Harry Grey Jr. was 62 years old when he died on Thursday, June 24, 2010, at a convalescent home in the 12000 block of Riverside Drive in North Hollywood. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma, and the location listed for the case is East 7th and San Julian streets in downtown Los Angeles. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Central Division case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report said that Ed Winter, a spokesman for the coroner's office, explained that Grey "was in a physical altercation sometime in 2009, which resulted in him comatose." He "never regained consciousness," Winter said. Grey was cared for at the convalescent home until he died. Winter had "no additional information about where Grey was injured or how it occurred." At the time the report was written, his autopsy had not been completed.
That means Harry Grey spent many months unconscious before his death, and his case became a homicide long after the event that caused it. The coroner's listing of East 7th and San Julian streets suggests that this is where the altercation took place, though the Times report itself said the location was not known to the coroner's spokesman at the time.
Beyond his name, his age and the circumstances of his last year, almost nothing about Harry Grey Jr. has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story. Searches for his name are crowded by others who shared it, among them the author of the novel that became the film Once Upon a Time in America, and none of them is connected to this case. He surely had people who knew him, and who may have visited him during his long stay in care.
East 7th and San Julian streets lie at the southern edge of the downtown area known as Skid Row, where thousands of unhoused people live in shelters, missions, single-room hotels and tents along the sidewalks. Skid Row is patrolled by the LAPD's Central Division. Violence there often goes unreported or unwitnessed by anyone willing to speak to police, and many people pass through the area for only a short time.
Homicides in Los Angeles fell steeply in the late 2000s and early 2010s, yet many killings from those years were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Harry Grey Jr. could be found in news archives or public records. More than 15 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Harry Grey downtown in 2009, who remembers a fight near 7th and San Julian streets that left an older man badly hurt, or who knew him at the convalescent home in North Hollywood, may be able to help. Even an outreach worker or a shelter volunteer may remember something about him. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
