We follow the case from the night of the murders through multiple trials, appeals, insanity hearings, political battles, and a series of last-minute legal maneuvers that stretched across nearly four decades.

Witness testimony, forensic details, and court transcripts reveal a chilling crime scene: ten shots fired from a Savage automatic pistol, brutal stabbings, and survivors who barely escaped with their lives. Prosecutor A. E. Graham painted Grassi as an “arch criminal,” claiming ties to violence in Italy, Chicago, and Tacoma, while Grassi maintained his innocence and insisted he did not remember the murders.

Despite a death sentence in 1924, Grassi’s execution was delayed repeatedly by petitions, sanity hearings, and conflicting rulings from multiple courts. Judges, governors, Italian consular officials, and prison doctors all became entangled in the case, which raised landmark questions about insanity, jurisdiction, and the limits of executive clemency.

By the 1950s, the story took an unexpected turn: Grassi—now elderly—sought only to return to Italy. A final sanity ruling allowed his sentence to be reinstated so he could legally be considered for a pardon. In 1959, after 36 years behind bars, Governor Albert Rosellini granted that pardon on the condition that Grassi leave the United States and never return.

He arrived in Viareggio, Italy, in February 1959, welcomed by family and quietly living out his remaining years. Guido Grassi died in 1961 at the age of 82 — a man still claiming innocence, still haunted by the night that defined his life and the decades that followed.

This episode explores justice, myth, memory, and the long shadow of fear that settled over Aberdeen for generations.

Sources Used

Primary Newspaper & Archive Sources:

• The Aberdeen Daily World (1923–1926) — coverage of the murders, trial testimony, executions stays, and community reactions.
• The Seattle Times (1950s) — reporting on Grassi’s pardon, sanity hearings, and efforts to return to Italy.
• The Spokesman-Review — articles on Grassi’s appeals and late-life hearings.
• The Associated Press — obituary notice and coverage of Grassi’s death in Italy (1961).
• The Oregonian — regional reporting on legal developments during the 1920s appeals.

Court & Legal Records:

• Grays Harbor County Superior Court transcripts (1923–1926).
• Washington State Supreme Court rulings regarding Grassi’s appeals and the jurisdictional issues surrounding insanity proceedings.
• Walla Walla Superior Court filings, including the 1925 and 1926 lunacy commission reports.

Government & Institutional Records:

• Washington State Penitentiary archives, Walla Walla: inmate reports, disciplinary logs, clemency petitions, and communications with governors.
• Office of Governor Roland H. Hartley — stay of execution records and correspondence on Grassi’s sanity petitions.
• Office of Governor Albert Rosellini — pardon documentation and conditions for deportation.
• Italian Consulate correspondence involving Vice-Consul Sam Grosso and Consul Alberto Alfani.