Former irrigon resident accused of grisly Hollywood murders
Published 4:45 pm Wednesday, June 16, 2004
IRRIGON – A graduate of Riverside High School in Boardman has been arrested for allegedly beheading a 91-year-old screenwriter and stabbing to death the man’s neighbor in Hollywood, Calif.
Kevin Lee Graff, 27, was arrested Monday just a few minutes after police broadcast his picture on local television. Graff was reportedly homeless at the time and there is no indication he knew the two victims.
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A spokesperson with the Los Angeles Police Department said this morning Graff is being charged with murder and bail was set at $2 million. Graff was scheduled to be arraigned today.
Graff lived in Irrigon during the early 1990s and graduated from Riverside High School in 1995. Staff at the school who remember him said he never caused problems as a student.
Riverside High School Principal Dirk Dirksen coached Graff in football at Riverside. He said Graff was the last student he would have thought capable of the heinous murders in Hollywood.
“He was a good kid, worked hard, did everything you asked of him,” Dirksen said.
Sheriff Verlin Denton said he had no record of any incidents involving Graff, except that Graff was listed as a witness to a crime in 1995.
Boardman police chief Mark Calbick said Graff had never caused any problems when he lived in Boardman.
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But a Boardman woman who asked not to be identified said her brother went to high school with Graff and said he was “weird.”
Dirksen said he heard Graff left the area for California shortly after graduating from Riverside and that he visited town once or twice afterward.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Graff had worked various odd jobs in California, including as a supermarket meat cutter. That report said Graff was placed in a mental institution in 2003 after he threatened to beat a man he claimed molested a girlfriend.
Authorities in Los Angeles said Graff is believed to be a methamphetamines user, but it is not known if meth was in his system at the time of the murders.
On Sunday, police found the body of retired physician Hal Engelson, 67, at his home. He had been booking an airline flight by telephone when the ticketing agent reported hearing a commotion and notified police. Arriving officers spotted Engelson’s body through a window, and forced their way inside.
In the rear of the home they found the severed head of 91-year-old neighbor Robert Lees, Police Chief William Bratton said.
Lees, who was blacklisted during the Communist scare of the 1950s, also wrote under the name J.E. Selby, according to the Writers Guild of America. He had several film and television credits, including episodes of “Rawhide” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.”
Neighbors reported seeing Graff outside the homes. He was apprehended outside a Hollywood studio a couple miles away minutes after his photograph was broadcast on television.
The motive for the killings is under investigation. Police said it was unclear if Graff knew the victims.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.