Friday, November 8, 2013

A Horrible Crime in My Childhood Neighborhood


me on the front lawn of our brand new house, 1968

I don't make a habit of living in sketchy high-crime neighborhoods. Yet twice in my life I have lived just around the corner from a scene of triple-murder. Yeah. The first of them was random--that was mighty scary. The second was a family deliberately targeted, so we had no fear for our personal selves that day. Both times the murders occurred in orderly nice neighborhoods full of children and families and people who went to work every day.

I wrote about the second murder here, here, and here. And now the first:

This one occurred on November 29, 1972 during my freshman year of college when I attended nearby College of the Canyons in Valencia California. My family lived in a planned community with a variety of homes among parks, a shopping area, and a clubhouse with pool and tennis courts, all of which were within walking distance on paseos (very wide curvy sidewalks that were not cut by streets).

The day of the murder I finished my morning classes about 10:50 a.m. My friend Emily was riding with me in my Mom's forest green Dodge Dart sedan, which I had borrowed for the day. We drove down Rotella St. near our houses at 11:10. I vividly remember looking at the clock. After dropping Emily I went home to my empty house through the unlocked front door--we never locked our doors during daytime.

I hadn't been home but 5 or 10 minutes when my Mom called from her work at Sierra Vista Junior High out in Saugus. She was frantic, and instructed me to lock the doors and stay inside until I heard from her again. There had been a murder in the neighborhood and the suspect was at large. Yikes.

That morning Mrs. G, who lived on Rotella, had invited a neighbor's son to play with her 3-year-old son. She and the 2 boys were out on her driveway when a young Black man--Robert Grigsby, age 17--pursued them into her house, grabbed a knife from Mrs. G's kitchen, chased the three into the back bedroom and slew them all. About that time Mrs. K, mother of the other boy, came down to find out why Mrs. G was not answering her phone, and walked in on the murder scene. Mrs. K was slashed by Grigsby, who then took off.
from my 1972 high school yearbook

The police were called and then the word swept to every corner of the Santa Clarita Valley. As mentioned above, I drove past Mrs. G's house on Rotella at 11:10, the exact time later determined that the murders occurred. I probably got home at 11:15, and by 11:25 my Mom was calling me from her work eight miles away to tell me of the murders. The word of the crime spread that fast. Our area was still partly rural, not heavily populated, and it seemed we knew everyone else, or at least knew of them, so one phone call became 10, and 10 became a hundred, and so on.

My friend Emily also got a call from her Mom. Emily called me to say she was too afraid to stay home alone and wanted to run to my house. I implored her to stay home with the doors locked but she was willing to risk being out and about with a murderer on the loose, rather than be home alone. She made it over. I recall that by noon, less than an hour since the murder, Mom called to say the perp had been caught down by the river, a few blocks north of our house.

The perp was, is, mentally ill and had exhibited alarming aggressive behavior previously. His brother was well-known at my high school, but I had not known this kid--perhaps he wasn't a regular attender. There's plenty of unanswered questions about that dreadful day, and virtually zero about it on the internet. I don't even know if he's still incarcerated but can hope that he never sees the light of day.

It has always creeped me out that our house was unlocked. If Grigsby had walked a few more blocks and seen me go into my house, he could have come in after me. Or he might have been waiting for me inside . . . I did not know the victims personally, yet will always remember them as innocents whose paths tragically crossed with a psychopath. 


20 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. I lived 1 house away from Grisby..my parents just bought our house when our next door neighbor told us Grisby was returning from a pysco ward or jail for breaking into his house a d hitting his daughter in the head with a hammer 8 times

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    2. then he committed the 3 terrifying horrible murders shortly after that..this has had a scar in me my whole life I was 14 then and I'm 60 today I've never ha
      d sharp knifes in my house .sticks I. all the windows could t sleep by myself for months

      Scared me to death

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  2. I knew this guy. I went to Hart High at the time and he was always hanging out at the entry way to the park where we all went at lunch time. he always had his ghetto blaster and never said much. A few years later another black kid that was in my class, lionel tate, murdered a Parks and Recreation employee. There were only a handful of blacks at the school back then so strange that 2 were murderers. Im going to check and see if Grigsby has been released by now.....

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    1. Wow Jenna. He was younger than me so I never knew him. And I never heard about that other murder. I left Newhall for good a year after high school graduation.

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  3. whew he is still there..GRIGSBY, ROBERT ALAN B50441 58 07/27/1973 Men's Colony

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    1. Thanks for checking. I spent a few minutes doing a google search and he did not come up. I should have looked harder.

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    2. I hope so hit o was told he's been out for some time

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  4. I knew this guy. I went to Hart High at the time and he was always hanging out at the entry way to the park where we all went at lunch time. he always had his ghetto blaster and never said much. A few years later another black kid that was in my class, lionel tate, murdered a Parks and Recreation employee. There were only a handful of blacks at the school back then so strange that 2 were murderers. Im going to check and see if Grigsby has been released by now.....

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  5. The little neighbor boy who was murdered with the mother and son was my cousin, Scotty. Every once in a while I check to see if Robert Grigsby is still in prison, and when I searched this past week your blog post came up. I have most of the news articles from when the murders happened and the subsequent trial. To say that these murders and the stabbing of my aunt (who survived) irrevocably changed our family is an understatement.

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    1. I am so sorry. I had friends who used to babysit that adorable little boy. Events like this leave deep scars.

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    2. I went to School with Scott’s older brother Steve, that was such a shocking day I will never forget

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  6. I search yearly to see if Grigsby is still in prison. I was 14 when my brother Scotty was murdered. I pray Robert Grigsby & all convicted murders are never released from prison.

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  7. Karen, I too hope that he never sees the light of day. No other family should ever go through what your family suffered. So sorry.

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  8. Hi Suzanne!
    It's Rich Burns, I was looking up to see if Grigsby was still locked up and discovered your blog.I think he was in my grade as I was in a PE class of his. I recall that he seemed to keep to himself, and I think he had dropped out of school his last year, but I do recall seeing him hanging out around town off and on.

    I went to see if I could write you, and saw that your site is under construction, so I'll check back and send my email, when that work is finished. Will look forward to catching up!
    Rich

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  10. Thanks for posting this blog. We didn't move to Valencia until 1982. This is the most horrific story ever. Growong up I had a few classmates that were murdered and the feelings that come with thise memories last a lifetime. I live in old orchard and occassionaly the stories still come up. I could not imagine the pain and devastation these horrific acts have caused these families. Thank you for posting.

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  11. I remembered the day it happened. I was in school at Old Orchard Elementary. They locked us down. It was just around the corner from me. I lived on Via Boscana (OO1). Very sad day.

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  12. I remember it like yesterday... I was 8 years old...knew Robert's brother mark...I heard Robert died in prison but not sure..

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  13. I was in Chi chi's the other day and I saw a sherriff that I have known for many years and he is getting ready to retire... I asked him about grigsby and he told me that because we are in California and it's been so long that the state doesn't usually hold people accountable after so many years...He said from what he remembers grigsby paroled out many years ago got rehabilitated housing and a monthly check...I told him to be serious and that's total bullshit as grigsby murdered the mom and the 2 little kids like a monster in my neighborhood...He said he was serious...I at that moment felt completely sick and couldn't finish my lunch...What a Horrible State and System...if this is true it just sickens me to no end...

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