National Affairs: Murder in Pinecliffe

Emily Griffith was a kind of schoolmarm saint. All Denver revered her as founder and longtime head of far-famed Opportunity School, where, since 1916, the city has provided adults with free “second-chance” classes in everything from welding to hat-making (TIME, July 8).

Little, red-haired Emily retired in 1934. On Denver’s standard $50-a-month teacher’s pension—all that Emily would accept —she settled down in a pine-slab mountain cabin at Pinecliffe, 35 miles northwest of town, with her invalid sister, Florence.

“People This Old.” Their cabin had been built for them by a onetime teacher at Opportunity School named Fred Wright Lundy. He had built himself a shack in Pinecliffe and the shack he put up for Emily was only about a mile away. He ran errands for the sisters, fetched their firewood, helped with the chores, ate most of his meals at Emily’s.

A few weeks ago 60-year-old Mr. Lundy began acting a little odd. He told some neighbors: “When people get this old, they ought to be shot.” Emily said: “He’s not well, but we can help him.”

“When I Die.” One day last week Mr. Lundy left the grocery store, headed for the Griffiths’. Next day the people of Pinecliffe began to wonder why they had seen no signs of Emily. Finally somebody broke into the shack. The dining table, near a window overlooking a creek, was set for three. On the living room floor lay Florence Griffith, in a puddle of blood. On the bedroom floor lay Emily. Each had been shot through the head with a .38-caliber revolver.

Fred Lundy’s 1941 Nash sedan was found on a highway a mile up the canyon. On the front seat was his briefcase. In it were $350 in cash and a note: “If and when I die, please ship my body to Roscoe, Ill. . . . Thank you.” Signed: Fred Lundy. At week’s end police were still looking for Fred.