Jamie Griffin

BALTIMORE CITY* ROBBERY: Central District -- A 49-year-old Ellicott City man was accosted at knifepoint and robbed of $7,000 outside a bank at North Avenue and Charles Street shortly before 2 p.m. yesterday. The victim said one thug stepped in his path while an accomplice with a knife grabbed a bag containing the money.* DOUBLE SHOOTING: Central District -- Two 42-year-old men watching a football game on television were each shot in the right foot after answering a knock on the door at a home in the 2200 block of Brunt St. The men told police they got into an argument with a youth at the door, and he fired five or six shots with a handgun.

DENTON -- Michael Whittlesey, who robbed and killed a classmate in 1982 and buried the body Gunpowder Falls State Park, was sentenced by a Caroline County jury last night to die in Maryland's gas chamber.Whittlesey was convicted of robbing 17-year-old Jamie Griffin in 1984, but the murder prosecution was delayed for years while authorities and Jamie's parents searched the park for the remains that were finally found in 1990.The trial, moved to the Denton courthouse from Baltimore County at Whittlesey's request, ended with his conviction on capital murder charges March 29."

DENTON -- A Caroline County jury yesterday found Michael Whittlesey guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in the 1982 killing of his friend Jamie Griffin, a 17-year-old Baltimore County youth whose whereabouts was a mystery until his buried remains were discovered in 1990 in Gunpowder Falls State Park.The jury of seven men and five women deliberated just 2 1/2 hours -- less time than lawyers spent in their closing arguments.Whittlesey, now 29, stood quietly but frowned as the jury's forewoman announced that he had been found guilty of premeditated murder and felony murder.

DENTON -- In a conversation secretly recorded by police, Michael Whittlesey said he laughed as his badly bleeding friend Jamie Griffin pleaded for help, then died from an apparent head injury he received while the two youths were experimenting with a hallucinogenic drug in Gunpowder Falls State Park.Whittlesey, who is on trial here for killing his 17-year-old friend nearly 11 years ago in Baltimore County, also told key prosecution witness David Strathy that he buried Jamie's body in a pine woods and drove the youth's car to Atlantic City, N.J.Baltimore County police recorded conversations between Whittlesey and his high school friend Mr. Strathy -- who was wired by investigators -- on two occasions in June 1982, about two months after Jamie had disappeared.

DENTON -- Jurors in the capital murder trial of Michael Whittlesey received a crash course in forensic pathology yesterday when a defense lawyer and a former staff doctor with the state medical examiner's office clashed over how Jamie Griffin died nearly 11 years ago at the age of 17.Whittlesey, 29, is on trial charged with killing Jamie, a Dulaney High School senior who disappeared from his Baltimore County home April 2, 1982, and whose remains were discovered...

It is a grisly discovery.Children playing in the woods near Annapolis find a human skull. Searching nearby, police later find a jawbone and scattered teeth. But the rest of the skeleton is missing.The state medical examiner puts in a call to Dr. Bernard A. Levy, associate professor of oral pathology at the University of Maryland and, at the time, the state's only forensic dentist.The bones, and a handful of loose teeth found nearby, are turned over to Levy, and he goes to work.*For most of the last 20 years, when law-enforcement authorities in Maryland have needed help identifying a badly damaged or decomposed body, they have called on Bernie Levy.

The Griffins keep Jamie's room much as it was April 2, 1982, when their teen-age boy left his Cockeysville home, never to return alive. Baseball legends and rock stars gaze down from the wall. Brooks Robinson and Eddie Murray, the Clash and the Who.In the room are the bunk beds where Jamie slept.The bunk where his killer slept."You-know-who slept there when he spent the night," Lou Ellen Griffin says. She's pointing to the bottom bunk, and she's talking about Michael Whittlesey.Whittlesey spent two years on death row for Jamie's murder, but an appeals court voided that sentence in 1995.

The execution of John Frederick Thanos leaves 13 men under sentence of death in Maryland. This is a brief description of their crimes and the status of their appeals.TYRONE GILLIAM was sentenced to death in 1989 by a Baltimore County judge for the shotgun slaying of Christine J. Doerfler, 21. His execution is set for later this month, although appeals are expected to delay it. Trial testimony showed that Miss Doerfler, a hardware store clerk, was kidnapped and shot once in the back of the head.

Nothing is more dangerous or embarrassing than what you think you know. I've misspelled the names of my co-workers at the Savage Library in this column. Perhaps Stephan Freed, Luz Whooley and Reuben Stollman will forgive my error if I bribe them with fresh homemade bread.It's the sincerest apology I can think of.Val Fagan has taken over Reuben's old job as the volunteer coordinator for the homebound program. If you would like to have someone deliver books to your home or would like to volunteer an hour or two every three weeks, please call Val for information at (410)

THE NINTH annual 1990 Holiday Pops to benefit the community projects of the Junior League of Baltimore was a resounding success. Everyone left the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in good spirits and with a song in their heart, thanks to a wonderful program by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Children's Chorus of Maryland and soloist Alice Mack, with Edward Polochick conducting.At Saturday's concert, Channel 2's Beverly Burke gave a lovely Christmas narration with the BSO playing in the background.