The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-06-16
BRUTAL MURDER
Both an Axe and a Raysor We're
Used to Commit II.
BODY CAST IN WELL

i1C
Worst That Ever Happened in
Columbia, and for Mystery Sur.
rounding it Rivals the Famous
Maud Allen Murder Case.
In the revolving killing in the
kitchen of her home at Gil Sumter
street, Columbia, Friday morning
| about day-break, of Mrs. Victoria
Griffin, who was struck in the head
with an axe, her throat cut from ear
to ear and her body thrown into the
we'll on the premises.
The Record says the Columbia
police have a murder mystery on
their hands, which is a match for
the Maud Allen murder mystery.
which has never been solved. In
both the Maud Allen and Griffin muir
| der cases the owner Of the premis-
| es is a resident of Brookland. This
has no bearing on the case, but is
merely a curious coincidence. The
following particulars Of the crime
we clip from the Columbia Record:
Five men have been arrested in
connection with this mornings MUIR
der. three of them sons of the dead
woman; the fourth a man said to
have been on friendly terms with the
dead woman up to five months ago,
when he ceased boarding at the
house, and the fifth a barber named
Luke Lewis, who was a visitor to the
dead woman's oldest daughter by a
former husband, Eula Thompson.
The three sons are Walter, Jim and
Russell Griffin, all cotton mill opera
tives. They were all found at the
house by the police, and said they
all slept in their mothers room, the
youngest, Russell, in the same bed.
The oldest daughter occupied a room
to the front. There was still another
daughter in the house, about 10 years
old. There are only three rooms and
a kitchen in the house. The other
nan in arrest is S. Wash Medlin, who
ceased boarding at the house re-
Gently, but who turned up. there
shortly after the arrival of the police
at about $3.50 Friday morning.
All the arrests made were made at
the house, except that Of Lewis, who
was placed in arrest at his barber
shop in the McCreery building, oppo-
site the union station. He said he
was not at the house last night, and
Eula. Thompson says. though last
night was his usual night to be there,
he had sent word that he could not
come.
All the children, except a daughter,
who lives in the country, were at
home, and they advanced the theory
of suicide so strongly, in the face of
the physical facts demonstrating
murder Enthusiastically, that Coroner
Walker became suspicious Of them
and made the arrests as indicated.
The woman's husband, David Wes-
ley Griffin, was a we'll known resident
of Richland county, and Ia fairly
successful in business. He was muir
dered IN a quarrel with his partner
in the turpentine business, by a man
named Dennis, about FIVE years ago,
in Georgia.
The oldest daughter says she dis
covered that her mother was missing
about 5 o'clock. Being awakened at
this time and not hearing her mother
stirring in the kitchen, the daughter
left her room to go to her mothers
t o arosue her. Not finding her there
she made a fruitless search. The
youngest son then went to the union
station, a few blocks away, and mott
fed Officer Salter, who, with another
officer went to the house at once.
a horrible sight met the officers
gaze in that back kitchen in the fresh
crisp dawn Of the new day. A pool
Of blood was on the floor of the
kitchen, a bloody razor, afterward
| claimed as his by one of the son
was on the kitchen table, and in the
| corner stood a bloody axe, part of
the blade being broken off and the
| other half very bloody, and blood on
the handle. There were bloody
| tracks about the kitchen. There
we're also some tracks leading back
into the room where the sons slept,
but it is thought these were made
by the youngest boy in going out
to search for his mother. Prints
! of the woman's fingers on the floor
as she struggled in her WI blood
were evident.
Finally the officers were attracted
to the we'll by a few blood stains on
the side Of the wcll-box. The top
was down, the dry bucket on the
two lids. Further investigation dis
closed the woman, whose body was
fished up out of about FIFTEEN feet
of water, though 1t was not yet
stiff.
The dead woman had a cash in
the top of her head as if made by
three ticks from the blade Of the
axe, although the skull was not frac-
tured. The wounds on the throat
revealed repeated hackings at it with
the razor, the assassin striking the
cartilage of the Adams apple and