"Now where did this story come from? Well from the fanciful mind of one Horace Bell, a frontier author who wrote and founded a newspaper devoted to social commentary called the Porcupine. Often Bell's stories attacked the social elite of the area, and his attacks on Griffith J. Griffith were no exception. The truth of the matter is probably slightly different then the one portrayed by Mr. Horace Bell. Petranilla, was apparently not blind. She did not die after placing a curse on the estate, and lived for another thirty four years after the events depicted in the story, apparently dying of a heart problem. Although there is no proof that she did or did not place a curse on the estate. She was probably in her early twenties at the time that Don Feliz passed away. The godson who received some horses was her son, Juan Sanchez, who she had with Esteban Sanchez.
The land was sold to a Colonel Griffith Jenkins Griffith in 1882. Yes, his first and last names are the same, and his military rank is believed to be made up (in fact the only military title he probably held was Major of Riflery Practice with the California National Guard). Griffith was well known for his aristocratic pretensions and his uncanny knack for finding silver and gold. He allowed a man named Frank Burkett to start an ostrich farm on the property to lure residents to the area and Griffith's other surrounding properties. By 1884, the curse popped up again as a huge storm racked the land. Lightning came down upon some of the oak trees on the property and the ranch hands claimed to see Don Antonio Feliz riding the rain. Don Antonio continued to haunt the land after the storm, often appearing near an area called Bee Rock. Griffith refused to visit the land except at midday and the stories claim that the ostriches stampeded at night.
With ghosts appearing and ostriches stampeding, Griffith eventually foreclosed on the ostrich farm which was failing, causing Burkett to vow vengeance. Burkett ended up attempting to gun down Griffith with a shot gun outside Old Calvary Cemetery, now Cathedral High School on North Broadway. Burkett apparently used bird shot instead of buck shot, which was the only reason Griffith survived. Apparently Burkett thought he had succeeded in killing Griffith so he committed suicide with a revolver to the head.
To get away from the cursed land and the ghost, Griffith donated 3,015 acres to the city of Los Angeles in December 1896. But the curse wouldn't let him get away that easily. Afterward, Griffith, a devout Protestant, came to the conclusion that the Pope and his Catholic wife, Christina Mesmer, were conspiring to poison him and steal all of his money. Christina was a well to do, very rich society woman herself. It is reported that at dinner, Griffith would often switch his plate with hers when she wasn't looking, thus ensuring that the "poisoned" food was in front of her instead of him. He eventually took a preemptive strike and shot his wife while they stayed at the Arcadia Hotel in Santa Monica. Although she survived, having to throw herself from the window, land on an awning and crawl to safety through yet another window, she was disfigured and blind in one eye afterwards. Griffith served only two years in San Quentin for attempted murder, but his reputation was never the same. After he was released from prison, the city ignored his attempts to continue building up Griffith Park, wanting nothing officially to do with him. Griffith did, however, set up a trust fund to have his improvements, the Observatory and Greek Theater, built and cared for after he passed away. He passed away in 1919 and is laid to rest at Hollywood Forever Cemetery." (
visit link)