The Waverly Hills Orderly Murder

Waverly Hills Sanitarium

Waverly Hills Sanitarium is one of those dichotomous locations, so often found in paranormal research. While it was designed to be a state-of-the-art treatment facility and a beacon of hope for those suffering from the ‘White Plague,’ it was also a location filled with sickness and death. While many patients’ health improved among morale-building activities and ‘modern’ medicine, countless others died painful deaths, and/or watched friends and loved ones succumb to the dreaded tuberculosis. But, tuberculosis (and the sometimes horrendous treatment methods) wasn’t the only threat to be found within the halls. 

On January 29, 1954, 24 year old John Louis Griggs began a career as an orderly at the Waverly Hills Sanitarium, Kentucky’s main tuberculosis treatment center. Griggs was a parolee from the LaGrange Reformatory, where he had been incarcerated since October 1952 for unlawfully detaining a woman while he was a soldier at Fort Knox. Arguably, he had been trying to turn his life around, when tragedy struck. 

Griggs, along with another orderly, 52 year old Edwin Albert Bareis were off-duty and in the orderlies’ recreation room. According to Griggs, Bareis was intoxicated and began cursing at him, and threatening to kill him with a knife. Griggs claimed that he told Bareis that he was trying to live a “Christian life” and didn’t want to fight him. Bareis apparently left, but then came back and started in on Griggs again, calling him a convict and going as far as to slap him. 

Being the bigger man, Griggs allegedly went to his bedroom, but was followed by Bareis and Peter J. Simon, a 40 year old telephone operator at the sanitarium. Griggs claimed the two started beating him, and Bareis had pulled a knife. So, Griggs grabbed him and threw him into the hallway, where Bareis hit his head on a wall. Griggs followed up with a punch to Bareis’ jaw, after which Bareis fell and didn’t get back up.

However, Simon told a different story. Simon claimed that Griggs and Bareis never left the recreation room. Griggs punched Bareis in the face, then proceeded to jump and stomp on his face and chest. Joseph Knott, a hospital maintenance man, also witnessed the event, and testified that Griggs was kicking and stomping Bareis, telling him he was “tired of you running over me.”

No knife was ever found, and an autopsy revealed that Bareis suffered from major head trauma, broken ribs, and a ruptured spleen. However, despite the extent of injuries AND the statements of both Simon and Knott, Griggs was acquitted of murder. 

If I were a patient at Waverly Hills during this time, I’m not sure how I’d feel about the hospital hiring a parolee for direct patient care. But, from other articles I’ve read, it was difficult finding help, as the threat of contracting the disease or bringing it home to loved ones was a very real possibility. I’m usually all for giving second chances and providing employment for the previously incarcerated, but it seems like it was a big point of contention with other staff members…and a decision that would end with violence. 

The Courier-Journal 2 March 1954

The Courier-Journal 22 April 1954