The Greystone Mansion, which encompasses over 46,000 square feet and cost $4 million to build at the time, was built as a gift from Edward L. Doheny to his son, Ned Doheny. Ned's murder occured just months after he, his wife, and their five children moved into the enormous home. His wife, Lucy, claimed that Plunkett, the secretary, let himself in with his key, and that she had not noticed anything until she heard a gunshot coming from the East Wing. Lucy opted not to call the police, instead enlisting the family doctor to investigate with her immediately. Upon arriving, Lucy and the doctor found a distressed Plunkett outside the guest bedroom — he then hurried into the bedroom and proceeded to fire another gunshot, this time at himself, and the two men's bodies were discovered next to each other.
While some speculated that Plunkett killed Doheny due to not being granted a requested raise, others believed reports that claimed the pair were lovers, with Plunkett carrying out the murder-suicide out of fear of discovery. Other theories suggest that Doheny killed himself, backed by the fact that the gun belonged to him and not Plunkett, or that Lucy killed them both after learning of their affair. To add to the mystery, the two men's bodies were buried near each other in a secular cemetery despite the fact that the Doheny family were well known Catholics and often donated generously to Catholic churches. Ned Doheny's parents later donated $1.1 million to USC for a library built in his honor. When the Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library opened in 1932, California Governor James Rolph Jr. declared: "Here we see perpetuated the love of a father for his dutiful son."
The information presented here comes from a Los Angeles Times article published in 1992 titled "Scenes of the Crimes."
