50 Years Ago: Two murders shock reservation residents

It was not unusual for a trader on the Navajo Reservation to be killed – it happened back in the 1950s and 60s every three or four years or so but the news out of Nazlini, Ariz. was a shocker – an Indian trader was being questioned in the death of his wife.

Francis H. Griswold , 60, according to news reports almost 50 years ago, was being questioned in St. Johns after his wife, Elsa, 52, was shot to death at their home. Griswold was arrested by Navajo police near the Klagatoh schoolÊsome three hours after his wife had been shot.

Griswold was charged with first-degree murder. County sheriff officials said it was the first time in their memory that a trader on the reservation was facing a murder charge.

Griswold, according to Apache County Sheriff Edgar B. Merrill, did not give up easily. Navajo police had to fire at the tires of the vehicle he was in to stop the car, Merrill said.

“However, he didn’t give them any trouble (after that),” Merrill said.

An inquest revealed that Elsa Griswold was shot twice with a .30-30 rifle, which her husband had on him when he was arrested. Testimony at the inquest revealed that the two had not gotten along together for a long time and argued constantly.

The couple’s son, Russell Griswold of Pine Springs, upon hearing of the death of his mother but before hearing of the arrest of his father, decided to move his family from the area because his father, at one time or another, had threatened to kill his entire family.

Merrill, according to news accounts at the time, said Russell Griswold moved out his family at about the same time his father was placed under arrest.

His sentence

A preliminary hearing on the matter was held on November 16, 1965 and a little later Griswold pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder. In March 1966, after a mitigation hearing, he was sentenced to serve a sentence of not less than 36 years and not more than 40 years in the Arizona State Prison.

But his time in court didn’t end there.

In 1968, he appealed that sentence, claiming he didn’t fully understand the consequences of his plea and if he had known he would have faced that long a sentence (basically meaning he would die in prison), he would have taken his chances at a trial.

The Apache County Superior Court held a hearing and he lost. He would later file a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court trying to get a new trial, but the supreme court refused to hear his case.

Then, in March 1973, he filed a petition with the Pima County Superior Court, arguing that the state did not have jurisdiction to hear his case since he was American Indian. This was the first time he claimed he was an Indian. He lost that fight as well, with the court pointing out that he had seven years to make this claim and hadn’t made it before so it was too late.

Violent death, hospital escapee

The Associated Press reported that this was the second violent death associated with the Navajo Reservation in a week.

Earlier in the week, David C. Nez, 36, who was from the Littlewater, N.M. area of the reservation, was arrested in Monte Vista, Colo. for the fatal stabbing of his wife, Ida, 26.

At the time, the two were working at a labor camp on the Lyman-Wright potato farm in southern Colorado.

Medical evidence revealed that she had died of a stab wound to the heart.

The two had been working at the farm for some time. During the off-season, they lived on the reservation in a home located between Shiprock and Chinle.

Something else that happened 50 years ago was the disappearance of a 27-year-old Ganado man after he walked away from the IHS hospital with injuries suffered.

Clarence Peterson, sometimes known as Charlie Begay, left the PHS hospital in Gallup after technicians took a series of x-rays to show the damage cause by a vehicle accident, which injured Peterson, 27, and four others.

It was hours after he walked away from the hospital that someone noticed he was missing.

“We did not miss him at once and when I saw the results of the x-ray and went to locate him, he was gone,” said Dr. Charles Sparger, who was treating him.

What they found was that he had a broken neck.

A day later he was back in the hospital “in fair condition,” brought there by his wife who heard reports that her husband was being sought.

She said she had no idea he was injured in a car accident until was in Holbrook and saw an article in a local paper. Peterson would be released from the hospital several days later.

Howard C. McKinley, 24, of Fort Defiance also made the news 50 years ago but not in a happy way.

A car struck McKinley in late September about seven miles east of Gallup about 4:15 a.m. in the morning. He was walking down U.S. Highway 66 when the accident happened.

The driver of the vehicle that hit him, Claude Lister of Gallup, said McKinley walked in front of his vehicle and he couldn’t avoid hitting him.

Lester was not cited and was allowed to go on his way. McKinley, who police said was thrown into the car’s windshield, was taken to the Public Health Service hospital in Gallup.

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