Griffith J. Griffith
Griffith Jenkins Griffith was a Welsh-born American industrialist and philanthropist. After amassing a significant fortune from mining speculation in the 1870s-80s, Griffith and his wife, Christina, in 1896 donated to the City of Los Angeles that became Griffith Park, and he later bequeathed the money to build the park's Greek Theatre and Griffith Observatory. Griffith's legacy was marred by his notorious shooting of his wife in 1903, a crime for which he served a year and nine months in prison.
Life
Career and philanthropy
Griffith J. Griffith was born in Bettws, Glamorganshire, Wales, on January 4, 1850, to Margaret Jenkins Morgan and Griffith M. Griffith. He immigrated to the United States in 1865, settling in Ashland, Pennsylvania. In 1873, he moved to San Francisco, California, and became manager of the Herald Publishing Company.In 1878, Griffith became mining correspondent for the Alta California, a San Francisco newspaper. As a reporter, he gained extensive knowledge of the mining industry on the Pacific Coast and in Nevada, which led to his employment by various mining syndicates. In 1879 he was hired as superintendent of the new Wales Consolidated Gold & Silver Mining Company, whose mine in Eureka, Nevada, mysteriously burned down two years later and never produced any precious metals. During that time the company's publicly traded stock fluctuated wildly and Griffith was accused of inflating its prospects.
In 1882, Griffith moved to Los Angeles and purchased approximately of the Rancho Los Feliz Mexican land grant. In 1887, he married Mary Agnes Christina Mesmer, a daughter of early Los Angeles settler and businessman Louis Mesmer.
On December 16, 1896, the city of Los Angeles received for use as a park of the rancho from Griffith and Christina, whose earlier large inheritance of property provided the financial stability for Griffith to make the donation. While Griffith was widely praised, Christina's role was widely ignored and even to this day she is not mentioned in signage across Griffith Park.
Griffith called the donation "a Christmas present." After accepting the land, the city passed an ordinance to name the property Griffith Park, in honor of the donor. "It must be made a place of rest and relaxation for the masses, a resort for the rank and file, for the plain people," Griffith told the Los Angeles City Council when he donated the land. "I consider it my obligation to make Los Angeles a happy, cleaner, and finer city. I wish to pay my debt of duty in this way to the community in which I have prospered."
Griffith had originally planned to donate 2,000 acres but Mayor Rader got him to add another 1,000 acres that were along the Los Angeles River.
Griffith was later influential in turning the farm town of Hollywood into a wealthy Los Angeles suburb and founded Pacific Art Tile, a large decorative tile maker located where Glendale is today. After much fanfare, the company collapsed in 1904 and was sold off.
Crime
While vacationing in Santa Monica on September 3, 1903, Griffith shot his wife in the face in the Presidential Suite of the Arcadia Hotel, as she knelt on the floor before him. The shot did not kill her, but she was left disfigured and lost her right eye. Griffith was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to commit murder. The prosecution was led by Henry T. Gage, former governor of California. Griffith was defended by attorney Earl Rogers, whose cross-examination of the veiled Mrs. Griffith revealed that her husband—generally thought to be a teetotaler—was in fact a secret drunk who was subject to paranoid delusions. Griffith was convicted of a lesser charge, assault with a deadly weapon. The judge sentenced him to two years in San Quentin State Prison, and a $5,000 fine, instructing that he be given "medical aid for his condition of alcoholic insanity". He served time from April 5, 1905, to December 6, 1906.On November 4, 1904, while he was in jail, Mrs. Griffith was granted a divorce on the grounds of cruelty, and she was awarded custody of their 16-year-old son Vandell. The court also stated that G. J. Griffith would pay for his son's education at Stanford University. The decree was made in the record time of four and a half minutes.
Later life
G. J. Griffith was released from prison December 3, 1906, after serving nearly two years. His conduct at the penitentiary was called exemplary. Griffith returned to Los Angeles and began lecturing on prison reform.In December 1912, Griffith offered a second "Christmas present" to Los Angeles, in the form of a Greek Theater and a Hall of Science to be built at his expense in Griffith Park. The offer was accepted by the City Council, but members of the Park Commission objected on the basis of his prison sentence and instituted a court action to block the donation. Griffith left the offer in his will. He died of liver disease on July 6, 1919. The bulk of his $1.5 million estate was bequeathed to the city for the building of the Greek Theater and Griffith Observatory. He is interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles in the north end of Section 7, a.k.a. "The Griffith Lawn". While standing at the side of his obelisk and looking north, one can see the Griffith Observatory.
Griffith used the title of Colonel, but official records of military service which support this rank have not been found. Evidence suggests the only military title he ever held was Major of rifle practice with the California National Guard.