103 Years Ago
MURDERESS SENT UP FROM GOLDEN IS GIVEN PAROLE
The June 1, 1922 Colorado Transcript article announced that Angelina Garramone, who committed a grisly murder on South Table Mountain in 1911, had been released from the penitentiary.
114 Years Ago
On August 4th, 1911, J. M. Johnson had discovered “a skull, a few bones and a few tattered remnants of clothing” on his South Table Mountain ranch. The remains (shoes, clothing, and gray hair) were identified as Mrs. Maria LaGuardia, who had been missing from her home in Denver since the previous August.
Several suspects were arrested, brought to the Jefferson County jail, and questioned by Sheriff Dennis. Two women (Mrs. Forgione and her 19-year-old daughter) had witnessed the murder and were able to identify the killer. They described the murder and showed the Sheriff where it had happened. They said they had not come forth earlier because they were afraid that the murderer would put a curse on them.
On August 12, 1910, Mrs. LaGuardia had accompanied her goddaughter, Angelina Garramone, and the two Forgione women to Golden on “the electric cars” (the trolley). Garramone had enticed her godmother to accompany her by saying she was taking her to Mr. LaGuardia.
The four women walked around South Table Mountain for a while, then spent the night at the depot in Golden, and returned to the mountain the next day. Mrs. Garramone persuaded Mrs. LaGuardia to remove the scarf around her neck, then slit her throat with a butcher knife, stole the $700 she had on her person, and rolled the body into a gulch.
In the meantime, Garramone’s former partner had been found murdered in Globeville with a slit throat. Officials thought she may have been killed to keep her from telling police about Garramone’s crimes.
By the time Mrs. LaGuardia’s body was discovered, Garramone was in the penitentiary in Canyon City for the crime of forgery. They brought her to Golden for the trial. In December of 1911, she was found guilty and sentenced to life in the penitentiary. She was paroled in 1922.
