Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Chasey V. Wilson. So if
Speaker 1: you have spent time in Los Angeles, or have you
Speaker 1: even read about the city or heard about it in passing,
Speaker 1: you have probably heard of Griffith Park. Uh. That is
Speaker 1: a huge space. It's forty undred acres, incredibly large from
Speaker 1: municipal park in a city. For comparisons, Central Park in
Speaker 1: Manhattan is eight hundred forty two point six acres, and
Speaker 1: more than three thousand of those acres were donated all
Speaker 1: at once for the founding of the park by a
Speaker 1: single man named Griffith J. Griffith. That name in and
Speaker 1: of itself makes me gel a little there, you haven't um.
Speaker 1: There is a huge statue of Griffith at the park's entrance.
Speaker 1: And while his name today is associated with the park
Speaker 1: and the observatory, during his time he was associated with
Speaker 1: some other things, real estate, social climbing, and a scandal
Speaker 1: that occupied columns and columns of newspapers around the country.
Speaker 1: Heads Up, this episode is going to talk quite a bit,
Speaker 1: particularly in the back half, about a pretty horrifying instance
Speaker 1: of domestic violence UH and the court cases associated with
Speaker 1: it as well as the act itself, So just know
Speaker 1: that that's in this episode. Griffith Jenkins. Griffith was born
Speaker 1: on January fourth, eighteen fifty in South Wales, and we
Speaker 1: don't really know a lot about his early years. We
Speaker 1: do know that the Griffith family was very poor. They
Speaker 1: had a subsistence farm and Griffith's father also took mining
Speaker 1: work to make ends meet. When he was still just
Speaker 1: a teenager, Griffith, who was the oldest child in the family,
Speaker 1: traveled to the United States with his uncle in eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty five. Griffith attended school in Pennsylvania, and after his
Speaker 1: education was complete, he started working as a reporter. In
Speaker 1: the eighteen seventies, Griffith traveled to the West Coast, making
Speaker 1: his way to San Francisco, California, to report on the
Speaker 1: mining industry there. Through his work covering mining interests, he
Speaker 1: started to be seen as really an expert on the subject,
Speaker 1: and this led to additional income as he started working
Speaker 1: as a consultant. He offered his knowledge of the industry
Speaker 1: as a whole, as well as specific information about various
Speaker 1: operations to heads of different companies. He also started his
Speaker 1: own mining ventures, making decisions based on his wealth of knowledge,
Speaker 1: which turned to actual wealth pretty quickly as these operations
Speaker 1: were successful. Yeah, there's actually us a lot of variation
Speaker 1: in the stories of how he made his money. Some
Speaker 1: will suggest that he made it all consulting, but really
Speaker 1: he didn't make as much as he claimed. Others say
Speaker 1: he had these side mining things going on. But basically,
Speaker 1: by the time he moved to Los Angeles in eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty two, he did have a pretty significant nesting with
Speaker 1: him that he had amassed, and he used that money
Speaker 1: to establish a reputation as a powerful businessman because he
Speaker 1: primarily used that money to invest in land in the city.
Speaker 1: At the end of two Griffith purchased Rancho Los Feliz
Speaker 1: and yes we know that Angelino say lost. Plus he
Speaker 1: bought this from a man named Thomas Bell. The land
Speaker 1: had been owned by a woman named Maria Ignacia Feliz,
Speaker 1: who and had inherited the ranch after her husband died.
Speaker 1: She later remarried, taking the last name Verdugo, and at
Speaker 1: that point Spain was still in control of the region,
Speaker 1: having seized the land from indigenous Gabrielino Tongva people's. The
Speaker 1: Felize family eventually lost control of the property and it
Speaker 1: changed hands several times before this purchase when Griffith acquired it,
Speaker 1: and by the time G. J. Griffith purchased Rancho Los Felize,
Speaker 1: it had a reputation as a cursed property, but he
Speaker 1: did not seem to mind. The large tract of land
Speaker 1: that he bought that made up the Rancho property included
Speaker 1: what they now called Los Felis, Silver Lake and a
Speaker 1: section of the Santa Monica Mountains. Griffiths saw his property
Speaker 1: acquisition as the beginning of an entirely new venture. He
Speaker 1: truly intended to build a ranching business there. He imported livestock,
Speaker 1: thousands of sheep, a hundred and fifty cows and fifty horses.
Speaker 1: He built a railway around this huge property, and he
Speaker 1: also started an Ostrich farm. Yeah, he had a business
Speaker 1: partner in that Ostrich farm. But one of the reasons
Speaker 1: that he was buying this ranch land, setting up infrastructure
Speaker 1: and kind of developing it as as this little oasis
Speaker 1: just outside the city was that he was making a
Speaker 1: lot of money in the land boom, and he was
Speaker 1: actually selling off lots as neighborhoods from the southern portion
Speaker 1: of the land, so he could claim that he already
Speaker 1: had like some infrastructure and some business going there, and
Speaker 1: wouldn't you want to live here? At that time, Griffith's
Speaker 1: ranch was outside the Los Angeles city limits, but he
Speaker 1: definitely inserted himself right into the middle of the city
Speaker 1: social scene. People saw him as a climber and an interloper,
Speaker 1: and he was referred to by a number of unflattering
Speaker 1: nicknames and descriptions, the tamest of which might be quote
Speaker 1: a roly poly, pompous little fellow. But Griffith was intent
Speaker 1: on becoming a prominent citizen of his new hometown, and
Speaker 1: one way that he saw to do this was through
Speaker 1: civic minded acts. So, for example, he sold the City
Speaker 1: of Los Angeles water rights along the l A River
Speaker 1: at a very discounted price, and this was a really
Speaker 1: vital step in the city's developing infrastructure. He probably could
Speaker 1: have set a price that gouged the municipal budget because
Speaker 1: they really really needed access to that water, But through
Speaker 1: some combination of genuine desire to do good and also
Speaker 1: hopes that his generosity would be recognized and gained him
Speaker 1: some clout, Griffith went ahead and sold it at a
Speaker 1: financial loss. Griffith also knew the value that a well
Speaker 1: made marriage match could have on his reputation. Enter Louis
Speaker 1: Mesmer and his lovely daughters. Mesmer was quote a pioneer
Speaker 1: resident and one of the best noon citizens of Los Angeles. Mesmer,
Speaker 1: who had been born in France, was an industrious man
Speaker 1: who had worked as a baker and a minor, and
Speaker 1: ultimately settled in Los Angeles in eighteen fifty nine, the
Speaker 1: population was a mere three thousand, five hundred. He started
Speaker 1: built and sold a number of businesses in the city,
Speaker 1: and laid some of the first cement sidewalk in l
Speaker 1: A on the edge of one of his properties. By
Speaker 1: the time Griffith arrived in l A, Mesmer was a
Speaker 1: well established, well respected businessman who had acquired significant wealth. Additionally,
Speaker 1: Mesmer's two daughters, Lucille and Christina, were named as inheritors
Speaker 1: of a huge fortune from a family friend who was
Speaker 1: Andre Ris Walter. Naturally, Griffiths went right for the first
Speaker 1: family of Los Angeles at the time and started a
Speaker 1: courtship with Christina Mesmer, whose full name was Mary Agnes
Speaker 1: Christina Messmer, although she went by either Christina or Autentina.
Speaker 1: The two were married on January seven, and their wedding
Speaker 1: was covered in the papers as a quote union of
Speaker 1: two very wealthy Los Angeles families. But right out of
Speaker 1: the gate, even before the wedding, there were issues between
Speaker 1: Griffith and the Mesmer family over money. After the invitations
Speaker 1: had already been mailed out, Griffith insisted that Christina sign
Speaker 1: over her rights to her inheritance to him. He initially
Speaker 1: thought she was inheriting all of Ris Walter's landholdings and
Speaker 1: was reportedly really angry when he found out that she
Speaker 1: was to split that real estate inheritance with her sister Lucy.
Speaker 1: That was when he insisted that he gained control of
Speaker 1: the inheritance, and this put Tina in a really terrible spot.
Speaker 1: She didn't want to call off the wedding, and while
Speaker 1: she acquiesced to his request, her siblings in particular found
Speaker 1: this whole thing really distasteful. They never really trusted Griffith
Speaker 1: after that. Griffith and Tina had a son the year
Speaker 1: after they married. They named him Van Dell. That was
Speaker 1: their only child, and Griffith also adopted a number of
Speaker 1: rather pretentious characteristics during his ascension among the Los Angeles elite.
Speaker 1: So he started walking with a cane that he did
Speaker 1: not need, presumably because he thought it made him look distinguished.
Speaker 1: He wore very expensive, lamboyant clothes, and he started to
Speaker 1: refer to himself by the title of colonel, even though
Speaker 1: he had no military career to speak of. But people
Speaker 1: accepted and started calling him Colonel Griffith. Historians have speculated
Speaker 1: that this was likely Griffith kind of overcompensating for a
Speaker 1: childhood of poverty, but for a lot of old money Angelinos,
Speaker 1: they just saw this all is really ridiculous peacocking. So
Speaker 1: as the nineteenth century was drawing to a close, Griffith
Speaker 1: chase aimed Los Angeles forever with one grand gesture, and
Speaker 1: we'll talk about how Griffith Park was established after we
Speaker 1: pause for a quick sponsor break. In December, Griffith gifted
Speaker 1: the city of Los Angeles with quite a Christmas surprise,
Speaker 1: three thousand, fifteen acres of land from Rancho Los Fellies
Speaker 1: to be used exclusively as a park. That land had
Speaker 1: not been developed in any way, and Griffiths wanted a
Speaker 1: lot of it to stay that way. This was an
Speaker 1: extravagant gift, and Griffith's motivations and making it have been
Speaker 1: debated over the years. For one, he continued to want
Speaker 1: to be seen as successful and important, and this gesture
Speaker 1: certainly went a long way in that regard. Additionally, the
Speaker 1: donation offered Griffith away to get out of paying taxes
Speaker 1: on the land, and the real estate boom was in decline,
Speaker 1: so selling off the land in part soles was not
Speaker 1: as lucrative as it once was. He did, though, also
Speaker 1: seemed to have a fairly genuine interest in civic philanthropy,
Speaker 1: and he did want Los Angeles to have a park system.
Speaker 1: We have spoken before in the show about how places
Speaker 1: like Central Park and the Mall in Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: Were inspired in part by people wanting to establish those
Speaker 1: cities as cosmopolitan on a level that would match the
Speaker 1: cities of Europe and their public spaces, and Griffith, who
Speaker 1: had traveled a bit by this point, was similarly influenced
Speaker 1: by the grand public spaces he had visited around the
Speaker 1: world and on the US East Coast, and that was
Speaker 1: part of his desire to donate the park land, and
Speaker 1: Griffith's own words quote, I consider it my obligation to
Speaker 1: make Los Angeles a happier, cleaner, and finer city. I
Speaker 1: wish to pay my debt of duty in this way
Speaker 1: to the community in which I have prospered. And the
Speaker 1: deed which transferred ownership to the l A City Council
Speaker 1: was very specific about the fact that the land was
Speaker 1: for a park in a park only. That deed is
Speaker 1: actually um part of the l A Archives. They actually
Speaker 1: have it framed on the wall. Uh and it includes
Speaker 1: the phrase quote to be used as a public park
Speaker 1: for purposes of recreation, health, and pleasure, for the use
Speaker 1: and benefit of the inhabitants of the said City of
Speaker 1: Los Angeles forever. The city council also passed an ordinance
Speaker 1: that named the park after Griffith shortly after all of
Speaker 1: this began, so it is legally required to be named
Speaker 1: Griffith's Park, even though Griffith had given up the land,
Speaker 1: though he kept feeling connected to it and retained a
Speaker 1: sense of ownership over it, even though he legally had
Speaker 1: no claim to it, but in his eyes he believed
Speaker 1: he did. There was a clause in the deed that
Speaker 1: he turned over to the city that mentioned specifically that
Speaker 1: if the city did not maintain the land in a
Speaker 1: manner that upheld that mission statement, ownership of the land
Speaker 1: would revert back to the Griffith family. And it's possible
Speaker 1: that Griffith actually believed this was going to happen. He
Speaker 1: certainly frequently wrote letters to the city and the Park
Speaker 1: Commission stating that he felt things were not being done
Speaker 1: correctly regarding the acreage he had donated. He also served
Speaker 1: on the Parks Committee, so he had a little bit
Speaker 1: of say in that regard, even if he didn't actually
Speaker 1: own the property any longer. Griffith's vision was for the
Speaker 1: part to include both the esthetics of the European gardening
Speaker 1: tradition with manicured and cultivated spaces, as well as the
Speaker 1: significant retention of the natural space, and that was indeed
Speaker 1: how the city designed the park. Yeah, if you if
Speaker 1: you ever visit Griffith Park, it's really sort of marvelous
Speaker 1: because it is a lot of a lot of space
Speaker 1: that is in its natural state. And then they had
Speaker 1: a zoo at one point. There's like famous marygo around
Speaker 1: we'll talk about in the our Friday episode. Um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: he managed to set this up and it has retained
Speaker 1: that identity that it was always intended to have per
Speaker 1: his instructions. So Griffith had at this point kind of
Speaker 1: accomplished what set how to do in his bid to
Speaker 1: become an important part of the Los Angeles community, and
Speaker 1: at least in name, he remains so to this day.
Speaker 1: And if he had lived out the rest of his
Speaker 1: life peacefully after this, he probably would have a pretty
Speaker 1: good and tame legacy in history as a slightly eccentric
Speaker 1: but ultimately benevolent philanthropist who made and married a lot
Speaker 1: of money and then used it to better his city.
Speaker 1: But the next chapter of his life took a very
Speaker 1: dark turn. Just as Griffith seemed to have gotten all
Speaker 1: that he wanted, he started to drink more heavily, and
Speaker 1: this started to impact his mental state as he developed
Speaker 1: a lot of paranoid ideas that started to govern his behavior.
Speaker 1: And reading through all this, and like the parts that
Speaker 1: we're about to get into, like I have thoughts about
Speaker 1: like the cause and effect cycle of all of this.
Speaker 1: Um An event that happened in September changed to Griffith's
Speaker 1: legacy forever. He and Tina went on a summer vacation
Speaker 1: into Santa Monica. They stayed at the Arcadia Hotel along
Speaker 1: with their sun Van, who was fifteen at the time,
Speaker 1: and Griffith behaved strangely during the families stay in Santa Monica.
Speaker 1: He had decided that someone was trying to poison him,
Speaker 1: and he suspected that it could actually be the Pope.
Speaker 1: This concern about the Pope seems to have been rooted
Speaker 1: in a very anti Catholic bias that he had, and
Speaker 1: it was manifesting in his paranoia. He would insist on
Speaker 1: switching the plates at the table settings during the trip
Speaker 1: because he believed that they might have poison residue on them. Uh.
Speaker 1: It has been estimated that Griffith, at this point in
Speaker 1: his life was drinking roughly two quarts of whiskey each day,
Speaker 1: that is sixty four ounces, just a little less than
Speaker 1: two leaders, so that was also governing some of this
Speaker 1: very strange behavior. Griffiths paranoia leads you a horrific series
Speaker 1: of events. On September three, and one version of this story,
Speaker 1: Tina was sitting at a desk in their hotel room
Speaker 1: writing out postcards to friends and family when Griffith entered
Speaker 1: the room, but then later testimony indicated that she was
Speaker 1: actually packing for their return home. Regardless though of exactly
Speaker 1: what Mrs Griffith was doing. The portion of the story
Speaker 1: that's corroborated and consistent is that Mr Griffith carried a
Speaker 1: revolver and a prayer book, which was Christina's prayer book,
Speaker 1: into the room with him. And Griffiths was a Protestant,
Speaker 1: but in his desire to move up in Enly society,
Speaker 1: he had married a Catholic. Tina was very devout, so
Speaker 1: in his mind, Griffith started to link his wife to
Speaker 1: his paranoid delusions about the pope and had started to
Speaker 1: believe on some level that she was conspiring with the
Speaker 1: head of the Catholic Church against her husband. So Griffith
Speaker 1: handed Tina the prayer book, told her to swear by
Speaker 1: it that she would answer his questions truthfully, instructed her
Speaker 1: to get on her knee ease, and then started interrogating her.
Speaker 1: He had written his questions down ahead of this conversation,
Speaker 1: so he was reading them from a card that he
Speaker 1: had prepared, kind of like a script. This was a
Speaker 1: menu card from the hotel, and he had written the
Speaker 1: questions on the back of it. And while this questioning
Speaker 1: was going on. He was also pointing his gun at her.
Speaker 1: He asked her if she had been involved in the
Speaker 1: death of Andrea brig Walter, that was the family friend
Speaker 1: who left Christina and her sister their fortune, saying quote,
Speaker 1: did you ever know of brig Walter being poisoned in
Speaker 1: your house? Tina answered no. Bridge Walter had died of
Speaker 1: blood poisoning, which he had gotten due to an infected
Speaker 1: foot injury, and that was something that Christina reminded her
Speaker 1: husband of in this moment. Next, Griffith asked his wife
Speaker 1: if she was poisoning him by asking, quote, have you
Speaker 1: been implicated with or do you know of anyone having
Speaker 1: given me poison? Tina, who called Griffith Papa, replied quote,
Speaker 1: why Papa, you know I have never harmed a hair
Speaker 1: on your head. His third question was whether Tina was
Speaker 1: a faithful wife, and she stated that she had never
Speaker 1: been untrue. Griffith had an additional question on his card,
Speaker 1: but he didn't ask it. He shot Tina after asking
Speaker 1: the third. He shot her in the face. The bullet
Speaker 1: hit the outer edge of her left eye, shattering the
Speaker 1: bone of her eye socket, and it was reported that
Speaker 1: upon impact with the bone, the bullet fragmented and a
Speaker 1: piece of it pierced her eye, so her left eye
Speaker 1: was destroyed, but the bullet didn't penetrate into the brain cavity.
Speaker 1: The rest of the bullet fragments passed under the skin
Speaker 1: of her temple and lodged under her scalp. Surprisingly, Christina
Speaker 1: Griffiths survived this brutal attack. She lost that eye and
Speaker 1: had some facial disfigurement, but had been fast enough in
Speaker 1: just kind of reflexively jerking her head to one side
Speaker 1: that she thwarted Griffith's aims so he did not hit
Speaker 1: her square in the forehead, and after asking her husband
Speaker 1: why he shot her, she next jumped out of the
Speaker 1: window onto the extended roof of the veranda below. And
Speaker 1: there are some versions of the story that indicate that
Speaker 1: the owners of the hotel saw her and pulled her
Speaker 1: into their rooms, but the version that the owners actually
Speaker 1: gave the press was that she crawled into an open
Speaker 1: window herself. So keep in mind that Tina at this
Speaker 1: point had just been shot in the face. She couldn't
Speaker 1: see she was bleeding a great deal. She also broke
Speaker 1: her shoulder as she jumped out the window. So it
Speaker 1: was incredibly lucky that she was able to get to
Speaker 1: safety at all. Meanwhile, her husband was still in the hotel.
Speaker 1: He had called the hotel staff that there was an accident,
Speaker 1: and as a doctor was being called, he phoned Christina's
Speaker 1: sister to tell her that her sister had been accidentally shot.
Speaker 1: Mrs Griffith was treated at the Arcadia Hotel by a
Speaker 1: doctor Crawford that was called by hotel management, and she
Speaker 1: stayed there the rest of the night. She was given
Speaker 1: an opiate to help her sleep, and then, as sue
Speaker 1: as possible, the following morning, she was moved to a
Speaker 1: hospital in Los Angeles. She was still unconscious at that point.
Speaker 1: The headline that ran on September five in the l
Speaker 1: A Times that detailed this incident was quote bullet in
Speaker 1: head of Mrs G. J. Griffith. She declares that her
Speaker 1: husband shot her. Result may be fatal. Christina Griffith's account
Speaker 1: was included in this article, reported as having been told
Speaker 1: to her sister in a moment of consciousness, who then
Speaker 1: related to the paper. According to that account, when Griffith
Speaker 1: entered the room, he said, quote, get your prayer book
Speaker 1: and kneel down and cover your eyes. I'm going to
Speaker 1: shoot you, and I'm going to kill you. This version
Speaker 1: didn't include the information that came to light later on
Speaker 1: involving Griffith's aggressive questioning of his wife, because Christina had
Speaker 1: not been conscious long enough to give a more thorough account.
Speaker 1: Once she was in the l A hospital, Christina Griffith
Speaker 1: went into surgery so that the bullet fragments could be
Speaker 1: dislodged from her head. Her surgeon R. M. L. Moore
Speaker 1: told the paper that while the situation was very serious,
Speaker 1: he believed that the patient would recover. So this rite
Speaker 1: up stated quote she either jumped or fell from the
Speaker 1: window of the room and dropped onto the roof of
Speaker 1: a porch on the level of the floor below. So
Speaker 1: at this point Griffith was claiming that this whole thing
Speaker 1: was an accident, and there was this whole idea that
Speaker 1: maybe his wife had just fallen. His account was that
Speaker 1: she had been packing a trunk when a revolver that
Speaker 1: was either inside of it or that she had been
Speaker 1: holding for some reason had accidentally discharged, and he said
Speaker 1: that they had not been quarreling at all. In an
Speaker 1: interview with a reporter, Griffith said that he and his
Speaker 1: wife never quarreled. The reporter, to his credit, did ask
Speaker 1: some very pointed questions about why Mrs Griffith would have
Speaker 1: had one of Mr Griffith's revolvers in her trunk, how
Speaker 1: she would have accidentally made her way out of a
Speaker 1: window that was actually in a gable way that was
Speaker 1: away from the main part of the room where their
Speaker 1: belongings were, and the Griffith was intoxicated at the time
Speaker 1: of the incident. Griffith kind of shrugged off the hard questions,
Speaker 1: I will say. The reporter at the end of that
Speaker 1: says like, do you say this is wholly untrue? And
Speaker 1: he's like, oh, yeah, holy um. So Griffith kind of
Speaker 1: shrugs off the hard questions and then claimed that in fact,
Speaker 1: he had been sober for several weeks. But the Mesber
Speaker 1: family was adamant that this was not an accident. Tina's
Speaker 1: brother gave a quote to the press that said quote,
Speaker 1: Mrs Griffith did not shoot herself. The shooting was not
Speaker 1: an accident. In our opinion. We are sure there was
Speaker 1: no attempt at suicide. As yet, we make no accusations,
Speaker 1: but we believe that the shot was not accidental nor
Speaker 1: was it fired with suicidal intent. That statement was given
Speaker 1: to a reporter, but before the article actually we went
Speaker 1: to press, the Mesmer family contacted the paper again and
Speaker 1: they asked to have the following statement added. And it's
Speaker 1: kind of if you look at that newspaper, um, it's
Speaker 1: kind of in its own call out box to the
Speaker 1: side of the article, and that state and his quote,
Speaker 1: that would be the consensus of opinion of this meeting.
Speaker 1: That judgment be suspended until Mrs Griffith is able to
Speaker 1: make a statement, but that a full explanation be demanded
Speaker 1: from Mr Griffith, and that a full investigation be made.
Speaker 1: The family at this point believed that a conflict stemming
Speaker 1: from religious differences was at the heart of this whole matter,
Speaker 1: as well as Griffith's drinking to excess. At this point,
Speaker 1: Christina was still hospitalized and unconscious, and while her doctor
Speaker 1: thought that she would recover, nobody was certain whether she
Speaker 1: actually would. The Arcadia's landlords, the Rights, also made a
Speaker 1: statement that they believed that this was an accident, and
Speaker 1: while the status of the Griffith's teenage son Vandel during
Speaker 1: this incident had been a matter of confusion. Initially, people
Speaker 1: were like where was Van del and nobody knew. It
Speaker 1: was eventually discovered that he had in fact been outside
Speaker 1: when it happened. Initially, when asked if his son had
Speaker 1: been in the room during the shooting, Griffiths said he
Speaker 1: did not know and that he was quote averse to
Speaker 1: asking the boy. Griffith had agreed to be taken into custody,
Speaker 1: still claiming that it was all an accident, but at
Speaker 1: the last minute he slipped away and went for a drink.
Speaker 1: This was actually several drinks. He moved from one bar
Speaker 1: to another, and a sheriff's deputy trailed him on a
Speaker 1: ten mile bar crawl before he was able to catch
Speaker 1: up with G. J. Griffith and make the arrest. And
Speaker 1: coming up, we're going to talk about how the legal
Speaker 1: ramifications of this assault played out. But before we get
Speaker 1: into that, let's all take a break and we will
Speaker 1: hear from one of the sponsors that keep stuff you
Speaker 1: missed in history going. This entire incident and case was
Speaker 1: huge news, and for the next several months leading up
Speaker 1: to the trial, newspapers across the country reported every development
Speaker 1: in the case. This included the fact that Griffith's legal
Speaker 1: representation had offered Stina thirty five thousand dollars as a
Speaker 1: divorce settlement, which she would only get if she refused
Speaker 1: to testify in court against her husband. This was also
Speaker 1: a move that was intended to get legal blocks on
Speaker 1: Griffith's properties removed so he could sell them if he wished.
Speaker 1: That included the property that Christina had inherited in the
Speaker 1: Bridge Walter fortune. She did not take this offer, and
Speaker 1: as initial hearings had approached, Griffith's defense slowly shifted away
Speaker 1: from the story that the shooting was an accident and
Speaker 1: instead claimed alcoholic insanity. There were several preliminary hearings and
Speaker 1: the actual trial took place in February of nineteen o four.
Speaker 1: When Christina Griffith testified, she wore a black veil that
Speaker 1: covered her whole face. The newspaper report of her testimony
Speaker 1: stated that quote the lawyers made Mrs Griffith get down
Speaker 1: from the witness stand and show her sightless eye socket
Speaker 1: to each of the jurors, in turn holding up her
Speaker 1: veil and dark glasses, while each of the twelve looked
Speaker 1: her scars and deformities critically over it was not dramatic
Speaker 1: at all, but pitiful and one of the most painful
Speaker 1: incidents that ever happened in Judge Smith's court. Christina's time
Speaker 1: on the stand was unsurprisingly quite emotional. She told the
Speaker 1: court quote, he told me to take my prayer book
Speaker 1: and get down on my knees, that he had some
Speaker 1: questions to ask me. I begged him to please put
Speaker 1: the pistol away. Oh, I begged him to put it away.
Speaker 1: I saw that I was in the hands of a
Speaker 1: desperate man. So I asked him if I might have
Speaker 1: time to pray. He said I might, So I knelt
Speaker 1: and raised my eyes and prayed. She describes the questioning
Speaker 1: and what happens next, and at the end of her account,
Speaker 1: she stated, my only thought was to get out dead
Speaker 1: or alive. That was a statement that Griffa's attorney asked
Speaker 1: to have stricken from the record. Griffith J. Griffith was
Speaker 1: charged with attempted murder. His attorney, Earl Rogers, tried to
Speaker 1: discredit Christina in a number of ways and use her
Speaker 1: testimony that Griffith had threatened to kill her on several occasions,
Speaker 1: as well as the account of fits paranoia, to bolster
Speaker 1: his clients in sanity defense. Former California Governor Henry T.
Speaker 1: Gage was Christina's attorney, and he had Rogers as well
Speaker 1: as the other attorneys present. Were so prone to arguing
Speaker 1: with one another that one reporter claimed the judge quote
Speaker 1: would be on the point of a journey for the
Speaker 1: afternoon to let them fight it out. Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: a very um There's a lot of bickering going on.
Speaker 1: And Christina had given testimony in several hearings leading up
Speaker 1: to the trial at that point. They were always consistent,
Speaker 1: and she had said in all of them that she
Speaker 1: believed the real reason that Griffith wanted to kill her
Speaker 1: was because she had threatened to leave him due to
Speaker 1: his drinking, and that he knew that if that happened,
Speaker 1: all of his secrets would become public. The fact that
Speaker 1: he had this drinking problem was definitely something he had
Speaker 1: been hiding. She had told the proprietor of the hotel
Speaker 1: when the shooting happened that Griffith must be crazy, and
Speaker 1: she also spoke of how he had been paranoid about
Speaker 1: poisoning for years and years, and she had kind of
Speaker 1: humored him when he did things like wanting to switch
Speaker 1: plates with her, and his defense seized on all of
Speaker 1: that as evidence that their defense their insanity plea was sound,
Speaker 1: and to some degree that approach worked. Griffith was found
Speaker 1: guilty not of attempted murder, but of the lesser crime
Speaker 1: of assault with a deadly weapon. He was sentenced to
Speaker 1: two years in prison and a five thousand dollar fine,
Speaker 1: and was incarcerated at San Quentin. And while this was
Speaker 1: believed by a lot of people to be a miscarriage
Speaker 1: of justice, Mrs Griffith's divorce filing had a better outcome.
Speaker 1: The judge granted the request immediately and the whole thing
Speaker 1: was handled allegedly within five minutes, some say four and
Speaker 1: a half, so on November five, nineteen o four, he
Speaker 1: was already incarcerated at this time when they had this hearing.
Speaker 1: The San Francisco Examiner ran the story of the proceedings
Speaker 1: around the divorce. After stating during testimony that she had
Speaker 1: been shot by her husband after he had instructed her
Speaker 1: to get on her knees and was allowed to pray,
Speaker 1: the judge interrupted and asked if this was deliberate, and
Speaker 1: she replied, quote, it was deliberate. He made me get
Speaker 1: down on my knees. I asked to pray, and then
Speaker 1: the judge asked quote. He then fired Christina. Griffith answered yes, sir,
Speaker 1: and Judge Allen's next words were decree granted. As part
Speaker 1: of the settlement, it was determined that Christina would retain
Speaker 1: custody of their son, Vandel, and that Griffith would pay
Speaker 1: for the boy's education. Christina was also awarded sixty five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. After the divorce was settled, she receded from
Speaker 1: the public eye and lived out the rest of her
Speaker 1: life with her sister Lucy Whipple's family, until her death
Speaker 1: in ninety eight at the age of eighty four. When
Speaker 1: Griffith finished his two years sentence, he was sober, repentant
Speaker 1: and really eager to rehabilitate his image, so after several years,
Speaker 1: he once again turned to grand gestures in an effort
Speaker 1: to re establish himself as a Los Angeles philanthropist. In
Speaker 1: nineteen twelve, Griffith offered the city of Los Angeles a
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars to be put to we're building an
Speaker 1: observatory on Griffith Peak, which is known today as Mount Hollywood.
Speaker 1: But while the city council had been willing to take
Speaker 1: a huge gift of land from the man that a
Speaker 1: lot of people at the time believe to be a
Speaker 1: society poser. They were not so keen on taking a
Speaker 1: huge sum of money from him having been convicted of
Speaker 1: the spelony, even if he had served his sentence. I mean,
Speaker 1: the nature of the crime also, I think would be
Speaker 1: a deterrent. And keep in mind, like these are very
Speaker 1: high level, powerful, wealthy families in the area. So it's
Speaker 1: a little bit tricky because the Mesmer family, of course
Speaker 1: was very very powerful and wealthy. But Griffith also kind
Speaker 1: of in some ways, you know, had had the city
Speaker 1: a little bit over a barrel, like he had those
Speaker 1: water rights that he had essentially given them. It was
Speaker 1: all a little bit weird, but they so they kind
Speaker 1: of put him off. It was like, we'll think about it.
Speaker 1: And then in a similar move following year nineteen thirteen,
Speaker 1: Griffith offered the city fifty thousand dollars. This was to
Speaker 1: be put towards building a Greek theater in Griffith Park,
Speaker 1: and once again there wasn't exactly a no, but there
Speaker 1: wasn't any real movement to accept the offer. They kind
Speaker 1: of like went to operations slowdown with it. Griffith was
Speaker 1: undoubtedly hurt by this refusal to accept his gifts, but
Speaker 1: he still had a vision for these two projects, and
Speaker 1: of course today there are a Greek Theater and the
Speaker 1: Griffith Observatory. They were built, but that did not happen
Speaker 1: until later in nine Griffith died after a prolonged illness
Speaker 1: which was reported as liver trouble. His image was still
Speaker 1: tarnished in the minds of many of the city's residents,
Speaker 1: although the obituary that ran in the l A Times
Speaker 1: did not mention the assault, or his conviction or any
Speaker 1: of that. It instead recounted his philanthropic works and kind
Speaker 1: of left it at that. Upon his death, it was
Speaker 1: revealed that Griffith had set up a trust to ensure
Speaker 1: that his observatory and the Greek Theater project did forward,
Speaker 1: and the city did use the funds from that trust
Speaker 1: to carry out construction on both of them. The Greek
Speaker 1: Theater was completed in nineteen thirty and the Griffith Observatory
Speaker 1: was finished in nineteen thirty five. And now people know
Speaker 1: his name, which is probably what he wanted in the
Speaker 1: first place. Yeah, done, dune, Dune, do you have some
Speaker 1: listener mail to take us out. I do, uh, it's
Speaker 1: about me being a dumbhead in our Jean Baptiste dedn'ty episode.
Speaker 1: It's from our listener Kate, who writes, Dear Holly and Tracy.
Speaker 1: First off, I want to say I absolutely love your podcast.
Speaker 1: It is fascinating and well researched, and I know you
Speaker 1: both worked hard to uplift marginalized stories. That said, I
Speaker 1: think you made a major misstep with today's episode on
Speaker 1: Jean Baptis, Denny and the blood transfusion race. I understand
Speaker 1: why you chose to include a warning about animal experimentation
Speaker 1: at the beginning. However, the fact that you included this
Speaker 1: warning and made no mention of the fact that a
Speaker 1: human being was abducted and forced to undergo a medical
Speaker 1: experiment against his will came across as incredibly classist and frankly,
Speaker 1: talkingly devoid of empathy. I don't know you personally, but
Speaker 1: I think I've listened to enough of your work to
Speaker 1: know this was not your intention. I know you mentioned
Speaker 1: having discussions about how graphic to get with various topics
Speaker 1: other than animals, but I think you need to consider
Speaker 1: not just what you are saying in these warnings, But
Speaker 1: what you are saying with these warnings, this warning you
Speaker 1: put on the episode prioritize the welfare of animals over
Speaker 1: that of a man experiencing homelessness. You basically said, we
Speaker 1: expect the harm done to these animals to be more
Speaker 1: disturbing than the kidnapping, assault, and eventual murder of Antoine
Speaker 1: moray More who I'm sorry, I do not believe you
Speaker 1: actually feel that way, but that is how it came across.
Speaker 1: As I said, I adore your podcast. I'm sorry this
Speaker 1: is what it took to get me to write in.
Speaker 1: I've thought about it multiple times for much happier reasons,
Speaker 1: but never got around to it. Thank you for the
Speaker 1: work you do. I will say this is not this
Speaker 1: completely valid criticism. I will say I think part of
Speaker 1: it for me is that any time there is an
Speaker 1: early stage UM medical development story, I kind of assume
Speaker 1: humans are going to be horrible to each other, which
Speaker 1: is part of why I that didn't even occur to
Speaker 1: me UM. So it's a really good point. I will
Speaker 1: just as a correction, he was not homeless, though he
Speaker 1: was believed to be. He had a home, he just
Speaker 1: didn't tend to go to it. Um, not that that
Speaker 1: makes any difference. It's just for clarity, because I don't
Speaker 1: want more wad story to become confused. Um. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it's it's always tricky and I know. Um. The
Speaker 1: other thing I will say is that we get mixed
Speaker 1: reactions anytime we issue any kind of warning in the episode.
Speaker 1: There are lots of times when people say, why did
Speaker 1: you warn us? That ruins the story and it's stupid
Speaker 1: and people should just know that history is full of horrors,
Speaker 1: and other people who say, I really wish you had
Speaker 1: told me this was going to happen. Yeah. A lot
Speaker 1: of times. What I'm trying to make that call it,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of times when it seems like something
Speaker 1: that would not be expected in the course of the episode.
Speaker 1: Like if the title of the episode is the such
Speaker 1: and such massacre, I'm probably not gonna issue a warning
Speaker 1: about there being a lot of violence in the episode. Um.
Speaker 1: But if it's a story about a breed of flowers
Speaker 1: and there's some kind of like horrific murder, and I'm
Speaker 1: probably gonna say something about the murder at the beginning.
Speaker 1: Those are made up examples, right, And I mean I
Speaker 1: I It's one of those things that I thought about
Speaker 1: even with today's episode, right, I knew I wanted to
Speaker 1: include that domestic violence warning because it is a horrifying
Speaker 1: thing that happened and not something you necessarily expect with
Speaker 1: the man for whom Griffith Park is named if you
Speaker 1: don't know his back story, But I didn't include, for example,
Speaker 1: his alcoholism is like an addiction warning, or the fact
Speaker 1: that the violence was specifically gun violence, right, because that
Speaker 1: can be right. I mean, that's the thing. It It
Speaker 1: gets to be a tricky dance, and I don't always
Speaker 1: do it right clearly, um, because there are so many
Speaker 1: things that could potentially be troubling to any number of people,
Speaker 1: and sometimes it's hard to predict. And also it's probably
Speaker 1: just there's part of me that's a jaded and callous
Speaker 1: um cynic who's like, of course, humans train each other terribly,
Speaker 1: which I try not to let drive the bus, but
Speaker 1: sometimes it blinds me. Um. I did also want to
Speaker 1: mention though, that we got an email also from our
Speaker 1: listener Rebecca, who really really wanted us uh, since we
Speaker 1: had been talking about blood transfusion to mention to our
Speaker 1: listeners the importance of donating blood. Uh. If you can
Speaker 1: donate blood, it does a whole lot of good. Uh.
Speaker 1: She says, each whole blood donation can save up to
Speaker 1: three lives. If that isn't enough to make you think
Speaker 1: about it, if it's something you can do, I know
Speaker 1: it's a little tricky during pandemic. So yeah, there's um
Speaker 1: the city where I live has been really good about
Speaker 1: like telling people when there's a blood drive and how
Speaker 1: they can sign up, because they're being really careful about
Speaker 1: like how many people can be inside the space and
Speaker 1: all that kind of thing. Um. So I think it
Speaker 1: can be a little trickier to find a slot to
Speaker 1: to do it for that reason. Um, but there's lots
Speaker 1: of information available uh in any particular city about uh
Speaker 1: where to do it, how to do it. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think you could probably do a blood donation and your
Speaker 1: whatever your municipality or location is, and you will find
Speaker 1: a wealth of resources. Um. And I encourage people to
Speaker 1: do it. It is uh, As Rebecca said, it's a
Speaker 1: an incredible gift that you're giving and uh worthwhile, particularly
Speaker 1: at a time when a lot in the world is
Speaker 1: going wrong. If you can help something go right, that
Speaker 1: will probably make you feel better. Uh So, if you
Speaker 1: would like to write to us, you can do so
Speaker 1: at History podcast at iHeart radio dot com. You can
Speaker 1: also find us on social media at missed in History.
Speaker 1: Uh If you'd like to subscribe to the show and
Speaker 1: you haven't already, well that sounds grand. You can do
Speaker 1: that on the iHeart Radio app, at Apple podcast or
Speaker 1: wherever it is you listen. Stuff you missed in History
Speaker 1: Class is a production of I heart Radio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.