Deputy Sheriff Earl Griffith

Earl Griffith

Deputy Sheriff Earl Griffith was shot and killed when he and his partner stopped to investigate a parked car on the Purdy Highway (U.S. Route 395), a few hundred yards over the Nevada - California border in Sierra County, California.

The deputies were investigating the car after two service stations had been robbed in Susanville earlier in the evening. Deputy Griffith was shot when he ordered one of the juveniles out of the car while his partner searched the second juvenile. His partner was also wounded in the shootout. The two suspects then fled the scene but were apprehended a short time later.

The suspect who killed Deputy Griffith was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in Folsom Prison. On October 11th, 1949, he stabbed a fellow inmate to death. He was convicted of first-degree murder and executed in the gas chamber on February 8th, 1957.