Ode to a deranged philanthropist
His wife knelt before him at his demand. He told her to close her eyes. She begged him to put away his gun. Ragingly drunk, he ripped into her, questioning her fidelity and accusing her of conspiring to poison him. She denied any wrongdoing. Then he shot her in the face. She managed to stumble to the hotel window and throw herself out. Miraculously, she survived the fall, landing on the roof below, the impact only breaking her shoulder. The gunshot wound took her right eye and deformed her face.
The husband in this harrowing story is Griffith J. Griffith, who, in 1896, donated 3,015 acres of his Los Feliz property to the City of Los Angeles to be used as a public green: Griffith Park. It was seven years later, on September 3, 1903, that he attacked his wife, Christina (nèe Mesmer) Griffith.
Info
Address Griffith Park, 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90027 (statue is located near the park entrance on Los Feliz Boulevard), www.laparks.org/dos/parks/griffithpk | Getting there Free on-site lot at Griffith Park Recreation Center (3648 Los Feliz Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90027); unmetered street parking on Riverside Drive | Hours Statue always viewable| Tip The same year Griffith died, Frank Lloyd Wright’s groundbreaking Hollyhock House began construction in Barnsdall Art Park (4800 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90027).
Christina, a devout Roman Catholic and social worker, came from a prominent and wealthy Los Angeles family. Griffith was a farm boy from Wales, raised by various extended family members. In his earlier years he was known as an earnest, hardworking, and charming businessman, who made his fortune in mining and real estate. But people’s opinions of Griffith soured with age. Journalists and associatesreferred to his grotesque gnomelike appearance, and described him as having “delusions of grandeur” and strutting “like a turkey gobbler.”
His powerful lawyer argued a defense of “alcoholic insanity” and finagled him a mere two-year sentence for the violent assault on his wife. After serving his time, Griffith returned to LA and spent much of the rest of his life trying, unsuccessfully, to win back the public’s respect.
Griffith died in 1919, but you can visit his likeness in the park named after him, where a bronze full-figure statue of the controversial philanthropist by artist Jonathan Bickart was unveiled in 1996.
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