

PAGE: 1

Published Friday, October 15, 1999

Twisted tale has no final chapter

BYLINE: ACE ATKINS of The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office closes a case involving a missing transvestite's body found in May.

For years, Jimmy Estep couldn't pass the trailer home in Riverview without crying. He knew his old buddy from the drag-queen circuit, Ruby, was buried somewhere in the back yard.

More than a decade later, investigators would prove him right.

In May, diggers discovered a shallow grave containing the body of a man with breast implants and wearing a nightgown. The body was wrapped in plastic bags and tied with electrical cords.

But it would take a five-month investigation, a medical examiner' s report, and a confession before Ruby's story could be told.

Thursday, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office closed its file.

Shortly before the body was discovered, records say, Bob Bota, the man who lived as Ruby's husband, admitted to deputies he had struck Ruby hard with his elbow, later found him dead, and buried him behind their trailer in Tropical Acres, 12022 Glenhill Drive, in December 1984.

What belongings he didn't give away including several afghans he put in an old Airstream Travel trailer. He hired a man with a backhoe to dig a hole in the yard and bury the trailer.

However, the State Attorney's office announced Thursday it would not seek charges against Bota.

In a letter to Detective James Bradford, the office stated there is no way to know if Bota, 61, dealt the fatal blow. It also stated the statute of limitations had run out on all felonies and misdemeanors in the case.

State law says prosecution, except in a capital case, must start within four years.

Thursday, Bota, a retired janitor at the University of Tampa and mouse rancher, said he buried Ruby but he didn't kill him.

"I got scared, I guess," Bota said. "Everything pointed to me."

He had said Ruby's death had something to do with a mysterious black limo spotted at a local Stop & Go shortly before the fight.

Neighbors told detectives the couple fought often. Friends remembered Ruby as the aggressor, who often threw dishes and pots when drunk.

"She was the cock of the walk," Kim Longwell, an old friend of Ruby's, said in an earlier interview. "She definitely ruled the household."

Longwell also remembered Ruby as great fun at local bars such as the Hitching Post and that he liked to raise blue parakeets and orchids.

On May 11, Bota told a more complete story of Ruby's past to detectives. Bota said he first met Ruby at a Miami gay bar in 1962 and that his real name was Russell Seaborn.

He recalled Ruby taking a driver's license test in a skirt and wig, and passing as a woman. "I couldn't believe it," he said.

After that day, Seaborn was always Ruby, Bota said. Ruby also worked as a beautician and "knew how to fix herself up."

Ruby later had breast implant surgery, and they moved to Riverview to live as husband and wife.

Bradford's interview with Bota concentrated on the December night, five days before Christmas, when Bota returned from a long day of selling mice. The couple had an argument, he said, and Ruby threatened him with a knife.

Bota at first denied hitting Ruby but later said he struck him with an elbow to the head. Small pieces of glass were found in the front part of Ruby's brain, but Bota says he never hit him with a hard object.

Bota said after he struck Ruby, he was so mad he turned and left without checking his condition. He drove to a nearby Circle K convenience store to grab a cup of coffee. When he returned, he saw Ruby lying on the ground outside the trailer.

"I said, "You can quit playing your sorry-ass games. I'm not falling for it this time,' " Bota told investigators. " 'Cause a lot of times she'd when she'd fall down, she'd pretend like she was really hurt or something like that."

Bota said he placed a mirror to Ruby's mouth to see if he was breathing. After he realized Ruby was dead, he cradled him in his arms and kissed him several times.

"I mean, I held her for the longest time, crying and moaning, you know. And that's when I covered her up and wrapped that thing around her and took her out in back and digged the hole."

No murder weapon was found. The medical examiner ruled Ruby's death "homicidal violence of an undetermined type."

When hearing the news that Bob Bota would not be charged, Billy Rodgers, a friend of Ruby's who owns a costume and parrot shop in Gibsonton, was saddened.

He took a deep breath and said, "We waited too long, I guess." He wished he had contacted authorities soon after Ruby disappeared.

Jimmy Estep agreed. He said he didn't come forward for a long time because he was scared of Bota. Estep, a former chimpanzee trainer, also said no one believed him when he expressed his suspicions.

No missing persons report was ever filed when Ruby disappeared. Bob Bota told Ruby's friends he had left with some socialites in a limo and was planning to live in Italy.

Jewel Boxwell, the mother of Russell Seaborn, said she hadn't talked to her son for almost 20 years. The last she heard, he was living with Bota in Riverview.

"I didn't know what had happened. I figured he'd just took off."

Boxwell said she couldn't afford to bury her son. "But Bob Bota, by God, should."

Staff photographer Jay Nolan contributed to this report.

ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO (C)

CAPTIONS: Ruby Bota was able to get himself listed as female on his driver's license.

KEYWORDS: RUBY BOTA MURDER INVESTIGATION END

© Copyright 1999 The Tampa Tribune

ACE ATKINS of The Tampa Tribune, Twisted tale has no final chapter. , The Tampa Tribune, 10-15-1999, pp 1.