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Eddie Griffin's terrible end
The Roman standout was a superior talent with serious troubles.
"I know he really, really wanted this shot [overseas] badly, because he told me that," Murphy said. "A lot of guys pay [me] by the week. Eddie paid for the whole two months."
Murphy said Griffin never missed a workout until two days before the crash. Murphy said he called Griffin early that Wednesday morning and asked him to show up early. He remembered Griffin saying, "I'll be there, Murph."
TOM GRALISH / Inquirer Staff Photographer
Eddie Griffin during his Roman Catholic days. He was expelled before the end of his senior year for fighting with a teammate.
"He never showed up," Murphy said.
What concerned Murphy even more was that he left Griffin a phone message that day and gave him a hard time for not showing up.
Griffin never called him back.
When a train passed through Lawndale three days ago, the barrier blocking the two lanes of westbound traffic came down 30 seconds before the whistling freight train crossed.
The arm stopped about three feet short of the centerline. There have been conflicting reports about whether Griffin crashed through the barrier or drove around it. There were no signs that the arm had been damaged. If it had been replaced, the replacement was not a new one.
About 1:30 Tuesday afternoon, Wernick, Griffin's agent, called Derek Hollingsworth, one of Griffin's attorneys, from California, telling him, "I think Eddie's dead."
Wernick had just gotten a frantic call from Queen Bowen, Griffin's mother. Hollingsworth called her and found out that she had gotten a call earlier that hour from a police investigator asking whether Griffin lived there.
He didn't, but apparently his car had been registered to that address. The man explained that there had been an accident and a badly burned body had been found in the car.
Hardin called the Rockets, who checked Griffin's medical records. They showed he had root canal performed his first or second season with the team. The dentist found X-rays for one section of his mouth.
"Within hours, they had identified him," Hollingsworth said.
He said Bowen also related a conversation she had on Tuesday with Jessica Jimenez, the mother of Griffin's 4-year-old daughter. Griffin, Bowen said, had called Jimenez late the night of the crash saying he was trying to get home but was lost. So Jimenez told him to stay where he was and she would go get him.
"Then the phone went dead," Hollingsworth said Bowen told him.
Lucas said he has come to think that Griffin was a man who just wanted to be left alone.
And now that he is gone, Lucas said people are telling him they saw, like ghostly skid marks at the tracks, some signs of Griffin's impending doom.
"No," Lucas said he tells them. "You didn't."
Griffin Funeral
