One of L.A.’s favorite ghost stories is the Feliz Curse, a hex allegedly placed on Griffith Park by a young girl a century and a half ago. Each Halloween, the story inevitably pops up in some newspaper or blog.
I’ve written extensively on many aspects of the curse (for example, here and here), but a little-known chapter in the drama actually unfolded 117 years ago this week.
First, Some Background
For those who don’t know the legend as originally told by Horace Bell, the Reader’s Digest version goes like this…
Just before her death in 1861, Rancho Los Feliz owner Maria Verdugo divided her approximately 6,000-acre estate among several heirs, with the lion’s share of about 4,000 acres going to her son, Jose Antonio Feliz. A bachelor, Don Antonio remained on the family homestead with his sister Soledad and a young, beloved niece named Petranilla.
In 1863, Feliz contracted smallpox and Petranilla was sent away for safety. Meanwhile, family “friend” Antonio Coronel paid a visit to her dying uncle. An attorney, Coronel hastily drafted a will granting himself control of the ranch and coerced Feliz to sign it.
Upon Feliz’s death, Petranilla returned to find herself disinherited. Angered, she cast a vicious curse of ruin, misfortune and death on the land and all future owners. Then, for dramatic flair, she dropped dead.
A Legacy of Doom?
Of course, many historians scoff at the notion that subsequent owners were stalked either by Death or bad luck, but let’s examine the record…
- As executor, Coronel conveyed the ranch to C.V. Howard, a fellow attorney who promptly negotiated a lucrative sale of the land’s water rights. While celebrating his windfall at the town saloons, Howard got rowdy and was shot dead.
- Dairyman Leon Baldwin acquired the ranch next, but didn’t fare much better. He was murdered by banditos during a Mexican business trip.
- Next came Thomas Bell, a San Francisco financier. He held the tract briefly, then sold it to Col. Griffith J. Griffith. Bell lived to his 80s, but suffered a freak, deadly fall from his mansion’s banister. (Rumor had it his mistress gave him a push.)
And Griffith? Well, that brings us to today’s twisted tale…
When he purchased the nearly 4,000-acre heart of Rancho Los Feliz in 1882, Griffith at first planned on developing it into a suburb. As a marketing ploy, he allowed an ostrich farm to operate on the property to lure visitors from downtown L.A. When the attraction failed, he foreclosed on its owner, Frank Burkett, who swore to get even.
A 19th-Century Drive-By
Burkett’s opportunity came Oct. 28, 1891, when Griffith drove his wife Tina and her sister by carriage to Old Calvary Cemetery at what is now the site of Cathedral High School on North Broadway. While the women paid their respects to family, Griffith waited outside the graveyard walls.
Suddenly, Burkett pulled alongside in a wagon and leveled a double-barreled shotgun at Griffith’s head, letting loose the first barrel. Wounded, the colonel escaped a second volley by ducking into the cemetery.
Apparently thinking he’d bagged his quarry, Burkett then killed himself with a revolver shot to his own head.
But dumb luck had literally saved Griffith. When they investigated the incident, authorities found both buck and birdshot in Burkett’s wagon. The assailant had mistakenly loaded his shotgun with the non-lethal birdshot, which merely peppered Griffith’s face. The Colonel suffered no permanent damage, but the buckshot certainly would’ve killed him.
Oh, the Irony…
While Griffith may have survived his brush with the Grim Reaper, it appears Dona Petranilla got the last laugh. Like other owners before him, Griffith failed to maintain a profit from Rancho Los Feliz. Faced with mounting taxes, he donated the rancho to the city in 1896.
Then, in 1903, during a fit of “alcoholic insanity,” Griffith ironically shot his own wife in the face, maiming her for life. After serving two years in San Quentin for assault, he returned to L.A. a social pariah. Few mourned his passing from liver disease in 1916.
To be sure, several contemporaries of Griffith nabbed parcels of Rancho Feliz without misfortune. One example is James Lick, whose tract is now the east side of Hollywood. But Lick and his counterparts acquired the holdings of other Feliz heirs, so presumably Dona Petranilla’s malediction didn’t apply.
Oddly, with the exception of Antonio Coronel, you could argue that every owner of Jose Antonio Feliz’s tract was visited by some ill omen.
